A growing number of websites provide search facilities for venues across a wide range of entertainment areas. Specific music-related databases are harder to find, although it is reasonable to anticipate that this will change. Meanwhile, these compilations help produce a picture of the structure of the music sector in terms of its composition including genres and geography.
The most advanced specific database is MusicNSW’s VROOM – Venue Resource of Original Music. It has been described by an impartial MCA councillor as
A great resource to the entire music industry … ultimately designed to be a one-stop central resource.
Some other websites are briefly described in a subsequent section.
According to the VROOM website,
Musician Tracy Redhead conceived the VROOM idea after spending many years touring the country, feeling that free accessible venue information would greatly help artists and venues alike. “The most consuming part of touring is finding venues and places to tour,” says Tracy “It costs so much money in phone calls alone to research venues but if this info was easily accessible it will save musicians, booking agents, promoters and managers heaps of time and money.” Upon presenting her idea of an online venue database to MusicNSW, VROOM was born and the project began its development.
Other contributions to the subject are invited.
Author
Hans Hoegh-Guldberg. Last revised 25 June 2007.
Hans founded his own consulting firm, Economic Strategies Pty Ltd, in 1984, following 25 years with larger organisations. He specialised from the outset in applied cultural economics — one of his first major projects was The Australian Music Industry for the Music Board of the Australia Council (published in 1987), which also marks his first connection with Richard Letts who was the Director of the Music Board in the mid-1980s. Hans first assisted the Music Council of Australia in 2000 and between 2006 and 2008 proposed and developed the Knowledge Base, returning in an active capacity as its editor in 2011. In November 2013 the Knowledge Base was transferred to The Music Trust, with MCA's full cooperation.
Between 2000 and 2010 Hans also authored or co-authored several major domestic and international climate change projects, using scenario planning techniques to develop alternative long-term futures. He has for several years been exploring the similarities between the economics of cultural and ecological change, and their continued lack of political clout which is to a large extent due to conventional GDP data being unable to measure the true value of our cultural and environmental capital. This was announced as a major scenario-planning project for The Music Trust in March 2014 (articles of particular relevance to the project are marked *, below).
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