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Bristol Named UK City With The Highest Density Of Artists

31 May 2023

Pirate reveals the UK cities with the most bands, DJs and producers relative to their populations.

According to new data from Pirate, Bristol is the UK city with the highest density of bands, DJs and recording artists.
The top five UK cities favoured by musicians were Bristol, Norwich, Brighton and Hove, Nottingham and Liverpool.
The UK city with the lowest density of music artists was Bradford.
Pirate is the UK’s largest global studio, used by over 350,000 music artists in the UK and Ireland.

Bristol has been identified as the UK city with the highest concentration of music artists, according to a recent report by Pirate, the UK's largest global studio. Pirate's analysis, which examined the number of bands, DJs, and recording artists relative to the overall population, revealed Bristol as the frontrunner in terms of artist density. Joining Bristol in the top five cities with a significant artist population are: Norwich, Brighton and Hove, Nottingham, and Liverpool.

In contrast, Bradford was found to have the lowest density of music artists among the cities analysed. Interestingly, London, despite its famous music scene, also ranked in the bottom five, likely due to the higher cost of living in the capital. In February 2023, Zoopla announced: “The average UK rent has increased £120 in the past year with London, Manchester and Glasgow seeing the biggest hikes.”

It is worth noting that Manchester, often regarded as a second music capital in the UK (after London), ranked second from the bottom on Pirate's list of cities with the highest artist density. This further highlights the unexpected concentration of music artists across different regions of the country.

Rebecca Mason-Evans runs Pirate Residency, a talent initiative fostering the careers of artists using Pirate’s studios, she emphasises their nationwide focus:

Analysing the distribution of artists across the UK underscores the importance of supportive environments for nurturing talent outside of traditional music centres. That’s what Pirate is for.

Rebecca Mason-Evans, Head Of Residency, PIRATE.COM

In their research into the dynamics of the UK music industry, Pirate also explores the balance between live artists and DJs in various UK cities, and offers insight into the UK's most popular music genres by region. Discover more by reading the full feature on the most musical cities in the UK.

This study was conducted by PIRATE.COM, a network of 24-hour Recording, Rehearsal, DJ, Podcast and Dance studios spread across New York, London, Berlin, Los Angeles and beyond. It examines the number of artists using their studios in comparison to the overall population of 17 cities across the UK and Ireland: Bristol, Norwich, Brighton and Hove, Nottingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow, Dublin, Birmingham, London, Plymouth, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Manchester and Bradford.

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