Best Cities for Musicians in 2025

From the gritty indie scene of NYC to Nashville’s diverse and deeply rooted musical heritage, hundreds of cities across the country are home to successful and aspiring musicians.

But what are the best cities for musicians in 2025? Insurance Canopy analyzed data from the 50 most populous metropolitan areas to find the best places for musicians to launch and grow their careers. (Learn more about how we did it in our Methodology section at the bottom of the page.)

Discover the best places to book gigs, build an audience, and earn more money doing what you love in 2025!

Key Findings

Rankings Table: The Best Cities for Musicians

As promised, here are Insurance Canopy’s best cities for musicians ranked from best to worst.

Your unique needs and must-haves come first! While the table defaults to our official weighted scores, you can also adjust the slider to customize your ranking experience based on what’s most important to you.

Desktop: Adjust the slider for each metric to change how much it weighs in the overall score.

Mobile: Click “show controls” to display sliders and adjust each variable however you like.

Music Institutions

Weight: 10%

Employment Location Quotient

Weight: 25%

Average Weekly Wage

Weight: 25%

Search Interest

Weight: 20%

Number of Venues

Weight: 20%

Display Raw Values (if applicable)

State	Music Institutions	Employment Location Quotient	Average Weekly Wage	Search Interest	Number of Venues
Atlanta, GA	6	0.44	2555.16	28	1.13
Austin, TX	1	1.11	1124.77	25	4.45
Baltimore, MD	5	1.44	831.77	50	0.85
Birmingham, AL	2	0.75	970.09	40	1.27
Boston, MA	3	1.26	1462.71	37	1.2
Charlotte, NC	4	0.48	1088.9	38	1.28
Chicago, IL	15	1.27	1110.6	29	1.28
Cincinnati, OH	2	1.42	1552.57	53	2.42
Cleveland, OH	5	1.57	1914.13	46	1.39
Columbus, OH	3	0.61	753.31	31	1.93
Dallas, TX	8	0.84	1131.73	32	0.96
Denver, CO	3	0.91	849.37	31	2.8
Detroit, MI	2	0.9	1402.96	42	1.15
Hartford, CT	3	1.12	506.01	60	4.26
Honolulu, HI	1	3.54	835.4	14	2.93
Houston, TX	1	0.38	1807.02	21	1.01
Indianapolis, IN	3	1.23	938.91	46	1.45
Jacksonville, FL	2	0.82	1174.21	37	1.4
Kansas City, MO	2	0.81	1249.12	34	1.49
Las Vegas, NV	1	1.68	5007.14	18	3.77
Los Angeles, CA	21	2.99	4514.31	37	1.36
Louisville, KY	2	1.1	945.56	47	2.05
Memphis, TN	2	0.6	864.47	31	2.1
Miami, FL	7	0.55	1344.08	28	0.87
Milwaukee, WI	4	1.06	1082.31	35	2.24
Minneapolis, MN	9	1.41	1011.4	38	1.43
Nashville, TN	6	9.49	3785.28	31	4.66
New Orleans, LA	3	1.43	1501.99	34	7.07
New York, NY	12	1.05	1372.77	29	1.11
Oklahoma City, OK	4	1.17	935.39	33	2.03
Orlando, FL	2	0.68	879.25	33	1.63
Philadelphia, PA	6	0.71	1649.49	46	1.18
Phoenix, AZ	2	0.5	1669.76	34	1.72
Pittsburgh, PA	3	1.48	1288.62	34	1.07
Portland, OR	4	1.45	1128.36	39	2.47
Providence, RI	2	1.34	458.05	66	0.89
Raleigh, NC	1	0.08	1566.5	43	2.32
Richmond, VA	2	0.87	749.07	47	1.33
Riverside, CA	3	0.18	799.6	1	0.68
Sacramento, CA	1	0.51	508.78	50	1.65
Salt Lake City, UT	2	1.44	1154.52	39	2.05
San Antonio, TX	4	0.46	2382.45	26	1.81
San Diego, CA	1	1.26	1055.69	34	2.66
San Francisco, CA	2	1.55	1306.83	39	2.36
San Jose, CA	2	0.5	1027.76	39	2.83
Seattle, WA	3	1.29	1037.25	35	1.34
St. Louis, MO	5	0.92	1387.16	35	1.68
Tampa, FL	4	0.73	1142.77	38	2.03
Virginia Beach, VA	5	0.87	703.57	70	1.06
Washington, DC	8	0.7	929.67	45	0.86

Duplicate rankings indicate a tie due to the same data for multiple states.

In-Depth Look at the Top Cities for Musicians

1. Nashville, TN

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry has hosted superstar musicians like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and Linda Martell.

🎤 Harmonic History: “Music City” earned its nickname in the 1800s when the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed for the Queen of England, who famously said that the talented artists must come from “a city of music.”

🎹 Stat Solo: With 4.66 music venues per 100k residents, Nashville musicians have plenty of places to perform. From intimate spaces like The Bluebird Cafe to the sprawling Ryman Auditorium, the city serves performers and audiences in every genre and size.

2. Los Angeles, CA

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: In June 2023, West Coast rapper and actor Tupac Shakur posthumously earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

🎤 Harmonic History: Music legends such as Janis Joplin, The Doors, and Mötley Crüe played at the Whisky a Go Go between the 1960s and 1980s.

🎹 Stat Solo: Scoot over, movie stars! The City of Angels was made for musicians, especially with an average weekly wage of $4,514 (the second highest on our 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, NV

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: In 2025, Vegas will host some of the world’s biggest acts, including Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, and Kenny Chesney.

🎤 Harmonic History: The dusty little railroad town of Las Vegas got a makeover in 1931 when Nevada legalized gambling. Within a few short decades, it became a center of entertainment, drawing legends like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Sammy Davis Jr.

🎹 Stat Solo: Sin City has the highest average weekly wage for musicians at $5,007. This is likely due to the many high-rolling acts that perform and rake in a ton of profits, not to mention massive casino venues like the MGM Grand and the Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace.

4. New Orleans, LA

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Variety is the spice of life, and the Big Easy’s music scene is spicier than Cajun cuisine. From alternative acts like The Revivalists to hip-hop king Lil Wayne, New Orleans is the birthplace of many modern artists.

🎤 Harmonic History: Known as The Birthplace of Jazz, New Orleans is still jamming with iconic venues like Preservation Hall and The Spotted Cat Music Club, as well as the New Orleans Jazz Museum and the Jazz and Heritage Festival.

🎹 Stat Solo: At 7.07 per 100k residents, The Big Easy has the highest number of music venues on our list. The city has plenty of bars, clubs, and concert halls. Plus, New Orleans cultivates a street performance culture (aka busking) for any musician to share their art.

5. Hartford, CT

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Hartford is home of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1934, and amasses more than 95,000 attendees statewide every season.

🎤 Harmonic History: The city is well-known for its role in the Golden Age of Jazz before and after World War II. The Hartford Courant newspaper often reported on performances by stars like Duke Ellington, Ivy Anderson, and Count Basie.

🎹 Stat Solo: Hartford caters to student musicians with three NASM-accredited institutions. With this huge supply of growing talent within just under 18 square miles, this big little city has a high saturation of musicians, leading to a low average musician income of $506 per week.

6. Cincinnati, OH

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Cincinnati hosted the first Black Music Walk of Fame induction ceremony in July 2021, celebrating artists, songwriters, producers, and musicians from the area. Inductees include The Isley Brothers and James Brown.

🎤 Harmonic History: The Cincinnati Music Festival was originally a jazz event called the Ohio Valley Jazz Festival that launched in 1962. It later expanded to feature R&B, soul, and hip-hop artists.

🎹 Stat Solo: While Cincinnati has a relatively low number of venues, with around 2 for every 100k residents, local web searches show that people are clamoring for live music events here. Luckily, the city meets that demand with plenty of multipurpose spaces like bars and theaters that bring in a steady flow of music performances.

7. Cleveland, OH

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Cleveland rocks! That’s why it’s home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, with hundreds of notable musical inductees since its inception, including Cleveland’s own Nine Inch Nails.

🎤 Harmonic History: The heart of rock and roll may be in Cleveland, but the city’s musical roots go even deeper. The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 and grew from a respectable local organization to one of the most highly regarded orchestras in the world.

🎹 Stat Solo: Cleveland offers a solid balance of great pay (around $1,900 a week) and education (five NASM-accredited schools). With a booming theater district at Playhouse Square and many bars and small concert halls, Cleveland offers plenty of opportunity for musicians.

8. Virginia Beach, VA

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Virginia Beach is home to talented musicians and record producers such as Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, Pusha T, and Alexandra du Bois.

🎤 Harmonic History: Neptune City was the home of the Dome, a space-age music venue that launched in 1957 and closed in 1994. In the ‘60s, the venue held concerts for Louis Armstrong, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix. Atlantic Park plans to restore the Dome later this year.

🎹 Stat Solo: Virginia Beach 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, OR

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Esperanza Spalding, a Portland-based jazz bassist, cellist, and singer, won the Best New Artist Grammy in 2010 — beating Florence & The Machine, Drake, Justin Bieber, and Mumford and Sons in that category.

🎤 Harmonic History: Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain met his wife and fellow artist, Courtney Love, at the punk club Satyricon in 1988.

🎹 Stat Solo: Rose City has 2.47 venues per 100k residents, including 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, CA

🎶 Noteworthy Fact: Some musical artists from San Fran include Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, MC Hammer, and Jefferson Airplane.

🎤 Harmonic History: On January 14, 1967, over 20,000 people attended the Summer of Love at Golden Gate Park, celebrating “peace, love, music, and psychedelics.”

🎹 Stat Solo: San Francisco has a well-rounded music scene, from two NASM-accredited schools for students to an average weekly wage of $1,306.83 for pros. With 2.36 venues per 100k people, the area offers large and small performance spaces for all types of artists.

Ask a Musician: What Makes a City a Great Place for Gigs?

Numbers and data are great, but expert opinions provide essential insights and context. We chatted with a few independent musicians to get the inside scoop on what the music industry is all about.

What factors most differentiate your positive gig/performance experiences from your negative ones?

“Good sound guys who work well with the musician can make or break a gig. If the crowd can't hear your music or your speaking, you can't have the interactions we all strive for. If you can't hear yourself in your monitors or in your ears, it can affect your playing or your singing drastically, which will make the gig drag on and on, and you'll leave not feeling like you played to your full potential.”

“With my best gigs, the owners and management have had constant communication even before the gig starts — checking in to make sure that I arrived ok, sometimes even offering to pick me up from the airport, making sure accommodations are suitable, and scheduling proper time for soundcheck. They pay on time and trust my input when I make a recommendation or suggestion about something.”

“Being treated with respect by the venue. This includes being compensated fairly, having good communication when setting up the show and then sharing mutual appreciation between artist, host, and audience at the performance.”

What can music venues do to make residencies, gigs, or festivals more attractive to musicians?

“The best way of making residencies or gigs more attractive to musicians is by having a good reputation and rapport with the musicians you hire. If I am playing a new venue or working with a new group or agency, I will always ask other performers how their experience was working with them.”

“Paying musicians fairly. Musicians now are not getting paid any more than they were in the 1980s. Everyone is talking about inflation and how everything costs more, but I am not making any more at shows than I was over 20 years ago. [Venues] don't take into consideration the time that has been spent developing one's craft, rehearsing for the show, building and managing a fanbase, transportation, promotion, and the many overhead costs that are involved.”

“Contributing to promoting the show is a huge help. When I play out of town, it's always great when I hear someone show up just because they saw something about my gig that the venue posted. It can be hard to promote shows, so a venue making sure their regulars or locals know about a gig is so helpful.”

How can cities make careers for young/beginning musicians more viable?

“Cities can make being a musician more viable by paying better! I am so lucky that I have gotten to the point where I can make a good amount of money playing music, but I'm not sure how many other cities in the world I would be able to play every single day and make my full-time living. I think having more programs to help with budgeting and more easily accessible healthcare would help so much.”

“Cities can be proactive in creating more and more events where music can add a wonderful dynamic to community gatherings. Beginning musicians can be included at farmers markets, street fairs, festivals, coffee shops, and other small venues.”

“The success of young/beginning musicians really depends on whether a city has the venues, platforms, and interest to support live music. If there's no place for them to perform or get heard — or no one to listen, they'll have a hard time breaking into the industry. Some cities offer publicly subsidized programs for artists, like artist housing or grants that make it easier for musicians to build and sustain a career.”

If you could go back with the knowledge you have now, what would you have done differently when choosing your first musician gig? Why?

“Reputation as a performer matters so much, and if you find yourself over your head at a gig you're just not qualified for yet, it will be even harder to get back in the door the next time, even if you've grown and improved.”

“There's not much I would change about my very first gigs because I definitely needed the practice. But I sure have learned a lot since then, and the gigs I accept now are very different than the gigs I accepted back then. I know my worth a lot more, so unless there is a special reason I want to play a certain gig, I keep to my rates.”

“When first starting out, I think doing a lot more open mics would have provided me more valuable experience before applying for paid gigs.”

More Factors Musicians Should Tune Into

Before you move to a new city, there are a few more factors to consider. You need the right resources to create amazing music. While these factors weren’t part of our initial data-gathering process, they do have a big impact for musicians:

Rehearsal and Recording Spaces

Unless your home has an empty garage or a soundproof room, you need a designated space to rehearse for your gigs. Many music halls and community centers offer rehearsal spaces you can rent by the hour. Reach out to owners for rates and requirements before securing a spot.

Ready to record? Research local recording studio availability, the genres they work with, and the cost. A city without places to rehearse or record is an automatic red flag.

Transportation

How easily can you commute to specific venues or festivals across town?

Proximity, traffic, and accessibility are all important factors to consider. If you live in an area that’s easy to navigate or trying to save on gas, consider walking, taking public transportation, or ride-shares like Uber or Lyft.

The better the commute, the more likely you’ll want to play at specific venues and festivals.

Musician Liability Insurance

Music venues and event coordinators often require liability insurance before you can perform. Musician liability insurance protects you and your partners from pricey claims that could make it difficult to pursue your musical endeavors.

Performing music comes with risks you may not have considered. If a stagehand trips on your mic cord or your latest song is a little too similar to another local artist’s, you could get hit with a costly lawsuit.

Check out our comprehensive musician liability insurance guide for more details and helpful tips for finding the right policy to meet your needs.

Methodology and Sources

We sourced data for this report on February 3, 2025, from government and educational resources as indicated below.

National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)-Accredited Institutions (10%)

We included the number of National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)-accredited institutions in our composite score for the best cities for musicians because these schools offer high-quality music education, professional networking opportunities, and access to industry resources.

However, we did not weigh this factor as heavily as others because a) not all musicians attend formal music schools, b) the geographic influence of schools is limited, and c) broader industry opportunities like live music venues, recording studios, and employment opportunities can better support sustainable careers for musicians.

NASM was founded in 1924 and has roughly 628 accredited institutional members. NASM also creates national regulations for undergraduate and graduate degrees and credentials for music and music-related disciplines.

Source: National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)

Average Weekly Wage Adjusted for Cost of Living (25%)

This data point factors in essential expenses like rent, groceries, utilities, and transportation balanced against earned wages. For example, a musician may make more money in Los Angeles, but the cost of living is also much higher.

We also pulled data from the Census populations and MSA for the annual average in 2023. When data from 2023 at the MSA level was unavailable, we relied on 2021 and 2022 MSA-level data, as in the cases of:

Riverside, CA
Seattle, WA
Tampa, FL
Providence, RI
Richmond, VA

If MSA level data was completely unavailable, we relied on data from the city’s surrounding county, as was the case with:

Orlando, FL (Orlando County)
San Antonio, TX (Bexar County)
Raleigh, NC (Wake County)
Hartford, CT (Hartford County).

We also reviewed the bureau’s definition of musical groups/artists. Therefore, the data reflects professional musicians, not self-employed.

Source: MSA Census data and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment wages data viewer and definition of musical groups/artists

Employment Location Quotient (25%)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says a location quotient compares “the concentration of an industry within a specific area to the concentration of that industry nationwide.” We used the employment location quotient to compare musician jobs in a specific region with work across the industry as a whole.

So what’s the punchline? A higher employment location quotient means your area’s got more musicians than the national average, while a lower quotient means you might be stuck in the soundcheck!

2023 actual personal consumption expenditures by state helped us adjust for the cost of living in each state when calculating weekly wages. Our process for locating missing 2023 data calculations mirrors the one we used for the average weekly wage data point above.

We also pulled data from several MSA sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment and wages data viewer, quarterly census of employment and wages, and occupational employment and wage statistics. Annual averages were also drawn from the quarterly census of employment and wages.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment wages data viewer, quarterly census of employment and wages, and occupational employment and wage statistics

Number of Music Venues per 100k Residents (20%)

This data point is vital because when there are more music venues in a large city, there are more opportunities to play your music in front of live audiences and earn profits from your craft.

When determining the number of music venues per 100,000 residents in each city, we checked Yelp’s extensive database. We used “Music Venues” as our main keyword and ensured the venues only offered live music.

We did not use the geolocation filter to guarantee our findings were limited to specific metropolitan areas.

Source: Yelp

Google Search Interest, “concerts near me” (20%)

Google Trends identifies the volume of searches for a term in a specific region. The higher the number of searches, the more interest people have. This method provided search patterns for the phrase “concerts near me.” We filtered the search from January 2024 to January 2025 and identified interest by metro region, with 100 representing the highest value and popularity.

Source: Google Trends: Concerts Near Me

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the talented musicians who provided their expert testimonials: Alissa Musto, Megan Golden, and Jenn Cleary.