‘I Tote and I Vote’: Australian Live Music and Cultural Policy – Shane Homan (2011)

Author(s): Shane Homan
Organisation/Affiliation: Monash University
Date: 2011
The live venue has always been an important part of the social, cultural and economic health of Australian music. In this paper Homan briefly assesses live music’s conflicted role in contemporary creative industry policies at state and national government levels through policy developments in the cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

These city case studies reveal the specific problems confronting live music as a part of the creative industries, and the need for greater attention to planning, liquor licensing and related government sectors as much as traditional arts policies of funding and subsidy.

In each city, musicians and venue owners confronted significant challenges in governmental power relations (overlapping state-federal government jurisdictions and competing interests), conflicting notions of value; and questions about how cultural policy should best serve a wide diversity of arts constituencies.

Contents
Introduction
‘A venue’s main business’: Sydney
Fortitude Valley
Melbourne
Conclusion: ‘I Tote and I Vote’

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