Surveying the Alaska Music Industry: Businesses and Organizations

From freelance audio engineers and backyard studios to big box stores, hotels, bars, and restaurants, hundreds of Alaskan businesses work with music and musicians.

Most Alaskans don’t think of our state as having a music industry, but we do — just look at the long list below — and because most money generated by music activity gets attributed to other sectors, we don’t know how big our music industry really is.

It’s time to find out. Below are detailed instructions for taking the Music Business Survey (now closed).

PLEASE TAKE THE MUSIC BUSINESS SURVEY IF:

  • You are a sole proprietor or side hustler earning income from work described below — even a little, even under the table — OR

  • You are an owner, manager, or decision-maker for a business or organization involved in the work below (with easy access to revenue and employment figures), AND

  • Nobody else has reported this business yet — each business can only be reported once.

Are you employed in one of the following fields, but you’re not a decision-maker with that kind of access? Please let your management know that it’s important for them to take this survey — it makes them and their work look good on a statewide stage. If you can’t do that, you can get in touch with us, and we’ll do our best to reach out from our end.

A list of all kinds of music industry work follows. Even if your business is mainly focused on something else, if this work is a little bit of what you do, we want to know about it.

    • Bars, restaurants, and cafes

    • Community centers (schools, parks, libraries, museums, cultural centers)

    • Theaters, cabarets, and nightclubs

    • Event space for rent (hotel ballrooms, for example)

    • Fairs, festivals, and seasonal markets

    • Large venues (500+) such as sporting arenas and convention centers

    • Places of worship available for performance events

    • Retail venues that sometimes host music

    • Rehearsal space for rent

    • Live sound engineering

    • Recording studio engineering

    • Recording studio space for rent

    • Producers and production services

    • Mixing and post-production services

    • Mastering

    • Lighting / staging / technical and A/V production support

    • Audio digitization, preservation, or duplication

    • Livestreaming production and support

    • Instrument and music gear sales / rental / repair

    • Instrument building

    • Piano and organ tuning and repair

    • Record and sheet music retail

    • Event equipment rentals and retail (lighting / staging / seating / tents)

    • Booking

    • Concert promotion

    • Concert presenting

    • Wedding and event planning

    • DJ booking services

    • Orchestras, choirs, and bands

    • Traditional and ceremonial performing groups

    • Theatre and dance companies (including opera)

    • Burlesque and drag troupes

    • Multimedia or transmedia performing arts groups

    • Music therapy

    • Arts camps and workshops with music

    • Music schools or academies

    • Music education non-profit organizations

    (All other music education and enrichment work should be reported on our individual music teacher survey, not the business survey)

    • Record labels

    • Artist and repertoire promotion (A&R)

    • Artist agents and managers

    • Music publishers

    • Legal services specializing in music industry interests

    • Photographers and videographers catering to musicians

    • Graphic and web designers catering to musicians

    • Merch manufacturers and retailers catering to musicians

    • Music catalog archiving, preservation, and organization

    • Licensing music for commercial use

    • Touring logistics for musicians (private tour bus hire, for example)

    • Broadcast media (radio, TV, podcasts, livestreaming)

    • Publishing media (news, reviews, books)

    • Music journalism and criticism

This list makes it clear that it takes thousands of people thousands of hours to make music happen in Alaska.

It’s normal for music industry pros to wear many hats and do many jobs. YES, you can take this survey AND the artist/teacher survey. YES, you can take this survey multiple times for multiple mini-professions or businesses.

NO set of questions will fit every business above perfectly, but we’ve done our best to keep things open-ended.

If you’re not sure your work fits into the categories above, check our lists of artist and teacher descriptions in case those fit you better. You can also contact us if you want to know more.