The 2017 Melbourne Live Music Census is unique.

It updates the previous study conducted in 2012, providing a significant amount of comparative data to further inform the discussion on the economic, cultural and social value of live music  performance in this city.

From the time, over one hundred years ago, that the city lent its name to Australia’s first global music superstar, Dame Nellie Melba, music creation, production and presentation has been at the core of the city’s social and cultural life.

Our passion for music was on display in the 1967 when an estimated 200,000 gathered at the Myer Music Bowl to send The Seekers off on their quest for world domination. It was forcefully demonstrated again in 2010 when 20,000 fans, musicians and industry workers took to the streets for the Save Live Australia’s Music (SLAM) rally when ill-considered regulations threatened the  liability of our small live music venues.

It has been reported that live music performance returns $3 in benefits – commercial, civic and individual, for every $1 invested. It adds to the human, social, symbolic, physical, knowledge and  psychological capital of the community where it occurs – be it suburb, town, city, region, state, nation.

The scope of this report is limited to a detailed study of economic and social activity, especially in small ‘grass roots’ venues which are so often neglected or under-reported in major studies. It profiles the activities and attitudes of the practitioners who deliver the performances, the fans who attend them and the operation of the venues that host them.

Click here to download the 2017 Melbourne Live Music Census