Annabelle Herd<\/strong> remarked at the top of the 2026 ARIA Hall of Fame. \u201cGetting this right means everyone wins,\u201d she added, pointing to artists and rightsholders, tech platforms, consumers, music fans, and the Australian economy.<\/p>\n\n\tAI, and the conversation around it, is everywhere right now. Just this week, the trade body clarified its position on AI generated music ahead of the 2026 ARIA Awards. Going forward, \u201crecordings\/items that incorporate elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be submitted for entry, but only if a human is the primary creator of such recording\/item and the human contribution is substantial and meaningful,\u201d reads the updated ARIAs guidelines. AI cannot be the sole or central element of any recording\/item that is submitted for entries\u201d and any AI services or tools used to assist in the creation of any potential nominees \u201cmust be a properly authorized and lawful service\/tool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe industry will be like a dog with a bone on AI, Herd insists. It won\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOur opportunity to shape how AI influences music and what Australian music looks like for generations to come relies on us all getting it right in this regulatory and political moment,\u201d she said during her comments at the top of the HoF.<\/p>\n
\n\tRead Herd\u2019s opening address at the ARIA Hall of Fame 2026:<\/p>\n
\n\tGood evening, and welcome to The ARIA Hall of Fame 2026 Special Event.<\/p>\n
\n\tI want to thank Binowee for that beautiful Welcome and pay my respects to Gadigal elders past and present, and to all the First Nations artists, storytellers, colleagues, and friends in the room tonight.<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019d like to welcome Tony Burke, Minister for the Arts; former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern; Susan Templeman, Special Envoy for the Arts; Senator Sarah Hanson Young; and Millie Millgate of Music Australia.<\/p>\n
\n\tThank you also to NSW Music Minister John Graham who can\u2019t be here tonight and Sound NSW, Music Australia, and the Office of the Arts for supporting this event.<\/p>\n
\n\tFrom the bottom of our hearts, we are grateful for your deep support and passion for Australian music and our industry. Through a difficult time of disruption and transition with lots of challenges, we know that you have our backs and are doing everything possible to enable Australian music to flourish.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis is the first time the Hall of Fame has stood as its own event since 2010. The reason we wanted to bring it back this year is \u2013 of course \u2013 that it is the ARIA Awards\u2019 40th birthday which is a chance to pause and think about everything that got us here: who took the early risks, who played the rooms we still play in and opened the doors that everyone\u2019s walking through now.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt is also a chance to induct a group of very deserving artists on a night which is all about them.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe six artists being inducted \u2013 Gurrumul, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, Spiderbait, The Living End, and Vika and Linda \u2013 between them have shaped what Australian music sounds like, through extraordinary songs and records, magnetic stage presence, and all the joy and emotion they have gifted us over the years. Lucky for us we get to spend the next few hours celebrating this incredible achievement properly together and with them.<\/p>\n
\n\tA huge and warm welcome to our inductees and to family, friends and the people who have been part of the journey to this moment. We have a very special evening planned for you all and I hope that it is a night that you will always remember and treasure. You might want to keep the tissues on hand, we did manage to get Tim Rogers to cry last year so\u2026<\/p>\n
\n\tA 40th anniversary lets you reflect and think hard about where we are and what comes next. As we gather tonight there are several very important national conversations happening, the outcomes of which will shape the future of Australian music and impact generations of artists going forward.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe big, inescapable one is obviously AI.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis year, the skies between the U.S. and Canberra have been busy with planes carrying AI and tech company CEOs and senior executives to Canberra. They arrive waving very large cheques and promising generation-defining investment in Australia, provided we make some \u201ctiny\u201d tweaks to our copyright laws to remove consent and control from artists and rightsholders.<\/p>\n
\n\tOur opportunity to shape how AI influences music and what Australian music looks like for generations to come relies on us all getting it right in this regulatory and political moment.<\/p>\n
\n\tGetting this right means everyone wins: artists and rightsholders, tech platforms, consumers, music fans, and the Australian economy.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor artists and rightsholders, getting this wrong means losing consent and control over how your work is used by AI.\u00a0 Being forced to watch your life\u2019s work disappear into someone else\u2019s AI product to be exploited and monetised without permission or anything resembling fair payment. And it\u2019s hard to even conceive of the damage if AI has unfettered access to extract and exploit thousand of generations of First Nations culture and storytelling.<\/p>\n
\n\tA country with a creative and media culture as strong as ours will not rewrite its laws on the advice of the people who stand to profit most from dismantling them. Tech companies do not decide how an artist\u2019s music is used, on what terms or at what price. That is the prerogative of the artist and the copyright owner.<\/p>\n
\n\tWe thank Minister Burke, the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, and others who have stood firm with creators so far in the face of this immense pressure. All we can say is hold firm!<\/p>\n
\n\tBut tonight, let\u2019s leave AI at the door and live and be fully present in this very special and very human moment.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis is a room of people who love music, who love Australian music and the artists who made it. And tonight, we ask that you show the love. Be loud, be warm, get up and dance and sing along wherever you feel like singing (as long as it\u2019s during a performance). These six have earned every bit of it.<\/p>\n
\n\tA huge thanks to the amazing ARIA team, Second Sunday event production team, and the Roving broadcast crew for the huge work and love that goes into a night like this; to the ABC for broadcasting the Hall of Fame to Australian audiences, and to every one of you for being here. We\u2019ve got a good one for you, let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hall of Fame celebration is typically a chance to bury hatchets, to raise a toast, and to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[131379,204517,22217,18,117,19,17,337],"class_list":["post-531230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-aria","tag-aria-hall-of-fame","tag-bbnews","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116736028121420998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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