Local and international music professionals gathered in Brisbane today for the start of BIG-SOUND.

The sold out event will debate the industry’s biggest issues, including the much debated topic of online music.

Wendy Serrano reports.

TRANSCRIPT

Over the next three days, leading figures from the Australian music industry and our top emerging artists will share their expertise and their passion for music.

Bands will perform across multiple venues at night while the next generation of music thinkers will debate some of the most hard hitting topics throughout the day.

And first on the conference agenda – the impact of online music accessability.

Julian Knowles, President Q Music: “I guess the thing is with online and file sharing, it’s become able to be done on a mass scale and I think that’s where it’s taken it to a different context.”

A recent study has shown piracy is estimated to have cost the industry $57 million last year.

With more people sourcing their music online, the future of stores like these remains uncertain.

Kathy Pollock, Full Time Sales Assistant: “I guess the future of records store is not rosy as you say, we’re playing it by ear every single day, so hopefully we’ll make through into a niche market, we’ll just have to see how we go.”

Although music continues to be purchased instore, the biggest challenge for musicians is how to deal with the mass distribution of online music.

Julian Knowles, President Q Music: “The challenge for the music industry is to find ways of adopting the delivery of music, which is the way people want to hear and access music.”

BigSound continues until Friday.

Wendy Serrano, QUT News.