New Zealand Increases Funding For Music Biz

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has announced a near doubling of current government funding for the local music industry.

Funds for investment will be allocated through government agency NZ on Air, set up in 1989 to ensure representation of New Zealand culture on TV and radio. According to Clark, an additional $1.78 million New Zealand ($800,000) is to be invested annually, allocated in six funding rounds, bringing NZ on Air's music budget to $3.78 million New Zealand ($1.7 million).

The announcement marks the latest in a series of initiatives by the Labour government (elected in November 1999), which is committed to pumping some $80 million New Zealand ($36 million) into the local arts community during its three-year term of office.

The agency's New Zealand music manager, Brendan Smyth, says the additional funds would be spent on several new initiatives, including grants for recording albums, hiring two local music "pluggers" to push new domestic acts at radio, and providing four $50,000 New Zealand ($22,500) grants for international marketing. For the latter, NZ on Air will provide funding for record companies to release and promote a New Zealand album internationally; labels in turn must contribute $50,000 New Zealand ($22,500) toward marketing costs to be eligible for the funding.

While he notes that "the right act with the right album" is still paramount, Peter Bond, regional president of Universal Music operating companies in Australia, New Zealand, and Africa, tells Billboard he sees the international marketing initiative as a very positive development. "It will certainly help with overseas promo tours," he says.

Campbell R. Smith, artist manager for New Zealand acts Stellar* and Bic Runga, points out that trying to break artists in foreign territories is a "very expensive process" and suggests that the new funding will "definitely, in some situations, make the difference between a tour happening or not." The first step for many New Zealand bands is often Australia, but despite it being only a four-hour flight away, Smith says it is still costing Stellar* "about $40,000 New Zealand [$18,000] a month" to stay on the road during the act's current Australian tour.

Smith adds that touring the U.S. "is about as expensive as it gets" and that the money factor is always at the front of his mind. "It's weighing up the benefits of a tour against the astronomical costs. The currency exchange rates are hideous [$1 New Zealand equals 45 cents], and touring Bic Runga in the U.S. costs about $75,000 New Zealand [$33,750] per month.

"You have to run very tight budgets and often cut corners on things that artists consider non-negotiable—good equipment, good crew, good health on the road, reasonable rest," Smith adds.

Since 1991, NZ on Air has funded the making of over 750 music videos, in addition to supporting radio programs, providing recording cost rebates for hits, and producing more than 70 "Kiwi Hits Discs"—12-song CD compilations of new local acts pitched at local radio programmers.

Despite having a full-time staff of only two—himself and former Universal Music NZ label manager Nicky Jarvis—Smyth says he can see that the agency's initiatives are paying off. "On commercial radio, where it counts, there is more New Zealand music now than at any time in the last two years," he says. "Local music content has more than doubled there in the last two years. It's something like five times more than it was five years ago when APRA [the Australasian Performing Rights Assn.] estimated that it was barely 2%."

At influential national modern rock station Channel Z, program director Rodger Clamp predicts the new recording grants "will help independents get songs on the radio." He explains that the recording quality of local product has been an issue in the past. "For Channel Z, lack of good production and some material needing to be re-edited for airplay has meant that some songs have not [previously] been seriously considered," he says.

NZ on Air is also making available $400,000 New Zealand ($180,000) to assist parties interested in launching a free-to-air music video channel, since local channels Max TV and Cry TV and international player MTV all failed in the late '90s.