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IMPROVING THE INDIE SCENE

A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR LEXINGTON, KY

INTRODUCTION

Indie music holds the largest share of the global music market and is a multibillion dollar industry. On a more local scale, indie music can contribute significant revenue to small American cities by way of locally owned independent record stores and live venues and festivals. Each of these elements, with the addition of the people involved in indie music in a variety of capacities, exist within a centralized location known as an indie music scene. Collectively, these scenes can generate massive amounts of revenue through music sales, ticket sales, tourism, and various other business offerings. For the small cities in which these scenes operate, this income can be imperative. Cities like Athens, Georgia and Omaha, Nebraska serve as examples of successful, money-making scenes that emphasize indie rock music. By replicating and modifying the methods these cities employed to develop working indie scenes, Lexington, KY can attain similar levels of success that would benefit the scene both culturally and economically. This strategic plan serves as a model for Lexington to follow in order to best develop a rich, thriving indie music scene.

WHAT IS THE INDIE SCENE?

Music scenes are greatly dependent on a tight-knit community centered around a particular location. Many scholars who study indie music trends agree that one of the scene’s quintessential aspects is a “specific geographical location,” which is the foundation a local indie scene is built on (Kruse 628). Within this locale, bands form and perform, fans interact with one another, music is recorded and produced, businesses sell and promote this music, and all participants engage with nearby local businesses, creating “spatially-based cultural agglomerations of human and physical capital” (Seman 33). This localized flow of interpersonal and monetary exchange creates a sense of community and an efficient economic cluster.

MISSION

To develop Lexington, KY's local indie music scene so as to make it more economically stimulating for the local economy by centralizing the scene, involving non-music businesses, and enquiring city assistance

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