NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — After years of legal battles, home-based recording studios in Nashville have won a significant victory against a restrictive city ordinance that had prevented musicians from legally working with clients in their home studios.
The Institute for Justice and Beacon Center of Tennessee successfully challenged Metro Nashville's ordinance that prohibited home-based businesses from serving clients on their property, a rule that disproportionately affected musicians and producers in Music City, as well as other small business owners, like hairstylists who work from home.
Lij Shaw, who converted his detached garage into a recording studio when he bought his house in 2000, found himself in legal trouble 15 years later when the city enforced an ordinance regulating certain types of home businesses.
"I would be allowed here to work by myself, but the real limitation for anybody who was making music in Nashville was you couldn't have a customer come over to your home studio. And in Nashville, one of the few places that was making music with real musicians anymore, that gets awfully difficult," Lij Shaw said.
The rule wasn't applied universally, exempting owner-occupied short-term rental properties and in-home daycares, which prompted the Institute for Justice to take up the case.
"You have people who own their own property, working from their own property to support their own families, and these rules that didn't make sense were making it literally impossible for them to do that," attorney Paul Avelar from the Institute for Justice said.
During the nearly decade-long court battle, Shaw looked for other ways to ease restrictions on home-based businesses. In 2020, he backed legislation that allowed businesses like his to host some customers. It wasn’t perfect, the rules were strict: no more than six visits per day, spaced out to no more than three per hour. Appointments had to be scheduled in advance and limited to between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
"There seemed to be a general understanding within the Metro Council that, of course, it should be legal to make music from your home, but somehow they couldn't figure it out," Shaw said.
Finally, after years of appeals and a pandemic that reshaped views on working from home, Shaw and other home-based creatives received news this week that they had won their case against the city's ordinance, which officials had argued was necessary to preserve neighborhoods.
"I mean, we live in Music City. If you can't actually make music in your home, maybe we need a new name," Shaw said.
The city could still appeal the decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Metro Legal has been contacted for comment on their next steps.
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