10 Best Cities for Musicians in the U.S. in 2025
This data-driven list reveals the ten best cities for more musicians in the U.S. Learn where other musicians are earning more, gigging more, and finding the best opportunities to grow in 2025
10 Best Cities for Musicians in the U.S. in 2025
by Bobby Owsinski via Music 3.0
If you’re a musician and want to thrive, the best place to be is where the gigs, and other musicians, are. Insurance Canopy analyzed data from the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States to find the best cities for musicians to launch and grow their careers. They looked at aspects like cost of living, number of music venues per 100k residents, and Google search interests for “concerts near me,” among other data points. Here’s what was uncovered.
The best cities for musicians in the US in 2025 are:
1 – Nashville. No surprise here, especially in a city with 4.66 music venues per 100k residents, meaning that there are plenty of places to perform.
2 – Los Angeles. Another no brainer, especially with an average weekly wage of $4,514 (the second highest on the list). Wages are higher here because most musician jobs fall under music production, film scoring, recording, and licensing instead of strictly through live gigs.
3 – Las Vegas. This city has the highest average weekly wage for musicians at $5,007. This is likely due to the many concert acts that come through or take up residence here.
4 – New Orleans. At 7.07 per 100k residents, The Big Easy has the highest number of music venues on the list.
5 – Hartford. A surprise, this city caters to student musicians with three major accredited music schools. With this huge supply of growing talent within just under 18 square miles, that means a high saturation of musicians, leading to a low average musician income of $506 per week.
6 – Cincinnati. Another surprise, especially since the city has a relatively low number of venues at around 2 for every 100k residents. That said, local web searches indicate that people are clamoring for live music events here.
7- Cleveland. Offering a solid balance of great pay (around $1,900 a week) and education (five accredited music schools), the city has a high concentration of bars and small concert halls.
8 – Virginia Beach, VA. The city only has 1.6 concert venues per 100k residents, but a high search volume for live music in the area. This means that most of the music-based revenue goes to larger touring acts than local musicians, resulting in the lower average weekly wage of $703.
9. Portland, Ore. The city has many smaller spots like bars, cafes, and breweries that feature live music. Between working gigs and teaching, Portland musicians make a decent average weekly wage of $1,228.
10. San Francisco. The city has an average weekly wage of $1,306.83 for pros, and 2.36 venues per 100k people so there are many large and small performance spaces for all types of artists.
Are you surprised at this list? I was, as I expected New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, and maybe a city from Florida to be there as well.
I’m also surprised at the average weekly wages being as high as they are, but that takes into account all musicians, not just the average musicians toiling in bars and clubs.
I bet if you find another “best cities” study of this nature, chances are that it will be completely different, but this is the one that what we have for now.
Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media.
