the story
creativity is evolving and AI is reshaping how creative work gets done. Yet across Australia there’s still no central space for music and creative communities to organise. Opportunities and information remain scattered across websites, social platforms, and spreadsheets.
Residents Desk is designed to change that—connecting people, platforms, and practical tools in one Australia-first hub. The aim is simple: make the music and creative
What’s Broken - Australia’s creative industries are rich in talent but stretched thin by weak infrastructure. Artists, managers, and producers often rely on a patchwork of spreadsheets, social platforms, and disconnected apps just to keep projects moving. This makes everyday work harder than it should be—wasting time, fuelling burnout, and leaving opportunities buried. With systems fragmented and support underfunded, sustaining a long-term creative practice becomes unnecessarily difficult. The outcome is lost potential across the sector—for individuals, communities, and the wider industry.
The Fix - Residents Desk is designed to address these pressures head-on. It brings the essential parts of creative work—project management, directories, resources, and administration—into one connected space. Built for the reality of cultural practice, it supports the non-linear, collaborative, and resource-heavy nature of creative work. By reducing friction, making opportunities visible, and giving people clear, shared systems, it helps both projects and practitioners thrive. More than software, it’s a digital commons: a practical, community-first infrastructure for Australia’s creative industries.
What It Unlocks - For creators, Residents Desk is a practical set of tools to get projects moving, build careers, and stay connected. For organisations, it makes it easier to find talent and collaborate. For communities, it’s a shared resource that gives local voices more visibility and shows the real value of creative work.
Why It Matters - It helps make creative work more manageable and sustainable—cutting down on isolation, reducing admin load, and opening up new opportunities. This means more projects finished, more artists supported, and more collaborations happening, while giving partners and policymakers a clearer view of the sector’s impact.
The Ripple Effect - The benefits flow both locally and across the industry: more resources staying in communities, projects that cross disciplines, stronger networks of trust, and a greater sense of belonging. Over time, Residents Desk can serve as a reliable support system for creative practice in Australia—useful for everyday work and steady growth alike.
Who’s Behind It & Why We Started - Residents Desk is an initiative being developed by the Lorikeet Network, a creative services group supporting music and the wider creative sector in Australia. The idea grew out of a tough period for live music and festivals—when events like Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival were cancelled, exposing deeper problems across the industry. Fragile business models, overstretched infrastructure, and ongoing uncertainty made it clear that new approaches were needed to help the sector stay resilient.
The project also reflects the wider challenges creatives are facing: legal complexities, copyright struggles, shifting roles in creative work, and the rapid impact of technologies like AI. Many artists see AI as a risk to fair work and authentic expression, but it also underlines the value of things that can’t be automated—trust, collaboration, and in-person connection.
We started by mapping the ecosystem—artists, venues, and projects across different states. The strength of the talent was obvious, but so was the fragility of the systems around it. Too many promising projects stalled simply because the infrastructure wasn’t built to support them. That’s the gap Residents Desk is working to close: a simple way to start projects, find collaborators, and keep building without drowning in scattered tools and admin.
At its core, Residents Desk is being built as a calm, practical space—away from noise and distraction—where projects, people, and tools can come together. It began music-first but has since expanded, because music, design, film, writing, and other practices overlap too much to separate. The goal is straightforward: make creative work easier to start, connect, and sustain.
We draw inspiration from resources like Major Contacts in the US and The Unsigned Guide in the UK, but what we’re creating is local, community-led, and shaped around how Australia’s creative industries actually work—messy, collaborative, and always evolving.
Vision - A future where Australia’s creative industries are connected, accessible, and sustainable—where artists, teams, and organisations have the infrastructure to collaborate openly, share opportunities fairly, and build lasting creative careers together.
How We’re Building It - We’re rolling out in phases. Phase one: a digital platform with core tools for projects and collaboration. Phase two: modular features—grants, venues, admin support—shaped by user feedback. Phase three: bridging digital with physical infrastructure through projects like The Social Commons. Every step is co-created with the community to keep it adaptive and trustworthy.
Where We’re At
Right now, we’re piloting with early adopters: testing features, refining flows, and proving value. We’re still finalising and putting all the pieces together, but alongside this, we’re connecting with music and creative entities, businesses, organisations, bodies, and individuals who want to join as Founding Members and help shape the platform from the ground up. From there, the plan is to scale adoption, roll out advanced features like AI tooling and data dashboards, and anchor Residents Desk in physical hubs. Growth will be steady, deliberate, and always grounded in trust and shared governance.
We’re building a platform where creatives can collaborate free from algorithms, noisy feeds, extractive business models, and the constant distractions in between. It’s about bringing people and planning together in one place. Instead of chasing hype, we focus on practical tools: project boards, shared calendars, professional profiles, funding resources, and a directory of artists, agencies, and studios. It’s a single, transparent space to connect, plan, and deliver work—whether you’re producing an album, running a tour, launching an event, or managing a creative business.
Founding Membership - Residents Desk is being launched as a co-operative, built by and for the creative community. Our first 1,000–2,000 members will become Founding Members—permanent co-owners who help shape the platform and share in its success.
How it works:
Join as a Founder: Buy in with a once-off fee (A$100–250) or earn your spot through meaningful contributions.
Your voice counts: Every member gets one vote in key decisions—no hierarchy, no hidden power.
Annual rewards: When Residents Desk makes a surplus, a portion is returned to members as patronage dividends, scaled by participation and capped to keep things fair.
No speculation, real ownership: Shares aren’t for trading. If you leave, you can withdraw your original contribution, but your impact and dividends remain yours.
Legacy & culture: Founding Members’ names are recorded permanently, marking their role in shaping Residents Desk from day one.
Later members will still be able to join as General Members with voting rights, but the Founding Member pool remains exclusive and protected.
In short, Residents Desk grows with its community, not against it—protecting ownership, trust, and creative continuity for Australia’s music and creative industries
contact us for more information