When Sean Watterson began the process of surveying and collecting hard data on Cleveland’s scattered music industry in 2023, there was a holy grail concept atop his wishlist.
When the results of the Cleveland Music Census were collected and released, Watterson’s dream was corrobated by the reactions of fans around him: We also want to see a music commission at City Hall, was the resounding reply. A body of people that could advocate loudly for musicians and the venues that host them.
On Thursday evening, at Cleveland’s newest jazz club, Sixty6, an image of what that body may look like convened to deliberate the most depressing part of Watterson’s latest findings—that three out of four of the city’s 50 or so independent venues lost money last year.
“And I will put my hand up. We were one of those clubs,” Watterson, the owner of The Happy Dog, told the group of 70. “We came close to breaking even, but we did not make money.”
“But that’s a reality for a lot of us,” he added. “And a function of changing dynamics. People drinking less. Going out less. Insurance costs going up. Labor costs going up.”
That report, a Cleveland-specific part of State of Live, detailed what seems at first like a strange incongruity.
While Cleveland’s venues as a whole brought in more economic impact than all of Oregon’s venues did in 2024, venues in Portland and San Francisco collectively made more combined profits than Cleveland’s. (About two to 11 percent more, to be exact.)
Such a conundrum has now become the gordian knot of Cuyahoga Live, County Executive Chris Ronayne’s task force vying to create Ohio’s first music commission. The question remains how how a local or state government can work to keep both its musicians playing and venues profitable.
And, of course, why Cuyahoga deserves one.
“Not to say anything against the other 87 counties,” Ronayne told the room. “But we do deserve this music commission by way of the music artists that are pumping it out here.”
Though the actual creation of a county music commission will bank on Ronayne’s influence on County Council, Ronayne and his task force are relying on Columbus to enact state policies that could help keep our Happy Dogs and Grog Shops more in the black than the red.
For that, Ronayne turned to longtime colleague State Sen. Kent Smith.
Smith, who’s been a friend to Cleveland’s music scene (and to fellow concert-goer Ronayne) for decades, is working to nudge three pieces of legislation through the Ohio Statehouse that would give Cleveland’s venues and recording studios millions of dollars in tax perks and added cash flow.
One bill, Smith explained, would give recording studios a 25 percent tax credit on their spendings. And another, Senate Bill 240, would make Ohio the first state to allow its counties to funnel a three percent tax on weed to fund, as the bill broadly states, “entertainment, arts and culture.”
And, like in Austin, and pending in Tennessee and Illinois, Smith wants Ohio to pass a bill that would give independent venues up to $100,000 back each year via a state-monitored liquor tax rebate.
“And in that hope, in that respect, hopefully would be another line of revenue for all these independent venues,” Smith said. (Watterson said it would make Happy Dog profitable.)
And there may be movement on those fronts in 2026.
“All three of these bills have bipartisan support in Columbus,” Smith told the room. “These are not, you know, flaky ideas that are going to go nowhere.”
But will money from Columbus actually keep Cleveland musicians happily in Cleveland? A few on Thursday reminded Ronayne and Smith during their Q&A that they would inevitably have to see those dollars put to work.
Beachland Ballroom owner Cindy Barber used her Black Keys Defense: the Black Keys, arguably the most famous rock band out of Northeast Ohio in decades, would have not fled to Nashville if Cleveland had the ecosystem its reputation suggested.
For a more tactile example, she nodded across the room to Mikey Silas, the head of soul rock band Apostle Jones.
“He’s, like, one of the most popular artists in town,” Barber said. “Wouldn’t it be great if we all came together and found enough money to, like, put him on tour?”
Silas, who’s preparing to release Apostle Jones’ first full-length album in March, agreed with the philosophy.
“If you’re building an army and your soldiers aren’t strong, what does that say about your army?” Silas told Scene. “Just like our musicians. We need strong musicians if we want a strong industry.”
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