The Northeast Tennessee Music Census will begin next month

BRISTOL, Va. — Tennessee leaders announced plans Thursday to conduct a census of the music scene in the state’s eight northeastern counties.

Registration is now open and counting is scheduled to begin on May 1 and run through June, organizers said. The final report is expected in August.

The project involves multiple state agencies, including the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development and the East Tennessee State University Research Corporation, working in collaboration with the Birthplace of Country Music, which hosted the announcement event Thursday at his museum.

Locally, BCM is involved with Northeast Tennessee Tourism, Sync Space, Launch Tennessee and Dobyns-Bennett High School bands.

“The data will provide a baseline for our policymakers, agencies and the larger community to help identify the strengths and challenges of this unique ecosystem so that community leaders and stakeholders can build an intentional strategy for growth and to support this strategy through informed policy decisions and funding,” said Bob Raines, executive director of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission.

The study area includes eight counties, from Sullivan and Johnson in the east to Carter, Washington, Unicoi, Hancock, Hawkins and Greene in the west. It will not include Southwest Virginia.

“The value of the Northeast Tennessee Music Census will help ignite a range of activities, strategies and sustained support for music in Northeast Tennessee over the long term. On a larger scale, this will help promote and promote music as a greater tool for economic development,” Raines said.

Officials understand the impact music has on the economies of cities like Nashville and Memphis, but music is also making an impact in this area.

“Music contributes over $6 billion to our economy. You all know how important it is,” said Stuart McWhorter, Tennessee Economic Development Commissioner. “Over 61,000 Tennesseans are employed in the music and entertainment industry. We are number one in employment in the music publishing industry and number three in record production and distribution.”

Much of that has to do with music tourism, according to Mark Ezell, tourism development commissioner.

“An estimated 141 million people visited Tennessee for music in 2022, representing nearly $29 billion in spending. Of that, Sullivan County realized $535 million in economic impact, generating $33 million in state and local taxes, economic growth and jobs,” Ezell said.

The initiative invites civic organisations, media, public sector companies, music educators and arts organizations across the region to become community partners and help spread the word about the upcoming music census.

Effective immediately, they are invited to visit the NETNmusic.com website and register as a “community partner.”

“These community partners will help network, distribute, promote and participate in the Northeast Tennessee Music Census. The data we gather from this census will ultimately enable the music community – and the community as a whole – to take ownership of this initiative and become an active part of the solution to any challenges we may identify during this census.” , Raines said.

After the announcement, Raines likened the process to developing a map.

“We need to create a road map so that all politicians and decision makers can make informed decisions about what laws they want to introduce and what kind of funding to develop our initiative around music,” Raines told the Bristol Herald Courier.

“We want to talk to stakeholders and leaders to see what we already have here? What are the assets? So where are the gaps? These are the policies that should help us or the policies that should be removed,” he said. “Where should the money be invested in the right way?” So what are the possibilities here, five or ten years into the future, that we should start building foundations for now?”

Raines said the music census will include the demographics of musicians and the venues where they perform.

“We want a really clear picture of what kind of places do we have? What musicians are there? What are they doing? How do they make their money? Where does this money go?

“Next, we want to look at the businesses involved and how they interact with the community,” Rained said. What are the direct effects of music and what are the indirect effects of music and how does that filter into the economy here?’

The ultimate goal, Raine said, is to help build music as a tool for economic and community development.

Sound Music Cities, an Austin, Texas-based organization, developed the music census and will administer it, according to founder and president Don Pitts.

He created the census a decade ago while working for the city of Austin and has worked with cities across the country to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of their music scenes over the past eight years.

“We’re gathering the data they need — data from lived experience and matching it with government data that exists to really tell the story,” Pitts said. “City leaders, city governments, nonprofits can help create data-driven solutions to some of the challenges.

Most of their work has been with individual cities, but they are currently completing a census that includes five neighboring cities in Northeast Arkansas.

“What’s exciting here is its regional. There are three cities, but Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport are unique,” ​​Pitts said. “We want to learn how this region functions as an ecosystem, which parts perform better, and we’re excited to see where the data takes us.”