Welcome to the first edition of the ALMBC Member Update!
Thank you for becoming an ALMBC member or signing up for our newsletter. COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the businesses and people that work in the live music sector. Your support will help the ALMBC play a role in re-establishing a vibrant and commercially sustainable live music scene – but the harsh reality is, we still have a very long way to go… My hope is that by joining forces we will improve our prospects for a better outcome for the whole sector – so thank you again for your support.
In this first edition of our Member Update we provide our response to the re-shaping of the JobSeeker and JobKeeper packages; provide an update on the sub-committees we have formed to tackle issues like insurance and share details of an initiative we are building called the “National Gig-Ready Dashboard”, a tool we hope will make life easier when it comes to navigating the ever-changing regulations from state to state.
The ALMBC team are genuinely committed to advancing the amazing businesses and people that make up the live music supply chain in Australia – throughout this crisis and beyond. I ask that you find time (2 minutes!) to take our Business Impact Survey and to get involved in one of our newly formed sub-committees to help share the load of this vital work. Also, please reach out with any specific concerns or suggestions or if you’d like to know more about the ALMBC and our priorities.
Once again – many thanks for coming on board and please stay in touch.
Stephen Wade
Interim Chairperson
Australian Live Music Business Council
contact@almbc.org.au
Urgent Response to JobKeeper and JobSeeker
Like many business groups across the country the ALMBC has been actively advocating for the extension of JobKeeper and JobSeeker. We are pleased that the government will continue to support employees and sole traders via these, albeit reduced, measures. Beyond this though, we have grave concerns about the increasingly perilous position many small business operators in the live music sector now find themselves in.
The ALMBC team have fielded many calls from members who, after months of no, or almost nonexistent revenue, mounting operating costs that continue to roll in, and with the prospect of further lock-downs and trading restrictions, are now facing some extremely difficult choices regarding their ability to retain staff and indeed whether they will be able to keep their businesses afloat. As our recent media release suggests ” the live music sector is facing the prospect of widespread collapse” .
It is against this backdrop, and in the absence of any meaningful assistance for the businesses in the Live Music sector (JobMaker offers little to no support for small businesses and sole traders), that ALMBC is increasing our efforts to engage with government to seek specific support measures for what we believe is the hardest hit and most vulnerable sector in the economy.
An important aspect of our advocacy and policy development is the ability validate our position through accurately representing the circumstances of the businesses in our sector. As a result we are conducting a Business Impact Survey. We understand you are probably “surveyed out”, however this data is critical in helping us convey the dire circumstances of the sector to government and media. The survey is anonymous, has only a handful of questions and should take less than a couple of minutes. It is critical that you complete this and feel free to share it among your non-member colleagues.
Formation of Working Groups | Opportunity to get involved
As you may have seen on our website and through media coverage during our launch, there are a number of initiatives we are working on as a priority. To move these initiatives forward we are looking to form a handful of focused Sub-Committees.
Insurance
We have growing concerns that many insurers are no longer extending coverage to operators in the live music space as a result of increased risk relating to COVID-19.
ALMBC members have shared that whilst insurance has always been a challenging space for the industry, with products like income protection being extremely hard to secure, some venues and events have been unable to secure public liability, and other business and event related insurance, placing their operations in a perilous commercial position.
The Insurance Working Group is endeavouring to capture the current challenges in the market and engage directly with insurers to investigate solutions to underwrite events, businesses and individuals that operate in the sector.
COVID Safe Operating Guidelines and National Gig-Ready Dashboard
Trying to interpret and act on government guidelines regarding what you can and can’t do in the live music space is a moving feast – and particularly challenging for our members who operate across multiple states.
This working group is pooling advice from around the country, from both governments and other industry bodies, to provide a centralised dashboard for industry to use as “source of truth”.
With regulations varying from state to state and in constant change, we are calling on members to join this sub-committee to assist with the initial build of the dashboard and ongoing maintenance. Ideally we are looking for representatives from each state who are already having to navigate government advice.
If you are interested in joining either of these sub-Committees please email your details to contact@almbc.org.au
Membership Drive and Support
We are thrilled at the take up of membership of ALMBC – after only a few weeks we already have over 300 members!
We’d love your support to help spread the word about ALMBC even further and to assist in building our social channels.
Four ways you can help from here:
- Tell a friend – please share your support of ALMBC with your contacts and ask them to join
- Give us a shout out on socials – like, follow, engage, share… you know the drill…
- Keep the info flowing – this is a two way relationship. We’ll continue to build out resources and information on or website, but we rely on members to keep us informed – send over anything you think might be relevant to contact@almbc.org.au
- Transparency – want to know anything about us…. Just ask!