Studies show revenue generated by the music industry, in particular record sales, has rapidly declined over the past decade. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports that, despite rising sales of digital music, the music industry overall has fallen from a $14 billion industry to a $6 billion industry over the last ten years. The global decline of the recorded music industry is an additional challenge to growing what is already a modest market for the majority of local musicians. While diversifying revenue beyond live performances is a key step towards financial sustainability, musicians cannot rely on the old model of record sales to make up the difference. Artists must be educated in new ways of doing business and enforcing their intellectual property rights to broaden their earning potential.
While New Orleans’ music culture is unparalleled, its music industry is underdeveloped. 
Historically, New Orleans music has performed a social function for the community that created it. Record labels and publishers sold New Orleans music from outside of the city without building much infrastructure in it. As a result, New Orleans offers few professional services to its tradition bearers. Earnings from royalties, sales of recorded songs, and studio work represent 5% or less of the total income from music for most New Orleans musicians. Our surveys show that 78% of New Orleans musicians do not have managers, and an overwhelming majority do not work with booking agencies or promoters. In fact, 46.5% of New Orleans musicians do business entirely on their own, without any business support services.
Our Professional Development Seminars are designed to impart strategies our clients can use to take advantage of entertainment industry opportunities. Led by subject matter experts and respected members of the local music scene these free seminars build upon one another to offer practical information and strategies for implementing standard business practices. Topics include registration of intellectual property, digital distribution of recorded work, tax preparation, and self-promotion and marketing. In addition, we are working with the Tipitina’s Co-op, a non-profit organization that offers computer based and studio recording services as well as music business support, to design introductory technology courses that will allow our clients to access, and make better use of, the services they offer.
We have also taken note of the strong desire for non-musical job seeking skills and financial management expressed in our client data and we have redesigned our business seminar series to include appropriate courses on those subjects. In addition, we have added courses to support our many clients who are entrepreneurs in various ventures, primarily in crafts and services. We are also actively seeking a partnering agency to provide financial fitness training to those clients facing money management issues, helping to prevent financial emergencies before they happen.