Resound – broadcasting NZ music

Resound is a project which SOUNZ has been contracted to undertake with funding from NZonAir which will allow Radio New Zealand Concert and SOUNZ to broadcast more New Zealand music. Beginning in 2010, selected recordings in the RNZ Composer Archive, nearly all of which are currently unavailable for broadcast, are being licensed and prepared for broadcast, podcast, audio on demand, web samples and, in some cases, download.

 This new project is the result of work that began in the early nineties. In 1993 SOUNZ signed an agreement with Radio New Zealand and the Alexander Turnbull Library to ensure that the recordings of works by New Zealand composers made by Radio New Zealand could be accessed through SOUNZ and preserved at the Turnbull Library. The work to preserve these precious recordings has continued in the background almost since SOUNZ began. Nearly 1200 hours of music held on deteriorating formats such as DAT and reel to reel tape have been transferred to an international standard digital format making dissemination of the recordings much more viable.

Roger Smith, Manager of Radio NZ Concert (seated) with Brendan Smyth, NZ Music Manager at NZOnAir, and Kate Mead, Production Manager of Radio NZ Concert and Trustee of SOUNZ. They are amongst the tapes, DATs, CDs and other materials that make up the Radio NZ Composer Archive.

Resound will ensure that the best of this treasure trove of recordings can be made available again. This will to raise the New Zealand music content on Radio New Zealand Concert (currently 16% of which locally-composed works make up only 4.3% of airtime) and also allow both SOUNZ and Radio NZ Concert to promote the finest of these recordings internationally. 

Radio New Zealand Concert and SOUNZ will use the re-licenced recordings for a variety of projects – as well as general broadcast they might be included in documentaries, features, programme exchanges and for podcasts or audio on demand. Resound also helps SOUNZ to realise the potential of its website to present New Zealand music in many different ways including offeing samples illustrating comprehensive information about works, promotional CDs, podcasts, streaming or downloads.

In 2010 about 50 hours of music from the 4,000 recordings available will be re-licensed and prepared for broadcast. A selection process involving a panel of experts identifies recordings which are of a high quality and suitable for inclusion in broadcast programmes. Other factors including the recording’s special musical or historical significance are also taken into account. Once this is complete, the complex task of contacting the performers and composers to agree new licences begins.

As well as supporting the important work of re-licensing the recordings, NZonAir is also funding the final phase of digitisation the recordings in the Radio NZ NZ Composer Archive and the development of a podcast platform for the SOUNZ website.

Working together with NZOnAir and Radio NZ Concert, SOUNZ will ensure that many important and beautiful recordings of works by our composers performed, in the main, by our leading artists are once again available to be heard, both here in New Zealand and around the world.