The findings of several journal papers underlined the importance of reviving a fully operational live music industry from July 2021, but also exposed a persistent undercurrent of structural uncertainty that lingered post-pandemic, particularly around live music provision. Exploring these market uncertainties became the catalyst for further research, prompting collaboratives effort with the Liverpool City Region Music Board from 2022. This ongoing initiative’s main priority is to produce research that can provide business intelligence to policymakers.
To date the research has focused on the following areas:
- The development of an interactive online map of the region’s music venues. The map can be seen on the Liverpool City Region Music Board's website here, or on the Liverpool Music City website.
- A series of roundtable focus-group consultations with venues owners/managers, promoters and others involved in the region’s live music sector.
- The collation and analysis of publicly available financial and operational data for venues identified on the venues map.
- An extension of this mapping methodology to catalogue and categorise businesses and enterprises spanning the entire Liverpool City Region music sector.
- Extending the mapping work to co-establish a transnational, pan-university collaboration with five other UK cities/regions and four EU partner cities under the Live Music Mapping Project.
- Working with researchers from the University of Liverpool's Economics Department and Management School's Econometrics and Big Data centre to develop an economic modelling for the impact of live music venues.
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