All Over the Charts: Georgia’s Original Gig Economy Is Calling

By Carol Badaracco Padgett, Eddie Award-winning writer and editor.

Featuring some of the country’s most diverse sounds, Georgia’s music industry is literally all over the charts. Ray Charles. Usher. Ma Rainey. Luke Bryan. TI. Gladys Knight. Collective Soul. Little Richard. TLC. Otis Redding. Future. Curtis Mayfield. R.E.M. OutKast. Jason Aldean. Ludacris. The B-52’s. The Allman Brothers Band. Widespread Panic. Indigo Girls. Ad infinitum.

Georgia’s musical mix of unprecedented talent and influence is so astoundingly singular that when someone says their name, it kicks off a surging soundtrack in your head. It’s so completely stratospheric in every genre that even the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has 27 Grammys.

“Music is an artform with a living legacy in Georgia—one that’s pulsating forward and expanding as you read this in every corner of the state,” says Mala Sharma, co-founder and President of Georgia Music Partners (GMP), the music industry’s advocacy coalition in the state. “Music has an overall $5 billion economic impact to the state, and I think it’s evenly split between live and recorded music. We’re the biggest global exporter of music. Music creates jobs—in small communities around the state [as well], in theaters and live music venues.”

Sharma, who’s working alongside GMP’s membership and supporters to advocate on behalf of Georgia’s music scene, has seen successes in helping create music commissions in cities and counties around the state in places like Macon, Columbus, Braselton, and others. “We’re seeing more and more investment by cities in the form of building amphitheaters or expanding arenas and music festivals.”

The depth of Georgia’s music industry is staggering even outside the realm of public entertainment, events and tourism. It is as much about education and the jobs that enrich Georgian’s futures as it is about the talent and entertainment revenue alone. “We have 48 secondary music programs around the state,” Sharma says. “We’re educating the talent and the business professionals.”

Yet, Georgia risks losing these businesses to other states, says Sharma. “It’s awesome that we’re the No. 1 place to do business, and I’d like to see us be the No. 1 place to do music business, as well.”

As much as film and digital have benefited for the past 10 years from state legislation that entices outsiders to bring their business to Georgia, the state’s music industry and its advocates would like a piece of that pie. And they would very much like to work alongside film, digital and the gaming industries so that the whole of Georgia’s Creative Economy is working together in concert. “Without some sort of investment—whether tax credit or marketing to attract businesses—we’re falling behind,” Sharma says of Georgia’s music industry.

And yet, Sharma says Georgia is continuing its efforts to fortify music education at all levels and expand upon it in creative ways. “I co-chair a development task force with Andrew Ratcliffe, [founder and CEO of Tweed Recording Audio Production School in Athens, Georgia], and we’re drilling down with the Georgia Music Educators Association to try and evolve [music] with entertainment and where it’s going.”

Just as the film world in Georgia has spawned countless educational opportunities for students to train and work in the industry—without relocating outside the state if they choose—the music industry has capitalized on the opportunity to provide a world of technical career opportunities to adults and to children as they choose career paths. “It’s less about a traditional [educational approach] and it’s become more of a technical skill,” Sharma says. “So there is a focus on teaching engineering and technical skills for those who want to be part of the music industry moving forward. And this is key.”

The future workforce is a combination of technical and creative people and the words “gig economy” come to mind. “That started with music, right?” Sharma says. “In Georgia, we’ve proven we’re fertile ground for creating music that is the soundtrack to the world.”

As such, Sharma would love to see music viewed as a strategic component of the overall creative arts that are vastly improving the quality of life for people in Georgia—one seen for the tremendous economic impact that it provides to the state’s creative, increasingly gig economy.

To read more from The Creative Economy Journal, visit here.