Revisiting The Music Cities Resilience Handbook: How Music Policies Are Improving
This is article 2 in a series looking at how music ecosystems have changed since we published the Music Cities Resilience Handbook. Here is the first article. In this post, I will focus on recommendation 6 — ensure music & art is included in policy frameworks.
There have been a host of places that have taken music and culture more seriously since the world shut down in March 2020. From Birmingham in the UK to Lexington, Kentucky in the United States, more cities have mapped their music economies to better signpost entertainment opportunities or provide clear evidence for policymakers. There has been a clear uptick in music and art policy being incorporated into wider policy frameworks, and this is a reason to be cheerful. This goal, recommendation #6 in the Music Cities Resilience Handbook, is one that has seen significant improvement since the guide was published in June 2020.
There are many examples to share. Take the State of California. There, a bill to improve the conditions of California’s music and entertainment venues is waiting for Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature. The bill, Senate Bill 793, proposes a specific entertainment license for music venues, which will create a simpler set of conditions specific to music venues' business models. At present, music venues have to comply with a number of requirements that have nothing to do with staging music, including having restaurant-grade kitchens. The bill also simplifies the ability to create zoning overlays for entertainment, which reduces the permitting requirements to host live music outside or have street food markets. The bill passed unanimously and once signed into law could be replicated across the United States. This is recognising cultural infrastructure as just that, and legislating for it: Direct policy intervention to support music, art, and culture.
As I have said often, music is often governed by rules that have little to do with it, such as alcohol and liquor licensing or issues related to noise and environmental health. This creates undue stress by forcing venues, in this case, to pay for things that have little to do with their core business. If a venue doesn’t need a kitchen, it shouldn’t require one. But until now, a music venue license didn’t exist. By the end of the month, at least in California, we are hopeful that one will exist.
There are encouraging trends that these reforms are becoming the norm, rather than the exception. For example, staying in the United States, we see this through the continued reform of anachronistic ‘dry county’ laws, many of which have been on the books since before prohibition. There are still 83 dry counties in 9 states where the sale of alcohol is prohibited. In those counties, some of the cities have create overlays that permit the sale within city limits, but it is a sticking plaster, not a fix. Without alcohol, it is hard to sustain a restaurant, a music venue, or a sporting venue. In May, this was understood by the residents of Rowan County in Eastern Kentucky, who voted overwhelmingly to end their dry county regulations. As a result, the county has already seen an upswing in hospitality and leisure-related business inquiries.
These reforms are not restricted to the United States. In Australia, a landmark overhaul of live music licensing was passed in 2021, removing a number of odd and onerous regulations that had been built up over time in the province of New South Wales. Conditions prohibiting certain genres of music in certain places, or the inability to create a music district were amended in one fell swoop, creating a model that, like California, simplifies a system to allow businesses to focus on their business. And similar initiatives are happening from Zimbabwe to Thailand, the Philippines to Greenland.
Since the publication of the Handbook, this is one of the most significant developments across the music economy. It began with the recognition that cities needed to simplify outdoor dining to allow businesses to serve safely. It accelerated when it was clear that music, having disappeared for a period of time, would require more intentional support to thrive. And now, it has expanded to now include changes to live music licensing, overarching evening and night time economy improvements, the creation of national music strategies where none existed before, and even additional tax incentives, like this one in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
By ensuring modern policy is governing a modern music economy, and music venues, for example, are governed by policies designed for music venues, communities are, slowly but surely, increasing the recognition and, investment in their music economies. Whether it is relaxing or reforming a venue policy, creating an aspirational strategy to grow a sector, or reducing the costs of recording, music is being treated more intentionally, in many more places than before. Long may that continue.
