Although a longtime sentiment, Joni Mitchell phrased it well, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”

Ironic how these lyrics are actually lines in one of the songs she has performed so many times before a live audience. Ironic how something so many of us have cherished, live local music, has been wounded, diminished, forsaken, forgotten and on its way to being deleted from so many lives. It’s more than sad. It is absolutely heart-wrenching to those of us who have spent so much time enjoying, supporting and participating in live music performances.

As a former and veteran news reporter, I watched sadly as newspaper after newspaper, and other publications, put their stories to bed and sent them off to press, not just for that morning or that night, but forever.

I’m not into engaging in long dissertations about the whys or to place any blame. I believed many years ago what I still believe today: We’re going to miss this. We’re going to miss seeing our children on the front of the local or sports pages. We’re going to miss reading those explanations and quotes from local newsmakers that our TV, radio and now social media “news” so quickly edit or delete because of “time constraints.” We will miss having a place to let our communities know about our fundraisers, block parties, quilting events and other activities that don’t seem to get enough attention on social media. We will miss being able to clip the summary of a loved one’s life printed on the obituary page and hold it safely tucked in our wallets, poetry books or Bibles. (For me, the online ones posted by the funeral homes or online news outlets just don’t cut it.)

Now it’s our local music scene.

I am now watching and listening as small businesses, bars, restaurants, cafes, clubs and wineries are abandoning the longtime traditions of hosting live music because they simply can’t afford it. Being a business owner is tough enough as it is. When you couple that with increasing supply costs, having to pay employee wages and sometimes rent and advertising with licensing fees, it’s not easy to come up with the cash you need to pay the musicians their proper due — as much as you might truly want to. Still, you try to hold on. And then the increasing costs of music licensing fees hit you — again. And you have to pay fees that allow you to have live music at your place. Without those licenses, by law, you are not permitted to host any events with musicians who regularly perform cover tunes. (Original tunes are a different story, but as a songwriter, I can tell you that’s complicated too, so we won’t get into that right now.) Breaking the law could amount to hefty fines. Churches, ministries and nonprofits are not always unscathed from this as they, too, must pay their own set of music licensing fees.

Some restaurants, bars, and small live music venue owners are expressing concerns over significant increases in licensing costs from performing rights organizations (PROs), including the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).

Somehow, these fees are supposed to be designed to help the songwriters. (Yet another topic for another time.)

So, here we go. Just as newspapers started realizing declining revenue from advertising and dwindling circulation and readership numbers, live music venues are experiencing lagging sales, fewer customers and too many empty tables, chairs and barstools, and increasing costs. Some are abandoning live music. Some are closing their doors and turning the lights out.

For the ones still lit:

If you’re a musician and you happen to be off one night, consider supporting one of your colleagues in music.

If you’re a musician, support the establishments that have supported you.

If you’re someone who appreciates live local music, please make an effort to occupy one of those seats or barstools when you can.

If you’re a business, please know you are not alone. Make your concerns known to the musicians you hire.

Dear businesses and musicians: Please work together. Be in this battle to save live local music together. Don’t be on social media complaining about each other. Business owner: On a good night, tip the band a little more. Musician: On a bad night, cut the business a little slack. Both of you need to do your part to make sure people know you are there and that live music is on the menu. Don’t just rely on the other guy to market you.

Live local music is a partnership and should be treated as such. Be professional. Be fair. Be kind. And together, somehow, we all might just manage to rock on.

Jenah Shank is a Mahoning Valley performer and a former newspaper reporter.