Innovation & Business Skills Australia (IBSA) has conducted some incredibly significant research that supports recent findings into the live music industry and estimates that live music in smaller venues generates $988.5million in revenue per year.
This confirms that the small venues live performance workforce is large enough to deliver an independent economic benefit to Australia’s arts economy. The workforce development and training needs of practising musicians and technicians involved in the production of popular live music were also considered as part of the research.
The report demonstrates that live music is important to the business models of smaller venues such as pubs, clubs and hotels and survey findings suggest that venues, on average, profit $3,000 per night. This contrasts significantly when compared with musicians’ income of generally less than $10,000 per year.
While this research did not seek to accurately determine the dollar value of live music to venues, the revenue estimate of $988.5million per annum closely aligns to recent research undertaken by APRA|AMCOS and Arts Victoria.
While largely self-taught, the study found that both musicians and technicians could advance performance opportunities through improved skills. For musicians this includes stagecraft and communication skills whilst technicians could benefit from better understanding and practice in sound diagnostics.T
The findings from this report will be taken into account when updating related Training Packages as well as informing IBSA’s Environment Scan (Escan) which underpins advice to government and other stakeholders on skills and workforce development for musicians and technicians.
To download a free PDF of the report head here.