Why Nashville’s artists are struggling more than ever before
With a growing reputation as the Vegas of the South and the rapid closure of independent music venues, Nashville’s music community feels left behind as the city grows.
“Charlotte, you’re not even going to recognize 12 South anymore. It’s crazy,” my friend Abbie says to me as she picks me up from Nashville’s international airport.
It’s been over a year since I last visited, and I am long overdue for my annual pilgrimage back to my old college stomping grounds. When I first enrolled at Belmont University in 2019, Nashville was the place for music lovers and has long been called “Music City.” CNN reported that the number of creatives in the Middle Tennessee city is more than five times the national average.
Legendary country artists such as Brad Paisley and Trisha Yearwood got their start at the very university I was about to attend. At the time, rising pop/rock band Coin was a school favorite after their song “Crash My Car” quickly became an international success. Around 2019, bachelorette parties, which the city is now known for second to music, were taking over the downtown area, adding a new nickname to the city: “NashVegas.”
Despite the city’s growing presence, some areas still felt smaller, drastically contrasting bigger music cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Outside of Broadway in Downtown Nashville, where all the tourists spend most of their party weekend, communities such as East Nashville housed a thriving group of smaller local artists.
12 South, a street right by Belmont University about ten minutes from the Downtown area, was primarily home to smaller mom-and-pop coffee shops, boutiques, and bars. On fall days, I would leisurely walk down around the area and meet friends for coffee or drinks, feeling completely separated from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, after visiting five years later, everything feels different.
I now push my way through a group of girls wearing pink cowboy hats and posing in front of an “I believe in Nashville” mural as I walk into Portland Brew, a coffee shop at the end of the block. Walking into the shop, I’m immediately struck by a big orange “Closing Soon” sign in the front window. My friends and I dramatically stop and stare at the sign in pure shock. Portland Brew was the go-to study spot for all of us. It was where my friend met the lead singer of her favorite band, where songwriters would have weekly writers’ rounds, poets would host poetry nights, and Sony record producers would have weekly meetings.
Even politicians were shocked by the abrupt closing of the Pacific Northwest-themed coffee shop. “Ok, I’ve officially had it. Now, Portland Brew on 12 South is closing. This ‘New Nashville’ garbage is for the birds,” Tennessee House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons posted on X.
“The rent is too expensive. But don’t worry, the one in East is still open for now,” the cashier tells us when we ask why the store is closing after 20 years in business.
What’s replacing the iconic coffee shop that once served as a place for university artists to have writers’ rounds and creative workshops? A clothing shop branded after mega-country singer Luke Bryan, selling high-end Western apparel catering to Nashville tourists.
While a business being replaced by another is just the circle of life, Portland Brew’s closure is just a microcosm of a larger issue in the city: the erasure of affordable places for creatives to gather due to gentrification.
In 2023, the U.S. Census reported that about 86 people a day moved to Nashville, making it the 10th fastest-growing city in the country. The city’s population grew by 1.36% to total over 1.3 million residents. A study conducted by RentCafe estimates Nashville’s apartment construction from 2024 to 2028 could total 44,556 new units, causing a drastic increase in rent prices for residents.
“We could see potentially significant rent increases three years from now,” Joel Sanders, founder of Apartment Insiders, told The Tennessean earlier this year. Although the city’s expansion has welcomed a new, diverse audience, many struggling artists feel neglected. “I moved [to Nashville] in 2015, and it had already begun its expansion,” musician and longtime resident Grant Bastin tells me. “But, the tourism culture still hadn’t fully taken over. It was all still there, but Broadway wasn’t crazy yet.”
Bastin first moved to Music City in 2015 to follow his musical aspirations in a way he couldn’t back home in Indiana. Now, nine years after first moving, Bastin has had to work several jobs during the day to help support his metal band, Us in Motion. They first began playing together in 2018, and in that time, Bastin has witnessed a noticeable shift in the city’s support for local bands.
“Now, I feel like the new people who moved here moved for a specific reason. [The city] is trying to brand itself as Las Vegas, a big party city where music is an added bonus, not the sole focus…[new residents] all have one idea in mind, and now Nashville is trying to force it on its older residents.”
The increased rent prices, influx of tourists, and buying up of smaller, more affordable areas will only further hinder aspiring artists in the city, cultural sociologist and Belmont University professor Dr. Ken Spring believes. Spring has lived in Nashville since 1998, when it was seen as a temporary stop for musicians before New York City or Los Angeles, not a final destination. When he first moved for graduate school at Vanderbilt University, the city felt like a small town with some big-city benefits. “I remember that there was a lot of free music. You could see music 2–3 days a week for free. Most of the time, it wasn’t country music,” Spring recalls.
He described the city as a place with a lot of subcultural capital, meaning musicians of all niches had more opportunities in Nashville than in other areas where the music scene wasn’t as strong. “At the time, there was a fairly large underground rock scene. None of the bands were going to get a lot of radio airplay, but they were exceptionally talented and really cool…And, there were a lot of independent venues for bands to play.”
“Gentrification is a double-edged sword,” Spring continues. “On the one hand, it can help to redevelop areas that have previously been overlooked. However, what you often see happening, as is the case in Nashville, is that the area becomes gentrified and the businesses that move in and the homes that go up largely cater to the new residents.”
When walking around the Five Points area in East Nashville, it’s easy to see the city’s catering to tourists that Spring is talking about. Five Points, once known for its thriving smaller music venues and local restaurants, now boasts an extensive list of chain restaurants as small businesses are pushed from the area. Edley’s, a popular tourist barbecue spot, recently opened a location replacing the local smoker-friendly bar, 3 Crow Bar.
“It all gets washed away,” Mike Crecca, a Nashville resident for over a decade and guitarist in the band Wild Love, says as he shows me a map of East Nashville, where he moved for more affordable housing after graduating from Belmont University in 2017. “We go, oh, East Nashville is cool. All the artists hang out. Everybody wants to move there. And then all of a sudden, prices go up, and there’s no more artists there. All it is is this idea of East Nashville and this brand that’s been created.”
Crecca notes one of the biggest challenges he’s felt as an artist due to the city’s expansion has been the loss of local venues. Experts echo Crecca’s attitude, having long called the buying up of independent venues by bigger companies an “immediate” danger to the music scene. “It’s an absolute, immediate, and long-term danger to the culture of Music City to have these independent venues compromised to the point where they might have to go away,” Pomeroy, longtime Nashville musician and president of the Nashville Musicians Association, told The Tennessean in 2016.
The danger that the closure of independent venues could cause may have felt distant when Pomeroy mentioned it in 2016, but it is now imminent. “Local venues have been the backbone of this community, but there has been a slow steady creep that has changed much of the local to more corporate-owned venues…these small local venues make Nashville unique,” Spring adds.
The slow, steady creep affecting independent venues is best exemplified by one of the largest and most controversial purchases of independent venues in the past couple of years: the buying of Cannery Row. “One of the biggest changes that I think has been detrimental to the community, and I knew it’d be a problem, was the buying up of the Cannery property and its management going forward,” Crecca states.
In 2019, New York City-based real estate company Thor Equities partnered with property management group DZL to buy Cannery Row for $32 million. This included the absorption of three independent music venues: Cannery Ballroom, Mercy Lounge, and The High Watt. All three venues were once places where local artists could go to be booked and perform for smaller crowds while still making a profit. Some artists say that that’s no longer the case.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, independent music venues had to decide whether to close permanently or sell to larger corporations. A handful were able to stay open by a narrow margin, but many were left with tough financial decisions. The creative industry that Nashville was built on was nearly decimated.
According to a Brooks Report, nationwide the creative arts industries were hit the hardest by the pandemic, suffering estimated losses of almost 1.4 million jobs and $42.5 billion in sales. This devastating impact hit Nashville hard. “It was an industry gone in a blink of an eye,” Ben Roberts, a Nashville-based musician, told CNN about the city.
While DZL said in a press release that it was excited to immerse itself in Nashville’s culture and support artists, independent venue owner of the Exit/IN, Chris Cobb, said the purchase was a threat to local artists. “As the venues become corporatized, the opportunities for local, independent artists diminish rapidly,” Cobb told Marketplace in 2022 following the closure of The Mercy Lounge.
Nearly five years after the start of the pandemic and six years after the purchase of Cannery Row, artists are still feeling its devastating impact through the changes to independent music venues. “It’s becoming harder to be booked in venues because venues no longer want to take risks. Everything is so money-oriented that venues can’t throw on these locally funded shows anymore. I think venues are, understandably, having to play it safe,” Bastin says.
Us in Motion recently released its latest record, The Noble Rot, but has been finding it harder to throw promotional shows due to venues’ lack of faith in smaller musicians. “We have to throw a record release show, and we’ve reached out to multiple venues for months but got no response. We have the numbers to sell out the show…but they won’t take a chance on us. It makes it harder for us to profit off shows and sustain long-term music careers.”
Not only are smaller artists having a hard time getting their foot in the door, but once they have a gig in the works, some can no longer afford the fees that come with playing the venue. “Production fees, a fixed fee the venue gets if no one shows up, used to be manageable at venues such as the High Watt and Cannery Hall,” Crecca explains. “[Fees] used to be, say, $250. If you sell $1,000 worth of tickets and there’s a $250 production fee, take the $250 off for the venue, and the artist is left with $750 off that, then we deal with that money.”
“My understanding is that now the new High Watt production fee is around $1,000. That’s the ballpark it’s operating in. So, imagine we’re charging $15 a ticket and say it’s an $800 production fee, to be generous. 800 divided by 15 equals 53 tickets you’ll need to break even. And then if [the venue] takes 30% after that too, you’re walking away with next to nothing.”
The High Watt did not respond when asked for a comment.
$15 may not seem like a lot for a ticket compared to the $100 tickets more prominent artists charge, but for up-and-coming bands with smaller audiences, that price may deter potential concertgoers. “Our ticket last year cost $20-something after fees, and we felt really weird about it. We almost had the conversation: Should we even do this? We don’t like to charge fans that much,” Crecca recalls.
On top of raising production fees, The High Watt began limiting the amount of shows it puts on. Before being bought in 2019, Cannery Hall and The High Watt were open six nights a week for shows; looking at the events calendar now, shows are typically held Thursday to Sunday nights, with some exceptions. “I used to be able to just email the booking agent at the High Watt and at least have a conversation [with him]. Now I can’t even get through,” Crecca says.
As it becomes harder for artists to book gigs and profit from shows, a full-time music career no longer feels attainable. “Nashville’s cool because everybody moved here to be creative and make things, and people are still moving here to be creative and make things,” Crecca passionately proclaims. “But if you make that difficult, then Nashville one day is this kind of a shell of, ‘Ah, remember when this was the music capital of the world?’ When you eliminate spaces, you make it more difficult for [artists] to do their thing. People can’t take risks, which is important for art.”
Over the past decade, the city has made some strides to help struggling artists and independent venues. Nashville’s biggest venture towards helping rising artists of all kinds began with the opening of Ryman Lofts in 2012. Ryman Lofts is Nashville’s first affordable apartment residence for creatives. The complex is only a few blocks from Broadway, the city’s tourist hub. Artists, which aren’t just limited to musicians but also painters, dancers, and more, have easier means of getting to Nashville’s biggest music venues, studios, and other creative contacts.
To apply to live in the 60-unit housing complex, applicants must undergo a rigorous application process, including background checks and interviews, prove they have connections in their industry, and demonstrate financial need. Rent is calculated based on the resident’s financial ability, and once accepted, tenants need to submit yearly financial statements to show their need for affordable housing. Similar programs exist more widely in bigger cities such as New York and Los Angeles, but Ryman Lofts is the only one of its kind in Nashville.
In addition to helping assist artists with significant financial needs, the city is working to support the independent venues that these musicians rely on. In April 2024, the Tennessee legislature unanimously passed a bill to create a live music fund. If signed into law, the statewide bill would create a fund to provide grants to live music and performance venues, promoters, and performers.
“The Live Music & Performance Venue Fund creates a massive opportunity for us to protect and preserve Tennessee’s live music industry for years to come,” Bob Raines, Executive Director of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, said in a statement. “Independent venues and performers across the great state of Tennessee are the foundation of our complex and vibrant ecosystem and we know their success is directly tied to the vibrancy and growth of our communities across the state.”
The fund, administered by the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, is a step in the right direction, but residents believe the city still has a long road ahead to support artists properly. For Dr. Spring, this road includes subsidizing and supporting local artists on a larger scale: “This will be a difficult task to swing with the state politics, but if the artists could have a unified voice in the form of a partner organization that works on their behalf showing their role of economic impact on the local community, I think it could go a long way toward stabilizing a life/work balance that attracts creatives in the first place.”
“We [also] need to take a holistic approach to the arts in Nashville. We call ourselves Music City, but we cater to a very small, specific type of music while leaving out all of the other arts (symphony, ballet, museums, street art, rock, rap, etc.),” he adds.
“We have a lot of opportunities around town to showcase local artists, whether that be through offering more opportunities to artists to play shows downtown in bars or opening more spaces for musicians to work together creatively. I think we do a good job of it, but we could do so much better.”
