Joe Muller is the Managing Director of MusicNSW, the state’s peak body for contemporary music. Additionally, he currently serves as a Board Member of Green Music Australia and sits on the NSW Government’s Sound NSW Advisory Board and 24-Hour Economy Advisory Council. His curatorial experience includes roles as Music Curator for Vivid Sydney and developing music programs for Queensland Music Trails (QMF), CHANGES festival (Melbourne), Taste of Tasmania (now known as Taste of Summer), Newtown Festival, and iconic Sydney venues such as The Basement and The Lansdowne.
Previously, Muller was co-Director of artist management company and independent label Wondercore Island and General Manager of artist management and venue booking company NFE. He is also a working artist with over 25 years of practice, living on Dharug and working on Gadigal Country. He speaks with ArtsHub about his busy work schedule.
How did you become Managing Director of MusicNSW?
I’m a musician first and foremost and, in the early years of my career, was always the ‘responsible’ member/manager of the projects I was working with and involved in the business side. Over the past few decades, I’ve worked as a venue programmer, festival curator, artist manager, DIY label owner, promoter, tour manager, teacher and a bunch of other roles in music. So when this role came up in 2023, I jumped at the opportunity to work with a wide scope, developing opportunities for artists and industry folks across NSW.
What are some of the misconceptions of the job?
A really common misconception to demystify is that we are not a funding body and we are non-government. MusicNSW is the peak body for contemporary music in New South Wales. We are a not-for-profit, with a team of experts from within the sector. All 14 of us are artists ourselves and many of us still additionally have active roles within the industry. We do receive government funding and we do work with the NSW Government through Sound NSW, but we are part of the sector, which informs the way that we show up for the artists and industry folks that we work with.
What are the pros/cons of working there?
First, in this role I have the great pleasure of engaging with a really broad range of folks from across different parts of the music ecosystem in NSW and Australia. We play an enabling/connector role and I’m buoyed by how many brilliant music people there are, working to create the conditions for regeneration and sustainability in music scenes.
Second, I love working with our team – there’s so much knowledge, experience and passion within our organisation and I’m constantly inspired by the work that everybody does. In terms of cons, NSW is a big state and we can’t be everywhere. We have eight regional coordinators based across the state though, who use their local knowledge and experience to deliver work relevant to their local communities – but we could always do more.
What’s an average day like for you?
Like so many, my average day is a juggle of calls, meetings and emails. But no two days are the same and I spend a lot of my time engaging with different folks from across the NSW music ecosystem – from the Minister and his team, to government, other peak and trade bodies, music businesses, venues, festivals, managers, agents, promoters, labels and, most importantly, artists and the folks who are actively building music scenes and making music. Of course, I try to get out to shows as often as possible and am constantly listening to music too.
If you were hiring for your job, what qualities would you look for?
Somebody who puts the wellbeing of artists front of mind when thinking about music industry development, is curious and collaborative, has a music brain and is unafraid to colour outside the lines a little.
There’s been a lot of doom about the financial problems of running live musical events; for example, around insurance increases. What’s your take on the situation?
There are a whole range of economic headwinds putting downward pressure on artists, venues, festivals and music businesses. Many of these are systemic and not specific to our sector – the normalisation of extractive business practices, multinational market consolidation and shareholder primacy – but additionally, technological changes in the way that artists release work and audiences consume it threaten the vitality of local scenes and stories.
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Despite this though, we see the relationship between artists and their audiences as intrinsic and our primary purpose as an org is to enable the conditions for grassroots artists to build sustainable ecosystems of audiences and industry around them, locally, authentically and from the ground up.
