Nashville is the Silicon Valley of the music industry—a concentrated cluster of musical talent,  venues, studios and all the inputs required to make music.  So it's no surprise the city takes the music business seriously. In May 2009, the mayor launched a Music Business Council (h/t: Ian Swain -my MPI colleague, music project collaborator and DJ). To signal the initiative's importance, he sits on the council whose members not only include label execs and entertainment lawyers, but also musicians like Emmylou Harris and Jack White. The Council's goals extend all the way from supporting and expanding the presence of music festivals in Nashville to aiming to develop the best music education program of any public school system in the world.