Export Consulting – Music Export Memphis

Is your city ready to empower artists and grow impact?

Music Export

In cities and places with music heritage and vibrant music scenes, our musicians are one of our most compelling exportable assets. In doing what they do so well, they carry the contemporary stories of our cities forward — they promote our cities while they’re on the road, and they make them more desirable places to live while they’re home.

An innovative approach to music export creates real value for artists, builds revenue streams and grows your music economy, while also attracting tourists and talent. Music Export Memphis, led by Founder Elizabeth Cawein, can help bring this to life in your city.

Place-based music programs

Successful programs fill gaps, meet real needs, and are complementary – not duplicative. We have almost a decade of experience building smart programs that meet the unique needs of a music community and seize on the unique opportunities of a city or state. We’ll build on existing models from our own work while also taking a truly bespoke approach, crafting programs that are specifically and uniquely suited to grow your music economy and export your assets.

Place-based music programs, when they center artists and are executed well, can impact myriad areas of interest for the leaders in your city or state, from economic development to tourism to creative placemaking and cultural preservation. If we can consider the return first, we can build investment.

Recent projects

Culture Ireland

Culture Ireland engaged MEM to redesign its reporting tools to better capture and understand the return on investment for its programs. The organization has been funding Irish musicians to showcase around the world for years - but knew that they weren't capturing the full scope of that impact. Through working sessions with the Culture Ireland team and its partners, we reviewed existing forms and processes and identified gaps. We built simplified and strategic survey instruments and designed a new reporting process for Culture Ireland and its delivery partners to provide cleaner, more usable data, reduce staff time for data cleaning and interpretation, and capture new metrics around creative and career impacts.

Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Art and Culture

After running a successful grant program for the music industry during the height of COVID, Tulsa FMAC was ready to think about how support for individual artists could exist post-pandemic. They engaged MEM to provide insight on building a pilot for a tour granting program, with a focus on brass tacks: applications, eligibility, artist agreements, sponsorship strategies and more. Through a series of working sessions and post-launch support, we helped bring Tulsa on Tour to life.

Huntsville Music Office

MEM was hired by the Huntsville, Ala., Music Office, under the leadership of Music Officer Matt Mandrella, to craft the first-ever U.S. city-funded Music Ambassador Program. We engaged artists and industry in the city to understand the unique opportunities for the market and its musicians, building not just a funding mechanism for artists but a civic engine to power and change the narrative of Huntsville's cultural scene throughout the country. Through working sessions with the Music and Communications Offices, one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders, site visit and musician engagement, we helped from the Huntsville Music Ambassador Program (MAP) to life.

”“It has been so exciting to see ‘Tulsa on Tour’ have the success it has had so early in the program, helping dozens of artists get on the road, share their music and tell Tulsa’s story. Elizabeth Cawein’s advice, expertise and experience with Music Export Memphis helped take the project to another level. Having such a skilled director in our corner, willing to share the lessons learned over the rollout of her own successful program, was crucial to bringing ‘Tulsa on Tour’ to life.”
Natalie BowlingManager, Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts and Culture

Ready to get started?

We take on a limited number of projects each year to ensure appropriate capacity and to build truly bespoke place-based music programs.