P rosperity Institute Sonic City: The Evolving Economic Geography of the Music Industry Richard Florida and Scott Jackson January 2008 Sonic City: The Evolving Economic Geography of the Music Industry Richard Florida and Scott Jackson January 2008 Florida (florida@rotman.utoronto.ca) is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and professor of business and [...] S. metropolitan areas. It also provided a more detailed cross‐sectional analysis of the geography of music employment and music‐related business establishments for all U. [...] S. combined statistical areas, core based statisical areas and counties in 2004. Our analysis suggests that the music industry is simultaneously becoming geographically both more concentrated and more spread out. On the one hand, New York and Los Angeles remain dominant centers, and a larger share of musicians overall is concentrated in fewer metros than in 1970. Furthermore, Nashville has [...] S. combined statistical areas, core based statisical areas and counties for 2004. Conceptually, the economic geography of the music industry is shaped by two major countervailing forces. On the one hand, there are good reasons for the location of musicans to spread geographically. Musicians, like other artists, are somewhat unique as economic actors, in that they do not depend on their locati [...] S. County Business Patterns, the U.