{"id":100530,"date":"2023-11-23T16:35:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T21:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=100530"},"modified":"2023-11-23T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T21:35:08","slug":"report-reimagining-music-venues-offers-solutions-torontos-live-music-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2023\/11\/23\/report-reimagining-music-venues-offers-solutions-torontos-live-music-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT | Reimagining Music Venues Offers Solutions For Toronto\u2019s Live Music Ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dance
Dance by David Teniers the Younger, 1645 (Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/a>\/Public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The discussion around Toronto\u2019s music venues has often included bad news over the last few years, and that\u2019s something that a report titled Reimagining Music Venues would like to change. The report is the result of a collaboration between the University of Toronto School of Cities and Wavelength Music.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy background is I’m an indie musician and writer and concert presenter,\u201d explains Jonathan Bunce aka Jonny Dovercourt of Wavelength Music Arts Projects<\/a>. With his varied roles, he says he became interested in \u201cthe intersections of music and city building\u201d.<\/p>\n

As he went from musician to journalist to music presenter with Wavelengths, he began to look at venues in a different light. More and more, he found himself programming concerts outside the usual venues, in spaces like churches and shops.<\/p>\n

In the Foreward of the report, he pinpoints the crux of the issue when it comes to small venues:<\/p>\n

\u201cSmall, grassroots music venues like Sneaky Dee\u2019s, El Mocambo, or the Drake Hotel were the cultural centres that incubated the local music community in my hometown, Toronto. To me, they seemed no different from a symphony hall or an art museum. It was only after I developed a career as a journalist and then a concert presenter that I understood these spaces were simply bars and clubs licensed to serve alcohol, with no explicit cultural mandate \u2014 and little to no public support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Realizing The Need<\/h2>\n

During the pandemic, his book Any Night of the Week, A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music, 1957-2001 was released on Coach House Books. The book chronicles the history of Toronto’s modern live music scene as a community that nourished and supported creativity. A recurring theme was the importance of small venues to a thriving music scene. If anything, it added weight to his focus. Small venues are not valued or considered as a part of the music ecosystem when it comes to policymakers, yet their existence is crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been drawn to cultural policy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He met Prof. Daniel Silver, Department of Sociology and School of Cities, University of Toronto, and co-author of the study, in 2011. \u201cWe hit it off.\u201d He says Silver had worked on reports with a similar focus during a previous post in Chicago. In 2021 they\u2019d gathered the necessary funding and resources together to get started.<\/p>\n

The report is designed to fill a knowledge gap. \u201c[We\u2019re] trying to get a better understanding of this musical ecosystem,\u201d he says. Since many bars are not officially recognized as venues, it\u2019s a difficult area to get a fix on with hard data about economic impact and other issues. \u201cThey\u2019re often accidental and organic,\u201d he says of such music hubs.<\/p>\n

If the typical concept of Western classical music performance has to do with galas and glittering concert halls, nowadays, the genre is returning to its grass roots. Toronto’s indie classical music scene depends on those small venues as much as the latest pop artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been a big fan of the indie classical movement for a while,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s definitely an interesting scene.\u201d As he points out, classical music requires a certain degree of acoustic sensitivity in a room that is not well served by the bar environment, generally speaking. \u201cThere are still not many spaces [that are suitable for that],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Report<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe wanted to avoid some of the pitfalls of previous reports,\u201d he notes. That includes defining problems, but only offering vague suggestions about using under-utilized spaces, with a lack of nuts and bolts practical applications.<\/p>\n

He also wanted to focus on the positive, and avoid the doom and gloom narrative that often surrounds a discussion of Toronto venues these days. He\u2019s empathetic to the outcry that surrounds the closure of popular venues, but there\u2019s a bigger picture to consider. \u201cThere is a natural lifecycle of venues,\u201d he says. \u201cThey open and close.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concentration of music venues in the downtown core made it a particularly vulnerable sector when real estate prices, and the pressure to develop properties, began to grow. It displaced many spaces which, in previous decades, were able to survive as commercially viable spaces. That era seems to be gone.<\/p>\n

He recalls places like Ted’s Wrecking Yard, a venue known for its eclectic programming. Open from 1997 to 2001, Jonathan notes it was a product of the time, an era when space was affordable. \u201cOpening a space like that is unfathomable now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProfit margins are so much smaller,\u201d he notes. The cost of booking alternative venues has also risen.<\/p>\n

A system of splitting the revenues between the door receipts (to the artists) and bar (to the owner) was imperfect, but worked for many venues for a solid 40 to 50 year period. However, one inherent limitation was the way that the music was inevitably linked to alcohol. If your music didn\u2019t draw a drinking crowd, it had little chance of exposure. Looking for alternatives to that combination became one of the report\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n

Among the key findings:<\/h3>\n