Chattanooga Music Census
From the Chattanooga Tourism Co. –
The Chattanooga Tourism Co., in partnership with the City of Chattanooga and ArtsBuild launched the Chattanooga Music Census this fall. The Chattanooga Music Census, funded through the Lyndhurst Foundation, is a community-led initiative to gain a better understanding of the current needs of Chattanooga’s music community. It will capture key information about the local music economy and help the city and community to make more informed, data-driven decisions to support the music ecosystem.
The Census group seeks industry partners to join in connecting the Chattanooga-area music community with the Census and to share the results when available. Learn how to become a Chattanooga Music Census partner at ChattanoogaMusicCensus.org.
“Chattanooga is a deeply musical city, but too often we don’t think of ourselves that way,” says Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “As mayor and lifelong music hobbyist myself, I want to see our creative economy expand, but for that to happen, it’s crucial to understand the human dimensions of our musical assets, so I encourage all Chattanoogans involved in music to complete this survey.”
“Music is a vital component of our culture, heritage, and arts initiatives at Chattanooga Tourism Co. The Chattanooga Music Census will help support our local musicians and the music community. This, in return, will benefit venues, restaurants, festivals, and our entire community,” says Barry White, CEO and President of Chattanooga Tourism Co. “The survey results will give us a clear understanding of the needs to cultivate equitable growth in music within our community.”
The Census will be administered by Sound Music Cities, a leading provider of music ecosystem studies and music census work. The survey should be completed by all those ages 18 and older who work in the music industry at any capacity and live in Hamilton, Marion, and Sequatchie counties in Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties in Georgia. Responses are requested from musicians, venue owners, music nonprofits, music business professionals, nightlife service providers, creative service providers, support service providers, music educators, and beyond. The completely anonymous results will be released in early 2023.
Annually, Chattanooga hosts more than 15 million visitors who spend $1.5 billion in one year in our community. On an average day, that’s roughly 40,000 visitors in town. 15,000 of those visitors stay the night in our hotels and spend $4.1 million per day on entertainment, shopping, dining, and more. In addition to directly supporting our local businesses, visitors are temporary taxpayers who save every Hamilton County household $828 per year in taxes.
