New York Mayor aims to improve conditions for the city's music industry

For the first time, New York's Mayors Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) called together a meeting in effort to discuss the city's populous music industry business and find ways for the city to offer support and help elevate the music business as part of the city's booming entertainment sector along with film and television.

The congregation brought together a variety of professionals from lawyers to venue owners and promotors to label representatives and over 75 companies were in attendance.

The meeting seems a timely arrangement with the recent influx of news regarding multiple New York venues like Palisades and Brooklyn Mirage shutting down. Venue owners were able to express their concerns about the difficulty of opening new venues due to strict regulation and rules.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was previously involved in seeing similar concerns addressed for the film and television industry, and aims to use those successes to guide his future steps on helping the music industry flourish in the city.

"For the first time, the music industry is having an active discussion with the City about being a partner," an attendee said of the meeting to Billboard. "The [same] way the City partners with so many other industries."

MOME Commissioner Julie Menin pointed out that the entertainment industry provides 385,000 jobs in NYC, emphasizing the importance of this meeting and future discussions to come. "Not only do the media and entertainment sectors constitute more jobs, but more importantly media and entertainment are actually outpacing finance and insurance in terms of annual growth. So anything, for example the tax credit, is important, because it drives economic growth within the City, within this industry."

[Via: Billboard]

Valerie Lee is Mixmag's US Digital Editor. Follow her on Twitter here