Madison is Music

GMMC is a collaborative effort to inclusively and equitably strengthen Madison’s music ecosystem. Global music consultant Sound Diplomacy and GMMC drafted the Music Recovery Framework. The Framework makes 17 recommendations to provide economic recovery, music resilience, and inclusivity. You can see the full report here.

GMMC is working with two subgroups to strategize around issues related to:

• Tourism, Artists, Performance Equity
• Business and Economic Development

Participants represent organizations such as:

• Artists and arts centers,
• Performance spaces,
• Music producers,
• Businesses,
• Government, and
• Community organizations.

GMMC is gathering feedback from the community and exploring implementation of the Music Recovery Framework.

The Madison Arts Commission has requested and received additional funding to support GMMC from the City of Madison Room Tax Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Wisconsin and others to help fund the work of GMMC.

For more information, visit Greater Madison Music City. 

Outdoor Music Guide (OMG) and #MadisonIsMusic Social Media Campaign

The City created the OMG to help musicians understand the different types of permits that may be needed to perform outdoor live music.

The #MadisonIsMusic campaign launched in September 2023 to support outdoor music. It is an initiative to:

• Promote cultural tourism,
• Highlight downtown spaces available for performances, and
• Strengthen Madison’s reputation as a vibrant music city.

The campaign has featured over 15 performances by local musicians since it launched, primarily during the first half of September.

Are you a performer who would like to showcase your talent in Downtown Madison?  Apply for the Downtown Performance Space Permit.  For more information visit the Parks Division website.

Make Music Madison

Make Music Madison is a free, one-day, city-wide, distributed music festival held annually on the Summer Solstice (June 21). The goal of the event is to encourage people of all ages, experience levels, and musical persuasions to celebrate the solstice with live music. "Music" is whatever live sound an individual or group wishes to produce, and whatever the hosting space accepts. The festival is inclusionary in terms of genres, ethnicities, styles of music, skill levels of musicians, and in the use of public and private spaces throughout our community. Madison started participating in this global celebration of music on Friday, June 21, 2013. There now are over 1000 communities around the world celebrating the Summer Solstice with a music as part of #makemusicday.

Musicians of all ages, creeds, and musical persuasions-from hip hop to opera, Latin jazz to punk rock perform in public places including sidewalks, plazas, patios, bus transfer points, parks and gardens. Make Music Madison is “performed by anyone, enjoyed by everyone” and brings our community together to experience the power and joy of live music.

For more information and to sign up for announcements, visit Make Music Madison.

Music Education

The Madison Arts Commission (MAC) reserves about a quarter of its annual grant funding for  youth arts and music education. MAC also partners with Any Given Child Madison to increase access to music and arts education in the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Task Force on Equity in Music and Entertainment (TFEME)

The Task Force on Equity in Music & Entertainment (TFEME) made recommendations to the Mayor and the Common Council to improve Madison’s reputation as a welcoming music and entertainment hub

The TFEME report was accepted by the Common Council in 2019 included 31 recommendations related to:

• Increasing access to Hip Hop and all genres of music,
• Building our music infrastructure, and
• Supporting artists.