Musicians, event organizers and music lovers can have their say on Victoria’s music scene until April 13, as part of the Victoria Music Strategy Survey.
These online public survey results will help create the city’s first music strategy, a collaborative project between the City of Victoria’s Music Advisory Committee, consulting firm Sound Diplomacy and the Music BC Industry Association. The survey is designed to assess the city’s music communities across genre, ethnicity and sector, as a way to determine their impact and value across the city.
While it’s known that Victoria has a strong music community, the strategy will help quantify that knowledge, says Music Advisory Committee chair Kathryn Calder. “Rather than just being something we know, have it be something that has some data behind it,” she says.
Such statistics will not only help define what’s important to people, a “wide consultation process” like this will teach City officials where improvements can be made and help them fix any blind spots they have around the music scene, Calder says.
She hopes as many people as possible will fill out the survey – there are some great prizes up for grabs just by responding, from trips to event tickets and merchandise.
“I’m very curious to see the results and to see what people care about,” Calder says, adding it’s important they hear from people at all musical levels, from young people and those just starting out in music, to industry professionals. “It would be great to get their input so that we have a very accurate picture of what’s going on here.”
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Calder has been involved in numerous facets of Victoria’s music scene, from learning classical piano as a child, her solo career and work with indie band The New Pornographers, to her work as the City’s Artist-in-Residence. Noting that her musical experience is not “particularly unique,” she says people are engaged in a wide range of activities that encompass the nature of music.
“Many, many things are involved in music, not just the actual music itself, but all the other things that go into making a record or releasing music or putting on events,” she says. “It’s just a very complex and dynamic world.”
For more information or to take the survey, visit sounddiplomacy.com/city-of-victoria.
editor@mondaymag.com
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