Series two of The Set premiered on ABC TV this week. Three of the biggest acts in the country right now –
Amy Shark, The Teskey Brothers and Thelma Plum – appeared on episode one.
Music deserves its place on TV. If you're the kinda person who subscribes to this newsletter then you're unlikely to disagree.
Such high-profile involvement in The Set's first episode back goes a long way to explaining the appetite for music on TV from all sectors of the music industry; fans, artists, management and beyond.
Ideally, The Set would be just one arm of a fully-fledged resurgence of music on TV. We could use more shows covering more sides to the contemporary music conversation here in Australia.
But before you call for a return of Recovery or Countdown, remember that we're in 2019, and that things are different now. Those programs worked because they were of their time. Any attempt to recapture that lightning in a bottle could be embarrassing.
I don't pretend to have all the answers to fix the dearth of opportunities for burgeoning Australian artists to showcase their skills on the tele, but I know it starts with money.
Indie YouTube shows – like Laura Imbruglia's
Amateur Hour of a couple of years back – are great. But they can't do all the lifting. Commercial and public media need to spend money on developing opportunities for Australian musicians to expand their profile.
When our artists are getting
four million YouTube views, you can't tell me there's no appetite for it.