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.""

Live music in a small Texas town

A small town in Texas Hill Country, about 30 miles from San Antonio, is seeing an expansion of venues, which might make it a significant stop for Texas music lovers.

'Cowboy Capital' could be a new Branson -- San Antonio Express-News, July 22, 2007: "... the self-proclaimed 'Cowboy Capital of the World,' long known for live country music in rustic venues and a picker's paradise for its come-one-come-all jam-session attitude, is busting out all over....

While Bandera County is one of the fastest growing in Texas, the farm and ranch community's official population is 957 ..."

Where did rock start?

Cradle of Rock? Two Towns Stake Their Claims - New York Times, 7/10/07: "... officials and residents in Wildwood, which in recent years has put a high polish and a healthy dose of kitsch on its 1950s- and ’60s-era motels to promote tourism, are saying that their town near the southern tip of New Jersey in Cape May County is the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll.

After all, for a few summers Dick Clark held record hops in Wildwood while he was the host of “American Bandstand.” And there are plaques where the HofBrau once stood, as well as the site of the former Rainbow Club (now a nightclub called Kahuna’s), where Chubby Checker first performed “The Twist.”

But Gloucester City, another New Jersey town, about an 80-mile drive northwest of Wildwood, wants to cut in right there. And on Saturday, Mr. Richards and other Comets plan to headline a show in Gloucester City, in Camden County along the Delaware River, to commemorate an 18-month span in the early 1950s when Mr. Haley led the house band at the Twin Bar."

Arts as a way to attract tourists

This article mentions a number of ways Vancouver artists groups are trying to boost the city's arts visibility among tourists.

Arts Features | Artists court tourist dollars | Straight.com Vancouver, 6/21/07: Sarah Kirby Yung, director of marketing and corporate sponsorship with Tourism Vancouver, insists that's happening. "It [culture] is a very important part of selling the destination," she says. For the past five years, she notes, Tourism Vancouver has operated Tickets Tonight, a community box office that offers half-price, day-of tickets. The agency also offers a variety of packages to visitors that can include discount tickets to cultural events in the city. Organizations have to sign on to be involved in those promotions, and a Tourism Vancouver membership is required to get in on the agency's direct-to-consumer marketing. That involves a fee, but Kirby Yung says the agency does not publicize its membership rates....

With his limited marketing budget, [Howard Jang, general manager of the Arts Club Theatre] has had to be resourceful in attracting visitors. For example, the Arts Club operates a concierge program with 78 local hotels: in exchange for directing visitors to performances at the theatre, concierges pick up a small commission and are invited to attend shows for free. It's a tactic borrowed from the local restaurant industry–which, incidentally, is enjoying a worldwide reputation."

Events and music in Vail

Events and music have been used to draw visitors to Vail and Summit County during non-skiing months.

Summit Daily News -- High Country Business Review, 6/11/07 High Country summer keeps sizzlin’- "In Vail, the Ford Amphitheatre acted as a marketing tool as well, when it opened in 1987 with 12 shows. This year, it hosts 74. The BRAVO! music festival also began in 1987, and the Vail International Dance Festival followed a year later.

'Those three things have been an unbelievable influx of changing how the summer guest looks at Vail,' said Ceil Folz, president of the Vail Valley Foundation. 'It really just became a concentrated effort in the late ‘80s and reached a high point (of focus) between 1988 and 1993.'

In 1999, voters passed a 1.4 percent lodging tax to market Vail between May and October. Since then, revenue has increased at a steady pace, to $1.9 million, said Kelli McDonald, economic development manager for the town of Vail.

'We’ve seen more businesses remaining open in between seasons. There’s more business coming in May. Prior to marketing, we didn’t see it,' McDonald said, adding that the effort focuses not only on drawing individuals, but also groups.

The town has a separate budget of $750,000 for event seed money, from the Teva Mountain Games to the Fourth of July parade and Oktoberfest."

Branding Detroit

Here's more about Detroit's branding campaign. Commercials will run on MTV and the Comedy Channel.

Detroit is hip, you should visit, ads say - Detroit Free Press, 6/14/07: "The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau announced plans Wednesday to market the area to young adults in Grand Rapids and Cleveland, using three TV commercials touting Detroit as a hip and exciting destination.

For the first time, the organization is trying to attract more visitors to southeastern Michigan by going after 21- to 34-year-olds who live within a 5-hour drive of Detroit. Most of the visitors who come to the area for leisure trips live in western Michigan and Cleveland....

Marketing research found that Detroit's auto attractions, casinos, music and sports activities particularly appeal to adults in that age group. And though they spend on average about 25% less on a typical trip than older adults, they travel more frequently."

The economic impact of the arts

If you want some economic data on the value of arts non-profits, here's a good resource.

Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences

Here's some of the summary report:

RATIO OF LOCAL VS. NONLOCAL AUDIENCES

While the ratio of local to nonlocal attendees is different in every community, the national sample revealed that 39 percent of attendees traveled from outside of the county in which the event took place (nonlocal) and 61 percent were local (resided inside the county).

VISITORS SPEND MORE

In addition to spending data, researchers asked each of the 94,478 survey respondents to provide their home zip codes. Analysis of this data enabled a comparison of event-related spending by local and nonlocal attendees. Previous economic and tourism research has shown that nonlocal attendees spend more than their local counterparts. This study reflects those findings. Local audiences, who live in the county in which the event occurred, spent an average of $19.53 per person, per event in addition to the cost of admission. Nonlocal attendees, those who live outside the county, spent twice this amount, or $40.19 per person. As would be expected, nonlocal attendees spent significantly more in the categories of lodging, meals, and transportation. These findings demonstrate that when a community attracts arts and culture tourists, it harnesses significant economic rewards.

Attendees are 61% LOCAL / 39% NONLOCAL

NONPROFIT ARTS & CULTURE ATTENDEES SPEND $27.79 PER PERSON PER EVENT

Spending Breakdowns

Residents (Residents are attendees who live within the county in which the cultural event occurred.)

Meals/Refreshments $10.77
Gifts/Souvenirs $3.32
Lodging $1.08
Child Care $0.34
Transportation $1.62
Other $2.40 $3.45
Total $19.53

Nonresident (Nonresidents live outside of the county.)

Meals/Refreshments $16.35
Gifts/Souvenirs $4.78
Lodging $10.91
Child Care $0.33
Transportation $4.37
Other $3.45
Total $40.19

All audiences

Meals/Refreshments $13.00
Gifts/Souvenirs $3.90
Lodging $5.01
Child Care $0.34
Transportation $2.72
Other $2.82
Total $27.79


ARTS & CULTURE TOURISTS SPEND MORE AND STAY LONGER

As communities compete for a tourist’s dollar, arts and culture have proven to be magnets for travelers and their money. Local businesses are able to grow because travelers extend the length of their trips to attend cultural events.

Travelers who include arts and culture events in their trips differ from other U.S. travelers in a number of ways.

Arts and culture travelers:
• Spend more ($623 vs. $457)
• Use a hotel, motel, or bed-and-breakfast (62 percent vs. 55 percent)
• Spend $1,000 or more (19 percent vs. 12 percent)
• Travel longer (5.2 nights vs. 3.4 nights)

A 2001 research study by the Travel Industry Association of America and Partners in Tourism indicates that:
• 65 percent of all adult travelers attended an arts and culture event while on a trip that was 50+ miles away from home.
• 32 percent of these cultural travelers stayed longer because of the event.
• Of those that stayed longer, 57 percent extended their trips by one or more nights.

Creating IPod Tours of Your Music Scene

Here's a site that makes available audio tours via iPods. Some people sell them, others give them away for free. I don't see a lot being done with music yet, it would be make sense. Combine a tour of local venues with music from local bands that play there frequently. Find interesting little facts about the venues that would appeal to tourists and locals who want to know more.

Denver would be a perfect location because some of our hippest venues are in colorful parts of town and have long histories as converted bars, failed past music experiments, etc. For example, the Family Dog, which existed briefly in the 1960s and featured the Doors, Janis Joplin, and the like, is now a strip club.

And Denver, famous for "On the Road," is intrinsically colorful anyway.

AudioSnacks.com: Podcast and MP3 Audio Tours for Travel, Museums, and More!

Auditioning for subway gigs

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority held auditions to find performers for its subways.

NYTimes, 5/12/07 - It’s Not ‘American Idol,’ but Subway Station Auditions Draw Crowd in Washington : "An average of 700,000 commuters in the greater Washington area ride the Metro to and from work each weekday. Visitors bump that number up considerably on weekends and during the tourist seasons, making the system the second-busiest in the country after New York City’s, which also features performers chosen by audition.

In Washington, performers will need to keep their day jobs — panhandling will not be allowed.

But the musicians will be paid $200 for each two-hour performance. The Arts in Transit performances will begin in early June and last through October, before returning for the winter holiday season. The number and times for performances have not been set, nor have the stations been chosen that will feature the artists. But there will be twice-daily appearances, in the late morning and then again in the early evening, close to the morning and afternoon commutes, at the selected stations."

Using music on Second Life to promote tourism

This article mentions concerts being conducted at a Second Life site as a way to promote tourism at a real world location.

Lst night three Denver bands played a concert which was simultaneously broadcast live on Second Life and on ManiaTV. I didn't have a chance to watch, though.

Galveston Daily News, 5/13/07 - Site breathes 'Second Life' into isle tourism: "[Galveston.com co-founder Jim] Cordell’s private company has a contract with the Galveston Park Board of Trustees to promote the island through its official Web site, which the company owns and manages. The park board helps pay for advertising on Google but does not otherwise fund the company’s activities, Cordell said....

Cordell quickly learned that joining a virtual world costs real money, lots of it.

His company has spent almost $16,000 so far buying virtual land and paying a designer to re-create the island. Another $1,600 goes for monthly expenses related to Second Life.

Most of the money — $10,000 — has gone to Adam Gillis, a programmer from Nova Scotia, Canada, who has re-created many of Galveston’s treasured landmarks without ever seeing them in real life.

'The entire process was based on photos, photographic replicas for the most part,' Gillis said. 'I can pretty much build anything as long as I have dedicated photos that show the buildings from a good number of angles.' ...

'We are reaching an audience that wouldn’t come to us otherwise,' Cordell said. 'A lot of people don’t even know the real Galveston exists, until they visit us in Second Life. The whole idea is to get people to come here.'

Limited funding to promote New Orleans music

New Orleans CityBusiness, 5/7/07 - Sour Notes: "The New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corp. receives $1 million annually from the city general funds and less than $100,000 went to the music office’s annual budget.

'We didn’t have the money to follow through on great ideas,' [former head of Office of Music Development Scott] Aiges said. 'If you don’t have the money you can’t do anything, and that was before the hurricane.'

NOTMC President Sandy Shilstone said her organization’s budget was cut from $10.7 million in 2004 to $5.2 million in 2006 following the hurricane. Since Katrina they haven’t had any money available to fund a music office even if one still existed.

But the NOTMC hires musicians for events and commercials whenever it can, Shilstone said, and donated $100,000 in advertising to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2006 and 2007. It has also partnered with WWOZ to produce live music shows featuring local musicians to broadcast on 50 public radio stations nationwide for 18 months starting in the fall."

Hotels, tourism, and local music scenes

A big hotel chain may not want to bother with pairing with local musician (too much trouble overseeing quality control as it relates to the brand), but this idea could be used for smaller, independently run hotels. Local bands/musicians could make songs available for guests to download and take with them.

Design: Music: In tune with guest expectations - Hotel & Motel Management, 5/7/07: "Hyatt Hotels & Resorts introduced a digital download music program that will roll out to properties throughout 2007.

Each property will have a unique music library while meeting a set of music standards for the brand, said Walter Brindell, assistant v.p., rooms operations, Hyatt Hotels Corp. Different music collections are used in different spaces of the hotel, so the spa has a different mood than the lobby.

Guests can download the collections from both brands' collections and take their experiences home."

Salt Lake City nightlife, or lack of it

This article discusses the pluses and minuses of nightlight in Salt Lake City. Some of the challenges are no central entertainment district, restrictive liquor laws, and too many empty streets.

Salt Lake City Tribune, 5/6/07 - In search of Salt Lake's night life: "Once you find the places to go, there are some great places here,' said Allison Martin, a development researcher for the Utah Symphony, who moved to Salt Lake City from Austin, Texas, four years ago. 'It's funny - you go out and you see people you know all the time,' Martin said. 'It's 'Small Lake City.'

The relatively small number of Salt Lake night owls means club owners such as Louise Millington have to work harder to woo customers.

'You have to capture a niche for yourself, and I think that's what makes good night life here,' said Millington, who owns The Red Door, a martini bar. 'You have to know what people want here.'

... the perception remains, said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, that buying a drink is an ordeal.

'There is absolutely no good modern-day justification for a private-club membership requirement,' he said. 'If you want to go to a couple places during the course of the night to hear music, or dine one place and go have a drink somewhere else, it can be very expensive and a huge hassle. And if we experience that as natives, consider how bizarre and inhospitable this is for people visiting our city.'"

Using San Diego Music to Lure Tourists

Local music as part of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau campaign.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- Plugging the music: "As part of the promotion, ConVis created a two-CD set of music featuring San Diego artists who were recruited and licensed through partner Insomnia Radio, a distribution network of podcasts, online publications and alternative media Web sites in major U.S. markets.

The compilation features 22 tracks by local bands and artists such as Burnt and The Shambles, and aims to lure reasonably well-heeled Gen-X males with young families who might want to create a vacation that includes catching a band between family forays to the beach or zoo. ...

Along with national “ahhhhhhh” cable television spots that are now airing, ConVis is working with radio stations in major markets such as New York and Chicago to promote San Diego's music scene.

In conjunction with the promotion on Insomnia Radio, ConVis is also advertising on VH1, the cable music video channel, and its affiliated soul and classical music VH1 channels. In return, VH1 is promoting San Diego through cable spots on its Save the Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization that donates money to enhance or restore music education programs in U.S. public schools....

David Peckinpaugh, president and chief executive officer of ConVis, said the music scene promotion has the dual virtue of novelty and affordability. The bureau is spending about $1.1 million on this year's national marketing campaign, which includes television spots and the Insomnia Radio/VH1 promotion.

'It's groundbreaking, innovative – and relatively affordable,' said Peckinpaugh, whose agency has seen its budget – now at $8.8 million – slashed by 37 percent since fiscal 2003. 'We are trying to maximize our marketing dollars through creativity.'

ConVis has created sandiego.org/music, where music lovers can learn about select bands and San Diego's music venues, purchase music-related travel packages and enter a sweepstakes to win a trip to San Diego.

It is still too early to tell whether the music promotion will lure the coveted Gen-X visitor, and statistics about which advertising might move a potential tourist are fuzzy at best. One minor indicator: So far, more than 3,000 Web site visitors have entered the Soundscape sweepstakes contest.

Some local music-industry experts were skeptical that the campaign would generate much additional tourism, but they lauded the idea anyway.

Harlan Schiffman, president of San Diego's Fineline Entertainment, which provides talent to local music clubs such as Brick By Brick and The Casbah, said that when people travel to San Diego to hear music, it is usually a well-known, national act that draws them.

'Our local music is worthy of mention by all means,' Schiffman said. 'Unfortunately, our proximity to Los Angeles has overshadowed the music scene in San Diego – a lot of bands may start off here, but to get notoriety or exposure they go to L.A. and play the clubs up there.'

Some San Diego musicians who contributed to the Soundscape CD said they have benefited from the exposure and predict San Diego will too.

Bart Mendoza, whose band The Shambles performs its song 'Change' on the CD, said that in recent weeks his group has received 'phenomenal' airplay, signed with San Francisco's Zip Records label, and landed a European tour.

Mendoza has also received e-mails from people in Japan who indicated they were coming soon to visit San Diego and wanted to know where he was playing. He credits exposure from the Soundscape CD for the queries.

A look at the potential impact of the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals

thedesertsun.com | Marquee weekends: Local economy could get a $24 million boost "With 29 hotels and motels and 2,000-plus hotel rooms in Indio, many visitors must seek accommodations on west side of the valley."

More on the Crooked Road

Heritage music tourism at its finest.

ContraCostaTimes.com | 04/01/2007 | Fiddles, banjos, a beat: It's Virginia bluegrass: "As author Joe Wilson explains in 'A Guide to the Crooked Road,' bluegrass got its start on the eastern shores of Virginia when violins carried over by European settlers were first played alongside banjos brought by African slaves. This Colonial-era fiddle-and-banjo music eventually moved west to the Appalachians, mingling with the traditional songs of the Scots-Irish and Germans traveling through the Shenandoah Valley. Some of these travelers stuck around, and their descendants play songs passed down through the years, each generation keeping the sound fresh with modern interpretations...

What's so special about the Friday Night Jamboree [in Floyd, VA]? For starters, $3 gets you four bands in four hours -- a musical mix typically kicking off with a beat-the-devil gospel set that primes the mixed-age crowd for the dancing and instrumental wizardry to come. Then there's the quality of the music. Everyone in town seems to be a musician, the descendant of a musician or at least good friends with somebody who plays banjo. Finally, there's the crowd, which often spills out into the street. Since 'granny rules' are in place -- no drinking, smoking or abusive language -- everyone's here for the sheer love of bluegrass."

virginia
crooked road
tourism
bluegrass

Toronto versus New York

So New York compares itself to London, and Toronto compares itself to New York.

Torontoist: Marketing Toronto: Work vs. Play: "We are lightyears ahead of New York's nightlife, with its draconian Cabaret Law (dancing in a NYC club that lacks a dancing permit is illegal, fewer than 300 such permits exist), stringent noise laws, regular police stings and frequent padlocking of venues. At the same time, most Americans have no idea that Toronto regularly attracts many more famous international DJs and bands to its hundreds of bars, concert venues and clubs where one may drink at 19 and perhaps indulge in less-than-legal intoxicants with relative impunity, free from the American government's (and New York City government's) failed war on freedom. Are we implying that Toronto is a bit of a Sin City? Maybe just a liberated one. ...

And when asked the question, 'What more could we be doing to promote our city?' There are a number of steps we can take:

* Award more grants to nightlife event promoters. Sometimes venue rentals or flying famous artists in is just too expensive.

* Start talking about nightlife in promotional materials for the city. Maybe those purple, teardrop-shaped musical notes should be turntables and speakers.

* Allow all night dance parties on city property once again. This ban singlehandedly ended the 15,000 person dance music gatherings that characterized pre-2001 Toronto, leading to the current venue loss crisis.

* Work more closely with event promoters to help promote their larger events.

* Make it less legally risky for property owners to allow a nightlife event on their property.

* Stop crackdowns against nightlife before they start. The recent Docks liquor license suspension was scary enough.
* Repeal the curfew. Seriously. Those kids have money!

* Loosen up alcohol laws; Montréal didn't get its 'fun' reputation among Americans by closing the bars at 2."

Toronto
tourism
creative class

SXSW brings money and visibility to Austin

This article discusses SXSW's financial impact on Austin. While this year's numbers are not yet in, the festival was bigger than last year's, so the assumption is that the financial numbers will be higher as well.

A SXSW spokesperson says that the festival is only modestly profitable, however.

Austin's financial windfall from South by Southwest larger than last year - Top Stories: "This year's South by Southwest festival drew at least as much as last year's revenue of $38 million for city businesses, according to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau. Last year's conference was the biggest in the festival's 21-year history, and participation for this year's festival was even larger, with the number of music artists increased to 11,000 from around 10,200 last year.

In the past few years of its exponential growth, SXSW has become more profitable to Austin's economy than other popular public events such as Austin City Limits Music Festival, which brings in $27 million, and UT home football games, which bring in $23 million annually, according to the bureau."

Austin
SXSW
tourism
music festival
economic development

Funding to promote local music history

TriCities.com, 3/15/07 - Birthplace of Country Music celebrates 80 years: "Assisted by a $5,000 grant from the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, in conjunction with the Bristol Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Rhythm and Roots Reunion Festival, and Believe in Bristol’s Main Street program will work together during 2007 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the historic Bristol Sessions and encourage visitation to the area by drawing attention to the regularly recurring events and activities in downtown Bristol, highlighting the region’s living musical heritage.

'Our goal is to make residents and visitors aware of Bristol’s unique living musical heritage and encourage them to visit Bristol and experience this legacy firsthand,' commented Bill Hartley, Executive Director of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance. Hartley noted that the downtown area historically has been a site of great music, including Ralph Peer’s 1927 and 1928 field recordings, as well as live radio shows on stations WOPI and WCYB. 'We’re very fortunate in this community to still have that music being played in downtown at venues such as the Country Music Mural, jam sessions such as the Star Barber Shop, and at a major festival such as the annual Rhythm and Roots Reunion,' added Hartley

Among the efforts that the grant will fund include advertising campaign, a direct mail campaign to over 15,000 individuals, and electronic advertising targeted to fans of traditional Appalachian music. 'The demographics for this market match up well to the visitor profile for Bristol and the general heritage tourist,' commented Hartley. He added that these travelers are interested in an authentic experience and tend to stay longer and spend more in a community. Officials estimate that the marketing campaign will result in 7,770 new visitors to Bristol creating a potential economic impact $ 909,090 which helps to lower taxes and create a better quality of life for our residents."

virginia
crooked road
tourism
economic development

Cincinnati has a song

Having not heard this song, I don't know if it will capture the world's imagination. New York has a song (several actually), so do Chicago, San Franciscio, and others.

Denver doesn't have a song, but John Denver did "Rocky Mountain High," so that kinda captures it.

My guess is that songs about locations work best when they are written as love songs to the place, and if they capture a widely-agreed-upon image.

I lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio, quite awhile ago and visited Cincinnati a few times. What caught my attention was the Proctor and Gamble factory and the working class neighborhoods that surrounded it. It struck me as a blend of American values and European immigrant influences. There's probably a song in there.

The Cincinnati Post, 2/16/07 - Song sings Cincinnati's praises: "The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber is again drawing on the vibrant music community to tout the area's arts and creative features, and take some playful shots at other cities as well.

The advocacy group has commissioned a Cincinnati-centric song, and this week is releasing, mostly through Internet distribution, the tune by local troubadour Jake Speed. 'All Roads Lead to Cincinnati' sings the praises of the region in a way designed to capture the attention of the highly sought young professionals demographic."

Cincinnati
tourism
economic development