Nashville or LA?

March 15, 2008 8:39 AM

im not sure if it's better for me to move to Nashville or LA. I'm an aspiring songwriter and musician and am having a hard time choosing between which place is better for me. Please reply when you get a chance. Thanks. Loco
posted by locoindio to media & arts (14 comments total)

It depends on what style of music you write. I have a non-country-music friend who tried the Nashville thing and it was a flop. He is now an extremely successful producer living in a totally off-the-map "flyover state" that no one would ever suspect. And he has now had several international hits in the top 5 of various Billboard charts. He never moved to L.A., and never had any success of any kind in Nashville.

Also, Ryan Adams says that Tennessee sucks. Take that for whatever it's worth.
posted by The World Famous at 8:52 AM on March 15, 2008

It sucks to be poor in LA.

If you're doing country, have you considered moving out the areas with a glut of talent? Try more rural areas where you can make a name for yourself and use that as a springboard for bigger things.
posted by unixrat at 8:57 AM on March 15, 2008

There is little practical reason to move to Nashville as a beginner. You'll be eaten for breakfast. Your cabbie will be a better songwriter. Your hairdresser will be a better songwriter, and neither will have a deal.

Move to Austin. At least there your waitress will be a better singer, but the eggs will be cheap.
posted by fourcheesemac at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Nashville is better. Nowhere near as much fun, but a better choice all around. LA is a tough place to live. You really need to be rich or young and willing to live VERY cheap in order to make it. On the upside, you'll have a blast in LA. It's just that LA is a lot like DC and parts of Manhattan in that it's a "make it" city where there are a lot of young talented people gunning for the same few opportunities and willing do anything to succeed. Everyone's hungry and everyone knows they're destined to "make it."

Not that Nashville isn't the same way, it's just that it's not quite so intense and it's not quite so hard to survive while struggling to further your career. Working you way up is hard enough without constantly facing eviction. Just my opinion.
posted by willie11 at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2008

Or, less facetiously perhaps, the answer is it doesn't really matter that much where you live, especially anymore. Have you sold songs? Are your songs really, really good? Are other people recording them? You can plug and pitch from anywhere. Might as well stay where you have friends and a day job.

/actually been there and done that.
posted by fourcheesemac at 9:02 AM on March 15, 2008

Nashville IS like that, willie11 (great name.) It's just more concentrated in one industry, in my opinion anywhere.

But then, I think LA sucks worse than any other city in America just as a place to exist, so I would also vote for Nashville for quality of life.
posted by fourcheesemac at 9:04 AM on March 15, 2008

Oh, also check out peripheral places for singer songwriters.

Athens, GA
Chapel Hill, NC
Boston, MA
Omaha, NE
Austin, TX
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
or a handful of other towns/cities with established scenes.

I forgot to ask you if you're just beginning your career. If so, stay away from LA and Nashville, at least for now. Life is long and both of those places will be there in 5 - 10 years when you're on the verge of busting through.
posted by willie11 at 9:06 AM on March 15, 2008

I can't speak to LA, but I lived in Nashville for a number a years, and there's a joke that says 4 out of 5 people in any group are singer/songwriters. What I loved about Nashville is that it's saturated with music... even the scummiest dive bars have free live music at least every weekend. So the competition is pretty steep. In addition to country music (and that included many genres, not just modern pop country), Christian music is the other big genre that drives the music industry in Nashville.

I have many friends who have spent years making music in Nashville, some with limited success, and others who are doing quite well. All of them happened to be locals. Matt Mehaffey actually moved to LA after he had some success with his band Self, and but hated it so much he moved back to TN.

The cost of living is pretty cheap in Nashville, though, and it's easy to have a good time on a budget (I really miss quarter beer nights).

But really, like unixrat says, you don't necessarily need to be either place to have a shot. Success in the music business is more about connections and building a fan base than location. My boyfriend is a songwriter who has had a number of hits in France, even though he has lived in NYC his entire life.
posted by kimdog at 9:16 AM on March 15, 2008

Also, bear in mind the great Waylon Jennings song: Too Dumb for New York, Too Ugly for LA.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:11 AM on March 15, 2008

One thing you might consider, if you can afford it, is live somewhere cheaper where there's less competition, but fly to Nashville (or LA) a few times a year to work with co-writers, take meetings, meet other musicians, etc. An acquaintance of mine does this, and he's done pretty well for himself as a performing songwriter.
posted by scottandrew at 10:16 AM on March 15, 2008

Please don't move either place.

You will do much better being a big fish in your own small pond. Make use of online venues (MySpace Music) and local venues (coffeehouses with open mic nights), stuff like that.

What the folks upthread said about Nashville is a million per cent accurate.

I live in Fayetteville, NC, not a big music bastion (yet) -yet I'm a member of a songwriting group that meets pretty often, with open mic nights, and my (huge) church puts out live cds. The last one I have a song on which I was paid for. I know a lot of people who have worked on their own projects and made a little money at it. Plus you can always network, get connections in Nashville, and send them your demos. Our worship pastor lived in Nashville ten years before we got him, and is a successful songwriter-but after learning what we learned from him, I have absolutely no desire to go anywhere NEAR Nashville.

But the truth is even if you are really gifted, you need to be seasoned, you need to work on your craft, and you need experience. All of which you need to get locally. If you can't make it there you sure as heck won't do yourself any good in Nashville.
posted by konolia at 10:17 AM on March 15, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I vote Nashville. I've lived in Nashville and San Diego. From my visits to LA and from a standard of living perspective, Nashville just seems like so much of an easier place to live. In Nashville, I lived within walking distance to Music Row in my own apartment in a great building for $800/month. I could walk to bars, the grocery, restaurants, Centennial Park and my workplace. I think something like that would be very difficult to find in LA.

Nashville felt like the biggest small town in America. I only lived there a year and met everyone from Al Gore to Trace Adkins. It seemed pretty easy to network. Although, I wasn't in the music industry, so that might carry it's own problems.
posted by deepscene at 1:05 PM on March 15, 2008

i'm a nashville native and have just returned after six years in nyc.

i think if you're into music, it's worth giving it a shot. it may not work, but you'll still learn a lot about the business that will lead to later success. i think there is nothing as valuable as immersion in an industry town, even if only for a year, working as a bar back to pay the rent and networking like crazy. nashville is cheap and the industry is concentrated--both literally and metaphorically--so as long as your expectations are reasonable, i think it's a good choice. you can live within three miles of every club you'd ever want to hear music at, and every studio you might work at, and every bar you might schmooze at. your ultimate goal is to be a working musician, and that's great, but your other goal should be to become a sponge and just absorb everything you can learn about the business, and i'm not speaking from experience, but i would imagine you could do that better in nashville than l.a. give yourself a year to learn how the business really works, then you can stay or go and live anywhere you want.

as a place to live, nashville doesn't suck--you just have to find the good stuff. and there is good stuff and cool people, once you scrape away the grit and glitter. i didn't think it'd be happy here after living in new york for so long, but i've been pleasantly surprised. it's no l.a., but it's got its own charms.
posted by thinkingwoman at 12:36 AM on March 16, 2008

if by beginner, you mean that i don't have a prolific music resume replete with hit songs and other bragging rights...then yes, i am a beginner. but i have been doing music a long time. since a very young age. i know, i know. that's everybody's story. but i guess mine is a bit different. songwriting and drumming are two things im naturally very good at. and ive done some time working on both crafts. im not saying that im destined to be great or whatever. but i know what im good at. so from an industry standpoint, i am a nobody, but i feel that if i went to a music mecca that i could hang. maybe not thrive as yet. but i wouldn't be totally lost in either city. i have enough confidence and ability at this point to hit the ground running. im mainly basing my decision to move on a couple things: 1.) cost of living 2.) the vibe of the city 3.) where I can have a better shot starting out in the music business.

Nashville appeals more to me right now than does LA. It's cheaper and a better place to learn the music business than is LA. LA has too many distractions. I'd definitely have more fun there, but this move isn't for fun. It's business. If I want to have a fun time, I can fly to wherever if I can't find my niche in Nashville. Plus when I went to LA the city had a very lonely vibe about it. Nobody cared about helping anybody else. Nashville is an extremely competitive town I'm sure, but I feel that I'll vibe better with the city than I will LA. so as hard as this decision has been, for now, I'm moving to Nashville. We'll see how long I stay there and if I have any success. I'm trying to have a positive attitude though. I mean, if other people can do it, why not me ya know? I'm fairly young. I'm talented. And this is something I am going to do for the rest of my life. So why not give it the best I got.
posted by locoindio at 8:22 PM on April 17, 2008