University Name - Media Reflection: Business Law and Live Music Venues

This media reflection assignment analyzes an article discussing the impact of business law on live music venues in Australia. The article focuses on how venues grapple with noise complaints, which often result in fines or forced renovations, impacting their late-night profitability. It highlights the role of state government grants in mitigating these issues, and questions whether these grants are sufficient. The assignment connects the article's content to the course discussion, specifically exploring how business laws like innovative planning, liquor licensing regulations, and quick-fire policies influence the live music industry. The reflection also considers the balance between entertainment provision and noise control, and the impact of increasing residential development near live music venues. The article emphasizes the importance of considering the surrounding area when opening a live music venue, and the role of both venues and residents in addressing noise complaints, which aligns with the course's advice on building upgrades and noise reduction measures. References include articles by Bale, Shaw, Gallan, and Dunton, which provide further context on the topic.

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MEDIA REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
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Media Reflection Assignment
The article by Brendan Bale dated October 22nd, 2017 is an Australian based publication
that relates to business law in Australia. It is about the ability of live music venues to keep in
check noise complaints by attaining state government grants. Live music venue businesses often
make most of their profits through the music they play to their audience whereby business is
usually at its peak late at nights. But the author notes that such businesses experience the hurdles
of noise complaints which result in fines, shut down, or being forced to renovate to reduce the
noise (Bale, 2017). The business law now enables live music venues to attain state government
grants that enable them to reduce the noise complaints. Moreover, the question most asked is if
this move by the government is enough to reduce noise to the neighbors.
But it is not enough to simply obtain state government grants to reduce neighbor
complaints about noise. Live music scenes need live music policies and not those that force them
to close such as the quick-fire policy which targets issues such as alcohol-fuelled violence
(Shaw, 2013). Most of the laws have proved to be an obstacle to live music businesses in spite of
the changes to the licensing laws that have made it easier for some of them to stay in business.
According to Shaw (2013), the innovative planning and liquor licensing regulation forces the
response to different situations such as for residential buildings near the area to cover
soundproofing cost and other measures to reduce noise complaints. But with the increased
residential development around Melbourne’s live music scene, there would most likely be quite a
lot of neighbor complaints and developing the residential areas through soundproofing and other
measures would help reduce them.
This article is directly related to the class discussion as it clearly shows the business laws
behind live music venues such as the innovative planning and liquor licensing regulation and the

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quick-fire policy affect the industry. These laws were put in place to control the nuisance brought
about by live music supporting the provision of the entertainment while controlling the noise
(Gallan, 2012). But since the cost of managing and limiting the noise is often expensive, the
government considered offering them help through grants. The addition of government grants to
the business planning laws of 2014 with the main purpose of curbing noises from such business
premises came as an advantage to the live music industry since it indicates that before opening
live music venues, it is important to consider the surrounding area and the presence of hotels and
pubs. According to Dunton (2015), the live music venues are not entirely to blame in this case
but also the residents of new homes which relates to the course content which advises businesses
to upgrade their buildings as possible and for residential buildings to do the same. Hence, this
article relates to the business law in the class content through the application of the law to live
music venues with the intent of curbing noise complaints.
Reference List

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Bale, B 2017, ‘Live music venues can now get state government grants to curb noise complaints:
is it enough?’, Domain media. https://www.domain.com.au/news/live-music-venues-can-now-
get-state-government-grants-to-curb-noise-complaints-is-it-enough-20171022-gz5bux/
Dunton, J 2015, 'How London mayor is proposing to protect capital's live music
venues', Planning (14672073), no. 2016, p. 10.
Gallan, B 2012, 'Gatekeeping Night Spaces: the role of booking agents in creating ‘local’ live
music venues and scenes', Australian Geographer, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 35-50.
Shaw, K 2013, ‘A live music scene needs a live music policy’, The Conversation.