Austria gets its first music strategy
Now that the Austrian National Council has approved the development of a national music strategy, the first steps have been taken.
The Austrian Music Council (ÖMR) hosted an information and discussion event on the «Music Strategy for Austria» as part of its General Assembly on February 26, 2026. The meeting was preceded by a working meeting with the Austrian music universities, where the burning issues of teacher shortages, teacher training, curricula, teacher training courses and plans to reform school teaching were discussed.
The current process for an Austrian music strategy is being coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport (BMWKMS). It is based on a unanimous resolution passed by all parties in the National Council in July 2025. The process began in fall 2025 with a broad-based online survey in which 6,000 music professionals took part. In addition, five stakeholder workshops have been held since the beginning of 2026 to consolidate and validate the survey results.
The topics of the workshops were training, professionalization and talent development, live events, creation & production, media and national visibility as well as distribution & marketing. A further workshop on AI & streaming is being planned. Cross-cutting topics such as inclusion in the music sector will also be discussed in more detail. The final music strategy is to be presented in fall 2026.
