This book proposes a new perspective on mapping and measuring urban live music ecologies. Music makes a significant economic and cultural contribution to cities, and each local context produces a complex live music ecosystem composed of musical and non-musical actors, infrastructures and regulatory frameworks. This complexity presents a challenge for policymakers and businesses seeking to make informed strategic decisions. To address this challenge, the volume explores two core themes: firstly, the valuation and measurement of live music ecologies by recognising the interdependencies between venues, stakeholders, infrastructures and policy environments. Secondly, it considers mapping as an analytical tool for identifying spatial patterns, relationships and inequalities within live music ecosystems. Together, these approaches help address key policy questions and offer evidence-based insights to support more informed decisionmaking for live music industries and communities in urban environments.

Patrycja Rozbicka is a senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. 

Richard Anderson is a University of Liverpool based Research and Innovation Associate with Music Futures, and Institute of Popular Music researcher. Research interests include venues, mapping, policy and underground dance music cultures.

Adam Behr teaches and researches in the interdisciplinary field of Popular Music Studies at Newcastle University, UK.

Alessandro Bratus researches popular music and contemporary forms of music and multimedia at the Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy.

Mathew Flynn is the Director of the Institute for Popular Music and Co-Director of MusicFutures at the University of Liverpool.

Martijn Mulder is a Senior Lecturer in Leisure, Culture and Attractive Cities at Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, and a researcher at Erasmus Research institute for Media, Culture, History & Society, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Martin Nicastro is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Popular Music Studies at the University of Pavia, Italy.

Caroline Ann O’Sullivan is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the School of Media in TU Dublin, Ireland.