Week 11 - Gettin' paid

So last week the Music cities conference was held over two days, here in Melbourne. Around two weeks ago Music Victoria released an early summary and found Melbourne has more live venues playing music every weekend then any other city in the world. Huge. However when Census Project Manager Dobe Newton released the full Census data it showed that musicians are still getting paid the same wage as the year I was born in, 1992. This is not a shock by any means, but it is disappointing, considering all the effort musicians put in to make something they love a reality. Thats one constant thing throughout the music industry, everything is incredibly expensive. Thousands of dollars spent on gear, per person, to get a few hundred bucks a show.

There was a couple of panels at the music cities convention, that were split into a few small teams, who discussed what should take priority in the Melbourne music scene. A few excellent suggestions were brought up. One of the main ones for me was the suggestion that Centrelink should start seeing playing music as a career, and not a hobby. That playing regular gigs should be seen as a valid wage, and that musicians should be able to focus on writing and playing instead of being forced to look for “real jobs”. I think ideas like this are incredibly important, we could of lost some amazing musicians to a nine to five. Everyone has bills to pay and sometimes your passion can get burnt out when you can't afford to eat.

The best part of the music cities convention is literally that these things are being talked about. It's incredibly important that they do. There are tons of other important suggestions brought by the panel, from a minimum wage, to more rehearsal spaces. Something i can attest to firsthand, has been how difficult it is finding a regular jam space in the city or surrounding suburbs. There just isn't enough spaces to deal with all the bands around here. My band has been looking for a long term spot anywhere in the radius of the cbd, and there's barely anything, and anything that is there is already booked.

Hopefully the powers that be took notice of the music cities convention, and we see some more positive changes to aid in the development of what could be the greatest music city on earth!