MusicNSW has appointed a regional musical coordinator the the Mid North Coast

MusicNSW has appointed Ali Buckley the regional music coordinator for the Mid North Coast, Upper Hunter and Orana regions.

Ali comes with a strong background in working on festival teams and managed her own regional arts consultancy for 20 years.

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Ali is one of a team of five regional coordinators in NSW with the job of delivering development opportunities and work to expand touring circuits across regional NSW.

Ali had a similar position during the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the entertainment industry particularly hard, and has a ready-made database of the musical industry in our area to help her hit the ground running.

"Our focus is actually on regional touring. A lot of artists tend to play in their hometown and don't really get outside of their hometown. It's pretty daunting because you don't know venues, and how do you market yourself when you're not from that place and you're not there. And also the costs are quite prohibitive," Ali explained.

"We'll be delivering workshops on how to tour and how to do it sustainably and make it a viable part of your business so that you can develop your audience and expand out of your hometown."

Each year five tours will be delivered throughout NSW, for the length of the four-year program. The team is aiming to have three artists on each tour. The program is supporting original music, not cover bands.

Ali says the first tour already has some funding in place so that artists aren't at risk financially.

"And also we'll do case studies, because regional touring, it's a tricky thing, it's not an easy thing, it's quite hard, the distances the petrol the accommodation and things like that," Ali said.

In addition, the team will be doing quarterly Spotify playlists with local artists, and offering 30-minute one-on-one consultations with artists.

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"During COVID they were really effective and people gained a lot of traction and we could actually see what people did with the advice."

The one-on-one consultations can cover grant applications, how to release your music, live streaming, how to build a marketing team, and more.

"We'll be putting out expressions of interest soon for artists to apply to be part of the the tools and we would kind of want them to attend our professional development workshops as well, which will be online," Ali said.

MusicNSW is inviting music industry professionals to come together online for a virtual interactive session, to meet the team, talk about live music across the regions and make connections to bring the industry closer and open up career pathways. This digital event is open to artists, venues, agents, media and more.

The online event takes place on Wednesday, 31 May at 2pm. Register at www.musicnsw.com.

The MusicNSW website also has a lot of online resources for musical artists.

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