Carl Cox at Ultra Music Festival 2025.
Photo by Alive Coverage for Ultra Music Festival
No more moaning that your favorite musical acts don’t want to make the journey down the long Florida peninsula to play Miami. For the Magic City, the 305, our very own Miami was named by a study the second-hottest spot for music in the entire US. Spin Genie, an online casino based in Ontario, Canada, put together a mathematical formula of all major American cities and spit out the answer that Miami has more intense music scenes than Nashville, Los Angeles, or New York. In fact, if Atlanta hadn’t gotten in the way, Miami and New Orleans would be tied for number one.
The results were based on local music venues per 100,000 people, musical artists, upcoming musical events and festivals, music-related jobs, and the number of Google searches related to music conducted in each metropolitan area. It is unclear whether they based these numbers on the city of Miami, which has under half a million people, or Miami-Dade County, with its close to 3 million residents. Regardless, they state that Miami has 21 venues per 100,000 people and 297 artists for every 100,000. We’ve got 11 festivals coming, 54 musical events per 100k, and somehow have 40 music-related jobs for every 100,000 Miamians.
From their blog, “Miami shares second place with a score of 8.18, reflecting its reputation as one of America’s most culturally diverse and musically active cities. The city hosts 11 upcoming festivals, including Ultra Music Festival and GroundUp, and its mix of Latin, Caribbean, and U.S. influences gives Miami a sound unlike anywhere else in the country. Much like the other hotspots in our top 10, music truly is woven into the fabric of Miami. Whether you’re relaxing at a beachfront bar or living it up in one of the city’s high-octane nightclubs, it’s never hard to find incredible live music.”
As mentioned earlier, Atlanta won the top spot, New Orleans tied for second, and our neighbor to the north, Orlando, somehow placed fourth. The rest of the top ten was made up of Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Nashville, Las Vegas, and Seattle, picking up the rear at number ten.
So start the chants, “We’re number two! We’re number two!”