Music of Baltimore - Media and Organizations

Media and Organizations

Baltimore's indigenous music media includes The City Paper, The Baltimore Sun, and Music Monthly, which frequently advertise local music shows and other events. The Baltimore Blues Society also distributes one of the more well renowned blues periodicals in the country. The Baltimore Afro-American, a local periodical, was one of the most important media in 20th-century Baltimore, and documented much of that city's African American musical life. Recently, a number of new media sites have risen to prominence including Aural States (Best Local Music Blog 2008), Government Names, Mobtown Shank and Beatbots (Best Online Arts Community 2007).

Baltimore is home to a number of non-profit music organization, most famously including the Left Bank Jazz Society, which hosts concerts and otherwise promotes jazz in Baltimore. Another organization to grace its way into the Baltimore scene is Vivre Musicale. The latter organization's mission is to give young artists performance opportunities in and out of Baltimore. These non-profits play a greater role in the city's musical life than similar organization do in most other American cities. The organization Jazz in Cool Places also works within that genre, presenting performers in architecturally significant locations, such as in a club full of Tiffany windows. The Society for the Preservation of American Roots Music also puts on jazz and blues concerts at its Roots Cafe.