Recently, APRA and the Music Council of Australia (MCA) conducted a survey to find out what venue operators currently think about live music.
Sixty nine hotels, clubs and restaurants responded to the survey which was distributed through the various industry associations. The largest group of respondents were Clubs (49%) followed by Restaurants (27%) and Hotels (24%).
Over 70% of respondents said they present live music in some format in their venues throughout the year. Of these, 44% presented at least three live performances a week. 17% presented less than 10 performances a year and about 7% presented more than four a week.
Venues that did host live music were re enthusiastic about the benefits of providing live music. The benefits cited most frequently included:
more traffic,
a more enjoyable ambience/atmosphere in the venue,
drawing new clientele,
music providing a critical point of difference in a competitive market-place,
creation of customer loyalty and return business
contributing to the cultural life of the community, and
supporting local talent.
Venues that didn’t host live music (29% of respondents) said that the key obstacles were overhead costs, government regulations, noise regulations and concerns about security. They also cited difficulties with sourcing artists and promoting gigs and were concerned about generating support from patrons and about ensuring a decent return on investment.
When asked what would make it easier to host live music, they said simpler regulation (46%) would be helpful, along with more encouragement from Government. Just over 41% agreed that a guide to hosting live music would be welcome, along with more education on the topic generally for venue owners.
