Stephanie G. Mathis The Music Cities Convention gathers global music players, including government, industry, and academia. It aims to create a “tool-kit” on how to “cultivate a vibrant and lucrative music town”.
Is Melbourne Australia’s Music Capital? In a recently published I crunched some numbers and found that this claim is still up for debate. Sydney, or even Adelaide, could be the next to take this title.
UNESCO is the United Nations education, science, and culture agency. It offers the only accreditation for a music city. To be eligible for this title, a city must have a rich musical heritage, a history of music-making and education, a commitment to the community, and regular, high-profile music events.
UNESCO designated Melbourne a literary city and Sydney a film city. In 2015, Adelaide was named Australia’s only music city. Adelaide is home to many international festivals, including the annual WOMADelaide and the OzAsia Festival.
Tkay Maidza is a South Australian based in Carry on.
Melbourne may meet these criteria, but UNESCO doesn’t allow cities to have more than one title for different creative industries. Melbourne’s music capital status is now in a dubious territory of self-branding.
Bring the money!
The data is patchy, but after extensive data mining, I discovered three ways to assess the vitality and diversity of a city’s music scene. These are economy, creativity, and heritage.
We can first look at the economics behind music. This includes revenue, employment, audience engagement, and the number of music venues. According to the 2015 Report on Mastering a Music City, a music city is an urban area that has a “vibrant” music economy.
A piece of Melbourne’s ACDC Lane history. Geof Wilson/Flickr CC BY NC-ND
According to Victorian Reports, Melbourne boasts 465 live music venues. Its music industry generates over A$ 1.04 billion each year. Melbourne has 465 live music venues, which is more than Sydney’s 435. Adelaide, which has been given music city status by UNESCO, is home to 208 live music venues. Melbourne (and Sydney, too) are able to compare favorably with Los Angeles (509 outlets), New York City (453), Tokyo (385), London (245), and London (246)
A national report from 2015 suggests that NSW is leading in terms of music employment (13 832 jobs in NSW compared to 11,117 in Victoria), audience engagement, as measured by live music ticket sales (342 544 million A$ in NSW versus 275 748 million A$ in Victoria), and annual music revenue (A$1.8 Billion in NSW compared to A$1.4 Billion in Victoria).
Martin Elbourne is the co-founder and co-founder of the first Music Conventions. He believes that the majority of commercial music businesses are based in Sydney.
Sydney and NSW account for the majority of Australia’s revenue from music. Paxtons Camera Video Digital/Flickr, CC BY
Creative Cities
You can also look at a city’s creativity by calculating it using measures like technology, talent, and territorial assets. Richard Florida, an urban economist in the US, would say that these measures prove that a is welcoming of the music industry.
According to the 2017 Startup Genome Project, which measures the success of start-ups, their impact on job creation, and economic growth, Melbourne ranked 22nd for its technology and music start-up culture. Sydney was ranked 21st.
Melbourne is the musical capital of Australia. 2003 to 2013 postcode data shows that Melbourne has the most songwriters, while Sydney is a close second.
Melbourne is home to the largest number of songwriters, including Courtney Barnett.
It is difficult to measure tolerance because it is tied to lifestyle choices. Tourism Victoria claims that Melbourne’s creative leaders are known for their community-minded and progressive mentality.
Melbourne was also named the most liveable city for the last six years. Adelaide was ranked as the fifth most liveable city in the world. Sydney was ranked seventh.
Melbourne’s livingability is negatively affected by transport issues, housing affordability, and its geographical isolation.
Melbourne’s status as Australia’s music capital is still up for debate because there are many ways to measure the music scene in different cities.
The claim that Melbourne is Australia’s Music Capital remains an abstract notion, coined by groups with a vested policy interest: to promote their city as a global and national music city.
