More People Saw Live Music In Melbourne Last Year Than NRL, AFL, Cricket & Soccer Combined

12 April 2018 | 12:31 pm | Staff Writer

That's a lot of people.

Results from the latest Melbourne Live Music census has showed that the climate of Australia's live music capital is not only healthy, but it's booming. 

Released today by Music Victoria, the census (conducted on 25 November 2017) showed that Greater Melbourne hosted 73,605 gigs; a 19% increase on 2012's figure of 62,000.

Live music performances in Melbourne accounted for more than $1,42 billion spent in small venues, concerts and festivals in 2017, up 16% from 2012's figure of $1.22 billion. 

The census also showed that live music attracted more attendance than the AFL, Spring Racing Carnival, A League, Basketball, Netball, NRL, Cricket and the Australian Grand Prix combined.

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Other key findings include:

  • 2017 live music attendance of 17.5 million - increase of 12% from 15.6 million in 2012
  • 55% of live music venues reported that their audience had increased in the past 12 months
  • On each Saturday night, Melbourne’s live music venues can boast the equivalent audience of an AFL grand final with around 112,000 attendees to local gigs and concerts across the city

"It's fantastic to see that Melbourne has grown as a live music city in the past five years," Music Victoria CEO, Patrick Donovan, said.

"While the number of regular gigs is about the same, we’ve bucked global trends of a declining live music scene.

"The number of gigs and audiences are growing, as well as the number of part time live music venues, which is consistent with the popularity of live music at non-traditional venues, such as sporting events, and at institutions such as the NGV, the Melbourne Zoo and Melbourne Museum."

Check out the executive summary here.