Best Places To Live As A Musician

Here's a radical point of view; it doesn't matter.

---

After doing a quick 2 minute scroll through google, it seems that everyone is offering a different opinion on the best places for musicians to live if they want to see some sort of success. What none of these sites point out however, is that it all depends on you.

It is true, that some places in the world are more renowned for certain styles of music than others, and more stars seem to rise out of certain places than others. But to make the assumption that the PLACE is the major factor affecting these musicians success, is a considerably narrow way of looking at it.

Here is a little phrase I looked into yesterday that has opened up my eyes;

Correlation DOES NOT EQUAL Causation.

What does that mean?

It means, just because two things correlate and happen simultaneously, they are not necessarily linked or cause each other. In fact, a lot of the time there is actually a third factor hiding out that is having an affect.

For example, someone has gone to bed with their shoes on, then wakes up in the morning with a headache. The correlation there would be that wearing shoes to bed is what caused the headache, but in reality, the person actually went to bed drunk, and that is probably the more likely cause of the headache.

So what does this mean for musicians that want to know the best places to live, in order to have a greater chance of kicking their goals?

Well, just because one place has shown more success for certain musicians than another place, doesn't mean that the location is the cause for their success. There are often other factors at play that you don't always see. This could be money, talent, contacts, a niche audience, well placed opportunities, a good publicity agent, or literally anything else.

One could argue that Los Angeles has given more up and coming stars more success than any other city. That doesn't mean that their success was based solely on living in LA, it could mean that there are simply more people in LA trying to make it, and therefore the numbers of people that do make it are naturally higher. On the same token, if there are that many people in one city with the same goal, the competition is bound to be more fierce than somewhere with half the number of people, so the talent is naturally higher. Can you see what I'm getting at?

Each place in the world has it's own PRO's and CON's for making it in music. And not all of us can simply up and move countries to grow our chances of success.

Big cities may provide more, and greater opportunities, but they simultaneously provide greater competition.

Smaller, more remote towns have less competition, meaning there may be more opportunities for an up and coming band, and maybe a more supportive music scene, but those opportunities may not carry the same weight as they do in bigger cities.

So what can you do, to help guarantee the best chances for you or your band?

Instead of getting stuck in the idea that your town is what's letting you down, figure out ways that you can use it to your advantage.

(I discuss this more in depth in my book "Getting Started in Music", here's the link if you want more info or to be notified when it's out!)

It all depends on your style, and where you want to take your journey. Everyone has a different idea on what they deem "success", so figure out what it means to you, and you will have a better understanding of how you can get there.

Now, other than focusing on writing good music and branding it well to your audience, you need to pick apart your scene and figure out how it works.

Write down a list of what you perceive to be pro's and con's about where you live and how it affects your band.

If you find a few pro's, great! Use them to your advantage. What may be a pro to you, may be a con to someone else (I personally hate this notion that music is a competition, but in reality, there are a lot of people competing for the attention of a greater audience).

Found some con's? Also great. Why? Because they are very easy to flip around and turn into pro's, you just need to change your perspective on how you go about them.

An example; I live in the city of Perth, Western Australia. It's pretty remote, but we have a decent sized city. Here is my list of Pro's and Con's:

(Considering, my pro's and con's are based purely on the type of music I play and my experiences within it, it may be different to the next Perth muso)

PRO's

Supportive music scene, people know one another.

Some decent venues.

Full of creative people.

CON's

Remote, not a big music scene compared to the other states.

Hard to tour in.

Nanny state, hard to get people to come to shows.

Not very musically focused state, very industrial with emphasis on trade rather than art.

Now I'm going to take my cons and flip them around;

Being in a remote city means there is less competition, we are more likely to stand out in the scene and generate a following, but also being part of a smaller scene means more support between other bands.

It is hard to tour through because it is so large, and expensive to get to from the other states. So the remote parts of our state don't get many touring acts, meaning there is a greater chance of success for us by playing these remote places.

Will need to put a lot of work into online presence to generate interest in audience and lure them down to shows, the resulting crowds will be more loyal because they are coming to our shows with purpose instead of just being out on the town.

People don't look at Perth as a hub for musical potential, so they are more interested and surprised when something comes out of it. More potential momentum for up and coming bands.

Maybe some of these pro's and con's can be applied to where you live too, but I encourage you to dive in and analyse your own scene. Figure out what works for your style and your band, and how it lines up with what's available to you in your city.

Remember, it's not where you live that guarantees your success, rather, how you work it to your advantage and stand out among the rest.

- Amber