Melbourne Has Been Named the Live Music Capital of the World
Results from the Melbourne Live Music Census 2017 show the city's music scene is one to be jealous of.
Melbourne, it's pretty much official — you're the live music capital of the world, with a music venue-to-resident ratio that trumps every other city on the planet. And that's just one of the great findings from the Melbourne Live Music Census 2017, which were revealed this week.
The survey, headed up by Music Victoria and the City of Melbourne along with Collarts, RMIT and local councils, sets out to analyse the climate of Melbourne's live music industry every five years. In its second edition, conducted on November 25 last year, it found that climate to be pretty darn healthy.
In 2017 alone, greater Melbourne played host to over 73,605 advertised gigs and saw a total live music attendance of 17.5 million punters — that's up 19 percent and 12 percent respectively from 2012's census. In fact, audience numbers for live music events throughout the year were bigger than for AFL, cricket, the Spring Racing Carnival, A-League, basketball, netball, NRL and the Australian Grand Prix combined.
And, while we hear plenty about Sydney live music venues shutting up shop, it seems the future's looking brighter for their southern counterparts, with 55% reporting an increased audience in the past 12 months.
But the biggest news is perhaps that Melbourne now boasts one live music venue for every 9503 residents, making local music lovers the best-served in the world. Compare those figures with London's one venue per 34,350 residents, New York's one per 18,554 and LA's one per 19,607 ,and you'll have to agree Melbourne's absolutely killing it.
The full Melbourne Live Music Census 2017 report is set to be presented at the Music Cities Convention - Melbourne on April 19.
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