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SYDNEY, Australia — For all the column inches devoted to the resurgence of country, the dominance of pop and the steady strength of rock, it’s dance music that has the place jumping in Australia.
Of the hundreds of music festivals that sprawl out across Australia’s warmer months, roughly one in four pump out dance music — the most popular genre, according to data presented in Soundcheck, published in late 2024 by Creative Australia.
On the streaming side of the story, the IMS Business Report found Australia to be the third-largest market in the world for electronic music, trailing only the United States and Germany. Australians stream, on average, more of the genre than any other nation, the publication’s authors explain. In just one month last year, Spotify revealed Aussie dance cuts were streamed more than 1 billion times internationally on its platform, making the genre the most popular music export from the land down under.
TMRW Music is leading the charge. In one remarkable week in April, the Sydney-based music group, which includes the etcetc label, nabbed 60% of the tracks in ARIA’s Top Australian Dance Singles Chart, including four from FISHER (including the Gold Coast producer and DJ’s collaboration with Tones And I, “Favour,” new at No. 3); the Dom Dolla remix of Puretone’s “Addicted To Bass” at No. 4; and Yes Boone’s “All I Really Want” at No. 7. All six tracks appeared in the overall Top 20 Australian Singles Chart.
A couple of those TMRW tracks also made the leap to the Music Week Club Chart in the United Kingdom: Supafly & Greg Stainer’s “Girls” featuring Ca$h X at No. 16, and Jessi Lowkey x Cristiano Fry’s “I Know” at No. 20.
FISHER went on to collect the highest-selling single award for his track “Stay,” presented April 22 in the artist’s hometown.
The hits should keep coming with PNAU, the Sydney electronic pairing of Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes, whose 2012 collaborative remix album with Elton John, Good Morning to the Night, went to No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart — a feat they repeated in 2021 with the remix of “Cold Heart” (with Dua Lipa), which topped charts globally. PNAU will release its new album AHHCade on July 31 via etcetc worldwide, a fresh collection that features the previously released single “Tu Corazon” with Mexican sister act The Warning.
Billboard caught up with TMRW Music Group CEO Tim McGee, etcetc Music general manager Aden Mullens, TMRW Music Group’s head of A&R Chris Fraser and TMRW Music Group senior marketing manager, labels, Lana Howlett, for a closer look at Australia’s vibrant dance space and how the Sydney label group is lifting the tempo.
Broadly speaking, Australian dance music is having a “moment” both here and internationally. What’s behind that?
Mullens: Dance music has become recognized and accepted as part of the mainstream globally. It’s now a multigenerational and multilingual genre, which has had a compounding effect on consumption.
Howlett: The Australian dance acts that are breaking through are not only incredibly talented, they understand how to build culture around their music in a way that feels distinctly local, uplifting, authentic and community-driven. As online platforms such as TikTok, Discord and Twitch amplify these communities, that spirit is reaching the masses in a way we, as an isolated country, weren’t previously able to. That’s now turning connection into momentum.
Fraser: Dance music has always been strong in Australia, whether the broader industry has recognized it or not. The culture, the community, the collaborative nature of the ecosystem — these things have been quietly compounding for years, and what you’re seeing now is part of the payoff.
Dance music has always had to work harder, build its own infrastructure, create its own pathways. And because the Australian market is genuinely tough to break out of and not naturally predisposed to support one-off commercial dance moments, it puts the onus firmly on real artist development and organic growth. The artists who cut through here have usually earned it, and DSPs locally are providing focused support that is helping give projects a platform domestically and on a global level.
And on that subject, what’s behind the success of TMRW/etcetc’s ARIA chart bonanza? Can you identify some special sauce?
Fraser: We’d been working with Puretone for a number of years on ideas to bring “Addicted To Bass” back to life, and when Dom’s version emerged, starting as a bootleg he made for his own stadium show in Sydney, it was one of those moments you hope for but can never plan.
That organic origin gave the record something you can’t manufacture. Luckily, the timing lined up, and working with Dom and [manager] James Fava and the team to bring it to a proper release was one of the most creatively rewarding experiences we’ve had as a team in a long time.
The fact that audiences are responding to it the way they are makes complete sense. It was a special record 28 years ago, and Dom breathed new life into it in a way we’d never imagined. I don’t know if any other artist would have committed as hard as he did to the brilliant bass/fish angle seen in the music video.
Yes Boone is a perfect example of artist development in practice. Three and a half years of patient development, helping him build a real community around his work, before the moment arrived where everything lined up. The way Australian radio got behind the record over summer was genuinely heartening, and that kind of championing from local broadcasters means everything for an artist at his stage. It’s not often you’ll see commercial radio championing a new artist in lock step with triple j, so to see that belief from day one is a moment we don’t take for granted. Now that momentum has started to pick up steam internationally, which we’re actively working to build on. Boone’s a remarkable talent, and audiences finding him here and abroad are recognizing that.
Despite the structural challenges around Australian artists and charts, the broader environment and institutional and government support is probably the best it’s been in a long time, which also makes a real difference. Bodies like Creative Australia are adding much-needed firepower to our ability to push for more meaningful global cut-through on projects, and hopefully, that support continues to grow for Australian artists over time.
Mullens: The wider TMRW team are really humming right now. From sell-out national Ministry of Sound shows, 150-plus unique tours in 2025, alongside 200-plus releases, we are working with a lot of experience and data to propel our artists’ careers, not just in Australia, but globally.
The group nabbed 12 of the top 20 on the ARIA dance chart. How does this rank among the label’s all-time success stories?
Fraser: We haven’t seen success converge like this all at once before, with multiple distinct entries near the top of the charts; that’s just the honest answer. But I think what makes it possible now, beyond the music itself, is that the company is in a genuinely great place operationally. The team is resourced and structured to execute across multiple projects simultaneously, which matters enormously when you have a range of developed and still-developing projects or opportunities all finding their moment at the same time. A few years ago, we might have had the music but not the capacity to maximize it. Right now we have both, and that feels like a meaningful difference.
How are you feeling about the landscape for indie labels here in Australia?
McGee: Twenty-five years in, the landscape for independent labels in Australia has shifted dramatically, particularly as traditional pathways to success evolve and they always will. The cycles of change are getting smaller, but electronic music has proven uniquely resilient. Constantly adapting and finding new ways to connect with audiences.
While the ARIA Singles Chart may not reflect the depth of local talent, the strength of the dance space tells a different story, driven in part by a great ecosystem of local events and festivals that are creating real viral moments for emerging artists who may not be touring internationally. Part of our strength is that we’re not just a recordings company. As the landscape of traditional radio and media changes, we have persevered within our own ecosystem, rather than rely on traditional means of support.
Whether it’s across recordings, agency, events, publishing or management, we have the means to support ourselves when these shifts occur.
For us, it’s an exciting time, and the future looks bright. In addition to our larger artists, we’re focused on developing artists with genuine global potential. Amongst them artists like Djanaba, Carter Walsh, Sumner and Alexa Leary and so many more of which we’re super excited to be working alongside.
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