Belfast City Council has joined forces with Sound Diplomacy to develop a strategy that will help revive the music scene in Belfast – helping both musicians and their listeners get back to their 'normal' music habits both during and after this pandemic.

This is an important issue for the area. Belfast is a city with a rich and vibrant culture, and it recently made a commitment to music, through the designation of the City of Music Steering Group.

Sound Diplomacy are leading experts in developing sustainable music strategies. The company has worked in more than 40 companies, with over 100 clients from all different sectors – even being hired by the United Nations. Sound Diplomacy has carried out projects similar to what will be happening in Belfast all around the world, including work in Cardiff, San Francisco, Bradford and New Orleans.

In order for Sound Diplomacy to create a comprehensive and accurate strategy, they are following a 4-step plan – which they are currently on Step 2 of. Step 1 was simply the creation of this project and coordinating goals. The current step of the plan is Ecosystem Assessment. This means Sound Diplomacy is trying to learn everything they can about the music scene in Belfast – and to do so, they are communicating with as many sources as possible, including interviewing people and launching a public survey.

The public survey will be used to better understand people’s music habits and create cultural infrastructure mapping. To complete this survey, see here.

The third step of the plan is to create an economic impact assessment. The fourth and final step is reporting all the findings, and starting to put the plan into action.

For more information see www.sounddiplomacy.com/belfast