During the recent Riyadh Music Cities Convention, Azucena Micó from Sound Diplomacy, led a workshop on crafting actionable plans for cities aiming to harness the power of music. This initiative underlines the growing recognition of music as a vital component of urban identity and economic growth.
In her workshop, Azucena emphasised that a well-structured Music Strategy is essential for cities, countries, or regions looking to cultivate a vibrant musical ecosystem. This strategy not only enhances cultural richness but also stimulates economic benefits, including job creation and increased tourism. The breakdown of a comprehensive music strategy encompasses various elements such as fostering artist communities, ensuring access to performance spaces, and engaging local audiences.
As cities around the world strive to become recognised as Music Cities, understanding the intricate components of a Music Strategy becomes crucial. In this blog post, we look into the key elements that make up a Music Strategy.
The Vision
Defining a vision is crucial to any project. The first step of designing a music strategy is always to determine what success looks like, what are the expected outcomes of the implementation of the strategy. Some key questions at this stage are: What do we want to achieve with this strategy? What stakeholders is it intended to benefit? What key city/region/state objectives can music play a role in accomplishing?
Regulatory Assessment
The regulatory ecosystem in a place is key to the success or failure of a strategy. If the regulatory and normative framework is not music-friendly –whether it’s for live or recorded music, education, copyright protection, funding, or collateral aspects such as transport– music ecosystems can not thrive. Analysing all relevant aspects in this sphere is key to understanding what is detrimental to the sustainable development of a music scene and industry in a place.
Listen to the players
A music ecosystem is formed of actors from many different sectors, both within and outside the music industry. Each faces challenges and also foresees opportunities for their music-related activity, and therefore it is important to engage them in the research process of the development of a music strategy, listen to them, and gather relevant quantitative data to determine the state of those active in the music ecosystem.
Mapping of Music Assets
A healthy and sustainable value chain is essential to the local development of a music ecosystem. Music stakeholders need to be able to collaborate with other professionals in their city if they wish to do so. When a value chain is broken, certain aspects of the music sector suffer and this affects negatively others. Equally, a high concentration of activity in a certain geographical area can have an impact on the music activity in other areas. This is why it is important to map all music assets in a place, understand if there are gaps in the value chain or if there is over-concentration, and analyse where music activity happens.
Value of music in the city
An economic analysis is a very efficient tool to analyse the state of a music ecosystem and determine what aspects require attention, what policies can be taken to support its stakeholders, and what are the main strengths of the music industry. Besides, gathering data on economic impact, job creation, and diverse employment, among others, is essential to developing an argument about the importance of the music sector in a local economy, which is usually underestimated, and how better support for the local music sector can lead to a greater impact.
SWOT Analysis
Once we have gathered all the information from the stages above, we are in a position to understand in great detail the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as the external opportunities and threats that a music ecosystem is facing. This analysis is a very effective tool to organise all the findings and conclusions that we have achieved during the process, and also to start designing an action plan. Out of the most relevant findings, for each strength we try to find a way to reinforce it, for each weakness we consider actions to improve them, for every opportunity we think of ways to capture them, and for every threat we anlyse if there is a way to face it.
If you're curious and want to learn some of the best practices for integrating music into city strategies, catch the Fayetteville Music Cities Convention from September 15-18, 2025. Whether you are a city leader, musician, or industry professional, attending this event will connect you with like-minded individuals and foster collaborations that can elevate your community's musical landscape. Join us in celebrating the power of music to enrich our cities!