By Mayor Tommy Battle
The City of Huntsville is making progress in its nine-month Music Audit. The goal is to develop a blueprint for the community to design a music-rich ecosystem that will support songwriters and performers, venues and listeners.
Great music doesn’t just happen. It takes hard work by a lot of people to support the talent and create the environment where music performers and businesses can thrive. That’s what we’re here to do.
On October 3, the City will release preliminary findings initial research undertaken in the Music Audit, including data and impressions from a city-wide music survey.
Music consultants, Sound Diplomacy, will present the data during an Open Forum on Wed., Oct. 3, at 5:30 p.m., in the Stone Event Center at Campus No. 805, 2620 Clinton Avenue West.
Among their key findings:
Huntsvillians say the top three most important characteristics of a successful music venue are diversified music offerings, state-of-the-art sound systems, and original music
About 86 % of Huntsville’s artists have collaborated with local musicians, and 44% have collaborated with musicians from Nashville
23% of music fans go see live music a couple of times a month. 46% of those who don’t go out more often claim Huntsville offers them no opportunities to see the artists and music genres they like
Music companies are optimistic about the future! 64% see at least “some increase” in their financial results compared to last year, and a whopping 92% expect next year to be much better than the current year
Only 1/3 of music festivals have collaborated with the local Huntsville & Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau
“We heard you, and want to hear from you again,” said Shain Shapiro, CEO of Sound Diplomacy. “After more than 1,000 survey answers and hundreds of emails, we want to discuss our initial results and collate the final data that will inform our strategy.”
The Oct. 3 Open Forum is free and open to the public.