Music Cities Resilience Report: What Vermont Can Do After COVID

Kat Wright performing at Higher Ground. Photo by Matt Bogosian.

During the COVID shutdown, a number of pundits, experts, and analysts across news platforms have made the pandemic an example of humanity’s adaptability. We’ve modified logistics and factory lines to produce more healthcare goods. We’ve shut down factories and learned to live with less. The latter inspired people like Jane Goodall to speak out and urge humanity to carry on adapting even after COVID: continue to cut consumption, limit our exploitation of natural resources, etc.

A similar movement has emerged in the art industry. Our post-COVID response will do a lot to dictate the future sustainability of Vermont’s music and arts community. COVID has placed an inordinate amount of strain upon small artists, with little support in place.

“How am I gonna connect with [audiences] and feed myself?” Craig Mitchell asked during our June 10 musician’s panel. Many musicians have seen their normal income streams altered or disappear altogether.

This struggle inspired Sound Diplomacy, a Europe-based consultancy, to create the Music Cities Resilience Report, which describes ways in which cities can support independent music scenes. The report was released this spring, and was done so as a direct response to COVID. The report focuses on preemptive steps cities can take to provide reliable income during normal operations and economic catastrophes. 

Somewhat as expected, the report cites relief funds provided in cities like Detroit and LA as a crucial step to saving and repairing artistic communities. This option is currently available in Vermont through emergency relief grants provided by the VT Arts Council and Burlington City Arts. Although a necessary boost following economic fallout, such actions are limited by immediate financial viability and are not guaranteed to all artists. They are a Band-Aid, and the arts community is likely going to need more than triage. As we’ve reported, 90% of independent music venues lack the funds to endure a shutdown lasting longer than 6 months. The Music Cities Report proposes viewing the music and arts as an infrastructure of intermingling components, as opposed to artists acting independently of one another.

Like how we take clean drinking water for granted—not recognizing the extraction, treatment, and piping necessary to deliver it—people tend to take music for granted, viewing it as the passionate production of a single artist. But this view is false. A singular song is the result of a complex path of goods, services, and education ending with the artist. The report lists some of the components of such an infrastructure: the design, creation, and production of instruments; lifelong music education; rehearsal spaces; recording studios; an industry or platform for sharing music (radio, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc.); venues for live music; and all of the auxiliary work provided by promoters, agents, security, sound engineers, tour managers, janitors, lighting and rigging teams, journalists, and more.

The point the report wishes to make is that the music industry is more than artists and venues. It deserves more attention and support.

The report cites “music cities” like Nashville, Austin, Berlin, and Dublin as examples of inequality in creative communities. Creative, artistic, and the “keep it weird” cities tend to attract more talent in non-creative fields, such as tech, by offering an enjoyable night life, painted downtown districts, and sonically pleasing streets lined with bars and buskers playing live music. These new high income jobs, the report says, will often displace wealth rather than add to it. Artists don’t see a return on investment: the effort they dedicated to beautifying their community is now hurting them because the new money coming into the community does not return to the artist.

This the report calls the Great Paradox. The paradox often disproportionately affects minority artists, who experience greater strain due to historical redlining, racially prejudiced housing policies, and other systemic disparities.

While Burlington, and the entirety of Vermont, cannot compare to cities like LA, Detroit, Dublin, or Berlin in terms of size, we can look for similar issues in Vermont and take inspiration from them to find solutions. When asked his opinion on whether or not Vermont fits the Great Paradox mold, Shain Shaprio, the founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy, agreed saying, “Vermont is an incredibly rich state when it comes to music and music heritage.  But the role of artists - in the widest sense of the word - hasn't been factored into how plans are made and executed.  This is compounded by structural racism and a lack of change, which disproportionately impacts BIPOC & those in the 'gig economy.'”

Shapiro has experience with Vermont artists and policy, as he also recently helped develop The Vermont Music Sector Report, which is available for download on our site. 

Even before COVID, the Vermont Arts Council recognized that the “creative economy needs a boost” in their 2019 annual report. Creative jobs increased by 8% locally between 2010 and 2018, and 14% nationally. Stagnation existed before unpredictable strain like COVID was placed on the industry, and will continue into the immediate future as live music venues will likely be among the last sectors to reopen. Local artists like Bishop LaVey (in our June 10 panel) have described live music’s return like a figurative Hunger Games, with the same number of musicians competing for a lower number of opportunities. Musicians will have to fight even harder to perform and sustain themselves. This is not an anomaly. It’s simply an exaggeration of a system which was already present.

We should recognize that most facets of society are struggling to adapt to our new world, but unlike most industries, music and the arts lack any form of reliable protection—nothing but emergency relief grants, which have their own shortcomings. 

The Music Cities Report proposes the above steps to address inequalities, income deficiencies, and other struggles aggravated and exposed by the onset of COVID.

How do we change this going forward? Looking past COVID with our new understanding of art as on the perceived fringes of society’s necessities, and yet imperative to the development of cities and local economies, how can we value the arts beyond the end product? How do we create new systems of support for artists which allow for more dependable income and support?

The continued application of relief funds is a start. As noted, Vermont music was already stagnating, indicating that increased investment may have been needed before the pandemic, and will thus be needed after the economy returns to its pre-COVID state.

But asking for grants and money is not a long-term solution. This method will always place artists in competition with each other and with administrations rather than uniting them. Anyone who’s had to ask their parents for money knows these problems: “I just gave you five dollars last week. What happened to it?” And then siblings start chiming in, “If they got five dollars then I want five dollars!”

One preemptive option is the creation of community investment vehicles. An agency would provide funds to artists, with the stipulation that a percentage of income received as a result of the artist’s project would return to the agency. Over time, these small bites of money would build up, and the agency would become a self-sustaining vehicle capable of providing artists with reliable income. This method promotes local investment, and creates a solution which unites both artists and functions. The drawback is its gradual return on investment, and its potential volatility during its early stages.

According to Shain Shapiro of Sound Diplomacy, it’s also an incredibly young idea in the music world: “The way I describe it, [a community investment vehicle] is new.  Never been done.  But there's many, many examples in the tech & app development world of the model.  Invest in a ton of companies, retain small equity in all and hope one or two break through.”

Groups like the Vermont Arts Council already provide a number of grants, and could prove an excellent starting point for such an effort. Redirecting or coalescing current funds into one reciprocating investment vehicle would create a long-term, reliable, and profitable solution.

The ultimate goal is to create a solution which allows artists to create music comfortably. As inspiring and ubiquitous as the starving artist life may be, there’s no reason for it to be common, even in times of economic strife.

Another way of boosting the music economy is to promote music tourism in Vermont. In Vilnius, Lithuania, a statue of Frank Zappa has become a tourist destination. Nevermind the fact that Zappa never visited the town, and has no connection to it himself.

If Vilnius can create a seemingly artificial music tourism industry, why can’t Vermont highlight it’s organic music scene? John Daly’s in-production rock opera Spit’n Lyon has the potential to create such an opportunity, as the opera connects a number of locations and characters from Vermont. He noted, following his interview on Rocket Shop, he has dreams of touring Vermont’s historical locations while listening to his revolutionary (era) opera. Likewise, he hopes others may also partake in this musical journey.

Other, already established destination events can also be expanded. Festivals like Otis offer an opportunity to draw in fans and business from outside of Vermont. If an expectation were made for these festivals to include a certain percentage of local artists, then they can boost the longevity and reliability of income for local artists. Grand Point North is already a model for this, as they feature many local artist.

The greatest issue with solving all of these problems is how interwoven they become. A housing crisis for musicians is likely a small subset within a larger housing crisis. As Shain Shapiro of Sound Diplomacy put it: “We can't single out musicians here.  It's about reordering support systems and structures…First thing is to provide health care, protect people's rents…lots of democratically socialistic things.”

In general, a more resilient and reliable partnership between artists, venues, and administrations could benefit all parties. Some cities have established Night Mayors who oversee night-time economies, focusing on bars, music venues, and other businesses operating after 7pm when music plays the loudest. Creating a form of direct management over what we’ll call the music, arts, and cultural economy is a fantastic step. Other infrastructures like energy, agriculture, and health receive secretaries and cabinet positions, so why not arts and entertainment? Why are the arts treated like an extraneous sector when many individuals clearly rely on them for income?

“Musicians need to be included deliberately,” Shapiro said. “So much so a musician is classified as an entrepreneur, not a vocation.”

Creating more resilient communities should become a secondary passion for Vermont artists. The struggles are clear, and it’s time for the groundwork to be laid. Consider opening discussions with local policy makers, or even one’s neighbors. Starting the conversation is the most important step, at the moment. Most headlines these days indicate that a moment of immense change is upon us, and the arts should not be left out.

Returning to a primary topic of our June 11 panel, and of the Sound Diplomacy VT Report, a majority of artists struggle to make ends meet. This is the case regardless of COVID, but during the pandemic communities with lower economic abilities are experiencing an inequitable strain. This is not just artists, but artists are a part of it. By uplifting artists, we can help not only ourselves, but those in similar situations. Big Heavy World has always done its best to act as an agent of change, and we want to be a platform for you, the artist. But this doesn’t mean you can’t act on your own.

In a recent post, we highlighted the National Independent Music Association’s efforts to #saveourstages and protect local music venues. See the bottom of that article to learn how you can help!

Vermont’s current restart plan indicates that no long term changes are in consideration post-covid. This is something we’re looking into, and this is not our last COVID-related report. All things considered, COVID will continue to be a topic for months more. Humans have a funny way of underestimating things. WWI was supposed to be quick—only a few months. Some said the same thing about COVID.

If COVID does become years-long test of endurance and fortitude, it’s imperative that artists stick together. Big Heavy World will always do its best to connect and include musicians, so Vermont’s music and arts community stays stronger together.

Text by Luke Vidic.