Travelling to watch a concert or music festival – a phenomenon known as gig-tripping – has been a travel trend for a while now, with ‘music tourism’ being a market expected to reach almost $263 billion in value by 2030.
But, which cities are actually the best places to visit for lovers of music? SeatPick is here to tell us. The ticket platform has collated data on the number of concerts, music venues, festivals, home-grown artists and music-related businesses across a load of cities, and each one was awarded an overall music score out of 10.
Soaring to the top of the charts? That would be London, which gained a solid 9.67 out of 10, thanks to bragging 199 venues, 1,734 concerts, 44 festivals and, most impressively, a whopping 3,042 homegrown artists.
Recommended: The best albums of 2025 so far.
The UK capital’s music and nightlife scene has been struggling to bounce back in the post pandemic era, but Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced a ‘nightlife taskforce’ to help support the city’s venues, and there are still brilliant nights out. Also, check out our guide to London’s live music scene.
London also claimed the crown in a recent ranking of Europe’s music capitals, which also incorporated the number of nightclubs, so there’s clearly still hope for the city’s music and nightlife scene.
In second place was Berlin with 9.55, which was Time Out’s second-place ranker in our list of the best cities in the world for nightlife, and also the champion of this study into the top places to see live music (where London also ranked third). Have a look at our local roundup of the city’s best live music venues.
Chicago, Vienna and Nashville round out the top five on this list, but read on to see the full ranking of the world’s best cities for music lovers.
The 10 best cities in the world for music lovers
- London
- Berlin
- Chicago
- Vienna
- Nashville
- Manchester
- New York
- Glasgow
- Seattle
- Bristol
Check out Time Out’s ranking of the best cities in the world for nightlife.
Did you see that this popular travel destination will soon ban smoking in most public places?
Plus: The 15 food capitals of the world right now, revealed.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out Travel newsletter for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world.