Earlier this week it was revealed that the Abbott Government had secretly awarded $275,000 to for-profit classical record company Melba Recordings despite no funding round or open application processor their grant
Uncovered by Artshub, Arts Minister George Brandis awarded the grant to Melba in April under conspicuous silence with no announcement from the Government, who usually make a big deal when they award grants of any kind to the arts.
This new grant adds to more than $7 million awarded to Melba Recordings since 2004, and follows a similar controversy after it was revealed that Melba Recordings had received $5m in 2004 and $2.25m in 2009 from the federal government through the Australia Council, but was not required to compete in the competitive grant rounds.
[include_post id=”149951″]
But despite $7 million in funding over the last few years, the label has actually sold very little music, and produced even less.
Now Melba Managing Director Maria Vandamme has hit back at critics of the questionable funding, calling it a “vituperative attack”and comparing the label to Australia’s leading orchestras and opera companies in an incredible open letter.
“Our success in projecting Australian musicians onto the world stage through recordings that have been praised time and again for the quality of their performances and excellence of their recorded sound and packaging has no comparison with any other Australian label,” claims Vandamme.
“None, it is fair to say, comes close to the international profile Melba has established for itself and our own musicians.”
And what profile is that you may be asking? The same profile that has seen the label’s Facebook page swell to 99 likes and an incredible 4 posts since April last year, including this open letter.
The remarkably arrogant comments should come at no surprise to anyone who has been following the Melba saga. In 2012 Vandamme labelled critics to the special treatment as ‘jealous’ at the time, claiming her label was trying the get rid of the ‘dumb blonde’ image of Australian music overseas.
[include_post id=”154875″]
Vandamme also disputes that the labels back catalogue sold a mere $39,225 worth of stock in 2012. According to a 2012 analysis by Samantha Randell, a researcher at the Association of Independent Records, Melba Recordings made only $18,000 in 2012 and in 2010 as little as $3,500.
“The $39,225 clearly represents income from Special Events & Raffle not from CD sales,” says Vandamme.
“CD labels do not publish their sales income,” she adds, while at the same time claiming “our finances have never been a matter of secrecy. They are as publicly available (in our published annual accounts) as our objectives have been.”
Even more remarkable are Vandamme’s claims that the label have been forced to lobby the Government directly for funding rather than apply for a grant through the Australia Council.
“It is the peculiar priorities and confined criteria of Australia Council programs – lacking the flexibility or will to consider the scale and intent of our operations and poorly designed to accommodate them – that has barred Melba from the convention of peer assessment,” says Vandamme.
“Melba has never sought to sidestep such a process.”
“Instead, Melba’s peer assessments have been carried out by myriad respected international music journals and commentators who consider our recordings in the context of an international marketplace that demands artistic and technical excellence,” she adds.
“What we do is predicated on those assumptions and standards and not on an incongruous administrative system that pits neighbour against neighbour for support from a limited public purse.”
In other words, they’re above applying for a grant like everybody else. A process that has shown considerable merit for the rest of the music community.
Last April, the Australia Council funded 11 indie record labels as part of the Recording Initiative grant to the tune of $400,000. Chapter Music, Future Classic, Head Records, Hope Street Recordings, Mistletone Enterprises, Rice is Nice, Split Records, Stop Start, SugarRush, Two Bright Lakes and the Wantok Music Foundation were able to use those grants to support 50 new releases.
Vandamme finishes her letter claiming that if Melba’s direct funding were to be cut off again, the whole of our arts sector and its international reputation will be damaged too, ending with the quote “look after the talented because the untalented inevitably look after themselves”.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
You can read the full letter online.
Image from Melba Recording’s Youtube video: Dame Nellie Melba, an Australian icon
