ENTERTAINMENT: LIVE MUSIC

A Sound Investment

Live music can be the great differentiator for pubs against other on-premise competition, and MA Hotel Management have made a great investment in the space with Beach Hotel in Byron Bay to attract crowds and grow its reputation.

-By Cat Woods.

THE VALUE of live music to a venue is multi-faceted and not a simple matter of financial ROI. Live music differentiates venues from competing food and beverage operators nearby, including nightclubs, restaurants and cafes. It also defines the personality of a venue and can build a reputation that extends well beyond the local suburb, city or state.

The Beach Hotel epitomises Australia’s reputation for iconic live music venues. The Byron Bay hotel, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, has a capacity of more than 1600. Its offerings span food and beverage, live entertainment and accommodation. This year, it justifiably won Hotel of the Year at the Australian Liquor Industry Awards (see page 12).

In 2019, MA Hotel Management (MAHM) acquired the Beach Hotel, Byron Bay for $104 million. For the first time in 13 years, MAHM united the leasehold and freehold, enabling the owners to upgrade and shape the venue according to their contemporary vision.

Beach Hotel’s general manager Anthony Brady says, “When we became owners of The Beachy in early 2020, being an active and supportive part of this community is a responsibility that we’ve taken very seriously. This helps guide our team and how we approach our business every day. That’s why we not only support live music but all artistry in the region, including our food and beverage offering as well as local initiatives like the Byron Music Festival and Bluesfest Busking Competition.”

Wolfmother playing at the Beach Hotel

While live music, like many industries, suffered in a multitude of ways throughout the pandemic – with some venues and artists opting out of the music industry altogether – the Beach Hotel continued to enable live music.

They obeyed the restrictions to allow local artists to perform to smaller, seated audiences.

“Throughout COVID-19, we continued to host live music because it was critically important to us that we maintained our support for artists in the area. During a time of ‘dancing in your seats’ it was energising not only for our customers and regular artists but also our team because they saw our commitment to supporting the music industry,” says Brady.

Operations manager Marc Labonte adds, “Byron is a truly a ‘melting-pot’. There’s so much diversity in this town, from the locals who call it home through to the visitors we welcome here. With this in mind, it’s important to us that our entertainment schedule reflects this – you’ll find it is as diverse and varied as the customers who visit The Beachy. There’s something for everyone.”

INVESTING IN SOUND

While live music was performed from bedrooms, loungerooms and attics throughout the pandemic, the sound quality that is acceptable on YouTube and iPhones is not going to attract a discerning music lover to a live venue. The clarity and amplitude of sound, requiring careful consideration of room acoustics and sound insulation (ensuring that sound remains in the venue, not escaping into the surrounding environment), and the ability to see the artist from various points of the room all play into the quality of a live music experience. It often doesn’t come cheaply, unless the previous owners have invested in recent upgrades to their venue.

“We invested more than $900,000 to upgrade the live music part of the venue. The capacity can be customised based on the performance and event but can be more than 1,200 people,” explains Brady.

Nearly $1 million ensured a full and thorough AV facelift for The Beach Hotel, assisted through consultation with a music industry insider.

“We undertook a total upgrade of all the equipment in sound and lighting. This included all new equipment including microphones, speakers and the PA system,” Brady details.

“We worked with industry renowned artist, producer, and Byron local, Jono Ma when we upgraded our live entertainment set-up. Working with Jono provided the insights we needed to ensure the sound and audio improvements were state-ofthe-art and highly functional. We wanted to optimise the acoustics of the venue and ensure that the sound and lighting could be customised to create the right sound, vibe and ambience for almost any act, from an intimate acoustic soloist through to a large live band performance or thumping DJ set.”

Musician Austin Mackay

They also made repairs to the stage and renovated the back-of-house area to be more functional through the inclusion of additional storage.

“The investment we made in our live entertainment set-up means we have a world-class performance space for artists and there is no longer a need to bumpin additional sound or lighting. We also have the flexibility and control to support almost any act. Today, artists who perform at The Beachy can simply turn up with their instruments and trust that we have the right tech to help them put on a great performance.”

MUSIC AND RISK TAKING

As larger conglomerates increasingly invest in small- and medium-sized pubs and clubs, there are benefits and obstacles for live music. Often, there is the financial safety net present to spend on live music even if pokies or live sports broadcasts would potentially result in greater profits; and often there is money to splash on high-quality, acoustically enhanced rooms. That said, where live music is purely seen in terms of its ROI, there may not be a willingness to allow the live music element of a venue to flounder for a few weeks or months before audiences come to value it, spread the word-of-mouth praise, and build into a solid, loyal customer base.

During covid-mandated closures and limited trading, MAHM invested nearly $6 million in extensive repairs and updates to the venue. This included over $900,000 towards an upgrade of the audio-visual equipment and staging at the venue.

MAHM bought another major Byron Bay venue in December 2021, spending $68 million on Hotel Brunswick. That venue also hosts live music, events (parties, weddings, family friendly entertainment) and offers a solid, mostly

locally-sourced food and beverage menu. Their music offering, like The Beach Hotel’s, is eclectic but tending more towards blues, reggae and folk than the DJ party-style fostered at their larger venue.

Live Music a Thriving Australian Industry

The NSW Government pledged $85 million in funding to performing arts and live music in February 2022. This was embraced by Live Performance Australia chief executive Evelyn Richardson, who acknowledged that the live sector contributed $36.5 billion to the Australian economy in 2019, with a flow-on effect into other sectors including hospitality, travel and tourism.

Mylee Grace playing at the Secret Sounds Flood Aid event

As Paul Muller and Dr Dave Carter, lecturer in Music Technology at University of Tasmania, reported in their 2016 report ‘Valuing Live Music Venues’, consumers of live music often spend on related goods and services including accommodation, merchandise (clothes and other memorabilia), food and beverages, tickets and parking.

AN INTERDEPENDENT, SKILLED NETWORK

Live music is not a set-and-forget matter, much like choosing a shade to paint the walls and then moving on. It is dynamic, with a highly independent workforce and an ever-changing scene as far as musical genres, trends, artists and competition in the form of venues and festivals nearby.

Venues that want live music to succeed, and to reap the subsequent financial and reputational credibility, will put time and effort into hiring qualified, proven bookers, promoters, and managers. They will invest from the ground up in a quality performance space, acoustics and backstage space for artists. Many of the music industry professionals involved in delivering live music are self-employed contractors and many have longstanding relationships with record labels, artists, venues, engineers and promoters. This is of great benefit to venue owners and managers and the art of nurturing relationships and recognising established and upcoming artists, or trusting a band booker to be discerning and attentive to the venue location and demographic is essential to longevity.

“We are incredibly fortunate that Byron and the surrounding region have become renowned in the music industry – from Rocking Horse Studios to the SAE Institute where students study audio and music and we proudly support. As a result, the area has become a real breeding-ground for people who have a passion for music so we can put on incredible entertainment for our customers at The Beachy,” Labonte explains.

“We primarily showcase local and up-and-coming artists at The Beachy and it’s a privilege for us to be able to give them a stage and a world-class venue to perform and grow their careers.”

An aerial view of the Beach Hotel

Their live music schedule traverses established, radio favourites like Tasman Keith, Bag Raiders, You Am I and Running Touch with up-and-coming artists including Pablo Laverde, Grace Grove, Jesse Witney and Kane Muir. Additionally, they offer a rotating roster of DJs to encourage music lovers onto the dancefloor.

Increasingly, fairness and respect within the live music industry is under the spotlight. As much as venues need to see the financial and reputational benefit of investing in live music, they also need to care for their workers to ensure their reputation and integrity are maintained.

Member-led Musicians Australia (formed August 2018), a branch of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance is an industry-specific union with the goal of ensuring musicians receive a minimum payment per gig of $250. Their Gig Map provides a guide enabling artists to share the venue and the fee they were paid, which provides an insight for venues to compare their own fees and ensure they are meeting a minimum standard.

“The Beach Hotel has not signed the Musicians Australia pledge though we do pay our live acts more than $250 per gig, which is the minimum performance fee within the industry pledge,” says Brady.

With a significant investment in its live music offering, The Beach Hotel has bolstered its credibility and working relationships with artists, and grown its visitation and reputation with music lovers from near and far. Attendance to gigs has seen spend flow on to other parts of the hotel, particularly as the live music program continues to grow in quantity and in quality. Now that’s a sound investment.