Cedar Rapids Launches Music Industry Support Initiative. Here’s How to Get Involved

CEDAR RAPIDS — Known as the City of Music, Nashville is known for the sounds of honky-tonk and the birthplace of country. New Orleans is known for soulful swing and blue notes jazz. Now, Cedar Rapids partners are launching an initiative to improve the city’s local music ecosystem.

City officials announced Thursday they are launching the Cedar Rapids Music Census, a citizen-led initiative designed to collect data and gain a comprehensive understanding of the current strengths, opportunities and needs of the local music community.

The census is set to begin in September and last four weeks. Cedar Rapids Partners has hired Sound Music Cities, a leading civic-minded music ecosystem company, to administer the survey.

The city is working with Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, facility management company VenuWorks and the Cedar Rapids Tourism Bureau on the project.

The purpose of the census is to collect information on demographics, types of occupations, economic opportunities, career advancement, affordability, music-friendly regulations, financial support, and sense of culture and community.

“Music is a vital part of who we are. Musicians, venues, educators, technicians and promoters are all part of our music ecosystem, and we need to support these professionals to strengthen our local music scene and demonstrate the community’s commitment to the arts,” Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said in a statement. “The Cedar Rapids Music Census allows us to understand our music ecosystem so we can support broader efforts to make our live and local music scene even stronger than it already is.”

How to Get Involved in the Cedar Rapids Music Census

For more information or to become a partner or community engagement ambassador, visit CedarRapidsMusic.com.

The census will cover the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, including Linn, Benton and Jones counties. Anyone 18 and older who is part of the Cedar Rapids music ecosystem, regardless of where they live, can participate when the census opens in September.

With this data, city leaders and the broader community can make data-driven decisions to support and grow the Cedar Rapids music scene.

Don Pitts, founder and president of Sound Music Cities, told The Gazette that the data will be used to create an action plan this fall that will guide Cedar Rapids moving forward, including examining regulatory practices and funding, and helping local organizations understand their role in helping the music industry thrive.

“The Music Census will be a significant milestone in the development of our local music scene and will demonstrate the community’s commitment to the arts,” City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said in a statement. “It will reveal opportunities to better support local musicians and venues, increasing access to live music in Cedar Rapids.”

The city is seeking the participation of social partners

The Cedar Rapids Music Census team is reaching out to community partners and ambassadors to help conduct a comprehensive study of the live music and entertainment ecosystem in Cedar Rapids.

The project invites civic organizations, media, the public sector, businesses, music educators, arts organizations, festivals, bands, and individual musicians to become partners and spread the word about the upcoming music census. Those interested in becoming a community partner or ambassador can do so by signing up at CedarRapidsMusic.com.

Collecting data and direct feedback from music industry stakeholders helps understand the struggles venues and musicians face, Pitts said. For example, the data can flag regulatory challenges and other obstacles city officials could change.

“There’s a scene there,” Pitts said. “… They just never asked, what do they need?”

Pitts brings 30 years of experience in the music and entertainment industry to his job. He earned the nickname “The Sound Whisperer” while serving as head of the Music and Entertainment Division of the Austin Economic Development Department, where he reduced sound complaints by more than 70 percent.

Sound Music Cities has already helped conduct similar censuses in cities across the country, including Nashville, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.

Music unites the community

Pitts said too often those involved in the music scene are “invisible,” especially as cities emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t think cities will really understand or experience the value of this until it’s gone,” he said. “… It takes a village to reach out, to connect with a lot of these people.”

To date, Sound Music Cities has held initial small-group sessions with music ecosystem participants, including venue owners, musicians and others in the Cedar Rapids industry, both virtually and in person to gain a basic understanding of the city’s music scene. More meetings will be held this fall after census data is collected and a roadmap is created.

The process will help decision-makers understand where music infrastructure is needed. It will provide “opportunities for everything from emerging artists to mid-level artists who are performing in the region and live in Cedar Rapids,” Pitts said.

While the census looks at the ecosystem outside of downtown, the effort aligns with the city’s new Downtown Vision Plan, which calls for more entertainment and a vibrant, mixed-use urban center. The Downtown Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District Commission, which represents downtown property owners who pay a tax to improve the district, also set a goal this year of increasing the number of live music venues downtown.

Pitts said Cedar Rapids could host a music festival downtown featuring all local artists as a way to draw people to the heart of the city and promote local talent.

Downtown Cedar Rapids is seeing a lot of conversions of empty offices — emptied by permanent changes in work patterns caused by the pandemic — into apartments and other uses. Pitts said that as the city’s downtown is redeveloped, the growing entertainment districts and residential amenities could pose challenges.

Pitts said that based on the experience in Austin, changing the city’s sound ordinance could go a long way. He said it’s important to foster communication, outreach and education on both sides — both residents and music industry stakeholders.

Residents felt empowered by a dashboard the city used during festivals that showed decibel levels, for example. In Cedar Rapids, he said, perhaps a sound curtain at the McGrath Amphitheater on First Street SW could keep bass from hitting the waters of the Cedar River and carrying sound across the river to downtown residents.

He added that the ultimate goal for Cedar Rapids is to build a community around music.

“Music brings people together,” Pitts said.

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