The Leicester Live Music Map is a research and development project that explores the structure, activity and significance of the live music ecosystem in Leicester and the wider Midlands region. The project brings together publicly available information on venues, organisations and live music activity to provide a clearer picture of the infrastructure that supports music in the city.
Live music plays an important role in Leicester’s cultural, social and economic life. From grassroots venues and community spaces to larger cultural institutions, the city hosts a wide range of activity that supports artists, audiences and creative businesses. However, much of this activity often remains fragmented or difficult to capture in a single place. The Leicester Live Music Map aims to address this by creating a resource that documents and visualises the spaces and organisations that contribute to the city’s music ecosystem.
Developed in collaboration with the Leicester Music Board, the project aims to support a better understanding of how Leicester’s music sector operates and how it connects to the wider regional and national music economy. By mapping the city’s live music infrastructure, the platform provides insight into the distribution of venues, the diversity of spaces where music happens, and the networks that support creative activity across Leicester.
The map is intended to be a useful resource for a wide range of stakeholders including artists, promoters, venues, audiences, researchers, policy makers and cultural organisations. For artists and music professionals, it helps highlight opportunities and spaces for performance and collaboration. For policy makers and sector organisations, it provides evidence that can help inform decision making, investment and strategies aimed at supporting sustainable growth within the music sector.
As the project develops, the Leicester Live Music Map will continue to expand through the integration of additional datasets and publicly available information. This will allow the platform to generate both qualitative and quantitative insights into Leicester’s live music landscape, helping to identify trends, opportunities and challenges facing the sector.
The insights produced through the project contribute to a broader understanding of the role that cities like Leicester play within the UK’s live music ecosystem. By providing accessible data and analysis, the map supports ongoing conversations about the sustainability of live music, the importance of grassroots venues, and the ways in which music infrastructure contributes to the cultural and economic vitality of cities.
Ultimately, the Leicester Live Music Map forms part of a wider effort to support the visibility, sustainability and future development of Leicester’s music sector, while contributing to a growing body of research that examines how local music ecosystems operate within the context of a globalised music industry.
