Local businesses, generally speaking do not make enough extra money to justify hiring live music. Venues try to stay away from a door charge because it turns some patrons away and liquor sales are down in comparison to when live music was more prevalent. Local not-for-profit community halls in Alberta have been given a grant if they hired live music three or more times per year. The government matched the amount paid to the artists. Our government needs to encourage local “for- profit” businesses to hire live entertainment and do the same by assigning a monitored subsidy to those business venues that hire live entertainment. The government has been backing other industries for decades such as dairy, farming, oil, and so on. Why not the music industry? A program like this would provide more opportunities for the working class musician. It would encourage growth in businesses by creating a draw. It would encourage and create a growth in the arts on the ground level; give local businesses an incentive to hire musicians; re-build an industry that is slowly fading to nothing; provide the general public with more opportunities to hear live music; it would encourage growth for the venue. We need to act fast to save live music.

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