Recorded Music NZ submission in support of Western Springs BowlJune 12, 2025

Recorded Music NZ represents 4,670 recording artists and 3,665 rights holders in Aotearoa through licensing, advocacy and promotion. We produce the Aotearoa Music Awards and OfficialAotearoa Music Charts.

Recorded Music is a key player in the music ecosystem in New Zealand and supports the protection of Western Springs as a large-capacity natural music venue. Western Springs Stadium (and Outerfields) is already a unique, iconic venue for a wide range of activities, and it’s our strong view that utilising the natural landscape in an enhanced way to further establish the space as a multipurpose outdoor venue in central Tāmaki Makaurau is not only important for our artists and other stakeholders, but that it would prove an important cultural asset on the whole.

The stadium in its existing form has to date successfully hosted some of the biggest concerts to come through Auckland, including international acts like Bob Marley and Post Malone, festivals like Big Day Out and Laneway, and local act Six60’s record-breaking 2019 concert. We are excited at the prospect of a permanent soundstage at the site, as well as the expansion and improvement of the existing community sport facilities.

Rather than fully privatise what is an important community hub, we support the imperatives of Option 2, to protect it as a community and cultural asset and build on what it already provides to Aucklanders. This proposal is for a low-impact development that will also be less disruptive for residents in the area than the proposed Option 1, while increasing the cultural cache of the area and city and contributing to the economy of both.