The city of Huntsville released its 2026 music industry economic audit last week, highlighting historic economic growth driven by the city’s music industry.
The report, conducted by the city and music and culture consultancy Sound Diplomacy, found that Huntsville’s music economy generated $278.2 million in economic output, a 38 percent increase since the city conducted its first music audit with Sound Diplomacy in 2018. The gross value added by the city’s music industry increased 35 percent to about $162 million.
The city implemented all the recommendations the consulting firm made in the original audit, including investing $55 million in the Orion Amphitheater, launching the South Star Music Festival in 2024 and establishing the Huntsville Music Office.
The city’s music industry supports 3,047 jobs, with the number of direct music industry positions increasing 145 percent since the initial audit. Music industry employees represent 2.8 percent of Huntsville’s workforce.
The audit also tracked an increase in citywide music assets from 165 to 215 locations, with live music venues showing the strongest growth.
“This audit shows what can happen when a city believes in the power of its creative community,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. “When we began this journey, Huntsville’s music strategy was just an idea, an ambitious one. Today, thanks to years of investment and collaboration, we’re looking at a fully developed industry that’s driving jobs, culture and tourism. It’s incredibly rewarding to see that vision become reality.”
Huntsville Music Officer Matt Mandrella told APR in a Thursday interview that the report documents the economic and communal importance of government support for a city’s creative spaces. Huntsville identifies Mandrella as the first municipal music officer in the United States to lead a standalone city department.
During the conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Mandrella emphasized the importance of creative communities to a city’s quality of life and economic development. He also discussed how Huntsville can build on the gains reported since 2018.
The full 2026 Huntsville music audit is available on the city’s website.
Since taking on your position as Huntsville’s music officer, what has your day-to-day work looked like, and what initiatives or goals have you supported?
The timing was really good when I came into the position because I started in January, so I had already missed the fiscal-year budget cycle. For my first nine months here, without a dedicated music office budget, my day-to-day work involved going out, meeting stakeholders in the community and listening and learning about the community’s values and expectations for its music scene—where it was, how people felt about it and how passionate they were about seeing it grow.
For the most part, people understood what the mayor was trying to accomplish by creating the office. The city was not trying to become a promoter. It was recognizing music as an economic and quality-of-life engine that fits into the larger Huntsville community.
The job involves a lot of meetings and conversations with the community. It includes everything from helping plan signature events to reaching out to industry leaders inside and outside Huntsville to determine how we can work with them. We have programs with East Iris Studios and Universal Music Group in Nashville, and we hold a weekly call with our team there to focus on that work.
We also have a mayoral-appointed music board that serves in an advisory role, and I interact with its members regularly. I speak with local artists about programs such as our tour grant program and work with music educators. We also work closely with Arts Huntsville, our arts council, which has been established here for decades.
Every day is a different whirlwind. Some days are focused on events and making sure our event calendar is as comprehensive as possible. The initial audit found that Huntsville lacked a single destination where people could find information about everything happening in the city’s music scene. We established the HuntsvilleMusic.com calendar to showcase live performances across the city. Last year, we listed a little more than 2,200 events on that calendar.
What were your key takeaways from the city’s music audit, and which findings made you the proudest?
To be honest, I think all the numbers exceeded our expectations. The job growth especially stood out. Music jobs now represent 2.8 percent of Huntsville’s employment sector, and we saw close to 150 percent growth in direct music employment.
The sheer number of events also stood out, particularly the 2,200 events listed on our calendar. Of course, there is also the overall growth of the sector to $278 million.
It is exciting to show the investments we have made in civic venues and the economic output they have generated. We introduced C3 Presents to launch a signature festival in Huntsville. Even with every possible weather condition working against us, the festival still generated $24.1 million in economic impact and $218 million in media value. That is huge.
What is your message to other Alabama cities about how local music can drive economic and community development?
Cities should not view music as only concerts or performances. They should see it in the same way they view greenways, playgrounds, parks and recreation departments, and professional or amateur sports teams.
We take a lot of pride in saying that we are not trying to become Austin, Nashville, Asheville, Atlanta or Memphis. We are strategically building a music scene that is unique to Huntsville and reflects our community’s values. We do not want to be those cities, but we want Huntsville to be part of the same conversation when people discuss North American or international music hubs and dynamic music scenes.
One encouraging example is the work of Clay Dempsey, a colleague at the Dothan Civic Center who attended the Music Cities Convention when we hosted it. He has done great work with Dothan’s opera house, civic center and concerts. He has taken what Huntsville is doing and scaled our strategy into something that makes sense for Dothan.
Imagine if every city in Alabama had a music office intentionally working to build its identity. Having more creative people within a community, city or state makes that place more dynamic. The ideas and collaborations that can come together create endless possibilities. It makes a community a more attractive and interesting place to live. Who would not want professional musicians living in their community?
What has it been like stepping into this role without a clear reference point from other cities for what it takes to succeed?
A few music offices have been established through convention and visitors bureaus or other city departments. We looked at some of those offices to see which ones were operating dynamically and which ones were not living up to expectations.
What makes our approach one of the first of its kind is our focus on a data-driven growth process, having a music officer specifically oversee a department and being intentional about how we approach the work.
I have been fortunate to work under some great people who continue to serve as mentors. I have had a career path supported by great bosses, owners, chief marketing officers and chief executive officers.
The overwhelming support and confidence from Mayor Battle, Shane Davis, Dennis Madsen, my department heads and colleagues, city leadership and everyone at City Hall have also been significant. They trusted us to implement some unconventional ideas and strategies.
City Hall really let us cook. Having the music audit as a roadmap was another tangible and significant benefit, although it was also challenging. A roadmap does not have to be followed exactly. One recommendation was to establish a music week, and we decided to establish an entire music month. We tried to complete as many of the audit recommendations as possible, as quickly as possible.
Describe the next steps for the Huntsville Music Office as it works to continue the growth documented in the 2026 audit.
As the audit identified, the missing layers are the support and administrative roles within Huntsville. We have some great studios operating at a high level with prominent and local artists. However, we do not have many major industry managers or agents, and we do not have many people working in licensing and marketing.
We need to determine how to bring more of those services into Huntsville while continuing to invest in and raise the profile of our festival and venue infrastructure, artist support, artist development and music education initiatives.
That begins with returning to community engagement and connecting with people who are excelling in those roles, both in Huntsville and elsewhere, to determine how we can work together to grow that sector.
The next step is bringing the community together. The music office cannot develop this plan by itself. To do it well, we need input from the community and the industry.
The good news is that some of the building blocks are already in place. We have dynamic programs involving major industry leaders from outside Huntsville who can help us make connections and bring experts to the city for panels, workshops and other programs.
I am excited about the challenge of growing the auxiliary services sector. Huntsville has a lot of smart people who will be passionate about helping us achieve that goal.
