Commerce Secretary: Music Industry Sets Nashville Apart

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker tours Loud Recording Studio on Music Row. Credit: Blake Farmer / WPLN

The newly confirmed head of the U.S. Commerce Department says the music industry is what makes Nashville stand out. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker is touring the country and made a stop in Nashville Wednesday.

Local business leaders talk up the city’s strength in health care, but from Pritzker’s view in Washington, that’s an industry with many hubs.

“You have a great history here in Tennessee of founding health care companies but you know, there are lots of places in the United States that do that. Whereas you have this incredible music industry.”

Pritzker spent time touring Loud Recording Studio on Music Row and meeting with the Nashville Songwriters Association International. She says she wants to know more about the music business and intellectual property. As she travels in the U.S. and around the world, Pritzker says the country’s creative products should be “something I can both advocate for and defend, if necessary.”

Pritzker is a billionaire from Chicago whose family made its money by starting Hyatt Hotels. She was nominated to lead the Commerce Department by President Obama.

While in Nashville, Pritzker plans to have dinner with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, a Republican.

“I think it’s useful to have friends in all kinds of places,” she said.