The Music Strategy was put together in collaboration with the music industry by setting up a Music Advisory Committee. It includes an Implementation Plan with 12 Year One Priority Actions.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle called Melbourne one of the world’s great music cities. “Music is a vital part of the city’s cultural scene but the industry is also an enormous economic contributor,” he said.
Each Friday and Saturday night, around 97,000 head into the city to catch gigs at the 120 clubs, bars and hotels offering music, as well as the 17 larger theatres and concert venues. This generates an average turnover of around $5.4 million per weekend in ticket sales, door entry, food, drink and merchandising.
Doyle pointed out, “This strategy supports all elements of Melbourne’s music industry: music venues and the musicians, audiences, producers, teachers, concert halls and buskers.”
Among the strategies are:
- – Make music more visible in the City with more all day performances and family friendly events, and encourage buskers, street performers and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to become part of Melbourne’s musical identity.
- – Promote Melbourne as a city for international and national destination for music making and investment. Work with the industry to tell Melbourne’s music story traditionally, digitally and socially. Develop Melbourne Music Week to celebrate the city’s music industry.
- – Conduct an audit to find new spaces where music can be performed and rehearsed in. Contribute to investigate the feasibility of setting up a music hub in the city. Create a stronger connection with the retail hospitality and tourism sectors to use local music.
- – Increase the knowledge within the music industry of the funding that is available, and work with the music industry to develop mentoring programs, and encourage greater collaborations with the city.
Chair of the Music Steering Committee Councillor Rohan Leppert emphasized how the strategy is the product of a collaboration between Council, the music industry and the community.
“Music is a critical part of the city’s culture and, as a capital city council, we needed a strategy to support that,” he said.
“It was important that our approach to music in the city reflected what the music industry, and the community, wanted. So we worked with an advisory panel of key industry representatives to develop the strategy and then we took it to the community for their feedback.
“This three year strategy highlights Council’s commitment to working with the industry to ensure that music continues to be an important and growing part of Melbourne’s identity.”
