Where to make music in the USA
If you want to earn your living (or hamburgers and hot dogs) with music, you don't have to start in Los Angeles or New York in the USA, even if that is where the most music jobs are to be found in absolute terms. The best conditions are to be found in Nashville.
Between 1970 and 2006, Nashville was the only American city with a growing number of jobs in the music industry. Today, there are 7.8 musicians per 1000 inhabitants. In Los Angeles there are 2.8, in Austin 2.6 and in New York 2.1
Musicians in Los Angeles earn 175% of the average American wage, in Nashville 156% and in New York 147%. Musicians in the soul and jazz cities of Memphis (79 percent) and New Orleans (73 percent) are at a relative disadvantage.
In contrast to Los Angeles, where the cost of living is 31 percent higher than average, in Nashville it is 11.1 percent lower. In absolute terms, the city has 27,000 jobs in the music industry. They generate a payroll of 1.7 billion dollars and contribute 5.5 billion dollars to the city's annual turnover.
