The rise of #MusicCities and how Philly is failing Musicnomics

A new bill from Philly City Councilman Mark Squilla would require owners of nightclubs, cabarets, bars and restaurants in the city to collect the names, addresses, and phone numbers of entertainers — bands, rappers and DJs — in a registry, and to share that personal information with police upon request. Billy Penn

The idea that music is on the economic bus, is new for many City Planners and Gov' officials (Austin, Seattle we know you've been on it for a while) and now there is even a very detail report from the data-suits called Mastering of the Music City and here are few of the highlights. 

• In Melbourne, live music alone generates over 116,000 jobs and more than AU$1 billion in spending at small venues, concerts, and festivals.
• The Rock al Parque music festival in Bogotá attracted 400,000 attendees to the city in 2014, making it one of the largest music festivals in South America. Since its inauguration in 1995, it has attracted more than 3.8 million attendees.
• Music tourism in Austin accounts for almost half of their US$1.6 billion economic output and contributes US$38 million in tax revenue to the city.
• In Berlin, the intermingling of music and technology businesses in the city has demonstrated the way that a successful music economy can attract and retain talent in other industries.
• And in South Africa, organizations like the SAMRO Foundation have sought to use music to bring people together under a unified cultural banner.

Click here for the 106 Page report in PDF. 

To show the grown of this and the re-emergence of music as the more than a passenger on the bus, in some it's recognized as the driver of it. Take Mayor Brown's  State of London address to the London Chamber of Commerce, The Mayor stated:  “We set a goal to become a Music City and this began to take shape in a big way this year,” said Brown. “To lead the way, the City of London developed a Music Strategy that will make London a Music City and a music attraction.”

Even the Feds have been getting in on it via the Our Town grants program, which I strongly encouge any #MusicCities ambassadors to take a look gander. 

OUR TOWN: Introduction

The Our Town grant program supports creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work - placing arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies. This funding supports local efforts to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, increase creative activity, and create a distinct sense of place.

- See more at: https://www.arts.gov/grants-organizations/our-town/introduction#sthash.ezrWOYpc.dpuf

So it seems, that despite the best efforts of the overtechnated to STEM-roll our towns into factories of apps & widget makers -- Music Cities --are something that just is a part of each of these towns. And, that why each of our USA Music Cities needs to start to adopt and work on the Best Music Cities practices.

Well! then there's Philly. According to the sponsor of the bill  “Giving performers’ information to police when requested enables them to review past performances to see if there were any public safety issues during their events,' Councilman Mark Squilla told Billy Penn via email."  There is clearly work to do and that is the reason why I started the CityMusicDeal (TM) and let it be know the  PhiladephiaMusicDeal.com  is coming to help with the stakeholders the overall Musicnomics of Local Music. 

PS While all music sales were down for week ending 1/28, it interesting to note that digital fell another point behind physical.

It's it's about Jobs then why isn't Music in the equation Data says it needs to be!

Recently the National Endowment for the Arts release a report on employment and the Arts and needs to be the wakeup call to banks, economic development offices and venture capital.  

As someone that clearly working in the capitalization of music we hear ourselves and from our partners that funders would rather fund an app that steals IP your music than actually investing in it.   

I've already blogged about compensation for workers in these type of jobs, which accoridng  Berklee.edu  "we are not only talking about more than comparable wages on averge paying  27k"

So now that we know we have a lot of people wanting to be in this industry and we have great paying jobs in it.  What are we waiting for USA?  

Lets invest in our Arts economy and makes some jobs people want for products that the world would enjoy us exporting.    

The Music Capitalist 

+Nelson Jacobsen 

 . 

Here the link http://arts.gov/news/2014/national-endowment-arts-announces-new-research-arts-employment

Some Highlights 

The big picture - In 2013, 2.1 million workers held primary positions as artists. A primary job is defined as one at which the greatest number of hours were worked. In that same year, an estimated 271,000 workers also held second jobs as artists. Twelve percent of all artist jobs in 2013 were secondary employment.

Unemployment trends - For primary artists, the unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in 2013, compared to 6.6 percent of all U.S. civilian workers, but higher than the 3.6 rate for all professionals (artists are grouped in the professional category). This is an improvement over the 9 percent jobless rates in 2009 and 2010, but well above the pre-recession unemployment rate of 3.6 percent in 2006. Architects and designers were among the hardest hit occupations. While both have halved the 10-11 percent unemployment rates they faced in 2009, neither is back to pre-recession employment rates of 1-3 percent. By contrast, musicians have faced a steady unemployment rate of 8-9 percent since 2009, much higher than the 4.8 percent jobless rate in 2006.

The entrepreneurial spirit - In 2013, 61 percent of artists with a second job were self-employed, compared to the 35 percent of primary, self-employed artists, and 10 percent of all U.S. workers.