Starting in 2017, Jim Rawlinson began working on a project focused on understanding the importance of Indianapolis’s music ecosystem from an economic development lens. This led to multiple events, the first Music Cities Forum, a number of other initiatives around the city, and ultimately the commissioning of the Indy Music Strategy, which included an economic impact assessment, a resources map, months of stakeholder engagement, and finally a forward looking strategy that was launched in 2021. This report indicated an annual economic impact of music in Indianapolis of $1.19 BN, and led to the creation of a number of other initiatives focused on the creative economy and specifically music. In 2020, through these efforts, Indianapolis was able to launch a national leading Venues Emergency Grants program to preserve Indy’s music venues through COVID shutdowns. Over $1M was granted to over 20 venues across the city during this time.