City of Melbourne confirms music strategy

Melbourne City Council has voted to introduce a three-year strategy dedicated to the City’s involvement with music.

Melbourne Music Strategy 2014-17 outlines how the City of Melbourne will continue to work with, support and enrich Melbourne’s music industry over the next three years.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says, “Music is a vital part of the city’s cultural scene but the industry is also an enormous economic contributor.”

“Each weekend, around 97,000 people attend music performances in the city which generates $5.4 million in ticket sales, entry, hospitality and merchandising,” he adds.

The strategy supports all elements of Melbourne’s music industry: music venues and the musicians, audiences, producers, teachers, concert halls and buskers.

Written in consultation with the music industry, the strategy focuses on six major themes of: Visibility; Promotion and Positioning; Spaces and Collaboration; Funding and Support; Policy Reform and Advocacy; and Research and Information.

Chair of the Music Steering Committee Councillor Rohan Leppert says 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 says.

“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.”

The City of Melbourne will continue to work closely with the Music Advisory Committee and the industry to ensure the goals in the Music Strategy are met.