This Indiana City Is One Of The Best Cities In The US For Live Music

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.

Indianapolis comes in at No. 2. Here's what Clever had to say about one of the best cities in the U.S. for live music:

On average, concert tickets for Indianapolis shows ($99) are cheaper than tickets in 94% of the cities in our study. One concert every month would cost the average local only 1.9% (or $1,188) of their annual income.

As the capital of Michael Jackson's home state, Indianapolis does not disappoint. Ranking No. 4 in small concert venues per capita (5.3 per 100,000 people), Indianapolis is a great place to catch an affordable show.

Additionally, full-time musicians in Indianapolis make more hourly ($31.40) than artists in 40% of the cities in our study, and the metro ranks No. 5 in Google Trends for both alternative music and blues.

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.