Rock My City

October 27, 2008 9:13 AM

How do you make a town more local-music-friendly? What things can individuals, businesses, and cities do to encourage a better local music scene?

I come from a small city in New England. In many ways, it has a thriving local music scene.But there are reasons to be concerned about the health of local music. The number of venues, particularly the 100-300 person type venue that is so important for regional touring acts, has declined as a major room closed and another is in financial straits. A few bars provide local music 7 nights a week, and there are a few successful music series that draw a consistent crowd. But crowds are getting smaller and, overall, it seems like the scene is in a slump.

Tonight I'll be attending a meeting of musicians, venue owners, and music fans to generate some ideas about reviving the scene. What are some things we could put on the table? How has your town or city used its resources to encourage the development of the scene? What makes your town music-friendly (or not?)

What we have:
-a number of active cultural leaders, including a great alternative newsweekly, an indie bookstore active in the culture scene, a real brick and mortar record store, a bunch of small venues, a few larger venues but farther afield, some coordinated music marketing in the form of this website, a good summer concert venue (but weather-dependent), some awesome music-focused annual events like the RPM Challenge

What we lack:
-affordable housing, population density, a lot of young people (the closest college is about 20 minutes away), large rooms, good 'draw' strategies to get people out, and .....?????

We might look at things like:
-developing alternative venues
-promoting - encouraging people to learn the art of promoting
-workforce/affordable housing - are 'creatives' being driven out of the market because of high real estate prices?
-attracting audience - how, when, what gets people out the door?
-genre variety - who goes out to hear music? What kind?
-neighbor issues, ordinances, etc
-festivals
-scene 'branding'
-whatever you recommend! What works where you live?

Please flood me with ideas! Thanks!

posted by Miko to media & arts (20 comments total)

For a time I lived in a rural town experiencing much the same problem. Really, you need to branch out to surrounding communities to draw them in somehow. In your case, we invented a festival; the "Fall Brawl". We put up flyers in surrounding towns saying we were looking for bands to play the then-nonexistent venue, and got plenty of calls. As we worked out work schedules, a one-week window emerged. Now, being without large clubs of any sort would be a problem in the cold months, but when it's warm, really, a reception tent, pallets, plywood and plenty of extension cords can make for a decent stage, if you know someone who has a sizeable plot of land who'd be cool with letting hundreds of people park and party there for an afternoon. The effect this had was different local bands met each other, talked together, and networked. The shows increased pretty much on their own from that point on.

For an indoor venue, you might consider everything from the local firehall to the Elk Club - a lot of these places will let you rent for cheap, provided you can reassure them that there won't be any major property damage.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:23 AM on October 27, 2008

In our case, we invented a festival
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:24 AM on October 27, 2008

You've got to have the city/town council on board, in some way, so that they're supportive with all the legal stuff. There's nothing quite like trying to build a music and then having the city council turn the drinking age from 18 to 21 to promote a more "family like atmosphere."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:44 AM on October 27, 2008

In college, I lived in a fairly small town (Columbia, MO) with a distinct but growing music scene. Since I wasn't a musician, but wanted to be involved, I created a website that consisted of a band directory, messageboard, show listings, news items, photo galleries, and all that other stuff. It relied on members of the music community to populate the site with content. I'd like to say we had a really positive affect on the music community. Within two years, the site had over 10,000 members (1/7th the population of the city proper), and many bands formed as a result of meeting in our classified section. This was during the early 2000s. The site still exists, but I haven't lived in the town for several years and other people now run it. MefiMail me if you want the link.
posted by nitsuj at 9:45 AM on October 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

find out what events are happening in the college town - send a few of your bands out there to play. make sure they have flyers for upcoming shows in your town. make sure those flyers have coupons for the local (not chain) coffee house or pizza place. With the band send 20 or so fans (these can be other musicians) so they can cheer on your local guys and get others in the crowd excited. there are probably kids going to that school who live in your town or have parents that live in your town. college kids often get a wild hair up their ass to just go for a drive for a show. make sure that show is in your town.

find some all ages venues (back of pizza places, coffee shops, the record store, the indie bookstore) - those high school kids will be drinking age soon enough.

make sure you're using the social networking stuff to your best advantage - make sure multiple people are posting show details, writing about the shows after, and posting pictures on flickr. make sure all of this stuff is tagged well.
posted by nadawi at 9:45 AM on October 27, 2008

Are there any independent coffee shops? Try talking them into playing the bands to draw people there instead of Starbucks.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:39 AM on October 27, 2008

a friend of mine started a music festival, and i think that the defining thing was that everyone was welcome to participate. it's grown, and the town's music scene has matured as a result.
posted by RedEmma at 11:05 AM on October 27, 2008

Miko - one of the largest coups I ever pulled off as a restaurant manager was to work out a slick deal between a great band, a radio station, and the business I worked for (Redhook Brewery in Portsmouth, NH). The radio station (largest rock station in NH, can't remember their letters) wanted to have their Christmas party at our place. I wanted to have the band Rustic Overtones play at our bar once we got the live music rolling but they were way out of my league as to what I could pay for a band (I couldn't go over $500). So I offered a barter to the radio station, if they did a full-day on air promotion FROM the brewery I'd comp their entire Christmas party. Then I told the Rustic Overtones if they could play for what I could afford (plus about 20 cases of Redhook beer) then I could promise them full-day coverage from the station, including on-air interviews of members, etc. Both parties jumped at the opportunity. We had a packed bar, they got a ton of exposure, we totally ingratiated ourselves with the radio station, etc.

Is their a representative from Redhook joining your klatch? I just realized that "small city in New England" is in fact Portsmouth!
posted by vito90 at 11:15 AM on October 27, 2008

Oh god, is "there" a representative. I got so excited when I realized it was my old stomping grounds you were talking about.
posted by vito90 at 11:16 AM on October 27, 2008

I think you are likely talking about Portsmouth, NH (but my response maybe apt even if I'm a little off). Having lived there for awhile, I think the real problem is housing.

In the 70s and 80s that city was a magnet for the arts with lots of cheap housing and studio space, but now it is an extremely difficult place to live modestly. There are very, very few places available to rent and they are crazy expensive, not a good recipe to lure musicians when they can live for the same price in larger cities with more exciting scenes.

That said, you DO have a remarkably vibrant and established scene for such a small city and you should be really, really proud of that, but I'm not sure how you'll ever be able to hold on to that unless you can make it affordable to younger musicians.
posted by quarterframer at 11:29 AM on October 27, 2008

I'm afraid you may be right, quarterframer, and fortunately there are local groups working on the workforce/affordable housing issue. I guess we will cheer them on, and do what we can in the meantime.

Vito90, that's quite a coincidence! Strategic partnerships are a great idea. I don't know if a Redhook person was specifically invited, but if you have a contact there for me now, MeMail and I will send them the meeting invite.
posted by Miko at 12:06 PM on October 27, 2008

Portsmouth NH? I've never been there, but I know lots of people in your target audience who are there - submarine sailors in the shipyard. Is it easy for those guys to hear about and get to what shows you have? Possibly worth talking about.
posted by ctmf at 12:55 PM on October 27, 2008

Miko, do you happen to know why the Elvis Room closed? I assume it must have been unprofitable, but I'm not sure why, exactly. I do know that once it was gone, there was no longer any reason for my friends and I to drive to the coast from Manch Vegas.
posted by Greg Nog at 12:58 PM on October 27, 2008

submarine sailors in the shipyard. Is it easy for those guys to hear about and get to what shows you have?

I think the shipyard only ever has about 30 actual sailors present, and that's when they're on active duty here and their vessel needs crew. Most of the time they're not here because the vessel is just undergoing repairs. The majority of people who work at the yard are shipwrights or office workers, and they live in the community and have access to the usual local media.

do you happen to know why the Elvis Room closed?

My understanding was that the rent was raised and they couldn't meet their margin on live bands any more. It's a restaurant now.
posted by Miko at 1:30 PM on October 27, 2008

Seconding the all-ages venues (or even just opening up all-ages nights once or twice a week at 21+ venues) for bands, DJ nights, etc. I grew up in Denver in the '80s, and having a couple of consistent all-ages places for bands to play when we were in high school made a big difference in our experience in the music scene.
posted by scody at 1:58 PM on October 27, 2008

An all-ages venue sounds like a really great idea if you want to go bankrupt. For a venue to survive, it nearly always has to serve alcohol. I'm sure there are exceptions, but not many. You'd be better of gutting your basement, making friends with the neighbors, and inviting bands to play down there.
posted by nitsuj at 2:47 PM on October 27, 2008

An all-ages venue sounds like a really great idea if you want to go bankrupt.

All-ages venues can be tricky due to the no-alcohol issue, but plenty of music scenes in various-sized cities have them, even if they're not dedicated under-21 bars. You can have all-ages events in coffeehouses, community halls/centers, or in 21+ venues that might be willing (and legally allowed, depending on the local alcohol licensing laws) to do an all-ages night once a week or a couple of times a month. The main all-ages venues I went to as a kid in Denver were in the basement of the Littleton Town Hall and at the old German cultural center.
posted by scody at 3:43 PM on October 27, 2008

I think the shipyard only ever has about 30 actual sailors present, and that's when they're on active duty here

Most boats actually beef up the size of the crew a bit coming into the yard - they certainly don't send people away. You have 100+ for every boat that's there. Most of them in their 20s. Most of those like music.

I left Greeneville shortly before it came around to your yard. Most of the guys I knew said Portsmouth was nice, but dull.

That you're not seeing these guys, or even know they're there, is what I mean. Just a thought.
posted by ctmf at 7:59 PM on October 27, 2008

That you're not seeing these guys, or even know they're there, is what I mean

They might already be here and going out - I'm not sure I'd be able to tell them from any other passel of young men in town. 100 guys is not many, especially compared to the same age cohort at UNH which is in the thousands. I have worked with the Shipyard on various events and they tell us that active duty personnel hardly ever number more than about 200 these days, and that includes the one boat they usually have in as well as permanent billets there.

But the question I'm trying to ask is a bigger one. If the sailors are free to roam town out of uniform, they probably are doing so already, and if they're in a position to declare Portsmouth "dull," they basically must be currently exposed to all the same marketing every other 20something guy is. My question is not so much "how do I reach out to guys at the Shipyard" which is a small number of people in a specific age bracket who are temporary residents and could not form the central support for a music scene on their own, but "how do we activate event attendance by all people in this age cohort and other age cohorts to sustain an active music scene with well-attended year-round events in a diversity of music styles for a long time to come?" The Shipyard potential audience is not large enough that it's a specifically targeted sector. We need to identify ways to improve the infrastructure of the local scene with things like new venues, better use of venues, festivals, record labels, more show promoters, etc to improve the scene for everyone in a broad-based way.
posted by Miko at 8:24 PM on October 27, 2008

Follow-up: The meeting went extremely well. There was a long open-forum portion where local musicians and others involved in music could offer their ideas and questions. Strategies mentioned were:

-hosting a festival
-training people in the art of promoting shows
-encouraging the development of a midsize room that could accommodate 300-500 people
-creating a platform for conversation and brainstorming online
-making an effort to work better with existing venues
-considering the changing audience for live music and experimenting with different show formats and show times
-teaching bands marketing and self-promotion skills from the venue owners' point of view

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.
posted by Miko at 3:01 PM on November 30, 2008