Make Music New York

What Make Music New York does

Make Music New York is a privately held nonprofit corporation (founded 2007, headquartered in Astoria, Queens) that organizes and coordinates free, participatory music events across all five boroughs of New York City. Its flagship offering is the annual Make Music Day festival held on the summer solstice (June 21), inspired by France's Fête de la Musique, complemented by Make Music Winter, a participatory parade series launched in 2011 on the winter solstice (December 21). The organization serves three primary constituencies: the NYC general public attending free concerts, amateur and professional musicians performing at open-registration events, and community organizations that volunteer venues and public spaces as performance locations. Programming is delivered through a portfolio of specialized modules including Mass Appeal (instrument-specific group performances), Street Studios (mobile recording booths), Porch Stomp (folk festival on Governors Island), Punk Island, Waterway Horns, 24-Hour Sing for the Earth, Street Motet, Exquisite Corpses, and Sousapalooza.

The business model is a multi-source nonprofit funding structure with no ticketing or paid participation — all events are entirely free to attend and participate in. Revenue streams comprise corporate sponsorships (BXP, NYSE: BXP is the named primary corporate sponsor), government grants (New York State Council on the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs), private foundation support (Stavros Niarchos Foundation), and individual donations processed via the anedot platform. The organization employs 11-50 staff and operates without traditional sales infrastructure, relying instead on earned media, partner activations, email newsletters, social media (@MakeMusicNY), and NYC government promotional channels for outreach. Distribution is physical and distributed: free concerts are activated across more than 400 public spaces (parks, plazas, Open Streets, sidewalks) per year, scaling to 1,000+ performances citywide with 5,000+ performers in peak years.

The go-to-market motion is event-driven and community-led: an annual recurring cultural moment on the solstice drives organic demand, while open participation allows musicians and venues to self-organize, creating grassroots distribution across neighborhoods. Strategic extensions include the Make Music Alliance (founded 2012), a network connecting Make Music city celebrations across North America, and recurring high-profile partnerships with WNYC (official radio partner), NPR Music (which commissioned a Philip Glass piece for Times Square in 2012), and 300 Entertainment (which co-produced the 2023 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop celebration). The organization has operated continuously for 20 years (2007-2025) and celebrated its 20th anniversary in June 2025.

Name

Make Music New York

Legal name

Make Music New York, Inc.

Website

https://makemusicny.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Make Music New York is a nonprofit organization that coordinates free, participatory music festivals across New York City's five boroughs, serving the general public, volunteer musicians, and community venue hosts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Music Festivals

NAICS

Performing Arts Companies (7111), Musical Groups and Artists (711130), Other Performing Arts Companies (711190)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Music Festival Organizers & Promoters (MPAGAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Music & Dance Festivals (Non-Commercial/Local) (MPAGAEAH), Concerts & Music Festivals (THAJAFAA)

Keywords

• Free music festivals
• Community music events
• Public space concerts
• Summer solstice music
• Nonprofit arts programming

Headquarters

HQ city

Astoria

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Corporate Sponsorships: BXP (NYSE: BXP), a publicly traded real estate company, provides corporate support as the primary corporate sponsor. Sponsorship packages likely include brand visibility at events and partner activations.
2. Government & Foundation Grants: Supported by New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Public funding comprises a significant portion of operational revenue.
3. Individual Donations: Public donations accepted via the website (anedot platform). The festival actively solicits contributions from attendees and supporters.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Make Music New York is a nonprofit organization that organizes and produces free, participatory music festivals across all five boroughs of New York City. Its flagship event is the annual Make Music Day festival held on the summer solstice (June 21), featuring thousands of free outdoor concerts in public spaces such as parks, plazas, sidewalks, and Open Streets. It also runs Make Music Winter on the winter solstice and supports various participatory program modules (e.g., Mass Appeal, Street Studios, Porch Stomp, Punk Island).

Product overview

Make Music New York is a nonprofit music festival organization that operates two annual flagship events: the summer Make Music Day Festival (held on June 21st) and the winter Make Music Winter Festival (held on December 21st). The organization coordinates free, participatory music events across New York City's five boroughs through various program modules including Mass Appeal (instrument-specific group performances), Street Studios (mobile recording booths), Porch Stomp (folk festival on Governors Island), Punk Island (punk music takeover on Randall's Island), and specialty programs like Waterway Horns, 24-Hour Sing for the Earth, and Street Motet. The portfolio is unified by the mission of transforming public spaces into accessible stages for live music, connecting musicians of all skill levels with audiences throughout the city.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Make Music Day Festival
• Make Music Winter

Quantifiable outcome

• 5,000+ performers participated in 2017 alone
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered primary and core.

• BXP (NYSE: BXP)primaryGTM or Marketing PartnerBXP is the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of premier workplaces in the United States, concentrated in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. As corporate sponsor, BXP provides support for Make Music New York, gaining brand visibility at the festival and association with community cultural programming across NYC.
• New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)primaryGTM or Marketing PartnerNew York State Council on the Arts provides government funding support for Make Music New York, in partnership with Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
• New York City Department of Cultural AffairsprimaryGTM or Marketing PartnerNYC Department of Cultural Affairs provides public funding in partnership with the City Council to support the festival's operations and community programming.
• Stavros Niarchos FoundationcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Stavros Niarchos Foundation provides foundation support for Make Music New York, funding performances such as the 2010 open-air performance of Xenakis's Persephassa on the Central Park Lake.
• 300 EntertainmentcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner300 Entertainment partnered with Make Music New York for the 2023 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop celebration, providing specialized pop-up showcases and historic block parties across Harlem and Brooklyn.
• NYC Department of Transportation (Open Streets)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with NYC DOT to activate Open Streets and public plazas with localized block stages, transforming neighborhood thoroughfares into community concert venues from the Bronx to Staten Island.
• WNYCcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerWNYC is Make Music New York's official radio partner, providing broadcast promotion and coverage of the festival.
• NPR MusiccoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNPR Music commissioned new compositions for the festival, including a piece by Philip Glass premiering in Times Square (2012), and co-presented 100+ BPM with Red Baraat (2014).

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• SummerStage (City Parks Foundation): City Parks Foundation's SummerStage is a free NYC outdoor summer concert series across multiple borough parks, directly comparable to Make Music New York in format (free, public, citywide) and audience (general NYC public). Both rely on corporate sponsors, public funding, and a community-access mission.
• Levitt Pavilion (national network): Levitt Pavilions operate a national network of free outdoor concert venues, sharing MMNY's mission of free access to live music, reliance on public and corporate sponsors, and emphasis on community engagement.
• Stern Grove Festival: San Francisco's Stern Grove Festival is a free summer concert series funded by sponsorships and donations, directly comparable to MMNY in mission, funding model, and free outdoor civic programming.
• Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Lincoln Center's annual free summer outdoor festival on its plaza directly parallels MMNY's free-access programming in NYC and shares a comparable mix of institutional partners, foundation funding, and high-visibility civic cultural programming.
• BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn: BRIC's Celebrate Brooklyn is a free summer concert festival held at the Prospect Park Bandshell, sharing MMNY's free-access NYC live-music model and dependence on public and corporate sponsorship. Both target similar audiences with similar outdoor civic programming.

Others

• NPR Music: NPR Music is a documented strategic partner of MMNY (commissioning new compositions, co-presenting programming), and functions as a thematically adjacent media-and-cultural programming ecosystem with shared civic-mission orientation.

Broad incumbents

• Fête de la Musique: France's national Fête de la Musique (1982) is the conceptual originator of MMNY's format and operates as a global brand. Comparable as the original free summer-solstice community music event; operates at vastly larger scale internationally.
• Ravinia Festival: Ravinia is a long-running nonprofit outdoor music festival with a comparable mix of free and ticketed programming, foundation and corporate sponsorship, and a curated multi-genre summer schedule similar in spirit to MMNY's programming diversity.
• New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation: The nonprofit foundation behind Jazz Fest delivers free community music programming and cultural programming year-round in New Orleans, comparable in nonprofit structure, civic cultural mission, and community-festival DNA.

Regional players

• Millennium Park Music Series (Chicago): Chicago's free Millennium Park summer concert series offers a comparable free outdoor civic music experience in a different U.S. city, sharing MMNY's reliance on public-private partnership funding and free public access.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/makemusicny

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Make Music New York