The association was incorporated in 1996 thanks to a small donation from Phantom Records, and received its first operation funding grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 1998.
[citation needed] Additional Australia Council funding was received in 2000, and in this same year, members also voted to change AIR's legal status from Incorporated Association to Company Limited by Guarantee.
[citation needed] In 2009 it registered a collective bargaining notification to bargain on behalf of 63 participating members, with each of Telstra, Optus, Foxtel, Austar, MTV, XYZnetworks, Fuel TV (Australia) and Bigpond, regarding the licensing of sound recording rights in respect of public performance and transmission of music videos.
It services businesses of all shapes and sizes, battles copyright violations and helps to develop artists' careers.
As a major part of these celebrations AIR conducted an online poll for Australia's greatest independent records of all time.
[11] The report valued the Australian recording industry as worth A$399.4 million, sixth largest music market in the world in terms of revenue and ahead of countries with higher populations such as Canada and South Korea.
The lists are created by AIR from data supplied by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
[24] The inaugural "Indie-Con Australia" music industry conference took place in July 2017 in Adelaide, to coincide with the 11th AIR Awards.
[25] As of 2019[update], the City of Adelaide, the South Australian Tourism Commission and the South Australian Government through the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the Music Development Office (MDO, in the Department of Innovation & Skills)[29] are major sponsors of the Awards and Indie-Con.