Policy Submission:
The Case For Christian Music

Australian Christian music is a global export success story, yet it remains one of the most underresourced and undervalued sectors within our domestic cultural framework. While Australian Christian artists (now based overseas) consistently top international charts and fill stadiums, the grassroots independent scene at home is largely "forgotten" by funding bodies and policy settings. 

This submission calls for the recognition of Christian music as a vital, diverse, and economically significant contributor to Australia

 The Case to Support Australian Christian Music

Christian music is one of the world's fastest growing music genres with a worldwide value of $2.5 billion in 2023 and streams of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) seeing a 18.5% year-on-year increase. This growth has outpaced that of the rock, country and pop genres and has largely been driven by youth with 45% of listeners either millennials or Generation Z.

Considering these global trends, Australia’s rich history in Christian music, and the fact 43.9% of Australians identify as Christian (and over 50% of the Aboriginal population), one would consider that Australia’s local Christian music scene is thriving, but it’s far from it.

Australian Christian artists face a significant glass ceiling with the sector’s perceived preference for sexually provocative and ‘mature’ lyrical and video content as opposed to that guided by the biblical values that millions of Australians choose to adhere to. 

Unlike the USA, UK and many other countries, Australia does not recognise or differentiate the CCM genre in its charts, awards, or grant opportunities. Moreover, since Easterfest closed its doors as Australia’s last major Christian music festival in 2015, our nation has seen the collapse of the Christian touring scene and a "brain drain" with our best talent moving to the US to find professional viability.

In recent years though, there have been some recent advancements with more local Christian artists being played across the 40 or so Christian radio stations across the country, APRA AMCOS hosting the Christian Media Conference in Sydney earlier this year, and of course the growth and success of our own record label amongst other initiatives.

Recommendations:

To ensure the National Cultural Policy is truly inclusive for the many Christians who choose to live their lives free of non-biblical creative content, our recommendations for the 2026-2030 Strategy are:

• Equitable Access: Formalize guidelines ensuring that faith-based artistic content is not a disqualifier for Creative Australia funding.

• Strategic Export Support: Provide targeted grants for CCM genre artists to showcase at international industry events, maintaining Australia’s status as a global leader in the genre.

• Industry Benchmarking: Recognition of "Contemporary Christian Music" as a specific category in ABS and ARIA cultural data collection to accurately measure its economic impact, and consideration given to official charts and award categories.

• Support Christian Music Infrastructure: The global Christian live‑music sector is expanding, with Christian/gospel live attendance rising from 3.3 million in 2023 to 4 million in 2024. We call for funding opportunities for local touring and a major Christian music festival not unlike One Music in New Zealand, Big Church Festival in the UK, Manifest in Indonesia, and countless others in the US to strengthen community participation, regional economies, and artist development.

About Australian Christian Records:

We are Australia’s only youth-focussed Christian record label. Our artists have achieved thousands of plays on Christian and secular radio, performed at festivals across Australia, and topped the AMRAP charts. We also:

• Run the national OZ 5 Top Tunes chart which exclusively tracks Australian Christian artists; 

• Publish a monthly mini-magazine in collaboration with Australia’s largest Christian news website in The Daily Declaration

• Highlight upcoming Christian music events, tours and also new releases (45 unique Australian Christian artists featured in the last 18 months)

• Administer Australian Christian Musos Network facebook group (around 1200 members)

www.ozchristianrecords.com.au