BUSINESS PROFILE
Mulga Music Promotions was established in 1984 in Chatswood by Cliff Giles, where he was running the Chatswood Folk and Country Music Club. Wishing to be in the country music capital, Cliff decided to move to Tamworth in 1986.
On arrival he set up the Tamworth Folk and Country Music Club, where he got to know a lot of the local musicians. Cliff decided to make an album using on of the local studios and recorded "Way Back in the Forties" with Ron Wells and other musicians from the country music club backing Ron.
When he went to distribute the album he found that there wasn't anyone catering for the independent country artists so he decided to distribute the album himself. Soon other Tamworth artists who had recorded and were experiencing the same distribution problem, were approaching him to distribute their albums as well.
From these small beginnings at the Tamworth Country Music Club, Mulga Music has grown from distributing the albums of a handful of Tamworth artists to their status today of having over 250 Australian Independent Artists and in excess of 600 albums listed in their catalogue. They have a distribution network which includes record retailers, radio presenters and country music clubs.
The Mulga Music catalogue, presented in an A5 ring binder, features a page or pages for each artist (depending on how many albums they have). Each artist's page has a photo of the album cover and a picture of the artist if they are not included on the cover, the song list of the album, a short biography of the artist, the catalogue number and format of the album and the recommended retail price.
The catalogue is sent to the record retailers, radio presenters and country music clubs involved with the distribution network. To cover the record retailers that have not yet received the catalogue, Mulga Music has listed their entire catalogue with Platterlog, which is a database used by all record retailers Australia wide. In 1997 the entire catalogue will be on the Internet making the recorded material of the Australian Independent Country Music Artists available world wide.
In 1995, Dawn Donnelly became a partner in Mulga Music and is involved with the administration side of the business. Dawn ran her own business in manufacturing and marketing for six years and in that time completed an Advanced Business Management Certificate with honours at Tamworth TAFE.
In her past employment in both the private and public sectors, Dawn has had extensive experience in management, administration, book keeping and public relations. She has a strong commitment to customer service. Cliff and Dawn were married in October 1996 and are now managing partners in Mulga Music Promotions.
1996 saw Mulga Music doing the Country Artist Collection Fan Cards as a promotion to familiarise the country music fans with the artists. The fan cards are a series of 24 collectable cards featuring a photo of the artist on the front and their bio on the back.
This was the first time in Australia that a promotion of this type had been done for the Australian Independent Artists. The cards have been distributed during the 1996 and 1997 Tamworth festivals and have been ordered from collectors in Australia and from New Zealand, USA, England, Holland and Denmark.
Mulga Music Promotions continues to support the independent artists through distributing their recorded material and are always looking for new artists to go into their catalogue and for ways of distributing their material.
Their distribution is not exclusive. Mulga Music are aware how hard it is for the independents to get sales and artists are encouraged to distribute their material in as many areas as possible to increase their profile.
Mulga Music Promotions is based in Tamworth and can be contacted by writing to:
PO Box 664
Tamworth NSW 2340
or
Phone/Fax +61 (0)2 6761 7166
or by Email
mulga@tpg.com.au