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City of Seattle
Mike McGinn, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: Mayor Celebrates Local Music Industry at EMP Grammy Event
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
2/9/2004 8:00:00 AM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Karin Zaugg, Office of Economic Development,
206-733-9810 / 465-8387 (cell)
email: karin.zaugg@seattle.gov
Office of the Mayor (206) 684-4000
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Mayor Celebrates Local Music Industry at EMP Grammy Event
Local music industry supports 8,700 local jobs, generates $650 Million
SEATTLE - Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the local music community today celebrated an important step towards supporting Seattle's music industry and its nearly 8,700 local jobs. The Mayor released the results of the City's economic impact study for Seattle's music industry, an industry that contributes nearly $650 million in revenues from its core industries to the local economy.
"Seattle benefits greatly from our vibrant and diverse music industry, from its economic and cultural contributions to its promotional value for branding Seattle," stated Mayor Nickels. "This study demonstrates that this industry is an important source of jobs and employment."
An economic impact study commissioned by the Office of Economic Development reveals that the Seattle music industry, in 2002, directly contributed nearly $650 million to the local economy, and when combined with revenue generated from businesses supporting the core music industries, generated a total of over $1.3 billion.
"Last year I created a new focus on music and established the Office of Film & Music to support the music industry," said Nickels. "I look forward to continuing to work with the music community to examine how we can better promote and grow Seattle's competitive advantages in creating, producing and performing music in our city, as well as improve the business climate for local businesses."
"I am very pleased that the music industry was identified as a key priority of the Mayor's first 100-Day Action Agenda," said Deborah Semer, Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy and member of the Mayor's Economic Opportunity Taskforce. "He has maintained this commitment and now we have a powerful statement in the Economic Impact Study and the creation of the Music Office to keep moving forward."
The study highlights that:
- The music industry supports nearly 8,700 jobs in Seattle, spanning a wide range of occupations, including musicians, composers, music distributors, promoters, teachers and audio engineers;
- The average wage of a music industry job in Seattle is $22,770 (combined income from multiple sources of work creates higher earnings than the average wage figure suggests);
- The Seattle music industry is comprised of more than 2,600 businesses in core industries and an additional 335 businesses in music-related industries;
- Seattle has competitive advantages that can be leveraged, including a strong level of community support, relatively low costs, a broad array of music styles and access to technology.
"We have evidence now that the music community is a strong local economic sector that produces jobs and significant tax revenues," said David Meinert, Owner of Fuzed Music and Producer of the Capitol Hill Block Party. "This study is a pivotal tool demonstrating that investments in the music industry bring not only cultural benefits to the community, but economic benefits as well."
"The economic impact study confirms what we already know - that Seattle's talented and independent musicians are leaders in the fields of music and film score recording," said David Sabee, President of Seattlemusic, Inc., a film scoring and music production company. "That may be why Dave Mathews, Evanescence, Fox, Miramax and Sony Pictures all have recorded here in the past year."
In addition to the Mayor's release of the Music Industry's Economic Impact Study, the Office of Film & Music launched its new music website solely devoted to the local Seattle music scene: seattle.gov/music. The website was developed over the last year in collaboration with the Music Advisory Group, a group of music industry leaders consulting with the Office of Film & Music.
For more information, please visit the Mayor's website at www.seattle.gov/mayor or the Mayor's Office of Film & Music's music website at seattle.gov/music.
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Office of the Mayor
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