Music Scenes to Music Clusters: The Economic Geography of Music in the US, 1970–2000

Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander and Kevin Stolarick
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Richard Florida: Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada
Kevin Stolarick: Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada

Environment and Planning A, 2010, vol. 42, issue 4, 785-804

Abstract: Where do musicians locate, and why do creative industries such as music continue to cluster? This paper analyzes the economic geography of musicians and the recording industry in the US from 1970 to 2000, to shed light on the locational dynamics of music and creative industries more broadly. We examine the role of scale and scope economies in shaping the clustering and concentration of musicians and music industry firms. We argue that these two forces are bringing about a transformation in the geography of both musicians and music industry firms, evidenced in a shift away from regionally clustered, genre-specific music scenes, such as Memphis or Detroit, toward larger regional centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, which offer large markets for music employment and concentrations of other artistic and cultural endeavors that increase demand for musicians. We use population and income to probe for scale effects and look at concentrations of other creative and artistic industries to test for scope effects, while including a range of control variables in our analysis. We use lagged variables to determine whether certain places are consistently more successful at fostering concentrations of musicians and the music industry and to test for path dependency. We find some role for scale and scope effects and that both musicians and the music industry are concentrating in a relatively small number of large regional centers.

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:42:y:2010:i:4:p:785-804

DOI: 10.1068/a4253

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