After the introduction of Sydney’s lockout laws, music venues within the lockout zone are making less money, and the number of gigs advertised has declined.
According to figures released by Apra Amcos and the Live Music Office, there has been a 40% drop in live performance revenue at Apra- and Amcos-licensed venues within the Sydney CBD lockout area. There has also been a 19% decrease in attendance figures at Apra- and Amcos-licensed nightclubs and dance venues.
Apra, the Australasian Performing Right Association Limited, and Amcos, the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited, are organisations that offer licences to venues for the performance of live and recorded music, and distribute royalties to copyright holders.
Apra Amcos analysed licensing revenue for the period 1 February 2013 to 31 January 2015, for venues within the Sydney CBD lockout zone. There were 143 such venues as of November 2013. The lockout laws were introduced in March 2014.
A Guardian Australia analysis of ads for live music and club night events from the Brag shows a decline in gigs advertised per week for venues within the Kings Cross lockout area:
There has also been a decline in the number of weekly advertised gigs overall, with the number of shows advertised at venues outside of the lockout zone also declining, while gigs advertised within the Sydney CBD lockout zone have remained relatively steady.
Mapping the number of gigs advertised for each venue for 2014 and 2015 shows some shifts in Sydney’s music geography, with venues in Marrickville such as the Gasoline Pony putting on more shows, while venues closer to the CBD such as Soda Factory in Surry Hills advertised fewer shows.
Sarah Taylor is a PhD candidate at RMIT who is conducting research into the geographic structure of the music scene in Australia. Her research covers the restructuring of the music scene from the 1980s to the mid 2000s, and she says the outstanding shift has been the “de-suburbanisation” of live music.
“The vast majority of music now happens in and around the inner city,” she said.
“Though with the lockout changes in Sydney there’s this geographic response to violence which might shake it up a bit.”
She says that often there are a small number of venues that host the majority of gigs.
“Venues that have closed in Sydney, like FBI Social and Good God, they would have had a big impact on the numbers. These sorts of venues are really important to the mix, they would affect the numbers a lot.”
Live Music Office policy director John Wardle said in a statement the Apra Amcos figures show the lockout is having a negative effect on the live music industry.
“There are important measures that need to be put into place to reduce the impacts to the live music sector that are now being experienced in Sydney, whilst still ensuring public safety is paramount,” he said.
Wardle cited the South Australian government’s commitment to review live music regulation and red tape as the kind of response the industry needs.
“The South Australian government recognises the cultural and economic value that venues and artists provide, and its review will help government agencies to reach consensus and deliver common sense policies,” he said.
Gig guide analysis
Online music event listings from the Brag and the Beat were categorised by venue location, including whether they were within the ABS-defined greater capital city statistical area of Greater Sydney or Greater Melbourne, as well as inside the Kings Cross lockout zone, or inside the Sydney CBD lockout zone. Ads from the Brag older than July 2013 were discarded on advice from Sarah Taylor. Events with the category comedy, trivia and fringe were not counted.
