The perfect fiscal balance that musicians and gig workers enjoyed in Nashville died around 2017. The price of homes skyrocketed (literally almost doubled). With that came the migration of tens of thousands folks from out of state either looking for opportunities or looking for state income tax relief. ( me included) And all cash buyers. If you wanted to finance and not offer 25 percent over asking , just forget it. Now you have the over build that yeilded massive condo complexes with only 20 percent occupancy all with a 5/6 or 7 in the price tag and less takers than projected. The property tax increases which are based on the "new" math are crushing homeowners and low margin businesses like restaurants and bars all of which do some sort of live music experience. There's just not enough margin in a 29 dollar martini to cover the overhead anymore. The tourist now find the price of a vacation to Nashville virtually no different in costs to any major city or tropical destination with a beach. Hotel prices have doubled if not more. ( I put my whole band and crew up twice a year for rehearsals) The difference between 2015 and now is staggering. All of these factors have contributed to a place that was once America's fastest growing city to now being on the verge of a soft insolvency all the way around. Musicians can't afford to live there and businesses can't afford to support the musicians that make up the fabric of the Nashville experience. I really hope they figure it out and charging more for everything isn't the answer.. Joe B ( part time Nashville resident)
Opinion: Nashville fails the creatives who built the Music City brand | Opinion tennessean.com/story/opinion…
Maybe musicians need to migrate to cities that are affordable.
There is another music city, Memphis, that has restaurants and lower property values.
You may say, “there is crime there,” but most musicians that were just starting out lived in East Nashville where there was crime as well.
You are 3 hours away from Nashville.
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Yup. Make a place fun and interesting. Attract people who like fun and interesting but don’t understand the effects of government policy. Voting. Place becomes uninhabitable by normal people. See, e.g., San Francisco, Seattle, Portland. Going back further, Detroit, Baltimore, etc. Don’t get me started on Los Angeles…
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Sadly, inflation will only get worse as long as politicians from both parties refuse to cut the debt and deficits, push the Fair Tax, and get back to sound money backed by gold. At the same time AI and social media keep changing what it means to be human and what actually gives life meaning, which further weakens the real connections and local businesses that keep a place like Nashville feeling alive.
I have a hard rock blues project built around my poetry, five albums totaling 58 songs. I need a composer, an artist, and a digital marketer, so I posted about it in a bunch of related Facebook groups and on musician sites. Almost a year later I have zero responses. Nobody seems interested in collaborating on something original, online or offline, even when it could actually make money. People would rather stay in the virtual world than deal with real people and real work.
These trends are only getting started and they are going to keep pulling communities apart.
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So true Joe. This is a major problem nationwide. Some of it is the tech boom in California, Wall Street wealth, which created so many people who made lots of money, who then wanted to flee the high taxes and high crimes in their cities, so took their cash and purchasing power to nice cities like Nashville. Denver or anywhere close to California, forget about it. Same thing is happening in Dallas, Texas, I wanted to retire in Dallas where my family is but housing prices and property taxes are very high (although housing is not as high as Nashville). I live and worked in Boston and the property, insurance and income taxes are so high I need to move now that I am retired. I am better off then many and thought I was doing well, but now I too am struggling. Maybe the answer is just really small towns or untrendy places in the Midwest or Texas, or the South and stay out of the big and trendy cities. Sad about this affordability crisis.
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It has happened on a smaller scale in Austin, Texas as well. Musicians can no longer afford to live there, and every year another group of music clubs close, their property bought up by developers. Luckily, Austin still has a large group of artists who support each other, so there is still plenty of good music around, but the number of working musicians continues to shrink.
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Damn, sorry to hear all of that. I watch a lot of music videos from Nashville venues and follow the likes of JD Simo, Austin John, Henri Herbert and Kirk Fletcher on there. To be able to live there and see musicians like you and them each week would be such a treat. Seems like every desirable place in America is ending up unaffordable now.
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