We just held our State of the Union address to kick off 2016 and it’s going to be a huge year!
Tina O’Hailey and the fine people at SCAD here in Atlanta allowed us to host the event in their theater.
Mala Sharma and Tammy Hurt, both co-presidents of GMP, pulled us all together to give us a run down of everything that has been accomplished in recent years.
GMP Accomplishments
- 2011 Commissioned an Impact Study that is often citied
- 2012 Planned the first ever Georgia Music Day at the State Capitol
- 2013 Clarified language to include music in qualified productions
- 2015 Produced a White Paper outlining opportunities for growth
- 2015 Created a music caucus to educate lawmakers on industry
- 2015 Launched Statewide Awareness Campaign Athens, Savannah, Macon
- 2016 Finalized Legislative Agenda to increase music industry opportunities
- 2016 Hire Legislative Affairs Team
- NOW: Introducing Music Bill to boost live and recording music jobs
Seriously… we are introducing a bill to our state government that if passed, will have a huge economic impact on Georgia music professionals, and the states economy as a whole.
Similar to the film tax incentive that was implemented several years ago, this new bill would allow a tax incentive to be used to bring the total cost of product down, while increasing the amount of work opportunities for Georgia music professionals.
The Economic Facts
Georgia Music already brings $3.7 billion in revenue to the State annually
$5 Billion when you add in live music and festivals and music tourism.
By comparison, the film industry is now citing a $6 Billion impact with 10 years of incentives behind them.
We are already off to a great start and with your help we can grow our industry!
Where are we at?
Currently we are finishing up the language to be presented as the The Georgia Touring/Live Event Investment Act & Georgia Musical Recording and Synchronization Incentive
Our main goal right now is gathering support to let our government know that this is a big deal.
We have a ton of support already. See the image below:
The language for the bill is being worked on, but the gist right now is a 20% transferable income tax incentive + 5% uplift for promotional video.
Minimum Expenditure: $300,000 of qualified expenditures on qualified activities.
To give you an idea of how that works, let’s say that one of your favorite artists decides they would like to start their tour here in Atlanta.
They’ll rent out a rehearsal space(Georgia owned business) for a month and start hiring Music Professionals to do the following:
- Audio engineers
- Lighting technicians
- Producer
- Directors
- Musicians
- Stage builders
- Stage hands
- Catering
- Wardrobe
These big artists are travelling with crews of over 100 people. That’s a TON OF JOBS!
Wouldn’t it be awesome if those jobs were Georgia music professionals?
Here is a look at many different kinds of jobs already being done in the music industry here in GA.
Georgia Music Day
Join us Wednesday, March 2nd at the State Capitol in downtown Atlanta.
9 am-1pm
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Songwriters, musicians, engineers and producers, music educators, music industry professionals and any one interested in growing the music industry.
Georgia Music Day is your opportunity to be a part of the collective voice of Georgia Music Partners as we address our lawmakers on the key issues needed to grow music in Georgia.
