The LMMP Milan Music Venue Map is currently under development and will be officially launched at the end of November 2023. At the moment it includes 172 venues, placed in the metropolitan area of the city. The goal is to represent what could be defined as the local system of live musical practices: for this reason, venues located outside the municipal boundaries are also included if considered part of the urban networks.
The Milan area is currently the main hub for the Italian industrial system of popular music production and it hosts the seat of local branches of the major international recording companies, music publishers of national and international relevance, rehearsals and recording facilities. According to a recent survey on the creative and cultural enterprises in Italy, Milan is the home of the bigger local cluster of the sector, producing a value of more than 16 billion of Euros in 2023 (17% of the national grand total), with an employment of about 200.000 workers.
This is also reflected in the diversity and diffusion of the live music venues over the entire metropolitan area, with a particular concentration in the areas located on the North-South axis, closer to the city center.
The distribution of the different types of venues tends to be consistent with the urbanistic development of the city, following a circular, concentric pattern divided by radiuses. This tendency seems to replicate the existing cultural hierarchies between musical practices. Theaters, concert halls and arts centers – as well as luxury night clubs – tend to cluster towards the city center, whereas live venues for popular music are distributed around a larger circle; student and social cultural enterprises cover an even more peripheral pattern, while outdoor spaces are mostly located outside of the municipal boundaries. Such a distribution closely reflects the median value of buildings across urban areas and the location of the historical milanese heritage.
This tendency is well represented by the Teatro Alla Scala opera house, often identified as the symbol of the local musical tradition: positioned in the inner circle of the city, it’s part of a small area close to the iconic Piazza del Duomo, where luxury fashion shops and touristic points of interests are also located.
