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On October 01, 2014 World Music Day, also known as The Fête de la Musique is celebrated. The music festival is observed annually and this idea was first broached by American musician Joel Cohen: in the 1970s he spent two seasons as a producer of musical radio programs for the French National Radio (France Musique), where he originated the concept of an all-day musical celebration on the days of the solstice. The idea was taken up by French Music and Dance director Maurice Fleuret for Minister of Culture Jack Lang in 1981 and first took place in 1982 in Paris.

The World Music Days purpose is to promote music in two ways: amateur and professional musicians are encouraged to perform in the streets. The slogan Faites de la musique (make music), a homophone of Fête de la Musique, is used to promote this goal. On the other side, many free concerts are organized, making all genres of music accessible to the public. Two of the caveats to being sanctioned by the official Fête de la Musique organization in Paris are that all concerts must be free to the public, and all performers donate their time for free.

Despite there being a large tolerance about the performance of music by the general public of amateurs in public areas after usual hours, the noise restrictions still apply, and can cause some establishments to be forbidden to open and broadcast music out of their doors without prior authorization. So the prefectures of police in France can still forbid them to install any audio hardware in the street.