Revitalising Sydney's Live Music Scene: NSW Government Offers Financial Aid For Soundproofing

In a significant move to preserve and rejuvenate the live music industry in New South Wales, the state government has announced a new initiative to offer financial assistance for soundproofing to local music venues.

The decision comes in response to the alarming closure of half of NSW's live music venues over the past decade, largely due to noise complaints from residents.

The iconic Hopetoun Hotel, affectionately known as The Hoey, stands as a poignant symbol of this decline. Having been a hub for legendary Australian musicians during the 1980s and 90s, its closure in 2009 was a significant blow to Sydney's live music scene.

Tim Freedman, the frontman of The Whitlams, described the venue's closure as "yet another nail in the coffin of Sydney’s live music." Freedman himself experienced similar challenges with noise complaints leading to the closure of his venue, The Globe, in the late 90s.

“I was part-owner of a venue in King St (Newtown) in 1998 called The Globe and we had to close down because we couldn’t stop the noise going into one neighbour’s house,” Freedman said.

“It would have been lovely to have mediation and measures whereby we could improve that situation, but we just couldn’t afford it.”

Now, in an effort to combat this trend and support the local music industry, the NSW government has introduced the Venues Unlocked program. The initiative, managed by Sound NSW, will provide $5 million in funding for venues to upgrade their soundproofing.

The grants, which can amount to as much as $100,000 per venue, will cover infrastructure improvements, new equipment, and expert acoustic reports to identify and rectify sound leakage issues.

Additionally, the Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner is launching a two-stage program aimed at transforming bars, cafes, restaurants, and breweries into live music venues. The first phase includes training in hosting live performances, marketing, and equipment handling. The second phase offers up to $80,000 in grants to implement this training.

John Graham, the Minister for Arts, Music, and Night-time Economy, emphasised the urgency of this initiative, noting the survival challenges faced by venue operators even after overcoming the hurdles of lockouts and lockdowns.

“We’ve already lost half our live music venues in NSW,” he said. “I’m talking to five or six of the best operators who survived the era of lockouts and lockdowns but may not survive noise complaints.”

“Here’s one practical way we can help venues to survive and to back our live music ­industry.”

The new reforms also aim to streamline the rules around noise complaints, raising the threshold for complaints to progress and preventing a single complaint from shutting down a venue.