Struggling with ticket prices? This new music pass could be your answer

The live music industry's peak body in NSW has outlined a plan to "hyper-focus on Newcastle" in its mission to attract more young punters to entertainment venues.

The MyGigPass initiative was rolled out in Sydney in February to allow music fans aged between 18 and 25 to sign up to gain access to free or discounted tickets for concerts at associated venues.

There is no cost to join.

After beginning with 270 subscribers, the MyGigPass weekly newsletter is distributed to more than 2100 people and offers free or cheaper tickets to 25 venues around Sydney.

The Live Music Venues Alliance (LMVA) visited Newcastle last week and held a meeting at the Lass O'Gowrie Hotel with various stakeholders, including venue operators, bookers, musicians and agents.

A key focus for the LMVA outreach manager Heather Bergan is bringing the MyGigPass to Newcastle, traditionally one of Australia's strongest cities for live music.

"About 4.5 per cent of the [MyGigPass] database is Newcastle and Central Coast, so it's growing by 50 to 60 members per week, which is really cool, so we know the demand is there," Ms Bergan said.

"But we're definitely interested in creating a hyper-focus on Newcastle specifically."

The LMVA is a member-driven, not-for-profit peak body that was created during the COVID pandemic to advocate for the venues, spaces, and people in the live music industry.

Ms Bergan said getting young people to live music venues was more challenging post COVID.

"It's like this audience behavioural reset", she said.

"It's getting more young people introduced to venues that they may not have been to before and starting to create those cultural and behavioural patterns of people going out and seeing more live music, as well as relieving the financial aspect of it.

"We know from the work [Australian youth music charity] The Push has done and from conversations we have with our member venues, young people have a lot more anxieties now going out and seeing live music.

"They're looking for a lot more information up front before they go to a venue, particularly if they don't know anyone that's been to that venue before."

The cost of living is another factor that's preventing, especially young people, from attending more live music shows.

"People are going but they're not necessarily spending that much money," Ms Bergan said.

"That can really hurt your bottom line, more so because your costs are higher because you've sold a lot of tickets."

The LMVA hopes to have three to four Newcastle venues signed up to the MyGigPass by the end of August.

Mayfield's Stag & Hunter Hotel is already on board, but publican Mick Starkey said the initiative is not well known among young music fans.

"Hopefully soon people will get used to it, and we'll get a little bit better result," Mr Starkey said.

"It's been pretty good anyway; we've had some great shows and have been getting some good responses, so it's not all dire out there. I think people are actually longing for some good music and some connection."

Hamilton Station Hotel booker Spencer Scott said his venue was exploring plans to sign up to become a MyGigPass venue.