Singer-songwriters Angus and Julia Stone have thrown their support behind a push to make all international artists feature a local opening act when touring Australia.

The sibling folk and indie pop duo from Sydney said Australian artists needed more support as a growing number of music festivals pull the plug.

Julia said the festivals that had been cancelled predominantly depended on headline artists from overseas.

"International artists obviously are saying no to festivals now because they can make more money doing their own shows, which is, you know, fair enough. That's up to them as a business," she said.

"But it is important that they have local support, particularly in a country like Australia that's so geographically far away." 

A report by Creative Australia released last month found more than one-third of Australian music festivals were losing money as the industry grappled with rising running costs and shrinking younger audiences. 

Splendour In The Grass and Groovin the Moo were among major festivals cancelled this year.

Angus said he hoped the cancellation of larger festivals would create room for smaller festivals with more Australian music in the line up.

"As Aussies, we need to back each other and keep it in house," he said.

'Urgency for change'

Earlier this month, the Association of Artist Managers (AAM) called for the industry to adopt something called Michael's Rule to promote local artists at "this time of crisis for Australian music".

Named after the late Hoodoo Gurus manager, Michael Martin, the rule would reinstate what used to be a widely accepted industry code that mandated Australian opening acts on every international tour that visited Australia.

"If promoters are not willing to agree to this, then the AAM will call on the federal government to step in and make it a condition of issuing visas that international artists touring Australia must agree to comply with Michael's Rule," the AAM said.

The AAM pointed out that while Australian content quotas applied to local media, major international artists such as Taylor Swift were free to play "without featuring one note of Australian music".

Julia said the cancellations of festivals was pushing the industry to think about things differently.

"When things start to fail, there's this urgency for change," she said.

Music mentor program for emerging artists

Since debuting in 2006, Angus and Julia have performed at both festivals and tours of their own.

They are currently playing a world tour after releasing their fifth studio album Cape Forestier this month.

In July, the Big Jet Plane singers will return to Sydney to work with local artists as part of the Wild Turkey Music 101 Mentor Program.

Julia said emerging artists need to understand that not everyone will make it.

Angus said social media had made it easier for up-and-coming artists to reach a wide audience.

"To have [had] that reach back when we first started, it would have been a really incredible tool," he said.

"It'd be basically like having a huge PR team and marketing budget at your fingertips. Whereas now anyone, if they are driven enough, can pretty much do that on their own."

But Julia said success was not necessarily measured by an artist's social media following or crowd size.

"How many people you affect and touch is irrelevant, [whether] it's five people in a pub, or it's 20,000 people in an arena," she said.

"If you're making art because you have to, because you feel that there's something that you need to say through creating, then you're already succeeding."