End of an era: Selina's closure and the battle for live music's future

Sydney's iconic Selina's is closing its doors, a blow to live music amid streaming's stingy payouts. Is the end near for the next gen's stage dreams? IA's music man David Kowalski reports.

SELINA'S CLOSING

Every other week, it seems we are losing not just large-scale music festivals, but famous venues as well. In recent weeks we have lost The Zoo in Brisbane, which has been central to the vibrant music scene in that city for three decades.

This week, news came that real estate developers have closed the deal on the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney, which featured a huge ballroom at the back of it (with a mezzanine level, I might add) called Selina’s.

Selina’s was the place to play in Sydney when you were too big for the modest Metro Theatre in George Street, but weren’t big enough to fill the Enmore Theatre or the Hordern Pavillion yet. It was the venue where this writer witnessed Foo Fighters on their second-ever tour of Australia, in 1998.

Later I witnessed the cerebral and complex tunes of A Perfect Circle and the string-bending guitar gymnastics of Steve Vai.

Selina's was the venue for huge fundraising gigs in support of musicians doing it tough, such as Marc Hunter of Dragon and Ted Mulry. Almost anyone who is anyone has played there and it is a sad loss to the arts scene in Sydney.

As the City continues to be gentrified and noise complaints roll in, there are fewer and fewer places for young artists to gain an audience. With the lack of radio and TV support for new artists and streaming paying extremely low dividends, live performance is the only thing left for the next generation of musicians. With that rapidly disappearing, what’s next?

SPOTIFY IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN

Also, in the news this week is Spotify. The Daily Telegraph had an editorial this week with headlines screaming 'How your Spotify playlists Killed Australia’s music industry' in typical clickbait-y fashion.

It’s time to put a bit of perspective on this. To be fair, Spotify is not the whole problem here. It hasn't exactly covered itself in glory by demonetising (also known as paying no royalties) any song that has been streamed less than 1,000 times (that’s around 60 per cent of all the content on the platform).

However, there are now over 40 streaming platforms, with names like Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music and YouTube Music. And guess what? They pay just as little as Spotify does.

Couple that with the royalties that the Australian commercial radio industry has paid out to artists this year — the royalty cap on commercial radio is one per cent of gross turnover.

In 2023, commercial radio paid out $4.4 million to Australian artists. The ABC pays even less, at around $130,000 per year, or around half a cent for every person in Australia. Take those figures and divide them up among everyone who has been played on the air and they are still getting fractions of a cent per play.

Digital distributor Ditto Music says on its website that despite the payments, these services 'offer a direct route to new and current fans. Exposure like this is a stepping stone to success'. Exposure won’t feed your dog, let alone put food on your table.

Is there a solution to this? Not a simple one, at least. This is a hot-button topic and there is a proposal before the Australian Parliament currently to debate finding a road to a possible change in legislation. However, for those like yours truly who love being part of the music industry, we have had to take George Thorogood’s advice (by way of my own parents) and “get a haircut and get a real job”.

VIVID SYDNEY

One part of Sydney that is putting on a feast of live music over the next couple of weekends is The Opera House — the Vivid Festival kicks off on Friday 24 May and runs until 15 June 2024.

Coming to town is moody French electro-pop group Air performing its classic debut album Moon Safari, in full. We also get UK EDM agitators Underworld, American pop Sky Ferreira, First Nations indie artist Thelma Plum, First Nations rapper Barkaa, Middle Eastern desert blues band Tinariwen and heaps more.

Throw in the end-of-an-era celebrations for two indie record labels who are closing their doors – Spunk Records and pioneering Hip Hop label Elefant Traks – and it’s going to be huge. Pair that with vibrant lights displays and all kinds of goings on in the CBD and it’s worth making the trip to be part of this event.

IN MEMORIAM

A couple of days ago, music writer Glenn A Baker broke the news on his Facebook page that internationally renowned Australian singer Frank Ifield had passed away at age 86.

Ifield was one of the first Australian artists to make it big overseas, having three No. 1 singles in the UK in the early 1960s, all recorded with Cliff Richard’s producer Norrie Paramor at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.

They were all performed in his signature style as a yodelling country singer from Dural in Sydney’s northwest. He even had a young and rough-looking bunch of Liverpool scousers as his opening act for a while — a little band called The Beatles.

The Queen Mother was a fan and requested his presence at Royal Command Performance nights. Apparently, the members of British rockers Status Quo were also big fans.

He may not be as well renowned as other Aussies who hit it big overseas – bands like The Seekers, The Easybeats or AC/DC – however, Ifield opened the door for every other artist to walk through and have a crack at success abroad. Vale Frank Ifield.

AERIAL MAPS' NEW TUNES

One of the more unusual artists to bubble under the radar of Australian music is Adam Gibson. He is an unusual character in that he is largely a spoken-word bush poet, writing about the sights, sounds and smells of the Australian way of life.

He has collaborated with many of Australia’s greatest artists, mainly, however, with the late Simon Holmes of The Hummingbirds supplying music and production. His work has been released under the names Modern Giant, The Aerial Maps and the Ark Ark Birds.

With Holmes gone and a burning desire to create again, Gibson has surrounded himself with a great bunch of musicians, including Alannah Russack of The Hummingbirds, Peter Fenton of Crow and his son Jasper, and long-serving bassist on many of Gibson’s other records Mark Hyland.

The new album was produced by Jim Moginie, guitarist from Midnight Oil, at his Oceanic Studio on the northern beaches of Sydney.

The brief documentary above shows how the music was loosely yet lovingly constructed, and features Gibson’s poetry read in duet with the heavenly singing of Russack between verses to create something unique and entirely special.

New single 'Eucalyptus Road' is out now. The album Our Sunburnt Dream is out on 21 June 2024.

Until next time…

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David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts 'The Sound and the Fury Podcast' and 'Audio Cumulus' can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.