As an important part of Chinese national spirit and national culture, folk music contains rich cultural connotations and unique musical forms. At the same time, folk music comes from different regions. It is the product of people's labor practice in different regions, the crystallization of wisdom, and every individual is responsible for the inheritance and the development of local folk music in order to promote regional economy and spread regional culture, It is helpful to strengthen the exchange of regional ethnic cultures and to promote folk music to the world. At first, this paper introduces the basic definition and characteristics of folk music, and analyzes the necessity of the development of folk music, including the current situation of the development of folk music, and explores the local folk music inheritance and development in the basic ways.