The Business of Getting Aotearoa’s Music Out Into the World.
Review by Music Journalist Paul Marshall
There are music conferences where you sit in a room, listen to people talk, collect a few business cards and go home with a head full of buzzwords.
Then there is Going Global.
Now in its latest incarnation, Aotearoa’s international music industry summit is doing something considerably more important: putting the people who actually control the international music ecosystem in front of the artists and industry professionals trying to navigate it.
Held across two days in Tāmaki Makaurau, Going Global is presented by Independent Music New Zealand in partnership with the New Zealand Music Commission. The event has been running since 2011 and, according to IMNZ, has now welcomed more than 260 international delegates and provided a platform for 238 showcasing artists.
After a first day packed with conversations about the international music business, Day Two got down to what really matters when an artist stops dreaming about going global and starts trying to actually do it.
And, as anyone who has ever attempted to make a living from music knows, the devil is very often in the details.
The Framework You Need to Succeed
The morning began with Recorded Music NZ Presents: The Framework You Need To Succeed, featuring artist Anthonie Tonnon, country star Kaylee Bell, manager and IMNZ chair Pip Ryan-Kidd, and Recorded Music NZ’s Christy Whelan.
On paper, copyright, registrations, royalties, neighbouring rights and collection societies might sound like the least rock'n'roll subjects imaginable.
In reality, this was one of the most important conversations of the day.
Because the international music business doesn't simply reward creativity. It rewards people who understand what they have created, who owns it, where it has been used, and how to collect the money generated by it.
The message was simple: don't wait until something happens to discover that your paperwork isn't in order.
That chart position, that sync, that overseas stream, that licensing deal or that performance opportunity might suddenly become worth serious money.
If you haven't registered the work correctly, documented ownership or connected yourself to the relevant royalty collection systems, you could be leaving that money sitting on the table.
The boring stuff isn't boring when it becomes your payday.
From Auckland to Austin, Brighton and Brisbane
Then came Practical Prep For Showcase Festivals, featuring Dev Sherlock of SXSW, Marie Robinson of The Great Escape, Niriko McLure of BIGSOUND/Third Person Management, and Jonathan Boswell of August Avenue.
For anyone who has attended an international showcase conference, this was essential listening.
I've been to SXSW in Austin, BIGSOUND in Brisbane and plenty of other industry gatherings over the years, and one thing becomes obvious very quickly: getting the gig is only the beginning.
Showcase festivals are not ordinary festivals.
They are career accelerators, networking events, auditions, meetings, talent searches and industry marketplaces rolled into one.
Dev Sherlock knows that better than most. As Director of SXSW Music, his remit includes artists and showcase presenters from Europe, the UK and Australia/New Zealand. SXSW can bring more than 1,000 artists from dozens of countries into Austin, making the competition for attention brutal.
Sherlock also explained that SXSW isn't simply about playing a show; it is about being in the right place at the right stage of your career and giving industry people a reason to pay attention.
That distinction matters.
You can fly halfway around the world, spend thousands of dollars, play your 30-minute set and achieve absolutely nothing.
Or you can arrive prepared.
Visas. Accommodation. Backline. Travel. Publicity. Meetings. Social content. Follow-up. Who is actually coming to your show? Who do you need to meet? What is your story? What happens after the showcase?
Those are the questions that turn an overseas trip into an international strategy.
The lesson from the panel was clear:
Don't just go overseas. Go with a plan.
Outward Sound: Turning Ambition Into Action
If the previous session explained how to prepare for the international marketplace, Alan Holt explained how Aotearoa can help artists get there.
Holt, International Manager at the New Zealand Music Commission, presented A Guide To Outward Sound, the programme designed to help New Zealand artists and music businesses develop international careers.
Outward Sound is a matched-investment programme contributing 50 percent towards approved eligible costs. It covers artists, songwriters, producers, composers, managers and music businesses, with support available for things such as market visits, international representation, publicity, marketing and showcases.
This is not simply a government cheque for someone who fancies a holiday in Los Angeles.
The programme requires planning, a market-development strategy, supporting materials and a realistic case for international potential.
That is important because international expansion costs money.
Flights cost money.
Accommodation costs money.
PR costs money.
Visas cost money.
Promoters, agents and industry conferences aren't free.
For an independent artist, the financial barrier can be the difference between thinking internationally and actually getting on a plane.
Outward Sound exists to help close that gap.
And with the Music Commission identifying internationalisation as one of the key pillars of a thriving New Zealand music sector, the programme sits at the heart of the country's wider export strategy.
Going Global: USA
Next up if there was one session guaranteed to make every ambitious New Zealand artist sit up straight, it was Going Global: USA.
The panel brought together Adam Lewis of Planetary Group, David Melik Telfer of DMT Law Firm, Dev Sherlock of SXSW, Kyle Kernohan of TBA Agency and legendary booking agent Tom Windish, with Sarah Thomson moderating.
The United States remains the giant prize.
It is also an enormous, complicated and increasingly expensive marketplace.
Adam Lewis has been working in artist development for decades. He founded Planetary Group in 1996 after an early career that included radio, independent music promotion and tour management, including a North American tour with the Aquanettas opening for Nine Inch Nails and Meat Beat Manifesto.
That kind of experience matters because there is no single American music market.
There are hundreds of markets.
Different cities.
Different radio ecosystems.
Different promoters.
Different audiences.
Different opportunities.
And different rules.
Then there is the legal minefield.
David Melik Telfer, founder and managing attorney of DMT Law Firm, brings his international-law background into the conversation.
For artists thinking about America, the message couldn't be more obvious:
Do your homework before you arrive.
And then there was Tom Windish.
Windish is not simply another industry executive. He is one of the great modern architects of international artist touring.
His current roster includes names such as Lorde, Billie Eilish, alt-J, The xx, M83, King Krule and Tove Lo, while his career has earned him three Pollstar Agent of the Year nominations.
Windish's history is particularly instructive because he didn't start at the top.
His original Windish Agency grew from a tiny operation into a major boutique booking company representing hundreds of artists.
That long-game philosophy feels particularly relevant in today's industry.
The goal isn't necessarily to get an artist to America tomorrow.
The goal is to build an artist who can still be touring America five years from now.
That's a very different proposition.
India: The Market New Zealand Can No Longer Ignore
Then came one of the day's most fascinating conversations:
Asia New Zealand Foundation Presents: Opportunities In India.
The numbers alone are staggering.
A country of almost 1.5 billion people.
Hundreds of millions of smartphones.
Thousands of concerts.
And an enormous appetite for music.
But the most important point wasn't simply how big India is.
It was that India is not one market.
It is a collection of markets, cultures, languages, cities and musical ecosystems operating inside one enormous country.
Rafael Pereira, Managing Partner of TINNUTS and Executive Trustee of India Music Exchange, brought a particularly useful perspective because his work sits at the intersection of intellectual property, international trade, policy and the creative economy.
Alongside him was Pritesh Panchal of Sohum Artist Services, with Craig Cooper representing Asia New Zealand Foundation.
For New Zealand artists, India represents something much bigger than another territory to add to the spreadsheet.
It represents a market where relationships, cultural understanding and local partnerships could be critical.
The next international success story from Aotearoa may not necessarily begin in Los Angeles or London.
It might begin in Mumbai.
And Then Came Speed Networking
And finally, the conference reached its grand finale:
Speed Networking.
Advertised as an opportunity to meet all speakers, this was, unfortunately, where the day didn't quite live up to the promise.
A number of the key speakers were nowhere to be found.
And that's frustrating.
Because after spending two days telling artists how important relationships are, the final opportunity to actually make those relationships suddenly became the weakest link.
For emerging artists, these moments matter.
You can sit through panels all day and learn how the industry works, but nothing replaces looking someone in the eye, introducing yourself and having a genuine conversation.
That is the currency of conferences like Going Global.
Access.
Opportunity.
Relationships.
So when some of the people artists most wanted to meet weren't available, it felt like a missed opportunity.
The Verdict
But one disappointing networking session shouldn't obscure what Going Global achieved over two days.
This is an important event for New Zealand music.
Not because everyone who attends is going to become the next Lorde.
Not because every showcase artist will suddenly land a record deal.
And certainly not because simply attending a conference makes an international career happen.
It doesn't.
What Going Global does is provide something far more valuable:
access.
Access to the people who book the festivals.
Access to the people who run showcase events.
Access to agents, managers, lawyers, labels, publishers and export organisations.
Access to people who have already navigated the roads that many Aotearoa artists are only beginning to travel.
Since its launch in 2011, Going Global has built a genuine bridge between New Zealand's music community and the international industry.
And Day Two demonstrated exactly why that bridge matters.
The music might be the art.
But the career is the infrastructure around it.
Copyright.
Royalties.
Data.
Visas.
Touring.
Relationships.
Funding.
Strategy.
Markets.
And knowing when you're actually ready to make the move.
For anyone sitting in Auckland dreaming about playing Austin, Brighton, Brisbane, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai or anywhere else on the planet, that's the real message coming out of Going Global 2026.
Don't just make great music. Build something that can travel.
Because the world is listening.
The question is whether Aotearoa's artists are ready when it does.