The past two decades have seen the rapid rise of artistic research as a valid - ­and increasingly validated - scholarly pursuit. Triggered primarily by the gradual amalgamation of conservatoires and schools of music into the higher education sector in the Anglo-Saxon world since the Second World War and the Bologna process (from 1998) in mainland Europe, musicians have been inspired and stimulated (as well as forced to some extent} to make more explicit the processes and thinking that feed into compositions, performances, recordings and online creative music activities. On one hand, this has yielded some naive and far-fetched claims and some cunning retrofitting of research agendas to existing works, but on the other it has led to some profound insights and fascinating new work, particularly at the doctoral level. Taking the approaches that have surfaced in Australia as an example, this essay traces some of the history, strategies, frameworks, practices, and research training associated with this new presence in the academic landscape and assesses with an eye to the future where the field is in terms of strategy, artistry, scholarship, and pedagogy.