The physical assets and infrastructure generated by Australia’s live music scene are more wide-reaching and substantial than what might be assumed at a glance. They extend beyond where music is performed, to include rehearsal spaces; performance training institutions; staging, production and hire companies; logistics and touring companies; the business premises of promotion and management companies; sound reinforcement and acoustic treatment manufacturing; and the media where live music is promoted and broadcast.

The vibrant social dynamic of the music industry means that infrastructure also includes the neighbourhoods where musicians and other creative individuals choose to live; the ‘cultural clusters’ (Pratt, 2008; Shaw, 2013; Watson, 2008) that house the bars, clubs and cafes they frequent; and the specific atmosphere of a city that fosters and nurtures a contemporary creative environment and, consequentially, a vibrant live music scene (Watson, Hoyler, & Mager, 2009). Despite their absence from most economic accounts of live music, our research has already demonstrated that informal performance spaces including house-shows and warehouses appear economically significant, if socially ambiguous.