In recent years, Memphis has had no shortage of music-industry
organizations looking to help shape the city’s scene. The city boasts a
very active regional chapter of the national Recording Academy, a
government-funded Memphis & Shelby County Music Commission forever
trying to find its footing, and the Memphis Music Foundation, a private
group spun off from the commission that has in the past year ramped up
its staff and programming.

Is another large-scale music organization really needed? According
to the 32-and-counting local music businesses that have come together
to form Music Memphis, the answer is yes.

The organization had its genesis at last year’s South By Southwest
Music Festival, where Third Man guitarist Jeff Schmidtke organized a
Memphis music showcase with help from his music-enthusiast friend Eric
Ellis. In the process, they struck up a relationship with Louis Jay
Meyers, a SXSW founder who relocated to Memphis a few years ago as the
executive director of the Folk Alliance.

Back in Memphis, the trio called around to local music businesses to
organize meetings with the purpose of finding out how everyone could
help each other. Music Memphis was born.

“Music Memphis is a collection of Memphis music business, primarily
focusing on people who deal with consumers,” Meyers says. “It was
created with one purpose in mind: Put butts in the seats, get people
into record stores, create more activity for local music
businesses.”

Among the 32 local entities listed as Music Memphis members on the
group’s website are record stores (Goner, Shangri-La, Spin Street,
Cat’s), clubs (Hi-Tone, New Daisy, Minglewood Hall), labels (Makeshift,
Madjack, Archer), music stores (Amro, Memphis Drum Shop, Guitar
Center), and other organizations (Folk Alliance, Memphis Rap.com, Live From Memphis).

Despite the crowded field of music organizations in town, Meyers
thinks Music Memphis has a niche of its own.

“We’ve worked hard not to be redundant,” he says. “Our goal is not
to supplant other organizations. My experience is that most
organizations in the music industry tend to be focused toward the
artists. We’ve got people promoting Memphis to the world, and we’ve got
people helping musicians with career development, but there was nobody
dealing with the consumer aspect of the music business.”

Right now, Music Memphis is a pretty loose-knit group, but Meyers
says the organization will be applying for legal nonprofit status and
will be forming a board of directors. Most funding, however, is likely
to be internal.

“A goal was for us not to pursue funding from governments and
foundations and stuff like that,” Meyers says.

For Meyers, Schmidtke, and Ellis, all transplants to Memphis,
motivation seems to be getting more locals participating in and
appreciating the city’s music scene, with Meyers and Ellis both citing
outreach and cultural development in East Memphis and the suburbs.

“Jeff and I are both from New Orleans, but I’ve never been in a city
that, across the board, in so many genres, has this much talent,” Ellis
says.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve had a real music city in America, the
way Austin was at one time and Seattle was at one time,” Meyers says.
“Memphis has the ability to be that music city.”

Here are some of the first initiatives Music Memphis is focusing
on:

Memphis Music Night at Grizzlies Games: The organization has
created a partnership with the Grizzlies to program a “Memphis Music
Night” at one home game each month this season. The first one is on
Saturday, November 22nd, against the Utah Jazz. Local music acts will
perform throughout the arena — in the lobby, in each of the
four restaurant/lounges, at halftime, and for the national anthem. In
addition, the Grizzlies are supplying game tickets for Music Memphis to
distribute among its member organizations to use as incentives to drum
up business.

Music Memphis Card: The organization is working on a discount
card to be purchased from member organizations and to be used for
discounts and other opportunities to drive business. “Let’s say
Minglewood Hall has a show, and they know they’ll have about 300
tickets they aren’t going to have sold,” Meyers says, providing an
example.

“They could have a 2-for-1 special for Music Memphis card-holders.
The idea is direct promotion to consumers.”

TV Show: The most ambitious of projects Music Memphis has
announced is the development of a weekly local-music television
program.

“It’s gone through a metamorphosis,” Meyers says of the project’s
status. “We’re in the process of confirming the venue to shoot it in.
We don’t know exactly what the final product will be like. It will have
a live element but will be pre-recorded.”

Meyers says the group has been offered a weekly timeslot with a
local network station. “I believe we’re looking for a pilot episode in
December with a goal of launching on a weekly basis in mid-to-late
January,” he says.

It sounds like a daunting undertaking for a new organization that
currently lacks funding or central leadership, but Meyers says the
television piece is key:

“We feel like we need the TV show to market everything else. We
don’t want to be preaching to the choir. We want to reach the people
who aren’t going out to clubs.”

South By Southwest: Promoting Memphis at Austin’s South by
Southwest Music Festival was part of the origin of the Music Memphis
idea, and Meyers, Ellis, and Schmidtke plan on building on this
pre-existing relationship, working with the Memphis Music Foundation on
“a massive Memphis presence at SXSW,” according to Meyers.

“As Music Memphis, we’re producing a second showcase and working on
other unofficial events, but in a complementary role with the
foundation,” Meyers says.

“Last year, when Jeff basically organized that whole thing, about a
month later, SXSW called us and said, ‘We need what you did last year
on paper.’ They’re taking what we did last year to other music cities
and selling it: ‘Look at what Memphis did. You can do this.'”

MySpace.com/MusicMemphis