COUNTRY SOUND GOING GLOBAL
THE industrial sector of Currajong has become an unlikely address for an innovative venture to stream video of Australian country music artists around the country.
Musicians and producers Mick Lockhart and Jay Peters have established Country Music Australia and already are broadcasting live on Facebook with a Monday Night Live show featuring artists and country music news to more than 60,000 followers.
Next month they plan to take the big step of launching on almost a dozen platforms with an app that will stream videos of popular Australian artists as well as rarely seen emerging country music talent.
The venturers have leased premises in Kean St where they have established a presence as much as a studio and broadcasting base.
Unlike the current video- on- demand model, they have opted for a pre- programmed “over the top” linear service, which is stored in the cloud and broadcast over the internet.
It means they can broadcast from just about anywhere with the use of a tablet and will do just that at next January’s Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Mr Lockhart believed there would be a huge following in showing people Australia’s fantastic breadth of country music talent in a landscape where artists found it difficult to get recognition or have airplay on current commercially focused pay television and radio outlets.
“We have a big following on social media,” Mr Lockhart said.
“The use of this technology has been a big learning curve for us but we believe a lot of people will follow what we are doing now.
“Hopefully a lot of country music fans will like it.”
They say they will be the only music channel playing 100 per cent Australian country music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a playlist of major labels as well as independent artists. The app will cost $ 10 a month. Knight Frank Townsville leasing agent Dan Place said it was encouraging to see a Townsville business operating in the Australian country music market with an innovative approach to the development of the industry.
Mr Place said the Currajong premises provided about 150sq m of renovated office space with attached warehouse of around 100sq m and was a “good fit” for Country Music World’s requirements.