The Model Music Office
Whether you're a nation, a region, a city or a town, your music can create jobs & make places better. Here are three places that are proving it now.
What is a music office? How does it work? What is its return on investment? What is the best model?
This spring, despite dogged lobbying, an attempt to both extend a recording tax credit and set up a state music office in Georgia failed. House Bill 549 didn’t make it out of committee, even though it had support from a number of lawmakers. I do believe those fighting to establish a music office - and tax credits - in Georgia will be successful. But that’s for the next legislative session.
This got me thinking, what is an ideal music office? First, I’m sure many readers are unaware that many cities and places have created offices to represent and develop their music economies. But what is the best one? I feel that if we combined a few different models around the world, we could answer that. But there hasn’t been a summary of what those models are, how they work, who runs them and what we can learn from them.
So this is what I am going to do in a few different posts over the coming months. As always, 25% of all paid subscriptions will go to supporting the Center for Music Ecosystems and as a subscriber, you can comment on this post, interact with the community & submit questions and comments that I will address in future posts.
But for now, here are 3 different music office models that can be seen as models to take forward.
The first example is the most successful state music office in the United States. It has pioneered a suite of programs that could work anywhere.
The Texas Music Office (TMO) is an official department in the Office of the Governor, staffed by civil servants. It is the only state music office in the United States that works across economic development and tourism. It has a staff of 4, led by its executive director, Brendon Anthony. Its flagship program is its Music Friendly Communities (which both Sound Diplomacy and the Center for Music Ecosystems are working with them to expand - interest declared). This certifies communities, no matter the size, as music friendly so long as they complete a series of steps and update them yearly. TMO organizes a yearly conference to bring music-friendly communities together and supports them with a full-time liaison. So far over 40 communities have been certified, which has had a significant impact in increasing local music engagement statewide. The Music Office also, and of equal importance, works with legislators to craft music-friendly laws and regulations. The most recent (and a huge result), is the Texas Music Incubator Rebate Program, which offers up to $100,000 in rebates (i.e. money back) on liquor tax for music venues. They also support a Texas Music Trail & represent the state at business events and conferences. They are active, intentional and engaged. It is the model state music office in the USA.
The second example is a national body and one whose research and advocacy have led to significant changes in Australia. This is often stuff few people see but has a substantial impact on how music scenes - especially live music - are supported in communities.
The Live Music Office was established by the Australian Federal Government in partnership with the collective management organization (CMO) APRA-AMCOS in 2013. It acts as a sort-of aligned thinktank to provide frameworks and policies to national, state and local governments to support live music. Its most successful achievement of late was the overhauling of scores of liquor, planning, building code, local government and sound regulation laws in a single coordinated action in New South Wales in 2020. It was instigated across multiple government departments at once and reformed arcane regulations, of which some had been in place since alcohol prohibition a century ago. Australia is one of the most advanced nations in terms of music policy - each state and most cities have music action plans and strategies (many of them led by the Live Music Office) and its national music and cultural policy is world-leading. Importantly, it is not primarily an industry lobby group (those are needed, and the LMO does engage in advocacy, but it is arms length). Impartial evidence-gathering supports industry bodies but can remain separate from their advocacy goals. This separation can reinforce and strengthen the data and findings they collect.
The third model is the city model in Europe. Europe, particularly northern and western countries, have long-standing state-support mechanisms (which differ from the UK, USA and many other parts of the world) to support music. In France, the Nordics, Portugal and other countries, there are decades of history of developing city music offices and multiple models, but the most prevalent one is industry-focused and mainly engaged in industry and talent development - which to me can be compared to any sector development organisation. One of the ones I admire the most is in Denmark. So over to Aarhus we go:
Music City Aarhus is an umbrella network for the music community in Aarhus – run by the music business platform, Promus – an arms-length but city-funded body led by Jesper Mardahl. It is mainly focused on artistic and talent development - so developing bands, businesses and industry – locally, nationally and internationally. Promus was the secretariat for the year-long-post-COVID celebrational year, Music City Aarhus 2022, convenes networking events for musicians, offers discounted access to facilities and represents Aarhus musicians as a sort-of export agency (of which these types are growing). It is also a partner for the national music conference and showcasing platform, SPOT, where it is in charge of the conference program, SPOT+. This focus on finding, developing and disseminating talent - acting as a sort of music industry development agency - is common in Europe. Supporting or running music conferences is also common - Iceland Airwaves is another supported by its city-funded music office. Many of these offices, including Manchester, Bergen and Reykajvik are part of the Music Cities Network, and Aarhus is one of the oldest and best examples of this.
These are 3 examples of many. Here are a few more cities that have music offices, in one way or another. Over the next few months, I’ll feature folks who run these offices and share their programs and priorities.
Huntsville, Alabama: Memphis, Tennessee, Nantes, France, Manchester UK, Reykjavik, Iceland; Medellin, Colombia; Des Moines, Iowa, Austin, Texas; Liverpool, UK, Belfast, UK; Hannover, Germany; Hamburg, Germany; Hamilton, Canada, Melbourne, Australia, Seoul, Korea and many others….
Welcome back to Agents of Change, where every week I feature someone who is positively impacting their community through music and culture.
The second Agent of Change is…. Arreasha ‘Z’ Lawrence.
Who? Z is the founder of MEC Columbus, or Music, Entertainment, Culture Columbus, a local community-driven pressure group to support the sector in Columbus, Georgia - a small city an hour’s drive from Atlanta.
What Is She Doing? Z is a one-woman powerhouse/evangelist for the music and cultural sector in Columbus. She has created an awards show, convened a conference to advocate for a city-wide music strategy and hosts talent development nights in town. This unrelenting push to have music and culture recognised as both an economic and social good needs to happen in every city, everywhere. But it starts with individuals like Z.
Why Should We Care? There are no investments in music in communities without people to drive them forward. And top-down policy interventions can only work if there’s support from the artists and creators. Z is a bottom-up leader who is influencing those at the top. Her passion for the work leads - and this is needed everywhere. People should pay attention to Z and Columbus in general.
If you want to learn more….here is her LinkedIn.