Why did DC's attempt at a music museum fail?

Old marquee, Washington Coliseum, 3rd Street NE, DC. (Also known as the Uline Arena.)

while new music experience facilities have opened in Los Angeles (see the AP story "Record, study and hear music at new Grammy Museum") and New York City ("Coming to Downtown, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC" from the New York Times).

This piece from the Washington Business Journal, "Plans for national music museum come to a coda," discusses the failure of the creation of a National Music Museum in DC, which was attempted by the local Growth Machine's "organizing coalition," the Federal City Council. From the article:

... the nonprofit group has closed up shop, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and carted its instruments and supplies out of D.C.’s historic Carnegie Library building at Mount Vernon Square. “It’s not going to exist any longer,” said John Hill, president of the Federal City Council, a group of influential business leaders interested in civic improvements.

Three years ago, when Hill helped create the music center, he saw it as a chance to make temporary use of the library before moving to permanent digs. Despite partnerships with the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress, the center never raised enough money, and its board voted on Aug. 31 to close down. The center’s backers left the building in May.

My sense of the failure has to do with top-down attempts at creating something, while not linking the project to authenticity and people who know what they are doing. See this piece from the Post from 2005 about the project, "A D.C. Music Museum Sounds Better and Better."

Even though the owner has never been into it, I thought that a kind of Music Museum/Experience could have been created as part of a concert facility at the Uline Arena. Instead, even though local music company IMP would like to rent Uline and open it back up as a concert facility, the property owner intends to insert office space into the interior of the building. I understand, it will generate more money, still...

Meanwhile, national music company LiveNation prepares to enter Silver Spring. While I'd rather go to a building with real history on music, ranging from Paul Robeson to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Go Go--the Uline Arena/Washington Coliseum--the Silver Spring facility will be convenient. See "Theater offers a glimpse of Fillmore venue" from the Gazette.

Meanwhile/2, both Seattle and Chicago have created "music-centered" cultural and economic development master plans.

-- News Release: Mayor unveils Seattle City of Music™ initiative
-- Chicago Music Commission
-- Economic Impact Study of Music in Chicago