Celebrating Our Clients and Friends — Music Cities Policy Update
Music policy work is growing, worldwide. At last count, there’s over 50 cities engaging with music policy in different ways. Some of them are cities that we work with. Some aren’t. And while not every initiative is successful, all continue to add case studies to this growing field of music urbanism, examining the role of music on people, place and the cities we live in.
I thought — in our dog days of summer — I would highlight some of these initiatives.
Some of them we’re aware of because we work with the cities, organisations or groups that spearheaded them. Some we found out through our network. And this is a small sample, not meant to be exhaustive. What strikes me is how global reaching, and extensive, these initiatives are. It demonstrates that music touches everything, everyone, everywhere.
1. London
On 16 July at City Hall in London, our friends at the Music Venue Trust and the Greater London Authority launched a book — a guide to creating grassroots music venues.
This is a genre-neutral, geographically agnostic initiative that any city, town or place can learn from. It’s well written, researched and comes from years of experience both in London and the across the UK. If your town needs a new music venue, here’s the guide for it.
2. Vancouver
Earlier this year the City of Vancouver published its music strategy, a piece of work we were lucky to be a part of. One of the results led to the creation of a Culture & Music Officer, Jarrett Martineau. Jarrett’s focus has been to support the city’s marginalised music communities, particularly the LGBTQI and First Nations’ communities. After announcing the report, the city committed $300,000 CAD to music. That money is going to support these communities, through Jarrett’s leadership. This is a terrific example of melding music and equity, to ensuring that all communities benefit from a city developing a music policy.
3. Fort Worth, Texas
We are publishing an economic impact of Fort Worth’s music industry in the early autumn. But while we’ve been compiling data, the city & its partners have spearheaded a number of terrific initiatives to enhance the music ecosystem in the city. In April they held a Sounds and Cities Conference, to bring together Texan Music Cities and Towns, with the Texas Music Office. And they continue to invest in Hear Fort Worth, a community organisation and marketing platform aimed at promoting the city’s local music community. Both initiatives are partnerships with the tourism, economic development and music communities.
4. Seattle TEDx Talk
One of the original thinkers and policy leaders in music urbanism, in my opinion, is James Keblas from Seattle. TED just published his excellent TEDx talk about the history of protection, legislation and music policy in Seattle since the 1980s. It’s a story we hear all over the place, complete with anti-dancing ordinances, anti-postering ordinances, civic protect and eventually, political leadership. And it ended on a cautionary note, noting the city’s struggle to support its current stock of grassroots music venues. It is enlightening, heartening and a call to action. I recommend you watch it.
5. Seoul, South Korea
In Seoul, a large neighbourhood music redevelopment project called Changdong Music City received a further boost last month, as the city struck a partnership with AEG to operate a new 20,000 capacity arena on site. This is the largest piece of music infrastructure in the development, complete with studios, small venues, artist housing, rehearsal spaces and cafes.
6. Indianapolis, Indiana
We’re in the throes of working on our ecological and economic impact assessment in Indianapolis, but in the meantime our partners have created #Indy Music Socials, a monthly meetup bringing together the community to discuss the successes, and challenges, of developing a music strategy. Regular meetups for musicians, businesspeople and community are integral to the success of a music strategy. Similar initiatives have happened in Charlotte, for example.
7. France (as a whole)
In 2020, the French Ministry of Culture will launch the CNM, a National Music Research Centre. This was approved in July by Parliament with the purpose of the centre to ensure the French music sector is resourced, protected and globally competitive. Beneath this is a network of regional music offices, called PRMA, which do impact assessments and audits of each of France’s states. Here’s the Loire Valley’s one. This approach is progressive and should be viewed as a best case example. France has one of the most extensive music policy networks. I wish I spoke French.
8. Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is launching its music strategy later this month with us (full disclosure) and we can’t wait. Already the city has committed to supporting the development of a new amphitheatre and local partners created a Music From the Moon competition, in partnership with NASA, Al Bell and others. This talent development framework was a partnership between a local music organisation, a property developer, a recording studio and NASA. This must be a first.
9. Latvia
A third of Latvia’s cultural budget goes to music education. Classical music and performance is so integral to the culture of the nation, that its seen as a unifying factor. Here’s a terrific article from The Guardian that we can all learn from. Here’s a quote from the Minister of Culture (and a musician), Naurus Puntulis.
“The accessibility of the music schools is the pride of our nation. A third of the culture budget goes into education.” Critics argue that it is too expensive and that the system should prioritise excellence over mass participation, but Puntulis is unconvinced. “We’re educating listeners as well as performers.”
10. Madison, Wisconsin
Earlier this year Madison, Wisconsin published a landmark report on the impact of racism and profiling on the city’s music community, particularly focused on hip-hop and similar genres. This process began with the creation of a music and equity task force, and it is a progressive model to bring the city together to discuss a wide range of issues related to race, music and community cohesion. Now six months in, the task force is moving to implementing its recommendations. Read the report.
And More…
There’s plenty more examples of cities, places and organisations developing music policies. In Northwest Arkansas, for example, the Walton Family Foundation has created a new regional arts organisation and here’s a terrific article from the legendary Al Bell about him moving his base to Bentonville, Arkansas.
New Orleans City Council has taken steps to ease parking restrictions for musicians in the French Quarter, but still has experiences problems related to arrests of street performers. New York created a $500,000 fund for women artists, as part of New York Music Month.
But most cities do not have a cogent, structured music policy across land use planning, regeneration, education, equity, tourism and public health. And I recognise that this article is mainly about US, Canadian and European cities, and I know I’m missing a number of terrific examples from other parts of the world. That’s for next time.
And finally, here’s some further reading, for those inclined:
- Seattle’s The Showbox, saved, for now -> https://www.bisnow.com/seattle/news/economic-development/showbox-unanimously-designated-landmark-99985
- Fascinating article about the social and economic value of live music, via Dutch academics -> https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026427511830996X
- Austin moving forward with a digital tipping service for street performers (like Found in Music did in London) -> https://austintexas.gov/news/city-austin-announces-digital-tipping-grant-program-recipients
- Canadian government investing $1.5m in inclusive growth, with a focus on music -> https://www.canada.ca/en/western-economic-diversification/news/2019/07/the-government-of-canada-contributes-to-inclusive-economic-growth-in-manitoba.html
- And our work is beginning in Atlanta, via Billboard Magazine -> https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8525751/fulton-county-georgia-study-economic-impact-atlanta-music-scene
