These Texas Cities Are The Best — And The Worst — For Live Music In The US

As live music trickles back into our lives, a real estate website begs the question: What are the best music cities in the United States? Whether it's country or rock or electronic, the city you're itching to move to or currently reside in has its specialty. But where can you find the best?

Clever, a real estate site, compiled a list of the best music cities in the U.S. in 2022. To generate this list, Clever used criteria including Google Trends scores, average concert ticket prices, the number of small music venues, the cost of a monthly concert outing, how many music festivals are scheduled nearby, the number of working musicians and their average wage.

At the top of the list, unsurprisingly, is Nashville, the music capital of the U.S. Not only does Clever list the best cities for live music, but it also lists the worst — aka the cities that still have live music, but they might be charging too much or might not have enough small music venues.

In Texas, we see both sides of the spectrum. Austin comes in at No. 4 on the best music cities list, but it's the No. 1 live music metro. Here's why:

"Austin is America's No. 1 live music metro, with an average of five small concert venues per 100,000 residents and nine music festivals planned for 2022 – almost 2x more than the average U.S. city (5)!"

On the flip side, there are three Texas cities regarded as the worst for live music: Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, ranked No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. "The 10 worst music cities offer an average of only 1.8 music venues per capita – 54% less than the top 15 cities (3.9 per 100,000 people)," Clever said in the study.

Here's a look at the top 10 best music cities in the U.S., according to Clever:

1. Nashville, Tennessee
2. Indianapolis, Indiana
3. Portland, Oregon
4. Austin, Texas
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
6. Salt Lake City, Utah
7. St. Louis, Missouri
8. San Francisco, California
9. Seattle, Washington
10. Buffalo, New York

Here are the 10 worst music cities in the U.S.:

1. Miami, Florida
2. Las Vegas, Nevada
3. Houston, Texas
4. San Antonio, Texas
5. Dallas, Texas
6. Atlanta, Georgia
7. Jacksonville, Florida
8. New York, New York
9. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
10. Phoenix, Arizona

You can read Clever's full report here.