Last November I had written about Huntsville, AL efforts to support the local music scene on a pretty granular level – house concerts in the city’s neighborhoods. The city was providing guidance on everything from noise ordinances, forming LLCs, liability insurance, and ticketing platforms.
About a week ago, Arts Midwest posted about research performed by Carl Atiya Swanson about music policy in different cities and states. In general, each of the locations is trying to preserve local music resources, some of which are being threatened by corporatization.
Some of the efforts involve surveying/taking a census of the general music landscape of the communities and creating networks and lines of communication so that musicians and venues can communicate with each other and the government.
Some of the efforts have involved really clarifying the parameters of noise ordinances and who can enforce them. As Swanson wrote regarding Washington D.C.’s 2024 ordinances
This represents one of the lowest hanging fruits for local government around noise issues—simply getting to clarity around who is responsible for noise policy, response, and enforcement.
This resonated a bit with me because I had gotten a call a few weeks ago from someone who was getting complaints after they started offering live music. He wasn’t sure what the city ordinances were and wanted to know how we avoided complaints for our outdoor concerts. (Short answer, we don’t. People complain but we are well within the ordinance for both time of day and decibel level.)
Apparently New Orleans offers consultations and grants for noise mitigation work.
Other municipalities provide tax relief for small venues (Cleveland) or partial refunds of alcohol tax for venues and festivals (Texas).
There are links to many of these programs in Swanson’s piece if you are interested in learning more.
