Music policy and how government and music interact have made headlines more often than usual recently.
There are lawsuits by the Department of Justice and states against Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, for behaving as a monopoly. Ticket resellers have made the live entertainment experience more complicated to access, streaming services have reduced the ways and amounts musicians are paid, and prices for everything seem to be going up. These illustrate some key ways legislation and policy can support or hinder a thriving music industry.
In this article, we dig into how state and local policies can support musicians, venues, and music businesses.
This interaction is more complicated than just finding and supporting talent development. The music industry, and especially the live entertainment industry, intersects with regulation at almost every level. This includes alcohol licensing and sound permitting, real estate development and zoning, and tax policy.
Fortunately, there can be shared inspirations and solutions.
Don Pitts, founder of Sound Music Cities“The regulatory friction live music venues experience is structurally similar across nearly every American music market. Which means the policy responses can be shared.”
Knowing the Landscape
Getting the data on your individual city or area can help drive understanding about policy solutions, create opportunities for engagement, and build interest in collaborative problem solving. And getting people in the music industry involved in local government is important to head off well-meaning but poorly designed policies.
Here are some resources that offer insights on what is happening globally, for you to act locally.
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Dig deep into your local scene.
One way that local governments can better understand the composition and needs of their music industry is through a music census. Sound Music Cities has a census cohort model that has supported mapping engagement in over 20 cities, including Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cedar Rapids in the Midwest. The census maps who is participating in the music industry, what gaps exist, what the music industry feels it needs—and can kickstart policy discussions.
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Find out what’s worked for others.
There are also additional resources for knowing what has worked in other communities. Sound Diplomacy is a global consultancy on music industry and policy questions, including market research and economic impact assessments. Sound Diplomacy’s founder Shain Shapiro is also the author of a book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, an accessible look at several cities around the world and how they are using music policy to support thriving economies.
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Talk to people doing this work.
Music Policy Forum supports gatherings and research in the United States to share policy best practices and opportunities. VibeLab is a European-based research firm working on what makes for successful nightlife scenes and nighttime economies.
Local governments have a lot of levers to pull when it comes to investing in the music ecosystem.
Local governments have a lot of levers to pull when it comes to investing in the music ecosystem.
Bringing People Together
Part of the power of government is to convene people. Creating formal and informal mechanisms for music industry professionals to be engaged in policy questions can be an effective way to build relationships and good policy.
These gathering opportunities do not need to be permanent, but they can lay the groundwork for more work to come. Here’s how some communities approach building this space:
- Since 2010, Seattle, Washington, has had a formal Music Commission, a dedicated advisory body with 21 appointed members offering insight on music policy questions, hosting meetups and networking events, and helping streamline city processes.
- Texas has a program to help support that grassroots approach, with the Music Friendly Cities certification. Created in 2016 and administered through the Texas Music Office, the program establishes a liaison within city government for music issues and a local advisory board, and offers training and support, as well as a Texas Music Directory to support local businesses.
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa, took its music census and developed a Music Ecosystem Action Plan, which included the creation of a Music Task Force. This task force helps coordinate amongst the venues, schools, and other community assets in Cedar Rapids, and also looks to other way to support the music scene, including finding new ways to support journalism and publicity around music events.
- In 2025, Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs hosted a Minneapolis Music Summit as an opportunity for disparate parts of the music ecosystem to come together around panel discussions and networking, and to connect directly with city staff about needs.
There are any number of ways to bring together the music industry and government, but music often needs a champion in local government to make things happen. That can be a passionate council member or a dedicated staffer but if you don’t see that person, you might have to be that person—like Portland, Oregon’s Jamie Dunphy, a touring musician elected to the City Council, or María Isa Pérez-Vega, a rapper from St. Paul, Minnesota, who served two terms in the House of Representatives.
Mitigating the Noise
One of the key sticking points between local governments and the music industry, especially the live entertainment side, is noise. A bar letting out late and disrupting the neighborhood, a festival on a city street, sound can carry and cause tension with residents.
Washington D.C. became a national story around this issue in 2019 following noise complaints from new residents in a neighborhood where D.C.’s go-go music had been a long-standing part of the character of the neighborhood.
The city’s response? The Mayor’s office highlighted the historic nature of go-go, commissioning murals and issuing proclamations.
The city council took that a step further, and in 2024, passed two ordinances to address the issue.
- One ordinance created soundproofing standards for new residential construction in mixed-use corridors and entertainment districts. It also set higher requirements for buildings within 300 feet of a performance venue, putting the onus on developers, and not on venues and musicians, to mitigate noise effects.
- The other ordinance clarified sound policies, noise ordinance jurisdiction, and set up payment plans for violations. 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.
Auditing and streamlining policy is something that city staff, consultants, or a task force can approach. Simple tools like actually setting sound levels and using decibel meters for enforcement can make a big difference.
Cities can be proactive and supportive in making these changes, because happy residents and thriving small businesses are good for the economy.
The New Orleans Office of Nighttime Economy has a Tune Up Grant Program, which offers venue consultations and up to $5,000 in capital support for noise mitigation efforts. These small investments can have a big impact in a local scene.
Reducing Costs & Direct Investment
Local governments have a lot of levers to pull when it comes to investing in the music ecosystem.
This is especially the case for live performance venues, which intersect with local government around venue licensing, ticket and alcohol tax, and other regulatory questions. It is also a matter of critical importance to local scenes and independent venues.
64%
of independent venues
operated without profitability in 2024.
The recognition of this need has spurred action. And not all direct investments or rebates need to be driven by venues or live performances.
- In 2026, the Cleveland city council approved eliminating an entertainment tax on small capacity live entertainment venues that hold up to 750 people. The tax had already been waived for venues holding 150 people, but advocacy from the sector had pushed for that to be extended to larger venues.
- Texas has a state-wide music office, which has been critical to some larger-scale efforts. The state has created a Texas Music Incubator Rebate program, in which eligible, licensed venues and festivals can apply to have a portion of their beverage taxes returned to them. The program is set up to support venues under 3,000, or festivals under 100,000 that offer regular programming and pay artists to perform, incentivizing reinvestment in local talent. The program returned $10.1million to 180 venues and festivals in the last year.
- The Tennessee Entertainment Commission offers music incentives and rebates, including the Music Scoring Grant. The grant underwrites film and television scoring projects that use Tennessee talent for music projects.
Supporting Policy for Local Scenes
City and state government can also play a key role in supporting local scenes against the threats of consolidation and monopoly.
State attorneys general were key in carrying on the case against Live Nation when the Department of Justice opted to settle. In district court in New York, 33 states and the District of Columbia won a judgement that Live Nation’s practices controlling all aspects of the tour, venue, and ticketing business amounted unfair business practices.
This has also played out a local level.
- Portland, Maine’s city council voted this year to adapt their zoning laws to block a proposed Live Nation venue that would have been in direct competition with a locally owned venue. Maine is also the only state to cap resale fees on tickets, with a law capping resale at 10% over face value, undercutting resale, speculative ticketing, and scalping. Other states have proposals pending, including a proposed law in Minnesota to cap resale at 15% of face value.
- Tom DeGeorge, owner of the Crowbar in Tampa, Florida, and advocate with the National Independent Venue Association, made the case for supporting local venues in testimony to U.S. Congress. “These small rooms that we have, that aren’t the corporate giants, are the community spaces in every neighborhood across the country, and they are corroding. They are dying. They are falling apart,” DeGeorge stated. “Something serious has to happen, or we are going to lose our venues. And if we lose our venues, the bands are going to suffer, and the fans will suffer. To have a healthy ecosystem, everything has to start from the bottom up, and not the top down.”
What’s Next?
None of these policy changes happen in a vacuum, or without a lot of grassroots, collaborative effort. If your local government isn’t actively looking at the music industry as a driver of the local economy, they need to be made aware.
The State of Live research highlights that independent venues across the country contributed $86.2 billion dollars to the U.S. GDP, and supported 908,000 jobs.
Collaboration can sometimes be hard in an industry where margins are thin, attention spans are short, and resources can feel scarce. But finding common cause and making space for local organizing can be key to get legislators attention, and make space for bigger conversation.
Efforts like Twin Cities United Performers, and other campaigns can invite people into the conversation first, before making policy demands and recommendations.
Sustainable progress only comes when we find ways to work together, says Michael Bracy, founder of the Music Policy Forum. “The biggest factor in catalyzing music ecosystem,” he argues, “is the recognition that stakeholders exist across all sectors of a community — musicians, music businesses, venues, government, philanthropy, non-profits, educational institutions, and the broader business community all have a role to play.”