Published
Fri, Jul 1, 2016, 17:44
- A new initiative will address problems with opening and operating music venues, among other challenges.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio has laid out plans to improve conditions for the city's music industry.
The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) held a summit on Tuesday to determine how the city can better support its music businesses. Billboard reports that they convened representatives of over 75 companies (labels, recording studios, musicians, PR firms, etc.) to talk about the challenges they face in NYC—and potential solutions for moving forward.
The news comes four months after the appointment of a new MOME commissioner, Julie Menin. At that time, de Blasio also announced that the office—which previously focused on film, television and theater industries—would expand its purview to include music, advertising and digital content industries. It's a nod towards considering music as a significant economic driver.
Tuesday's attendees discussed logistical issues faced by venue owners, a topic that also came up in RA's June feature about real estate, gentrification and nightlife in the Big Apple. Two Brooklyn clubs, the 5000-capacity Brooklyn Mirage and the more intimate Palisades, were both shut down in the last month due to legal issues with the city.
"When opening up new businesses there are a lot of different agencies to deal with and a number of different regulations," Julie Menin says in the Billboard article. "So one of the ideas that we discussed was to have someone in the office to almost serve as an expediter to help navigate different regulatory requirements." They also discussed new state legislature, the Empire State Music Production Tax Credit, which offers tax breaks for the recording of musical projects in New York State (it's still waiting to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo).
MOME's initiative is in its earliest planning stages, and it's unclear who will benefit from this increased attention. "It seems like a great step, an acknowledgement by the city that music is an important part of its culture and economy," says Justin Carter, co-founder of the label Mister Saturday Night and partial owner of the newly opened backyard bar Nowadays in Ridgewood, Queens.
Others are less optimistic: "75 music entities were invited to a meeting concerning 75,000 music industry workers," says Ric Leichtung of AdHoc Presents, one of Brooklyn's most prominent event promoters. Neither he or Carter had heard about the meeting before I reached out to them. "If you do the math you'll see that only ten-percent of the top one-percent are getting seats at the table, so small businesses who need the help don't have a voice here… Nonetheless it's a step in the right direction and good will come of it, but it'll take time."
MOME commissioner Julie Menin was unavailable for comment at publishing time.