Survey throws spotlight on benefits of Australia's live music scene
The social and economic benefits of Australia's live music industry are being put in the spotlight with a new survey across four states.
The study will be a cost-benefit analysis of venue-based live music in Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.
Lead researcher Dave Carter, from the University of Tasmania, said the aim was to examine how governments could help the sector and how live music impacts on people's lives.
"One of the things we'd like to be able to explore is how much governments might facilitate the live music sector in Australia," he said.
"But also from the perspective of the audience - looking at how they value live music not just in terms of money they spend but the time they spend and the impact that it has on their lives."
In the past a couple of large national studies looked at gross ticket sales and 12 months ago there was a census of live music in Victoria.
"One of the problems was it didn't look at enough detail, they look at fairly coarse figures - income coming in, expenditure going out," he said.
"Where Governments make decisions they want to see a cost-benefit analysis of the activities.
"What we're hoping to do is not just demonstrate that there's income being generated, but also there's a flow on effect to people's, for example, health and wellbeing from engaging with live music.
"And also to look at what would be the cost to governments to replace the type of services that live music venues provide if they were to suddenly disappear overnight.
"We are chasing as many (respondents) as we can because we want to get a broad picture of experience of live music in Australia across the board."
The results of the online survey, which is being conducted on behalf of the Live Music Office, will be collated in the next two months.
The study is being run as a pilot for a possible larger national study next year.
