Overwhelming Live Music Issues Prompted Kevin Rudd’s Funding

An overwhelmed National Live Music Coordinator has prompted the Federal Government to allocate $560,000 over three years for the development of a National Live Music Office that will look to stem the tide of issues facing live music venues around the country.

A national extension of Labor's local and state government live music push, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved to provide the funding which will expand the position of Dr Ianto Ware, who was placed in the Sounds Australia Coordinator's position in January this year.

Speaking to theMusic.com.au Ware said that an overload of approaches from industry stakeholders meant the role needed to grow.

“As soon as we launched the coordinator position we got pretty swamped pretty quickly,” he said. “This is a way for us to step up to the plate, so to speak, and meet that demand.”

He said that the inquiries came from all aspects on the industry. “It was good to see activity from local and state government and activists who were looking for advice to help their own communities, but it was also sad to see the amount of venues who were struggling.”

Ware admitted that it will take the next couple of weeks to come to terms with what the new office is capable of and intends to draw up a strategic plan in that period. It is hoped that the extra resources of the office, which APRA will continue to house – as it does the coordinators role – and cover administrative costs, will allow it to become less reactionary to industry problems as they emerge and allow them to be more proactive.

Ware said the funding has given him, “A bit more time to figure out what the solution should look like.”

He also hopes to see the implementation and extension of Sydney's Live Music Taskforce and embark on more regional travel to expand the nation live music scene.

Earlier this month Rudd had attended a fundraising dinner for Victoria's Save Live Australia's Music [SLAM], stepping in to the role that Julia Gillard had previously agreed to. As part of the office set-up, a number of music identities have been made Live Music Ambassadors, including Dave Faulkner and Stavros Yiannoukas (Bluejuice) for New South Wales, Kevin Mitchell (Jebediah) for Victorian, Katie Noonan for Queensland, Kav Temperley (Eskimo Joe) for Western Australia, Suffa (Hilltop Hoods) for South Australia, Leah Flanagan for the Northern Territory and Dewayne Everett-Smith for Tasmania.