‘MUSIC CITY’ DOESN’T WANT YOU MAKING MUSIC AT HOME: A Nashville producer challenges the city’s crazy ban on commercial home recording studios.

“Nashville is one of the few places remaining in the world where some of the very best musicians get together face to face to make music,” says Shaw, who has worked with recording artists ranging from Jack White to Wilco to Adele. “That’s why I wanted to be here and why I wanted to create a home studio.”

But for the last four years, the city of Nashville has been trying to shut that studio down.

In August 2015, Shaw received a letter from the Department of Codes and Building Inspection informing him that his studio was an unpermitted home business and was therefore illegal. Shaw was given two weeks to cease and desist his recording operations or else face daily fines of $50 and potentially be taken to court.

“My heart just dropped completely,” Shaw says. “For the next week I couldn’t even sleep, like what am I going to do? This is my entire life, this is my everything.”

After the letter came a phone call from a code enforcement officer, followed by a home inspection, and then a mounting series of demands from officials. Shaw was told to remove recording equipment from his house, strip his prices and address off his business’ website, and take videos of his studio recordings off his YouTube channel. Failure to comply would mean fines and possibly even jail time.

Shaw had violated an obscure provision in Nashville’s zoning code that bans home businesses from serving clients on site. The code effectively outlaws his studio and thousands of others like it in a city made famous for its music. As written, it may even prevent home studio owners from inviting fellow musicians into their homes.

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