Detroit is known as one of the world’s great music cities, thanks to rich legacies like Motown, rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop, techno, and more.
However, it could be better.
Exactly how is what organizers behind The Greater Detroit Music Census hope to find out.
The survey aims to support the local music industry by seeking input from a wide swath of it, including artists, producers, managers, venue owners and workers, teachers, members of the media, and more.
“This has never been done before in Detroit or Michigan,” says Kevin Kay of the Detroit Music Collective, which worked with the national organization Sound Music Cities to bring the survey to Michigan after successful surveys in cities like Nashville, Cleveland, and New Orleans.
The Greater Detroit Music Census launched in Michigan on Feb. 3 and was originally intended to close March 3, but organizers recently decided to extend the deadline to March 22 in order to get as much feedback as possible.
“The momentum that we have right now has been great and we didn’t want to stop,” Kay explains.
So if you’re 18 or older and you work in the local music industry, either on the stage or behind the scenes, you are welcome to take the survey. Organizers are trying to cast as wide of a net as possible to get the big picture.
“We felt that nobody really truly knows the music ecosystem here,” Kay adds. “There’s never been any hard data to say what’s working and what’s not working.”
To that end, the Detroit survey is a bit different than the others. Given the sprawling nature of our metropolitan region, the survey was open to respondents from a 75-mile radius from Detroit — including people from as far away as Toledo, Ohio, or Ontario, Canada, as long as they work in the Detroit area.
Kay says the survey has been helpful in offering ideas for improving local music industries; in Nashville, artist frustration over the availability of spaces to load gear to and from venues was presented to the city’s mayor’s office, and survey results in Cleveland led to the creation of a live entertainment task force.
The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete or longer, depending on how deep respondents want to go with it.
“We want people to be truthfully honest with this,” Kay says. “If there are problems, say it. This is your opportunity to use your voice. … The more people we can get to take the census survey, the better our data is going to be.”
Once the survey is completed, the results will be shared publicly though a report, Kay says.
“We’re hoping that people take some time and use their voice,” Kay adds. “And be heard.”
The survey is available at detroitmusiccollective.com.
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