Hello There!

Thank you for reading and welcome to Making Places Better - my Substack exploring how we can use music as a tool to improve the world around us. I think that music is one of the best tools we have to address and help solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, but we lack the language, data, and translation to help explain how this can happen. This substack is my way to try and expand this debate.

This is a companion to my first book (which is out NOW) and a place to muse and research my next book, which will be out in 2027.

For those new to me, hello! I’m Shain. This is me…

I founded Sound Diplomacy, the world's leading economic consultancy working with cities, governments, and the private sector on cultural, leisure, hospitality, and entertainment policy, strategy, and creative infrastructure. I now run the nonprofit Center for Music Ecosystems, which aims to be the global resource for defining, proving, and advancing how music is a powerful catalyst for social good.

What will I write about?

I will focus on how we can use music to help decode and better understand the biggest challenges we face - how can we improve our cities and places? How can we create good-paying, sustainable jobs? How can we address the climate crisis? Fight disinformation and avarice? Improve people’s lives. I don’t profess that music is THE solution here. Of course not, but I believe we’re not thinking about music in as broad a way as I believe we should, so I hope the writing here will make you see music differently - not just something to love personally, but as a collective tool that can, genuinely improve the world around us.

Why Subscribe?

If you love music, then I hope you will love what I am writing here. You may not agree with all of it, or some topics may be less personally interesting, but I believe that I will show you that we all share a powerful tool that we can use better, in our lives, cities, places of work and interpersonal relationships, to prioritize the good, promote humility and humanity, foster optimism and demonstrate that the world could be a better place than it is, and music is a tool to help us think about, and realize, how to get there together.

I am also working on a sister podcast, which will be released in 2026, sharing stories about what music means to people around the world and how it’s being used to improve lives right now.

This substack will always be free, but if would like to support me, all subscriptions will be donated 100% to the Center for Music Ecosystems.

Thanks for coming. I hope you enjoy the posts. Please feel free to comment, critique, ask questions, and contribute.