JOIN THE MUSIC CITIES MOVEMENT
Many cities around the world face a paradox. They can be world-famous for its music—while its artists are unsupported, its venues underfunded, and its industry unprotected.
This is happening in Mexico City, Delhi, Johannesburg… and maybe even your city?
Music has a huge potential to improve the quality of life of our cities, to bring economic, social and cultural development.
But some communities are failing to include it as part of their public policy culture.
Enter our flagship event, the Music Cities Convention, as well as our other events and educational projects such as the Music Tourism Convention, the Music Cities Awards, the Music Cities Exchange and more.
The Music Cities Convention is a global series of Conferences that over the past 10 years has helped change the music policy culture of cities all across the world. Launched in 2015 in Brighton to tackle the closure of music venues across London, it has since been hosted in places as varied as Melbourne, Chengdu, Cologne, Fayetteville and more.
By bringing together the leading voices as well as music advocates working at a grassroots level, hosting this event has become key to help cities spotlight the strength of their music ecosystems; as well as bringing the community and Government together around the transformational power of music.
Do you want to spotlight the strength of your city’s music ecosystem and spark a change in its music policy culture?
Then join the Music Cities Movement.
HOW DO I JOIN?
Attend Our Upcoming Events:
Host One Of Our Events
Participate in the Music Cities Awards
Bring the Music Cities Exchange Programme to your city
Do you have any questions on how to engage with any of our events & projects?
Then write to pablo@sounddiplomacy.com to get all information related to any of them.
We’re also happy to hear about the challenges your music ecosystem faces and advice on resources to learn more about how
to address them. Our Inbox is open!
UPCOMING EVENTS
16 September 2025
Music Cities Awards Ceremony
Fayetteville, Arkansas, US
RECENT EVENTS
8 December 2024
Music Cities Awards Ceremony
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
OUR EVENT BRANDS
In everything we do, we aim to educate on the value of music, and showcase the best uses
of music by individuals, organisations and cities all over the world. Our event brands are:

The Music Cities Convention is the biggest global event exploring the use and importance of music in the development of cities all around the world. The event provides a stage for the latest best practice to be presented and problems debated by thought leaders from the worlds of city planning, music, economic development, tourism, academia, events, property, non-profit and private/public bodies.
The Music Tourism Convention is the world’s most extensive conference bringing together the music and tourism sectors to explore how music impacts, benefits and improves tourism offers, branding, partnership development and economic development.



The Music Cities Awards is a global competition designed to acknowledge and reward the most outstanding applications of music for economic, social, environmental and cultural development in cities and places all around the world.
Sound Development explores the issues and opportunities between music and real estate. There have been nine editions so far, welcoming 1000+ delegates from planners and architects, to artists and music industry professionals.
The Music Cities Forum is a smaller city/state/region focused version of our global Music Cities Convention. The event looks more regionally at best practices on the use of music – and all its variants – to improve city life, bringing together experts and industry professionals to explore the role and impact of music across education, economic development, health, community building, placemaking, tourism, future cities and more.
The Music Tourism Forum is a smaller city/state/region focused version of our global Music Tourism Convention. The event looks more regionally at music's role in destination branding, tourism, attracting investment, developing communities and economic development.

MUSIC TOURISM CONVENTION IN CAPE BRETON ISLAND, CANADA, 2024
Held on May 29-31, 2024, the Cape Breton Island Music Tourism Convention featured three days of talks and presentations, live music, sightseeing, and a lot of networking opportunities. This experience gathered 31 speakers and 224 delegates across the conference days and offered a 3-day pre-convention music tour across the Island for a select group.
MUSIC CITIES CONVENTION IN HUNTSVILLE, USA, 2023
On 18 - 20 October, 2023 Music Cities Convention travelled to Huntsville, Alabama, USA for its 12th global edition. The three-day event followed the publication of the Huntsville Music Audit and Strategy that aimed at creating a more dynamic music environment, from education to creation, production and performance, in a way that strengthened Huntsville’s growing economy.
MUSIC TOURISM CONVENTION, CLEVELAND, MS, USA, 2023
On April 11-14 2023, Music Cities Events in partnership with Visit Mississippi, Visit Cleveland Mississippi, GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and Delta State University were proud to present the 5th Global and 2nd U.S. edition of the Music Tourism Convention, featuring four days of talks, presentations, live music, networking opportunities and a full-day music tour..
MUSIC TOURISM FORUM, DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY, 2022
On 9-10 November 2022, the first ever Music Tourism Forum was hosted in Düsseldorf, Germany in partnership with urbanana. The conference took place over two days and was focused on ‘harnessing the sound of your city’. The event welcomed 20+ expert national and international speakers, hosting numerous panel discussions, presentations and interactive idea generation sessions, and was live streamed worldwide