Cleveland is a nice place to live and make music – for now.
That’s one takeaway from a new study about Greater Cleveland’s music ecosystem. It’s being presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Greater Cleveland Music Census had 2,768 musicians, club owners and industry professionals answer questions on everything from quality of life to quantity of work. The number of responses was about twice that from similar surveys in Columbus and Sacramento.
“Cleveland is a music city. Columbus is not in the same way,” said Sean Watterson, co-owner of the Happy Dog tavern in Cleveland and the driving force behind the project. “We don't have that infrastructure here yet, and I think it’s doing this research and being able to say, ‘We're not just telling you it's a good idea. We've asked people and this is what they want.’”
The 24-page report was created by Sound Music Cities of Austin, Texas, with a $25,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation. The survey results show that the region is very livable for music professionals: 91% have health insurance and 66% own their housing. Yet, 54% of respondents were most concerned about a lack of music work. Musicians could also use support in areas such as social media and generating non-touring revenue.
“Making sure that you're getting your music licensed and that you're getting paid when it's being used and performed,” Watterson said. “If you say that this is valuable and valuable to the identity of Cleveland as a music city, whether you're keying that off the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or the Cleveland Orchestra, that diversification of revenue streams is a workforce development issue.”
Overture to conversation
One limitation of the survey is 86% of respondents are white and 6% are Black, which doesn’t match the region’s population, covering not just Cuyahoga County but also Lake, Lorain, Geauga, Medina and Ashtabula counties. Akron, Canton and Youngstown are under consideration for a separate study in the future.
Black respondents did report slightly higher average pay from touring gigs than their white counterparts: $346 versus $311.
Watterson said the new report is not the end of the work, but the beginning. The venue association plans to follow up “led by folks from the Black music community to help interpret the data and make recommendations.”
That extends to LGBTQ+ music professionals too: When broken down demographically, the question-by-question responses found they have less satisfaction with elitism and ageism.
“It's valuable information to have because you can't fix things if you don't see that there's a problem," Watterson said while presenting the results to other venue operators on Tuesday. "So, we encourage folks to look at this, and then, as we look to do more work specifically with Black musicians, the LGBTQIA musicians and respondents... this data will be important. It will be important to hear why these perceptions are there and what we can do to change it."
All you need is cash
Watterson co-founded the Cleveland Independent Venue Association and is board secretary for its national counterpart. Since the COVID pandemic, he’s worked alongside Cindy Barber of the Beachland Ballroom and Liz Maugans, co-founder of Zygote Press, to increase funding to for-profit venues.
A similar music survey was conducted in 2011, which spurred changes in how Cleveland charges admission taxes at small venues. Now, Watterson is hoping to see the creation of a funding source for both music venues and comedy clubs, irrespective of tax status.
“For the most part, we’re for-profits that bring performers in, put them on a stage and sell drinks,” he said.
The majority of respondents support the idea. Even more, 76%, would like to see Cleveland create an office of music economy similar to ones in Austin, Tulsa, Memphis and Nashville.
During Tuesday’s meeting with venue owners to present the survey results, Watterson noted that housing has become less affordable in some of those cities as the music industry has taken flight. The report found that about two-thirds of creatives are most concerned about the cost-of-living increasing and wages not keeping up.
“We've all seen what happened, whether it's San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Texas, or even now in Nashville, once the real estate prices start taking off,” he said. “Cities that were built on music very quickly become unaffordable for musicians. Venues start closing. You see… a real negative impact to the local music ecosystem.”
That’s among the topics of community discussion at Thursday’s Rock Hall event, where additional efforts to support the music community are expected to be announced.
