What is Live Music Research about?

Live Music Mapping Project (LMMP)

A collaborative study between organisations across Europe & beyond

Mapping Music in Urban and Regional Economies

In today’s urban economies, music plays a crucial role in both economic growth and cultural enrichment. Whether through local gigs or major events, live music contributes to the vibrancy of cities by attracting attention, fostering community, and driving revenue. Yet, its broader impact on urban economies remains underexplored.

How does music intersect with local economies, regulations, and city planning? And how can policymakers, businesses, and musicians harness this power for more strategic, sustainable outcomes?

The Live Music Mapping Project (LMMP) seeks to answer these questions. As a cross-disciplinary, global initiative, the LMMP focuses on evaluating and mapping the music ecosystems in cities and regions worldwide. By investigating the complex interplay between musicians, venues, local economies, and city regulations, the LMMP aims to provide valuable insights into the socio-economic role of live music.

Understanding Live Music as an Urban Ecosystem

At the heart of LMMP’s work is the idea of live music as an “ecosystem”—a dynamic, interconnected system that includes not only musicians and venues but also policymakers, audiences, and businesses. Live music, in this context, isn’t just about entertainment. It’s a complex web of social, economic, and cultural forces that play out on urban stages every day.

Music brings economic and cultural capital to cities, but its full value is often underappreciated or misunderstood. According to the European Commission (EC, 2006) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), music contributes significantly to local economies, creating jobs, driving tourism, and increasing foot traffic in city centres. Music is also a powerful tool to understand and create a better night-time economy.

Yet, despite its value, there remains a lack of comprehensive data on its impact, making it difficult for policymakers and businesses to craft informed strategies. This gap in knowledge is what the LMMP seeks to address, by mapping music ecosystems. The LMMP aims to measure not just the direct economic benefits of live music—ticket sales, job creation, or venue revenue—but also the broader social and cultural contributions it music makes to urban life.

A Cross-Disciplinary, Global Effort

The LMMP is a UK-based research consortium that brings together partners from Europe, the USA, and New Zealand. With a growing network of over 30 researchers and experts in areas such as policy analysis, popular music studies, cultural heritage, data management, and geospatial mapping, the project is truly cross-disciplinary. The team is composed of both seasoned professionals and early-career analysts, blending fresh perspectives with established expertise.

The collaborative nature of the LMMP makes it a truly global initiative, with ongoing research and mapping in cities like Birmingham, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Liverpool, Milan, Newcastle, Rotterdam, and Wales, with plenty to come, expanding the reach of the project to new urban environments and music cultures. This global outlook allows the project to compare and contrast music ecosystems across regions, creating a more holistic understanding of the industry.

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Methodology: Mapping Live Music Ecosystems

LMMP utilizes a novel methodological approach to map live music ecosystems. This process is data-driven, combining qualitative and quantitative research to produce detailed analyses of the music scene in each city/region.

Here’s how it works:

Web scraping: Thoroughgoing web searching of local listings and beyond (e.g. ticketing sites, social media) to identify active venues across the spectrum of activity in a local music ecosystem.
Surveys and Interviews: The project deploys surveys targeting different stakeholders—musicians, audiences, venue owners, promoters, and policymakers. These surveys are designed to capture the nuances of the live music scene in each city, from the logistical challenges of running a venue to the experiences of local performers.
Workshops and Panels: To further explore the data gathered, the LMMP organizes workshops and panel sessions with key stakeholders. These collaborative discussions provide additional insight into the challenges and opportunities within each live music ecosystem.
Data Analysis: The LMMP then integrates the collected data into comprehensive analyses that are shared with policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public. The data is visualized through Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) mapping techniques, creating a digital map of the live music scene in each city. This allows for visual comparisons and an in-depth understanding of how music venues, businesses, and audiences are interconnected.

The ability to map these ecosystems is crucial for policymakers and industry representatives who must navigate the delicate balance between commercial and civic interests. The LMMP’s methods provide policymakers with credible data, enabling them to make informed decisions that support both the music industry and the wider urban economy, and lobbying industry, with solid, reliable and replicable evidence to support their arguments. Sharing a methodological approach allows for meaningful comparisons between cities, regions and nations – highlighting points of overlap and distinctiveness in the live music ecologies of different urban and rural locations.

Live Music and Policy: Improving Decision-Making

One of the most important aspects of the LMMP is its focus on policy impact. Music policies are often shaped by complex relationships between local, regional, and national authorities. Policymakers face challenges in managing these relationships while balancing the interests of various stakeholders—from musicians and venues to city planners, health authorities, and law enforcement.

The LMMP’s research aims to support more informed policymaking by providing detailed, credible data on music’s role in urban economies. By understanding how music ecosystems function, policymakers can make better decisions on issues such as licensing, noise regulation, public safety, and transportation.

For instance, a city struggling with venue closures due to noise complaints or licensing issues could use LMMP’s findings to develop solutions that balance the needs of residents with the interests of musicians and venue owners. Similarly, cities looking to promote cultural tourism could use live music data to enhance marketing strategies and attract visitors to local events. A healthy live music ecosystem relates to what happens within the venues, and the activities that take place around them. This involves aligning a wide range of local policies, e.g. on land use planning, alcohol licensing, crime, and safety. The LMMP’s maps provide handy visualizations of various locations, placing venues at the centre of elaborate night-time ecosystems, including shops, restaurants, and off-license stores.

Transferable Best Practices

A key goal of the LMMP is to establish transferable best practices that can be applied across cities and regions. By identifying patterns in the challenges and opportunities faced by different cities, the LMMP aims to identify a set of guidelines that can inform policy decisions in diverse urban environments.

For example, the LMMP’s research might reveal that successful cities have implemented flexible licensing policies that allow venues to operate without excessive bureaucratic hurdles, while still addressing public safety concerns. These findings could then be shared with other cities facing similar challenges, providing them with actionable insights.