The Government will help out struggling artists, musicians and venues with a $175 million package that aims to save thousands of jobs.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the sector as decimated.

The arts and creative sector contributes nearly $11 billion a year to NZ's gross domestic product and employs 90,000 people.

It is part of a broader package for the sector, which has been crippled by the Covid crisis.

Steve Newall from flicks.co.nz told Andrew Dickens he was happy to see the music sector get some attention.

"In particular the things about that I really liked to see, was the money being allocated to the temporary music industry , making its venues safe and making a fund available to make live music touring more viable."