Best (and worst) US cities for musicians

New York and Los Angeles are no longer the be-all and end-all when it comes to “making it big” as a musician. Here we look at a few cities that are now serving as bastions of artist success (as well as a few you should definitely avoid).

Guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix

As we slowly emerge from the global pandemic, these ten US cities are welcoming musicians with open arms and major opportunities.

Musicians no longer need to live in New York or Los Angeles when hoping to make it big. Today’s artists are writing, recording, and producing music from their bedrooms. The traditional music ecosystem remains in place for those who wish to use it, but for everyone else, an increasing amount of new ways to approach a career in entertainment exists. You can record and never tour, or you can tour two hundred days out of the year and release an album every four years. You can do whatever you want, but the location you call home still matters (to some extent).

Every great artist or group must begin somewhere. Your place of residence can play a role in determining not only the venues you can play but the other musicians you can meet, the potential audience for your art, and the availability of any supplies needed to make your career great. It would be best if you also had reasonable rent, a side hustle that helps pay the bills when the music falls short, and things to do that inspire creativity rather than block it.

A new report from Rent.com aims to help musicians find the perfect place to build their careers. With consideration given to cost of living, music businesses, music-related occupations, and more, the leading online platform found Glendale (CA), Boston (MA), Los Angeles (CA), Pittsburgh (PA), Atlanta (GA), New York (NY), Seattle (WA), Minneapolis (MN), Washington DC, and San Francisco (CA) to be among the best cities for musicians today.

Rent.com offers this reasoning for San Francisco’s number one position:

Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix. The Grateful Dead. Jefferson Airplane. The counterculture rock music of the 1960s and 1970s created the “San Francisco sound.” So many greats from this era cut their teeth and got their chops performing around the City by the Bay. From rock and punk to jazz, San Francisco’s music scene has been among the best in the country since the ’60s. That continues to this day, with San Francisco topping the charts to be the best city for musicians in America.

Obviously, as a city, San Francisco offers a lot to inspire musicians. From its iconic architecture to the scenic views of the bay, the city’s history, culture and atmosphere are sure to generate plenty of ideas for songs. Just walking around San Francisco will bring you face-to-face with famous spots from S.F. musical history, especially in the Haight district where many musicians lived.

Then it’s time to take your music to the stage at legendary venues like The Fillmore, The Chapel, The Saloon, The Bottom of the Hill and The Independent. Plenty of restaurants, bars and clubs offer live music nights, as well. San Francisco is also home to popular music festivals like Outside Lands and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. If you want to make music in a place where many other great musicians also played, San Francisco is a musician’s dream.

The high cost of living in San Francisco may be an impediment to some musicians who want to live and work here. The average price of a one-bedroom apartment is $3,557, making San Francisco one of the most expensive cities in our top 10 list of the best cities for musicians. But to live and make music in one of America’s most celebrated cities for the arts may be well worth the cost.

You can find the top 50 US cities for musicians below:

The worst cities for musicians

These cities just don’t have enough music in their souls to support thriving music scenes. Here are the worst cities for musicians. You could even say these cities fell flat.