Libraries curate local music streaming services

The Future. Over a dozen public libraries across the US and Canada are offering their own curated music-streaming services that members can access. With many major cities creating unique platforms, artists are gladly signing up for a little more exposure. In an industry awash with too many musicians, libraries may be pivotal in creating local stars.

The Dewey Decibel System
Forget Spotify playlists. Curated library streamers may be the new jam.

• According to Vice, public libraries are creating curated streaming services using an open-source software called MUSICat, which was developed by a startup called Rabble.
• MUSICat allows the libraries to be “region-specific” so that it’s available exclusively for patrons and non-exclusive, so that they can still be shared on other streamers.

The services aim to highlight local artists and genres to the community while putting a little money in their pockets — typically just a few hundred dollars — as a symbolic gesture that artists should be supported.

Soundscape
Libraries in cities like Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Forth Worth have all created their own services — each with unique eligibility rules.

• The New Orleans Public Library’s Crescent City Sounds streamer — which was cursed by “local artists and business owners, music journalists and historians and more” — only accepted artists that regularly gigged in the area.
• The Edmonton Public Library in Alberta, Canada, has already signed up 200 local artists. It has even given some the opportunity to press their music on vinyl or play at library events in the city.

It looks like more and more libraries are okay with getting loud.