Nov. 22, 2023
It's undeniable: the Taylor Swift effect is real.
Host cities on the first leg of Swift's The Eras Tour saw a huge influx of visitors — and cash. Over the course of 53 arena events, over a million "Swifties" spent an average of $1,300 to attend, including tickets, outfits, merchandise, travel, and food and drink. Swift's two-night run in Cincinnati saw hotel occupancy surge to 98 percent, with $2.6 million brought in from downtown hotel revenue in those two days alone. Los Angeles, which hosted the final six shows of the tour's first leg, saw a total economic impact of $320 million and 3,300 jobs created.
Swifties also were a boon to public transportation in many cities. Some agencies, including BART in the San Francisco Bay Area and SEPTA in Philadelphia, added additional late-night services to ensure that concertgoers could get home after the three-and-a-half-hour performance. The Los Angeles Metro even created a special trip-planning page for Swift fans, complete with lyrical references.
Museums saw a boost, as well. In Nashville, entry to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum sold out the weekend of her tour dates, and the iconic Ryman Auditorium offered discounted tours to Eras Tour ticketholders.
But none of this is happenstance, says Shain Shapiro, PhD, who is the author of the recently published book, This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better.
"How many articles have I read about the Taylor Swift–ification of Nashville, where people completely miss the point that Taylor Swift just didn't come out of thin air? There are decades of work behind her success story," he says.
Shapiro also is the founder and executive chairman of Sound Diplomacy, a consulting firm that helps drive economic and social growth by prioritizing music in cities.
Taylor Swift's fans aboard a shuttle bus, headed to her performance at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. In LA, as in other places, public transit adapted to meet the needs of concertgoers. Photo by Maggie Shannon/The New York Times.
Perhaps it's fair to say the two things influenced each other. Nicknamed Music City, Nashville's music industry has a $10 billion annual economic impact on the region and more music industry jobs — 56,000 — than any other U.S. city. Nashville is Swift's adopted hometown, as her family relocated from Pennsylvania when she was a teen to take advantage of the music opportunities there. What makes Nashville — or any other city — a place where music thrives? Shapiro, who was a recent guest on the People Behind the Plans podcast series from the American Planning Association (APA), believes the first step is a music policy.
More than noise
The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that music really does matter. "If it didn't, we probably wouldn't have relied on it so much to get us through some of the challenging times that we had," says Shapiro. That's why he thinks now — as cities compete for remote workers — is the right time for cities to enact music policies. Music typically falls into the amorphous category of "culture" when a city touts its quality of life, along with green spaces and nature or a thriving restaurant scene. But "music is one of these things that is never seen as deliberate or intentional in a city."
More often, music is regulated in terms of what it might come into conflict with. In London, where Shapiro is based, there is an "agent of change" principle that puts the burden on the builders of new developments near music venues to mitigate noise issues. A music strategy is "where music shouldn't be as much as where it should be," according to Shapiro.
That's why Shapiro is a proponent of "music policies for music purposes," the idea that music should be governed holistically and for its own sake. In many municipalities, music is governed by environmental health, land use and zoning, a cultural or entertainment district, or even alcohol regulations. But music is more than just a noise complaint or a live band playing at a bar. Shapiro argues that cities should think about music in all its forms — from children's choirs to music festivals to churches — to develop a policy around music that will meet city objectives. With a music strategy, a city can be intentional, rather than reactive, about incorporating music into the community.
Music for music's sake
Just as city planners might map green space, bike lanes, or zoning regulations, they should audit music infrastructure. "Knowing where every studio, rehearsal space, and venue is allows you to understand what is missing — or where there might be overcapacity," Shapiro says. That allows for the design of economic development policies that can attract or encourage the expansion of businesses.
"A music policy is really about data and evidence gathering so that music can be incorporated into decisions that are already being made in cities around design, planning, economic development, [and] tourism," says Shapiro, who also wrote PAS QuickNotes 102, "Music Policy and Planning."
Once the data is gathered, the goal of a music policy should be to better define the role that music plays in planning and to develop policies that proactively manage music. Shapiro says planners "need to recognize when music needs to be involved in a pre-application or planning approval process" so that a specialist can be brought in, if that's needed. When music is included in a policy from the beginning, it can be considered through evidence, rather than emotion, when there are sticking points.
Music audits or music policies can be written by consulting specialists, or cities can create a local authority responsible for music, such as Nashville's Music, Film, and Entertainment Commission or Texas's first-in-the-nation music office. Or take Huntsville, Alabama, which has a music officer within the department of Planning and Economic Development, working under the heads of economic development and long-range planning. Shapiro calls this "the ideal situation."
The results of a music audit determined there was enough demand in Huntsville, Alabama, to justify the building of a city-funded, $40 million venue, the Orion Amphitheater. Photo by Josh Weichman.
Huntsville takes the stage
Roughly equidistant from Nashville and Atlanta, both celebrated music cities, Huntsville commissioned Shapiro's firm to conduct a music audit and write a music strategy, completed in 2019. During months of in-depth research, Shapiro's team conducted roundtables in the community, and their survey garnered responses from over 2,000 residents. The results showed there was enough demand in Huntsville to justify the building of a city-funded, $40 million venue, the Orion Amphitheater. "The idea was to create a place that artists want to play and that audiences want to go," says Shapiro. "I think it's one of the best new venues in America."
Sound Diplomacy's music strategy also led to the creation of the Huntsville Music Board, which is tasked with fostering Huntsville's music scene, supporting music education, and advancing the initiatives identified by the music audit. In 2022, the city created the Huntsville Music Office led by a full-time officer. In October 2023, the Huntsville Music Office announced the Music Ambassador Program, a first-of-its-kind program that pays Huntsville-based musicians to promote Huntsville as a destination when they are on tour outside the city.
No one knows where the next Taylor Swift will hail from, but a growing number of cities prioritizing music could mean it's the start of an age. If a full music audit seems out of reach for your city, Shapiro suggests that there are easy first steps planners can take to fill that blank space.
"All planners need to do is recognize that a music ecosystem exists and write that it exists," Shapiro says. "That's the most important thing."
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