The Federal Government has announced it will create a National Live Music Office and allocate $560,000 over three years to the live music industry.
The National Live Music Office will aim to identify and advocate for reforms to the planning, building and licensing laws that have been impacting negatively on the live music and arts venues in Australia in recent years. The office will also expand on the position of National Live Music Coordinator, currently a position held by Dr Ianto Ware. His role will now be to review and advocate for state based regulatory reform in support of live music venues. ??As with Dr Ware’s National Live Music Coordinator role, the Office will be housed within APRA|AMCOS.
“A number of us in the music sector have been advocating for regulatory reform for years,” said Dr Ianto Ware.“We found working on a volunteer basis, trying to push for change state-by-state and through every local government was extremely slow going. We needed people who could focus on researching and reviewing the regulations as their main job and we needed a Federal mandate for change.”
“We’ve now received that mandate and the funding to act on it. What’s more, this new funding enables a cross industry partnership: we will work with venues, government at all levels and, importantly, live music artists and performers in each state to promote the value of original Australian music and enable live performance opportunities.”
The National Live Music Office will work with the City of Sydney’s Live Music and Performance Taskforce. Their findings will be used to initiate a National Best Practice Guide, which will set a standard for state and local governments who wish to support Australia’s live music industry.
