Nashville's indie showcase

More and more local communities are developing mini-SXSW's. Here's Nashville's.

Next Big Nashville: "Q&A with NBN creator and producer Jason Moon Wilkins: Q: What is the purpose of the event? A: 'The inaugural NBN was conceived and executed in three and a half weeks in 2006 as a way to celebrate what was a banner year for Nashville's rock/pop/indie community. It was originally meant to be just a one-night party, but it quickly grew into a three-day festival that drew nearly three thousand people. Obviously, this year has expanded exponentially, which is a reflection of how dynamic Nashville's music scene is at the moment. The basic reasoning behind it was that it seemed like we needed an event like this and the artists, the industry and the city as a whole have overwhelmingly agreed with that assessment. It's a truly exciting time to be a part of the music community in Nashville and to be living in such a vibrant and growing city. More than anything else, I wanted to build an event that echoed that excitement. Nashville is evolving and expanding beyond its former image into something more cosmopolitan and eclectic but still decidedly southern and I wanted to create a musical reflection of that.'

Is this a showcase/industry event or a public festival?
A: "It's both. It's an easy 'one stop shop' for any out-of-town or in-town industry professional interested in what is happening in Nashville's music scene at the moment. It's also a chance to showcase the growing community of industry professionals who work outside the Music Row mainstream but whose work helps tie Nashville to the international arena. And it's an opportunity for Nashville music fans to see their favorite acts play together in a festive and communal atmosphere and hopefully to be introduced to their new favorite band along the way.""

Mixing country genres

Here's an interesting review of the first day of the Stagecoach Festival and the challenge of getting audiences to come for both modern country, and traditional country, alt-country, and bluegrass.

Although I wasn't there (friends including The Railbenders and Angie Stevens were -- the text message I got from Angie watching Willie Nelson was "Wow"), I'm going to guess it's just growing pains. Other festivals are able to successfully mix genres and this one will likely do so too as its reputation spreads.

Orange County Register, 5/6/07 - A hootenanny divided: "There were those who came to spend the day - the whole day, from noon till 11 p.m. - clogging up the Empire Polo Field by sitting in their camping chairs at the main (aka Mane) stage, patiently waiting for stoic cowboy icons Alan Jackson and George Strait to perform. ...

Out of roughly 25,000 attendees, this group accounted for at least 20,000. And they seemed to have a big boozy blast, because they had exactly the county-fair kinda day they had hoped for. ...

... some music lovers who came to this hoping for a completely different festival - a diverse, all-inclusive, history-appreciating bash....

Yet these people at most accounted for 5,000 of the total attendance. Spread them out among three stages and their numbers seemed even smaller.

... the overall failure to bridge gaps between these two camps, alt-country fans and the Nashville-controlled crowd, suggests that Goldenvoice's dream of a cross-pollinating über-country fest is a ways away from becoming a reality."

Southern Cities for the Creative Class

This article isn't specifically about music, but cities that attract the creative class also tend to have great music scenes.

Ten Places in the South for the Creative Class: "These places are actively and prominently working to make their communities more attractive to knowledge workers by fostering environments for opportunity, expression and quality of life that creatives expect and demand."

The article lists Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Houston, Lafayette, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Savannah, and St. Petersburg.

How to sell live music in Nashville

The City Paper: "As owner of the local independent company Great Big Shows and in his role as promoter and producer, Whetsel will present some 250 shows this year featuring all types of music at various venues. A huge music fan as well, Whetsel admits Nashville presents special challenges for promoters.

'This is a very difficult market and sometimes I’m amazed we’ve done it successfully for so long,' Whetsel said. 'This is very much an industry market, and there are a lot of people here who for whatever reason simply don’t want to support live music. There are many entertainment choices available with professional sports and many other options. And to be fair, when you work all day in some facet of the industry, the last thing you want to do at night is go out and see more live music. So our challenge is to provide a positive experience and give people a reason to spend their dollar and attend particular concerts.'

Whetsel cites several things he considers major factors that must be considered when presenting any type of concert locally.

'You must have a comfortable venue and an affordable price,' Whetsel said. 'We try to start as many of our shows during the week at an early time so people with [conventional day] jobs can catch a show, yet still get home and go to work the next day. There are some sites here, like The Ryman and the Gaylord Entertainment Center, that are particularly patron friendly. But it’s up to us as a company to make sure we don’t give people any excuse not to come out to a show.'"

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The arts and economic growth

The whole premise of the creative class is that they enrich an area and attract high quality economic development.

Here's a bit on that from the blog that covers the subject in depth.

The Creativity Exchange: The Bohemian Factor:

"Arts, design and related occupations are very highly correlated with regional wages, income and housing values. They are more closely correlated with income than life scientists, engineers, and management occupations. Only two occupations - computer scientists and business and financial professionals - outperform them.

The core arts occupations of fine artists, musicians, dancers, and so on are most important of all. The correlations between them and regional wages, income and housing values are far far higher than for designers and decorators, entertainment and media, and sports where the correlations are low or insignificant.

The top 10 regions for core arts occupations are: New York, DC, LA, Honolulu and San Franciso.

Santa Fe tops the list for fine artists.

LA leads in actors with Orlando second.

Honolulu, San Fran, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City top the list for dancers.

Honolulu, New York, San Fran and Nashville lead for musicians."

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Family friendly venues may be the future of live music

Just as megachurches have expanded beyond church services. Rocketown is leading the way toward family entertainment. What makes this an interesting business model is that it isn't tied to a particular demonination, which may make the concept more inviting than venues located at specific churches.

STLtoday.com, 2/24/07 - Old mall to house Christian music club: "The 40,000-square-foot entertainment center has an indoor skate park, coffee bar and three stages. It is the brainchild of Christian music star Michael W. Smith.

Since opening in downtown Nashville about four years ago, Rocketown has attracted 100,000 to 125,000 visitors each year, development director Audra Davis said. Although the club's target age group is 12- to 20-year-olds, the venue hosts shows for all ages that are smoke- and alcohol-free, she said.

At first, Rocketown had a difficult time attracting bands because some groups feared they wouldn't sell as many tickets with smoking and alcohol restrictions, Davis said. But after booking a few big names for successful concerts, the venue and its staff built a good reputation with musicians, she said.

Now, Rocketown staffers enjoy lending their knowledge and experience as their venue becomes a model to developers such as the Atkinsons.

Davis said: 'We've had, literally, hundreds of folks contact us who wanted to do something similar in their community. It's been fun to share our experience and kind of create a network of organizations trying to do this and make an impact for teens. For adults, I think it's great that there's a place where you don't have to worry about drunk folks being around while you are trying to enjoy a concert.'"

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More on the explosion of music for kids and their parents.

Rockers now play to sippy cup set - Nashville, Tennessee - Saturday, 01/20/07 - Tennessean.com: "[Dan] Zanes figures that parents search for cool children's music because, while Beatles and Shins records score melodically, as kids start to talk and understand words, there's a lyrical disconnect.

'The one thing that I think doesn't work or doesn't mean anything, particularly to kids, are themes of romantic love or sexual love — that's gonna be a stretch for any 3-year-old,' he says. 'So that rules out a lot of pop music right there.'

Kids music is throwback

To Zanes, it's not so much that intelligent children's music is a new trend; Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others were making it more than a half-century back. The recent proliferation is more akin to a return.

'The idea of all ages participating in the music and enjoying the music, it's a fairly ancient concept,' Zanes says. 'I think the thing that's recent is that segregation — 'There are things that are for children, and then there's things that are for grown-ups.' We're just trying to get back into, 'What can you do that includes everybody? What's the most inclusive thing we could possibly do?'"

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Nashville Tourism and Music

The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau has a new page up promoting the city's music.

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Local music scene economic studies

Here are downloadable studies about the economic impact of music in five different cities.

The Role Of Music in the Austin Economy

The Economic Impact of the Music Industry In the Nashville

The Economic Impact of Seattle's Music Industry

The Economics of the Commercial Music Industry in Atlanta

Downtown Ithaca Entertainment Study and Strategic Plan

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Make Local Music Promotional Campaigns Easy and Painless for Venues

Nashville Business Journal: "The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau is launching a new advertising and marketing campaign to brand Nashville as the home to all genres of music - country, bluegrass, contemporary Christian, jazz and more.

"Deana Ivey, senior vice president of marketing for NCVB, spoke of the campaign at a meeting of the Nashville Advertising Federation on Sept. 27. She says the multi-year 'Music Calls Us Home' campaign is an important step in the branding of Nashville, a task to which the organization has devoted much effort since it rolled out the Music City Branding initiative in 2005.

"'We've done a good job at branding Nashville as Music City," Ivey says. "But it's a double edged sword...because people think we're just country music.'"
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What I like about this campaign is that it has developed ways to promote local music which should be relatively easy for venues to buy into. Here are some of the projects that fall under the Music City Brand Initiative:
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Brand Story [of Nashville’s diverse music heritage] and Brand Tool Kit for businesses [including brand story, suggestion booklet of how to incorporate music into business, CDs, window decals, etc]

Strategic partners: Coca-Cola · Southwest Airlines · Hartmann · Tractor Supply · Jack Daniel’s · XM Satellite Radio

New Pole banners – displayed throughout the city, will now have a consistency of look

The Branding of Demonbreun Street from the Music Row Roundabout to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center as “The Music Mile”

A new Wayfinding signage program – system of signs in strategic locations around the city will assist people in finding attractions and places of interest and emphasize our musical heritage

New “Live Music Venue” signs – these signs will be offered to establishments that provide live music 4 or more days a week. (NCVB will create maps and brochures so tourists can easily navigate the city's music scene.)

The Visitor Information Center at the Gaylord Entertainment Center will be remodeled into a wireless internet café, with outdoor seating and a stage for live music

In partnership with XM Satellite Radio, a monthly live-to-tape show on XM featuring Nashville songwriters, with the working title “Music City Connection: The Heroes Behind the Hits”
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Having watched a number of good ideas related to Denver's music community fall apart because too many people criticize and not enough offer to help, I think that the initial local music scene push should come from one person or entity committed to seeing it through. Lots of people will jump on the bandwagon after there are signs of success, but initially there tend to be lots of naysayers and it's better to have a program which they cannot discourage or derail.

Rolling Stone's Best College Town Music Scenes

In 2005 Rolling Stone published the book, Schools That Rock: The Rolling Stone College Guide. Here are the 10 best cities. If you go to the article, you can get more info by clicking on each city.

1. SEATTLE

2. CHAPEL HILL/RALEIGH/DURHAM, NC

3. DETROIT

4. AUSTIN

5. NASHVILLE

6. ST. LOUIS

7. SAN FRANCISCO

8. ATHENS, GA

9. MINNEAPOLIS

10. PORTLAND, OR

Concert halls as an economic driver

The New York Times reports that five North American cities have unveiled new concert halls this fall, including Costa Mesa, CA; Nashville; Toronto; and Miami. In recent years Philadelphia; North Bethesda, Md.; Fort Worth; and Omaha have already done so. Altanta hopes to do so.
In Cities Across the United States, It's Raining Concert Halls, 9/3/06: "As concert halls have evolved into multipurpose destinations — complete with chic restaurants, bars and the inevitable education centers — local officials and business leaders have come to view them as a chance to revive a downtown or add luster to their city. Orchestra administrators see a draw for new audiences and a means of raising their group’s profile. Music directors envision a platform to artistic greatness. Orchestra members hear wonderful new acoustics. The music-loving public looks forward to more and better concerts.

“'There’s a sense that a concert hall can truly enrich a community,' said Deborah Borda, the president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. ...

"A look at how the new halls came into being reveals a pattern.

"An orchestra outgrows its old multipurpose hall. A powerful person steps up with drive and money. The planners woo local officials and donors. A celebrity architect is engaged. A large public relations firm begins an expensive campaign trumpeting the architectural and acoustic glories of the new hall."

Live Music Doesn't Draw in Nashville

This 6/08/2006 article offers reasons why Nashville clubs don't attract more local fans.

Nashville Scene - Wish You Were Here: "Rick Whetsel of Great Big Shows, which owns Exit/In and also books acts at other area clubs, says his company doesn’t compete with other live venues for crowds; it competes with movies, television and living rooms across the city. Terry Cantrell, who ran Cantrell’s back in the ’80s and currently manages Springwater, says audiences in Nashville are so accustomed to live music that they’ve gotten spoiled and now expect it without paying for it. Bruce Fitzpatrick, who has booked rock and punk bands in Nashville for over 20 years, says people are just apathetic, that the spirit of musical discovery isn’t what it used to be."

How to bring local music leaders together

Nashville has a program, Leadership Music, which brings local music movers-and-shakers together, based on a similar program, Leadership Nashville, to bring community business leaders together.

Leadership Music's head helps unite Row's fractious factions - 07/24/06 - Tennessean.com: "... a dozen Leadership Nashville alumni — led by former Warner Bros. Nashville President Jim Ed Norman — created a similar program in 1989 geared specifically to the city's music industry.

"The goal was to offer leaders from all the relevant segments of the music business a chance to learn about the rest of the industry and, in the process, get to know each other as well. [Executive director Kira] Florita says the segments have changed along with the industry— for instance, the head of label and artist relations for Yahoo Music will be among those included in the class of 2007 — though the mission remains the same.

"Perhaps the hardest part of the program for most participants is the time commitment.

"Leadership Music kicks off each year with a two-day, overnight opening retreat in October and a closing retreat in May with six 12-hour days scattered in between. Not only is attendance mandatory, cell phones are prohibited — not an easy set of rules for roughly 50 incomprehensibly busy music executives, nor for the high-caliber alumni who run the program under the direction of Florita and her assistant."

Nashville showcases in NYC

This article talks about leveraging the Country Music Award's 2005 appearance in NYC as a way to promote Nashville as a whole.

Nashville leaders play alluring tune for NYC - 11/13/05 - Tennessean.com:

"... about 130 Nashville executives, policy-makers and academics representing both the Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce head to New York this weekend (paying their own way) to spread the gospel of Music City. Included in these groups are people such as Mayor Bill Purcell, HCA Inc. CEO Jack Bovender, and Vanderbilt University's vice chancellor for public affairs, Michael Schoenfeld.

"... Performers such as Kix Brooks and Sara Evans plan to attend a 'Music City' luncheon tomorrow at Gotham Hall in New York that will include a wide range of business-development consultants, national media and New York-based corporate executives."

"Vanderbilt's Schoenfeld said 10 or 15 years ago, the university considered Nashville's image as Music City a 'net liability' when it came to recruiting top faculty and students. Today, he said, Nashville has become an important selling tool for the school.

"That's been an experience shared by many others throughout the local business community, from law firms to health-care and insurance companies, [Convention & Visitors Bureau President Butch]Spyridon said.

"'About three years ago, as the CVB was going through a strategic planning process, we realized that we couldn't hide from this "Music City" brand anymore,' Spyridon said. From those discussions, the task became to tell the rest of the world what the average Nashvillian already knew: That "Music City" encompassed much more than just an outdated notion of country music. It includes rock, gospel, R&B, and classical, as well as numerous songwriters and studio resources.'"