New Guide to Vermont’s Music Industries is Published

A new interactive directory of Vermont’s music industries has been published to bigheavyworld.com, a website celebrating the original music of the state. It is the result of a collaboration between Big Heavy World, Vermont’s independent, volunteer-run music office, and Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, where students provided research to update and expand the music sector content. The new directory was coded by Stone Environmental in Montpelier. The project was supported in part by the USDA’s Rural Business Development Grant program, designed to provide technical assistance, training and other resources for small rural businesses.

The new map-based guide shows the music sector ‘ecologies’ of five regions of the state: Southeast, Southwest, Central, Champlain Valley, and the Northeast Kingdom. It includes filterable listings for broadcast media; festivals; instrument shops; music venues; print media, record labels, record stores and recording studios. Future additions will include instrument makers, music-specific healthcare providers, and other sectors recommended by the music community and public. The directory is free to the public. As a community-driven arts nonprofit, Big Heavy World welcomes anyone to reach out if they have updates or additions to this first draft of the living document, info@bigheavyworld.com.

NVU-Lyndon Students work together on the new Vermont Music Sector Directory. Left to right: Cameron Delouis, Christopher Finn, AJ Gonzalez, and Charlotte Morris.

NVU-Lyndon Music Business and Industry program students Cameron Delouis, Christopher Finn, AJ Gonzalez, and Charlotte Morris participated in the project as paid interns in the university’s Learning and Working Community Initiative. They researched diverse information sources to update and broaden directory content. Funding for these internships was awarded to Big Heavy World by the USDA as a Rural Business Development Grant. Gonzalez said, “I take a lot of pride in being part of working with fellow students on this project. It was my first internship within the music industry and I hope there is a lot of public benefit that comes from it. It’s really exciting to be able to attach my name to something so publicly available and beneficial.”

Joe Gittleman, NVU-Lyndon Associate Professor, said, “NVU’s Music Business and Industry students benefit from our partnership with Big Heavy World in many ways. But with this particular project, students played a crucial role in identifying Vermont’s music industry resources. These resources of course represent opportunities for our students so it was really cool to be involved.”

The new Vermont Music Sector directory.

The new directory is a modern web application. It was developed and is hosted entirely within the ArcGIS Online environment, which provides a suite of tools to develop, manage, analyze, and present spatial data within a Low Code/No Code platform. It’s built upon Esri’s ArcGIS Dashboards, and utilizes Python based ArcGIS Notebooks to interface with information in a shared Google Sheet document that’s managed by Big Heavy World volunteers.

Technically, The Google Sheets document is accessed and transformed into spatial data through ArcGIS Notebooks, creating a web-based point layer for each entry which is hosted within ArcGIS Online. This point layer feeds into the ArcGIS Dashboard, which provides an interface for the public to query the data based on region, sector, and business name. For any entry in the directory, the user can view the name, sector, town, phone number, email, and website of a business.  The data in the dashboard is automatically updated weekly.

Warren Rich, a Project GIS Specialist at Stone Environmental, said, “The ArcGIS Online platform is an excellent tool to help develop Low Code/No Code web applications at a low cost. It’s ideal for this project, making the directory usable and appealing for anyone that uses it.”

The Vermont 2020 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy makes special note of Arts & Culture as a ‘Priority Sector’ for its contribution to quality of life. James Lockridge, Big Heavy World Executive Director, said, “Vermont is taking notice of how critical the arts are to the state’s economy, social wellbeing and brand. Investments in public resources like this music sector directory reflect these values and show that many Vermonters can benefit when diverse allies work together.” Lockridge also coordinates the Chittenden County Zone of the Vermont Creative Network, a collective of organizations, businesses, and individuals working to advance Vermont’s creative sector. The VCN recently released an action plan for advancing the state’s creative sector, ‘CreateVT,’ which identifies arts, culture and creativity as essential infrastructure.

Big Heavy World is an independent, nonprofit volunteer-run music office serving the state of Vermont. Founded in 1996, it has leveraged a technology-heavy D.I.Y. ethic and inclusive philosophy to support musicians and advance the music sector, preserve Vermont’s music legacy, and empower young adults in an environment that focuses their passions and intellect. The organization was selected by an international jury to receive the 2020 Music Cities ‘Best Global Music Office Award.’ Learn more at bigheavyworld.com.

Northern Vermont University is a two-campus institution of higher education that combines the best of these campuses' nationally recognized liberal arts and professional programs. At Northern Vermont University, the goal is to guide curious, motivated, and engaged students on their paths to success and their places in the world. NVU Online offers flexible, affordable, high-quality options for learners pursuing their bachelor's and master’s degrees as well as certificates. NVU offers a full range of associates, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees as well as credit and non-credit certificates and professional development courses. Learn more at NorthernVermont.edu.