Local Artist Airplay
Good pre-quota start - keep it up
Kiwi music radio play reaches new high as sales soar
 2001 paves way for more representative airplay
 Learning from the past
[Press Release, 7.8.03]

New Zealand music played on commercial radio has increased again to a new high - mirroring Kiwi success in the sales charts this week.

Figures for the second quarter of this year show an all-time high for New Zealand music on commercial radio. Local music accounted for just over 17 percent of playlists. This is a strong indication that the 2003 target of 14.5 percent will be surpassed.

The news comes as local musicians take out four of the top five albums in the latest RIANZ Top 50 album sales chart, the first time in history that New Zealand music has held such a position.

Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey and Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard are congratulating the New Zealand music industry on this latest achievement.

"Put simply, our New Zealand music is now firmly embedded. New Zealanders are hearing more New Zealand music and buying more New Zealand music than ever before.

"Commercial radio stations have exceeded their New Zealand music broadcast targets in every genre and are ahead of the overall kiwi music target for the year," Steve Maharey said.
 
Overall, there are 13 New Zealand albums in the latest Top 50 dated Sunday 3 August (RIANZ Chart 1369). The top four are: Hayley Westenra's Pure (1), Bic Runga's Beautiful Collision (2), Mareko's White Sunday (4) and Love &
Disrespect by Elemeno P (5).

Judith Tizard said the New Zealand albums featuring in the Top 50 reflected a passion for all types of local music.

"There is a fantastic range of options for music lovers amongst our homegrown releases. This week alone, New Zealand hip hop, rock, reggae, jazz, electronica, pop, singer-songwriters and operatic soloists are represented in national album sales," Judith Tizard said.

The Ministers congratulated the music, radio and retail sectors and government agencies including New Zealand On Air on this latest achievement.

"We also commend the record-buying public on their great taste in music," they said.

2001 paves the way for more representative airplay
Radio and music industry magazine Median Strip have compiled their year's end (2001) RadioScope charts for the biggest songs on New Zealand radio in 2001, a year hailed by many as the strongest in recent memory for airplay of local music.

The biggest New Zealand song of the year came from newcomer Anika Moa, whose song Youthful came in at the number 8 position in the Top 200 songs over all formats of radio, and was in fact the only local song to top the Overall Airplay chart during the year. Joining "Youthful" in the Top 20 for Overall Airplay during 2001 were Stellar* with All It Takes in at number 18, and Che Fu with Fade Away at number 20.

In total, New Zealand songs made up 10.5% of the Overall Airplay Top 200 songs for 2001. In the format by format breakdowns, unsurprisingly the "Alternative" stations (the b.net and a handful of others) were streaks ahead of other formats, with local product making up a whopping 45% of the Alternative Airplay Chart's Top 100 songs. On top of them all was Shapeshifter's Tapesty, the only New Zealand song to top its format, with Salmonella Dub, Goodshirt and P-Money & Scribe all cracking the Top 10, and New Zealand songs taking 11 of the Top 20 spots. In other formats, New Zealand songs made up 18% of the Rock radio Top 100, 9% of Pop radio's Top 100 and 7% of the Adult radio Top 100. You can check out the full RadioScope charts for yourselves at http://www.radioscope.co.nz
Learning from the past
TV & radio create market for more local music
Strong television and radio support of local acts results in confidence in the industry, artists and songwriters taking risks and local music shooting up the charts.

In the  ‘swinging sixties’ the result of increased airplay of local acts on radio and television had resulted in the emergence of commercially viable local artists achieving success.

Geoff Lealand, A Foreign Egg in Our Nest (1988) quotes a Radio New Zealand table showing the percentage of foreign originated songs on our charts from 1966 to 1984. The chart shows North American (36-60 %), British (21-55%) and Australia (2-7%) in the New Zealand Top 20 singles charts suggesting locally originated records never occupied more than 18 % of total chart successes (or less than 4% in any one year.

However a close look at the table reveals two peak periods in local music success from 1968-73 and 1980-84, periods where the US and British dominance declined (Tony Mitchell/ North Meets South/ Perfect Beat p32).

“New Zealanders, both individually and as a nation, have tendency to under-rate both themselves and their achievements. We feel, possibly due to our global isolation that our products, ideas, art forms and personalities are inferior to those of the Australians, Americans and English (Tim Foreman of Air force Recording Studios in McGlashan submission for NZ music quota 1990)

”Broadcasters claim that a compulsory quota won’t work because there is not enough New Zealand product and major record companies don’t put enough time, energy and money into developing local music into developing local music because they feel there aren’t enough opportunities to expose it to the public.” - Bruce Morley (Music New Zealand, Autumn 1990)

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