Flying the co-op It's time for the city and businesses to step into the music scene BY SAM PFEIFLE

Two years ago in these pages, I proposed a musicians’ co-op, whereby locals would pool their resources and establish a club/practice space/recording studio. I offered a $500 initial membership fee, gathering $10,000 and moving forward from there in purchasing/leasing space, equipment, etc. I started with this premise because never, in my wildest dreams, did I think mainstream establishment-types might actually pony up some dough.

Then I found New Orleans. Maybe you’ve heard of Tipitina’s, one of the most famous nightclubs in the world. Well, it seems they’ve partnered up with the City of New Orleans to establish a musicians’ co-op (www.musicofficecoop.com), whereby, according to Alex Rawls, my music-writing counterpart at Gambit Weekly, "Tipitina’s owns the building, and they’ve loaned the city space to set up an office in there. They have computers in there, some staff to help people, help them with whatever they need to get on with the business of their career." Plus, they have "regular workshops. I go in to do one on what they need for getting in touch with the press . . . bands have even booked western tours through there."

Along the way, says New Orleans director of music development Scott Aiges, "we’ve kicked in 10 or 12 computers . . . relating with the city has been helpful, lending legitimacy, getting it set up quickly." Money to help pay for the costs of the coop wasn’t initially forthcoming. (Before I go further — yes, New Orleans has an Office of Music Development!) To begin with, the Tipitina’s Foundation ponied up the money for staffing the office and for coordinating sponsorships with businesses like Universal Furniture and Office Depot.

But the funding model is still shaping up. "It’s a new initiative," says Aiges, "just begun in the last year, and it came together very quickly. [Tipitina’s executive director] Roland von Kurnatowski approached us and said, ‘What can we do together?’ " It turned out that Aiges figured all they needed was an office to get an incubator for local bands off the ground. Tipitina’s had the office space.

The city had some computers to donate, Tipitina’s fronted the money for fixing the joint up. Soon, for the small fee of $10 per month, musicians had access to computers hooked up to high-speed Internet, a laser printer, fax machine, the works — and seminars from groups like the Entertainment Law Legal Assistance Project, which shows up regularly at the coop to discuss copyright issues and other mine fields.

But, would it work? After six months, Tipitina’s commissioned an economic impact study. It found, according to a Times-Picayune story from June, that the coop "provides a $750,000 annual boost to the local economy," that Tipitina’s basically got a 10-to-one return on their investment, and that the earnings of the 125 members at the time increased by an average of 32 percent.

Unbelievable, right? "So unbelievable that we did the survey a second time," says Aiges. "The numbers were even better."

With that data in hand, and membership in the co-op over 200, in November the City Council decided to put their money in the pot and allocated $40,000 as a one-time cash infusion. It’s needed. "We’ve reached capacity" in the office, says Aiges. The model has proven so successful that Tipitina’s is looking all over Louisiana for cities interested in starting similar ventures. So far, Shreveport has signed on, kicking in $40,000, and picking up foundation and university partners.

But these are all government types and business heads saying this is a good thing, right? What about the cynical media?

"When I did a talk there," says Rawls, "I knew almost nobody there, so I think that was a real positive thing. It was people looking to get started. I do know that more and more people are joining and using it in some capacity. I’m not quite sure how to measure success and impact, I think it’s a really good idea."

I think it’s a good idea, too. Glad I had it two years ago (and, yes, my back does hurt from all the self-patting).

Portland is small enough that we could do it on a much smaller scale. Here’s what needs to happen. Some big dog on the local music scene (Grant Wilson? The Libra Foundation? One of the beer distributors? The O’Brien brothers?) needs to kick in some start-up cash. The city needs to provide some office space (the basement soon to be vacated by Community Television?) and computers. Time Warner would, of course, donate a free business-class Internet connection, since they depend on local music for content on aroundmaine.com. Pine Tree Legal, Jon Wyman, Adam Ayan, your humble author, and many others could contribute expertise for seminars. We’ve got Office Depot here, too.

It’s an idea that’s ripe for the execution. We need to capitalize on our wealth of musical ability and the health of our scene, before it loses its vitality for lack of room to grow. The city and business leaders need to realize the huge amount of capital that’s spread around the bars, music stores, recording studios, and local music publications as a very real economic engine. Each band, each singer/songwriter, is a little business — let’s give them a place to utilize like the Resource Hub, but tailored to the needs and interests of the music community.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com