The Newcastle music industry: an ethnographic study of a regional creative system in action

This paper presents detailed preliminary findings from an ethnographic study of the Newcastle NSW music industry. It argues that in the midst of seemingly continuous change primarily wrought by the advent of new global trade regimes and associated digital technologies there are also fundamental continuities at work for local music industries. These continuities are evident in the idea that these industries are part of a dynamic system of choice-making agents constituted by musicians, promoters, media operatives, venue owners, educators, policy makers and many others. They compete and collaborate within the structures of a gift and financial economy which exists in a regional and global framework with a dynamic history that has helped shape this creative system in action.