Local music lovers have teamed up to launch Music Local, a digital platform that gathers scattered show announcements, making it easy to find and support Tallahassee’s musicians.
“We provide curated music listings through a digital interface that’s designed to be as convenient as possible,”co-founder Christopher Skene said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. “As a musician myself, I’ve played music here in town for a long time and I noticed as things moved more into the social media world, the music scene information itself is getting more fragmented.”
After 10 years of stirring up this concept and — and observing how social media has increasingly shaped how musicians promote their work —Skene and co-founder Cathi Rodgers established their service in October 2023. It transitioned into a nonprofit organization in January 2025.
Before Music Local, Rodgers a longtime local music enthusiast, would post weekend music events on her personal pages and email lists out. The two decided it would be easier to centralize this information for people to access this info at any time.
“People should be able to click a button on their phone and see what’s happening in town, and it should be a comprehensive list, it should be human curated not some algorithmic thing. That was the whole goal,” Skene said.
Unlike other platforms, all of these events are entered in manually and updated frequently.
He says that musicians and venues often post their flyers on their social platforms but only those who followed their pages or direct fans would see it, limiting exposure.
What was once a time-consuming process of scrolling through multiple platforms to plan a night out has now been simplified. With Music Local, users can browse a centralized calendar that organizes events across the city in one place.
Up to 400 events scheduled throughout the rest of the year at venues around town or even nearby are listed. The app allows you to see who’s playing, where, and in some cases a little snippet of the groups’ previous performances. Some listings also include specials the venue is offering that night.
The experience is intentionally streamlined without all of the “extra bells and whistles” like ads, paywalls or pop-ups — a feature the founders takes great pride in.
“I wanted to build something that I thought would just be truly useful for people and something that I think is sort of necessary and hopefully healing for communities,” he said.
Turning up the local volume
The software engineer by day, guitar player and vocalist for rock ‘n’ roll band Revival by night combined the best of both of his worlds to create the application. Today, it has garnered 1500 weekly viewers across the website and app.
He says the impact it has already had on the community is what has kept them going.
“We have had tremendous feedback from many different venue owners and musicians. We’ve had venue owners tell us that people have discovered their venue and shows because of Music Local,” Skene said. “People are coming out to shows and discovering what’s going on and it’s working. I feel like every person you get through the door of Blue Tavern, The Getaway Grille and Bar or one of these places for the first time, I think that’s a thing that can improve people’s lives in Tallahassee, make them feel more connected.”
Skene says that getting people out into these spaces can also be “tremendously helpful” in terms of helping the music scene thrive.
“A few extra people in a room can make the difference between a profitable night for a venue or a lost night, and it can make the difference between even hiring music at all,” he says.
The platform has also helped Skene personally discover artists outside his usual circles like college bands.
“It was a surprise to me and it really sort of drove home the fragmentation between genres, age groups, different communities and how important it is to reach into those sub communities and try to find those things,” he says.
What’s on deck
So far, word of mouth and search engine optimization have proven to be successful for growing the Music Local platform in the capital city.
The nonprofit just launched a new initiative where they embed its event listings on the website of local station Moose Magnificat. Skene calls it a cost-effective way to collaborate and expand visibility.
The goal is to expand to other communities like Tallahassee who may be in need of the same kind of organized service. Long-term sustainability will rely on continued community support, including sponsorships and donations.
“One of the greatest ways to support us is just to use the service and spread the word,” he said.
If you would like to donate visit, musiclocal.org/npo/donate.
Kyla A Sanford covers dining and entertainment for the Tallahassee Democrat. New restaurant opening up, special deals, or events coming up? Let me know at [email protected]. You can also email your suggestions for a future TLH Eats restaurant profile.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.tallahassee.com ’
