Our Mission
The Greater Cleveland area is home to an incredible bounty of talented, creative, and prolific musicians. ListenCLE aims to bring all the amazing music North East Ohio has to offer out of concert halls and bars and into the daily lives of the residents and visitors of the region, by making it easy for businesses to use locally-produced music as the soundtrack to their customer experience.
To that end, the ListenCLE initiative focuses on a new way to approach local music: grouping playlists by moods and feelings, rather than by genre or simply by virtue of them being locally produced. This mood-based approach builds an audio experience that challenges traditional music categories and allows listeners to truly discover new music. The core playlists – 9 at present – feature moods like Chill, Feel Good, Energy Boost, and Groove, and are all over 8 hours long, meaning over the course of a standard work day you’d never hear the same song twice.
If you’re a business owner looking to bring local music into your establishment, or a musician looking to have their music included in our ever-growing catalog, head over to the Get Involved page to get started!
DOWNLOAD OUR HISTORY AND MISSION DOCUMENT
DOWNLOAD OUR BUSINESS INFORMATION GUIDE
ListenCLE Busking Initiative
ListenCLE is a program designed to put more local music into the ears of everyday Clevelanders. As part of our mission, we launched Cleveland’s first coordinated busking initiative in 2021, and have been working with local orgs and events such as the NFL Draft, Ingenuity Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Cleveland Public Library to coordinate street performers and buskers during highlight events downtown. Our goal is to show off the incredibly diverse and high-level talent of musicians, dancers, and more that can be found in Cleveland!
Busking relies on knowledge of local laws, regulations, and guidelines, along with awareness of personal and equipment safety, and the goodwill of surrounding businesses and residents. Rather than simply sending performers out to manage all of this themselves, ListenCLE is forming bonds with downtown authorities and organizations like Destination Cleveland to ensure that this information is clear, accessible, and comes from a verified/knowledgeable source. We are working closely with city programming to educate performers and provide a resource for safe, legal street performances.
If you have an upcoming event that would provide opportunities for busking and street performers, please let us know, we would love to help you coordinate performers with a safe, informed, and professional approach. Please send any requests to: busking@listencle.com
