Marc Fennell probes the rise and fall of a high-tech music revolution

Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution ★★★½
SBS, Tuesday, October 15, 8.35pm, and SBS On Demand

There are around half-a-dozen defining threads woven into this Australian documentary series about the rise and fall of Guvera, a Gold Coast tech start-up that promised to revolutionise the music business. Tick off the wayward history of the music industry and digital technology, Australia’s deficit in online innovation, the damage believing in an idea can inflict on an individual, the excess allowed by ego, and legally questionable funding models.

Too much? Perhaps not, but the bustle of these two episodes, both just over an hour in length, speaks to some difficult choices in terms of framing the story – which moves from dedicated optimism to bleak pessimism – that the show’s creatives had to make. Between host Marc Fennell, writer Simon Cunich, and director Corrin Grant (all three are also producers), Red Flag settles for a rock’n’roll-worthy backbeat – it’s a rise and fall toe-tapper that sometimes needs to slow down and take stock of its hectic narrative.

Guvera was founded in 2008. Swedish-Australian entrepreneur and designer Claes Loberg had the initial idea at a time when illegal downloading of music was gutting the music industry and depriving artists of income: get corporate advertisers to pay for free downloads. Consumers got free music legally, brands got exposure and access, while record companies and musicians got income from licensing fees. He partnered with former bank employee Brad Christiansen, who was the diligent project manager to Loberg’s prophet.

With musician Ben Lee adding some broader cultural context, Fennell draws out the small-staff-meets-giant-ambition chronology from Christiansen and key early employees. It’s a story that’s entertaining if a little familiar. From day one, Loberg was pumping up Guvera – starting with the revolutionary overtones of the company’s name – which resulted in sizable costs internationally even as major record companies were demanding upfront payments. Enter money man Darren Herft, whose AMMA Private Equity would eventually raise $180 million that Guvera lost.

Even as Guvera had some successes, including launching in over 20 countries in the early 2010s and accumulating a genuine user base, the difficulties kept proliferating. Downloads gave way to streaming, with Swedish giant Spotify as a rapidly expanding rival, and Loberg’s relocation to Los Angeles made for some great parties but few partnerships. When Australian Financial Review journalists such as Yolanda Redrup and Liam Walsh are interviewed, you know the company’s fortunes are starting to nosedive.

Guvera’s fate was sealed in 2016, when an attempt to go public and list on the ASX was shut down because the company’s prospectus revealed vast debts and little income. Over 3000 private investors lost everything, with AMMA’s tactics drawing multiple legal challenges and questioning by liquidators. It’s not wrong to say the suits, with a Glengarry Glen Ross vibe, ruined it, but it’s left somewhat unclear who owned Guvera and how authority was wielded. Some paperwork would have helped.

Christiansen speaks at length, the only key player to do so. He says that he “feels” for investors, but never stopped believing in Guvera’s success. Loberg and Herft forced him out, then brought him back. The nerd who was never allowed to participate in media photo shoots, Christiansen could have been a true through line for the story, but it’s a disheartening one. In 2021’s Framed, Fennell and Grant had great fun with the 1986 theft of Picasso’s The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria, but that narrative touched on the story’s tragic aspects. Red Flag is briskly entertaining, but it could have done with a touch of the same sternness.

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