Re:Venues: The Importance And Impact Of Toronto’s Live Music Venues
The Canadian Live Music Association has just announced a groundbreaking new study titled ‘Re:Venues: The Importance and Impact of Toronto’s Live Music Venues’, you can check out the details and find out how to get involved below!
—The Canadian Live Music Association, in partnership with the City of Toronto, is pleased to announce the launch of research project “Re:Venues: The Importance and Impact of Toronto’s Live Music Venues.”
Today’s economic climate, with gentrification and dramatic increases in property values, has brought serious challenges for Toronto’s live music venues. The time has come to quantify their value and ensure that policymakers and the public understand their vital contributions to the city’s economy.
This ground-breaking study will seek to demonstrate the contributions and impacts stimulated by Toronto’s live music venues. The research will focus on two distinct types of impact:
- Economic Impact: What do live music venues contribute to Toronto’s (and Ontario’s) wider economy? How do venues help attract tourists (and associated spending) to Toronto?
- Music Industry Impact: What role(s) do music venues play in the development of a healthy music ecosystem in Toronto/Ontario? How do they contribute to artist development? How does live music performance (and the venues that host performances) shape Canadian music?
The research, led by Canadian research consultants Nordicity, will form a narrative that articulates the value of live music venues to the city of Toronto. Data will be collected in a variety of ways from different stakeholders including representatives from the live and broader music industry, artists, the tourism sector, BIAs, and elected representatives from the City of Toronto. The final report will include recommendations for the music community, the public, and government regarding the future and long-term viability of Toronto’s live music venues.
“Our live music venues are critical – no, they are essential, to the economic, social and cultural lifeblood of Toronto. We must act now to create widespread awareness of the fact that we don’t just lose a venue when one closes, we lose part of what Toronto is, of who we are. It is my hope that this study will cement, once and for all, the vital role that venues play and that their future is forever safeguarded by practical, adaptive and contemporary policy.” – Erin Benjamin, President & CEO, Canadian Live Music Association.
“We know that music has both economic and cultural value. But Toronto has never had reliable, up-to-date information on how much our live venues contribute to the economy through direct employment, ticketing, and spillover benefits for local communities. This study will help us understand that contribution and will be an important tool in supporting our city’s incredible live music venues.” – Mike Tanner, Music Sector Development Officer, Film & Entertainment Industries, City of Toronto
“Ontario Creates applauds all efforts to capture new economic data that will inform and add value to decisions and investments, continuing to bolster growth in Ontario’s music industry. The Ontario Music Fund is proud to support this kind of valuable research,” – Michelle Holtzkener, Manager, Ontario Music Office, Ontario Creates
A report, including recommendations, is expected in late spring 2019.
This study is made possible with the support of Ontario Creates and the City of Toronto.
About the Canadian Live Music Association:
The Canadian Live Music Association represents concert promoters, festivals, talent agencies, venues, clubs, arenas, performing arts centres, ticketing companies, other organizations and suppliers to live music from across Canada. Its mission is to entrench the economic, social and cultural value of live music – creating the conditions for concerts to thrive, from coast to coast to coast.
About Nordicty:
Nordicity is a Canadian-owned international consulting firm providing public and private sector clients with solutions for Evaluation, Economic Analysis, Strategy and Policy across four priority sectors: arts, culture and heritage; creative industries; telecommunications and spectrum; and digital economy and innovation. Nordicity has worked with CLMA on previous engagements including an economic impact assessment of live music in BC and strategic support for the Ontario Live Music Marketing Initiative. nordicity.com
Partnership options and other information available. Please contact:
Victoria Shepherd, Director of Operations
vshepherd@canadianlivemusic.ca
Canadian Live Music Association
647.502.3364
