Center for Music Ecosystems director Shain Shapiro has delivered his verdict on the explosion of music tourism in an interview with IQ.

The music tourism market is projected to reach US$267.85 billion by 2030, according to a recent global report.

But Shapiro, whose music market development consultancy Sound Diplomacy is known for pioneering the idea of the ‘music city’, has mixed thoughts on the industry’s buzzword of the moment.

“We held our first Music Tourism Convention in 2016, and this year it’s in Anguilla, and I do feel since then, music tourism has expanded as its own thing,” he says. “But it is too focused on ephemeral live experiences, rather than holistically being embedded into a broader place strategy that also looks at what the impact of the tourism is on the local community.”

Shapiro wrote a guide to music tourism for the UN in 2018, breaking down the term into three types: primary (“The Taylor Swift effect, going to Liverpool because of The Beatles”), secondary (“Visiting in general and incorporating music”) and tertiary (“The impact of music more broadly, such as buskers, playlists and so on”).

“I don’t see that holistic way of looking at it has been as successful as I had hoped, because tourism boards’ metrics are about selling hotel rooms,” he continues. “I also haven’t seen many cities re-invest the spoils that music brings into music itself. It’s still too opportunistic, short-term and I feel, could use a lot more thinking around it.”

“Music to me was often subject to many regulations, decisions, and priorities within communities, without having a seat at the table to explain why it mattered”

Shapiro is heading to Japan for a book tour between 22-27 July to coincide with the Japanese release of his acclaimed 2023 publication, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, which has sold more than 5,000 copies and been translated into Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Portuguese, as well as an audiobook.

“When I started writing the book, we’d worked with about 80 cities at Sound Diplomacy, and I still felt everyone faced the same unique challenges,” he says. “Music to me was often subject to many regulations, decisions, and priorities within communities, without having a seat at the table to explain why it mattered or how it could be best integrated into broader city goals. So I thought compiling the good, the challenging, and what I learned into a book would be a worthwhile endeavour.”

Translated to Living in Music City and published by Blkswn Publishers Inc, the Japanese version of the book features a foreword from Takahiro Saito, the lawyer and entrepreneur behind the abolition of Japan’s ‘no dancing’ law. It will be the first book ever published in Japan on music and urban policy.

Shapiro has announced tour dates in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Kawasaki and Kyoto, all of which will feature a presentation on the book and a discussion with local leaders.

“I can’t tell you how excited and honoured I am,” he says. “This will be the fourth of five translation releases and admittedly, I am a bit of a Japanese culture obsessive, so a publisher seeing value in this for the market is genuinely something I never expected and something that I take very seriously.”

“I believe now, more than ever, the concept of city and place-based music policies are more understood”

Since Sound Diplomacy organised the first Music Cities Convention in 2015, Shapiro describes the amount of work done to make live music “part of a civic conversation around planning, licensing and tax” around the world as “immense”.

“We often forget that simply being part of the conversation takes years of lobbying and now there’s words like ‘grassroots music venue’, ‘agent of change’ and ‘night time economy’ that are part of the civic lingua franca, which wasn’t the case a decade ago,” he adds. “Also, when you read the new industrial strategy, it’s evident that music, and especially live music, is a strategic priority for the UK government.

“We still have significant challenges – be it grassroots investment, arcane licensing and continued lack of understanding of how music truly works and the economic benefits it brings. But I believe now, more than ever, the concept of city and place-based music policies are more understood. I think my book’s contributed to this, as part of the broader canon of work around the world.”

Through his nonprofit global research and development organisation Center for Music Ecosystems, Shapiro has launched the Music Economy Development Initiative in partnership with the IFC (the private arm of the World Bank), Global Citizen and UMG.

“It is a research portal that provides policymakers, governments, and private sector partners with research, economic data, case studies and frameworks to map music’s potential in combating extreme poverty,” he says. “I’m also writing my second book, planning a podcast and a live events series, all focusing on how music can be a tool to make life better for everyone and continuing to chair Sound Diplomacy, which is working on cultural real-estate development projects around the world.”

Shapiro’s Japanese book tour will make the following stops:

22 July: Tokyo Node Cafe at Toranomon Hills, Tokyo, 6pm
23 July: Kudan House, Tokyo, 6pm
24 July: CIC, One Fukuoka Building, Fukuoka, 6:30pm
25 July: Supernova, Kawasaki, 4pm
27 July: FabCafe, Kyoto, 2pm

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The Music Cities Network and the Center for Music Ecosystems have announced the launch of new think tank, the European Music Policy Exchange (EMPE).

EMPE, which follows an award via the EU-funded MusicAIRE scheme, is billed as the first think tank to integrate and enhance the role that music plays across EU city priorities. It will cover jobs and skills, education, climate action, infrastructure, tourism, the night time economy, diversity and inclusion and strategic planning.

A number of best practices will be developed between European cities and international experts through a series of eight themed roundtables held between September 2022 and April 2023, in partnership with Reeperbahn Festival, Eurosonic Noorderslag and other supporting partners. The findings will inform the publication of the first EU Music Cities Policy Handbook to offer solutions, best practices and frameworks to incorporate music into the heart of local policy.

“It is important that music be linked, explicitly, to the most pressing challenges we face in our cities and places,” says Dr Shain Shapiro, founder and executive director for the Center for Music Ecosystems. “How music can support climate action or welcome immigrants is just as important as how we can create a robust music industry that is fair and open to everywhere.

“We believe cities hold the power to creating better frameworks and we look forward working with the Music Cities Network, our partners and cities, to making this happen.”

“We believe that a holistic approach and interlinked mindsets are key to future-proofing music cities”

Two of the roundtables will be held in person – Reeperbahn on 21 September and Eurosonic in January – and the rest online.

The project aims to include representatives from cities in every EU country and the UK by the time of its culmination in April 2023. Participating cities to date include Aarhus (DK), Amsterdam (NL), Aveiro (PT), Barcelona (ES), Bergen (NOR), Berlin (GER), Brno (CZ), Brussels (BE), Cortona (IT), Gothenburg (SE), Groningen (NL), Guimares (PT), Hamburg (GER), Hannover (DE), Kalmar (SE), Lausanne (CH), Leiria (PT), Liepāja (LT), London (UK), Manchester (UK), Mannheim (DE), Nantes (FR), Norrköping (SE), Paris (FR), Reykjavik (IS), Sydney (AUS), Tallinn (EE), Valletta (MT) and Veszprem (HU).

“We believe that a holistic approach and interlinked mindsets are key to future-proofing music cities,” adds Music Cities Network MD Lena Ingwersen. “That is why we are very excited to launch the European Music Policy Exchange together with the Center for Music Ecosystems to be able to bridge the gaps between the city’s music scenes and policy makers.”

The roundtables will be led by the Music Cities Network, the Center for Music Ecosystems and co-facilitated with creative specialist Kaospilots, each focused on a specific policy area. Two will be held in person (Reeperbahn and Eurosonic) and the rest online.

Each policy area will comprise a chapter of the handbook, written by the Center for Music Ecosystems. The handbook and all findings from the roundtables will be published in 2023 and made available to all cities and communities.

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