10 Simple Steps To Build Back Better Music Ecosystems
Here are 10 steps to accelerate the recovery of your local music ecosystem, no matter where you live. This is focused on mid and long term solutions- i.e structural, systemic policy change. I know many places are still in triage. Those places (like the UK) must first invest in relief and stabilisation before considering recovery.
To succeed, you need the following mindset:
- Understand that music has economic value. Even if you don’t like a particular genre that may have value where you live.
- Recognise that your city, town or place has more music, more creativity and more economic value in it than you think.
- A willingness to change. This is integral to success.
If we invest in extracting the value inside our heads, we will realise that it is as lucrative as extracting what’s in the ground. The cities and places that recognise music and culture will drive the recovery economy and will thrive more quickly. Here’s how to do it.
STEP 1: Set up a local music steering group, lobby or initiative. The more local, the better. All cities & towns can do this. Here’s what Madison, WI is doing. NOTE — If you have a local music lobby, skip this step but steps 2 & 3 are more important.
STEP 2: Recognise immediately that not all voices that need to be heard are at the table. They never are — no one is perfect. Humility is important here.
STEP 3: Enlarge the table before saying anything publicly. This can take time. Focus on the wider music ecosystem —equity, inclusion, planning, infrastructure development, tax, incentives, tourism etc..
STEP 4: Stop playing the victim card. Imagine if music disappeared. No Spotify. No music on Netflix shows. No live events. Yet, musicians and the music industry — in too many places — have been reduced to pleading for support. It’s an insidious practice that we must stop. Think about a world without music and you’ll realise the power we have. It is not about ‘saving the music ecosystem’, it’s about recognising that without music, what are we? We are poorer. We are less united. We are less of ourselves.
STEP 5: Figure out what can be changed in as cost neutral a manner as possible. This depends on where you live, but often the music and cultural ecosystem struggles because there’s a lack of representation related to what it is, where it is, how much it is worth and how it all fits together. That makes it more difficult to insert music’s needs, for example, into existing structures of how money, time and space gets allocated.
STEP 6: Answer the ‘What’s In It For Them’: Define who ‘they’ and ‘them’ are. Can cities recover quicker? Attract or develop a stronger workforce? Motivate voters? Engage the entire breadth of one’s community? Dismantle racist or inequitable policies? Investing in music and cultural ecosystems answers a wide range of civic questions. A universal language can produce universal solutions.
STEP 7: Show up & bring data. Mapping one’s cultural infrastructure and understanding the economic value of what one had, what’s been lost and how it can be rebuilt in a more equitable, sustainable and economically valuable way is integral to achieving policy success. Go to council meetings. Show, rather than tell. This does take time, money & commitment. Taking something seriously requires this.
STEP 8: Understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint: There’s no ‘endgame’ here. Once a community and its leadership chooses to engage with music policy, music policy becomes another key component in civic governance. One day, we will all recover and then, there may be greater challenges (like climate change). The better insulated the music ecosystem is then, the better off all cities and places that invest in them will be.
STEP 9: Make friends and be humble. There are lots of opportunities to learn from best practice. Our Music Cities Community is one. There’s others, from the Music Cities Network to Music Cities Together. Read our reports. Set up Google alerts. Write op-eds.
STEP 10: Talk to us. We have developed the Music Economy Recovery Initiative, a framework and plan that any city, region or state can use to roadmap recovery. It actions the above steps 1 through 9. It will work anywhere. Get in touch and I’ll tell you all about it.
This article is one of a series I’ve written about music and recovery, based off our #BetterMusicCities campaign and the launch of our Music Cities Resilience Handbook. Have a read of both, if you’re interested.
