Music’s ‘satellite account’ to benefit all

Music’s ‘satellite account’ to benefit all

BY LUCAS BAIRD

Sydney’s struggling live music industry contributes to Sydney’s overall nighttime economy according to one expert.

Coordinator of music technology at the University of Tasmania, David Carter contributed to a specialist panel on the state of live music in Sydney and Australia on April 4.

He explained that a live music scene in Sydney would impact several other categories of the night-time and entertainment economy.

“When someone goes out to see a gig where does the money go? Do they have a meal before they go out? Spend money on a cab? Do they pay for a baby sitter?” he said.

“Each of these examples flows through the economy and can be attributable to that one focus activity.”

“We did a survey of a bunch of people, a bunch of venues as well and saw the beginning of something called a satellite account for live music,” Mr Carter said.

Mr Carter explained that a satellite account was an analysis formerly used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to gather the economic flow on effect to other related industries.

“Being able to show quite clearly the national report that spending on tickets, food and beverage represents less than half of what people actually spend when they go out to see a gig or they go out to see live music. It is pretty powerful and important to show the benefit to the wider Australian community,” Mr Carter told City Hub.

Along the same lines as using ABS data analysis, Associate Professor for the Arts at Monash University Shane Homan said it was time for a national database on the problems associated with live music venues.

“I was struck last year by the Creative Spaces in The Building Environment Forum. One of the by-products of that forum was the swapping of stories about how different venues with different problems solved them,” Prof Homan said.

“‘Perhaps the time has come for a national database of these things, or at least a statewide database?”

This forum occurred when there is a government review into the lockout and much discussion of the state government’s lock out laws.

The government’s Callinan review has now finished taking submissions from the public on the laws and is due to report back to the government in August.

Many submissions have been critical of the government, and have focused on the decline of the Sydney music scene and have cited the lockout laws as a key reason for this.

The City of Sydney’s submission to the review in particular emphasised live music. Their submission called for a trial of a twelve month exemption to the lockouts for live music and performance venues.

Some City councillors have also sent in their own submissions to the review.

Councillor Jenny Green called for the state government to support live performance venues.

“As greater Sydney develops so does the demand for varied night entertainment options across the city,” Ms Green stated in her submission.

“There are numerous suburban hubs in addition to the CBD that could cater to the local population’s night entertainment needs, provided there is local consultation and consent.”

“There is now an opportunity for authorities to review the cumulative impact of too many liquor licences in an area, the liquor licence approval process, transport availability and the required support for live music and performance based entertainment to be offered,” she said in her submission.

Not all submissions believed that lockout laws should be relaxed on venues.

East Sydney Neighbourhood Association (ESNA) used their submission to take aim at the venue patrons and owners.

“Residents are infuriated at the lack of respect and consideration from many venue operators and patrons shown to the people who live in our neighbourhood,” The ESNA submission stated.

The submission, which included a survey of residents, claimed that 100 per cent of the residents thought the streets were safer and there had been a sharp drop in anti-social behaviour since the introduction of lockout laws.

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