Where You Make Music Does Matter
music & the entertainment economy
I've written before about how where you make music may matter more than you'd think it might in a globally connected world. It's not just the size of the music industry where an artist as located that matters. In fact, more important appears to be the size of the music scene measured by both the number of musicians and fans. They both provide the feedback that helps an artist create better music; and great music is where it all begins.
Two charts from Richard Florida's Music & The Entertainment Economy Project at the University of Toronto's Rotman School Of Management illustrate the point. The first looks at the size of various music scenes as measured by the number of artists on MySpace.
When looking at the number of fans that bands based in certain cities have, the rankings shift.
Note that this is where the bands are; not where the fans live.
Should every band move to one of these top 20 cities as quickly as possible? Probably not. Too much competition can kill a project as quickly as too little can; and other factors like the kind of music you play should be factored in. For example, the fans and other musicians that you'll find in Nashville are quite different than in Portland, Oregon. So taking a criticial look around and assessing the potential for creative and fan support makes sense. Then take action to build your aritst or label's community/scene/tribe via networking, the net, UHaul or whatever means available. – Bruce Houghton
it seems a bit silly to split up nyc, bronx and brooklyn into three different slots on this chart. if you just add them up you get a completely different chart, closer to reality and one where NYC totally tops LA
Where is that data coming from? I’d very much like to play with it and ask it some questions.
What about the international market? Canada for example.
Yes, I would love to see this type of breakdown for other countries.
Since when is Brooklyn a different city than NYC? Interesting nonetheless.
I’m interested in the definition of fan, and how much money is spent per fan. If this is only based on the number of email addresses and MySpace friends, that doesn’t tell the whole story.
It stands to reason that a band could have less fans, but make more money per per person, based on gig attendance and CD/merch sales.
As I live in NYC, I know how fierce the in-town competition is, and I’m quite aware that higher fan numbers don’t necessarily equal higher musical income.
People in Manhattan aren’t necessarily going to go into Brooklyn for a show and vice versa. There’s just so much going on in both places… it makes sense that they’re listed separately here.
Yep, was thinking as I read it what these figures would be based on cities in the UK.
Im surprised that New Orleans is not on the list; are these for all types of bands or just a particular genre.
@Que – I think New Orleans didn’t make the list because, despite the plethora of artists in the city, we are (I’m generalizing) 20 years behind technologically. Most artists in the city don’t have MySpace accounts, much less a website of their own. Since this study is based solely on MySpace, let’s consider how that skews the results.