In mid-January 2025, my friend Kemet Coleman wrote a public letter titled "A Musician’s Plea: Three Actions Kansas City Must Take Now” posted on the website of his Vine St Brewing company. If you haven’t read it yet, go and do that now.
I wholeheartedly applaud Kemet for his leadership in bringing the many needs of the music ecosystem into the spotlight through his platform as a musician, community leader, and business owner. He has both the business acumen and the musical experience to know what he is talking about. He cares deeply about Kansas City, and he has a vision for its future. Those are critical ingredients, embodied in a creative, innovative person, which is what this effort needs.
Read more about Kemet & Nick
Read more background about the Lawrence Music Alliance
While the plan outlined in Kemet’s Three Actions has so much merit, I have learned a few things from several years of this work, which should be shared before we embark on community solutions to the problems facing our music ecosystem.
1. We don’t have a leadership problem, we have a grassroots problem.
Through the Kansas Arts Commission’s Music Ecosystem work, I’ve facilitated music community discussions in a half dozen cities across Kansas. Throughout all the varied conversations, I’ve noted which topics were systemic and endemic, and which were unique to a specific community.
The biggest challenge was universal: the music community is disconnected and under-resourced. Anyone who pays any attention to music knows this. If you are a musician, you generally know exactly what you need to work towards your goals. The problem is that no-one appears to care enough to ask, or has the tools to implement impactful programs over the long run.
Where do you go to find out where to see live music tonight? How do you learn about new releases for local artists? Do you know how much is a fair ticket price for a three band bill at your local rock club? How can I get financing for my music business venture? These are simple questions whose answers are deeply hidden within a system that doesn’t know how to value or support independent artists creating and thriving in their music community.
If we want to support the music ecosystem starting tomorrow, we need to direct funds through existing organizations who have a track record of doing great work centered around empowering artists. If you’re a musician in our region who’s takes music seriously, you’ll already know this handful of excellent non-profits, and the great work they do:
Supporting these organizations or attending their programs and events is a really great place to start.
2. Music ecosystem development is slow. And it should be.
It seems to be a defining characteristic of a flailing industry: to bring the hot new idea or artist from rags to riches and plaster them everywhere. However, art-making is generally slow, and the work of building sustainable support for artists is necessarily even slower.
We use the short-hand of The Next Big Thing as a placeholder for what we’d like to see in our community, but anyone with a little bit of experience knows that the moniker is as thin as the gig flyer it’s printed on.
When people talk about a city wanting to be the next Austin, it’s a great door opener to a conversation about what that really means. What did Austin learn about the reality of being the music capital of the world? How long did it take and what lessons did they find out along the way?
While we might like to see the next New Artist Grammy-winner like Chappell Roan come from Kansas City, we should also probably listen to the current Chappell Roan when she describes how hard it was to get health insurance while she was plying her craft on the way to success. Do you know how independent, full-time musicians get health insurance?
If we’re not doing the slow, sometimes thankless and laborious work of asking these questions and creating collaborative solutions, then we’re just turning cogs in a system that has a track record of exploiting and undervaluing its core creative class.
Correcting this is a long, long game. The sooner we start, the sooner we can make the impact we wish to see. Connect with an organization listed above, or join the Lawrence Music Alliance for next steps.
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel, and don’t pay a premium for its blueprint
There are tried and tested successes that we can learn from. The Music District and the Bohemian Foundation in Fort Collins, CO has impactful connective programming and facilities that foster the development of a thriving scene. Live Music Society is filling a crucial gap in the national ecosystem by offering extremely rare grant funding to for-profit small and medium-sized independent music venues. The National Independent Venue Foundation offers vital opportunities for young people to gain work experience and skills in music while instilling values to redress some of the most problematic aspects of the industry. Tulsa’s FMAC recently created a Tulsa on Tour ambassador program that trains artists to promote their hometown while on tour, offering vital support for independent touring artists and supporting tourism and culture at home.
All of this and more is possible while noting that the work is slow and must be built with sustainable, committed mechanisms in place. We should have learned by now how vulnerable efforts tied to a given elected office can be, and huge ideas that come along quickly can be dissolved just as quickly. The talent is out there, but trust takes time for effective coalitions to be built.
4. Music Ecosystem Development is about building coalitions, and we need you.
A lesson I learned from my favorite textile artist and Kansas City legend Nedra Bonds: always show up and always bring a friend.
It’s simply stated, eloquent and true. But most importantly, it’s vital to any community-building effort.
It also relies on a related idea: respond to the invite.
I’m writing this in response to what I consider an invitation from Kemet Coleman. Yes we need to take action now, and we need to listen to our community and bring each other along collectively. That means offering the invitation and showing up when invited.
At the heart of effective community organizing is the tried and tested work of coalition building. It involves sustained effort, commitment and trust. The good news is that when you start talking about the music ecosystem, it’s quickly apparent that the impact is wide and far-reaching. Music touches everything.
Cities have taken all manner of innovative approaches on this, from having a night-time economy representative like New Orleans’ Night Mayor as a figurehead to bring together music, night-life, dining and entertainment. Cities’ Parks & Rec Departments are learning the role they can play by integrating arts & culture and expanding the city’s stake in the creative economy.
Businesses and the private sector are at the core of any industry. We can support, empower and organize, but as consumers, patrons and fans, we must spend money and reinforce the value in our local creative economy. Go to see live music. Share a favorite track or local music playlist on social media. Dine out where live music happens, and visit the merch stand.
5. Manifest your own next steps. We have suggestions.
March 2025 is Music Business Month in Lawrence, KS. An initiative led by the Lawrence Music Alliance, with support from NetWork Kansas, we are inviting anyone who would like to connect with the music industry to join us for our virtual and in-person programs.
We’re taking on taxes, grants, gender equity, and entrepreneurship training, and providing experts and industry leaders to join us.
Our open office hours every Wednesday at Lawrence Public Library (11:30am to 1pm) are a chance for discussion, questions and collaborative answers.
If this is something you are passionate about, feel free to join us at one of our upcoming events, or shoot us a message a lawrencemusicalliance@gmail.com.
Comments