A Note To Start 2024

Here's what I hope to accomplish this year and why...

Hello everyone. I hope you had a wonderful break & are back refreshed & energized.

2024 is, as the World Economic Forum outlines, the ´year of elections’. Elections are being held in 50 countries, where an estimated 2 billion people will be eligible to vote. The geopolitical implications of these elections, from Taiwan to the United States, are unparalleled. At the same time, the world remains polarised. There are dozens of conflicts and crises driving humanitarian catastrophe, from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, there are positive geopolitical advancements that bring hope. The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan may end. For the first time, global reduction of fossil fuel consumption was agreed en masse at COP, marking the “beginning of the end of fossil fuels.” A second malaria vaccine has been approved, which could mark the end of the disease in our lifetime. A protein test may soon be able to identify 18 early-stage cancers. I refuse to be downtrodden going into 2024. There’s a lot of good to look forward to and work towards. 

Photo by Phil Scroggs on Unsplash

I write about music, culture and its impact on local, regional and national policy in Making Places Better. In 2024, I want to focus far more on the external impact, or potential external impacts, that music (and wider performing arts) can and should have globally. I won’t write about the internalities in the music sector (I’d recommend

Chris Dalla Riva

,

Cherie Hu

or

Will Page

for that). Instead, I will focus in 2024 on producing research and data focused on increasing music’s external value - to society, geopolitics and solving global problems.

Statistics, in countries with robust data frameworks to compile them, demonstrate that we’re listening to more music than ever. In the United States, the average, according to the IFPI, is 20 hours per week. Musicians are consistently being called upon to advocate, rally and influence audiences, especially during elections (take this example in Taiwain or this one in Russia). Whether one is listening passively or actively, music is more prevalent and more a part of our lives. I truly believe that.

But if we widen the lens - and explore decisions taken to foster economic growth and support livelihoods - music is absent. This is because music, as an economy in its most foundational sense, is not globally recognized. And this needs to change.

This is my goal for 2024 (and beyond) 

This is what music needs to function as an economy: 

1. infrastructure 

2. education 

3. copyright regulation

4. compliance  

5. monitoring and payment processing 

In most of the countries going to the polls in 2024, these are not in place. If music infrastructure is not incorporated into wider infrastructure planning, there are no schools, recording studios, or rehearsal spaces. If there’s no IP protection, it is difficult to be remunerated for one’s work. And if music isn’t respected through compliance, attributing it when it is used in AI, for example, is often ignored.

I want 2024 to be the year where music is taken seriously, everywhere. And my goal is to play as big a role as I can in making this happen. This means different local contexts and respect for cultures and customs, but at its core, it is a simple premise - if music is not a global economy, how can it be used to its fullest advantage to meet global challenges? 

Photo by kychan on Unsplash

So what are we going to do? We will research to demonstrate - in dollars and cents - the economic opportunity we all have in addressing these challenges. We will engage global government institutions - across development, crisis management, livelihoods and governance - to identify ways to explain how music can help solve bigger problems. And we are looking for advocates to join me at the Center for Music Ecosystems.

I am also continuing my book tour in 2024, so check out the dates. I will be updating this regularly, welcoming guests and writing, speaking and podcasting, as much as I can, in as many places as possible.

Hope you can join me.