City musicscapes: live music in the cities of Groningen and Utrecht, 2010–2016

What kinds of live music are available to the citizens of the cities of Groningen and Utrecht? That is the main question in two research projects, of which the databases have been made accessible in the Dataverse City Musicscapes (Lelieveldt & Bisschop Boele, 2018). At first sight databases of statistical research offices provide researchers with clear data about the number of venues and concerts and the participation of audiences (Gemeente Utrecht 2017, Van den Broek 2014). When looking closer we find that in these statistics only the regular (and mainly publicly funded) music venues are included. The authors’ projects show that a substantial part (53–60%) of live music concerts take place on non-regular locations, such as cafés, restaurants, clubs, churches, shopping malls and in open air. They developed a research tool to be able to draw a map of the musical landscape of a city (Musicscape). In this article we will reflect on the goals, research methods, datasets and some results from analysing our datasets. We hope this contributes to the discussion with scholars, music producers and policy makers about the added value of the concept of Musicscapes for the understanding of cultural participation, music performing practices and cultural policies.