Off the back of my 2020 report for the Culture Welsh Language and Communications Committee on the impact of Covid-19 on the Welsh Music Industries and thanks to funding from the University of South Wales and Welsh Government, I have recently completed a series of three reports for Creative Wales. I am writing about the first here – with the other two following in a later post.

The first piece of work involved building a database of Welsh Music Venues, Recording Studios and Rehearsal rooms and placing them on a digital map – which Creative Wales are currently in the process of formatting and publishing. The data for the draft map, which can be viewed here, was compiled with the assistance of my colleague Dr. James Rendell, recent USW PhD graduate Dr. Luke Thomas and students from the faculty’s BA Music Business award. Dr. Craig Hamilton is the brains behind developing the technical side of the map. The full report can accessed and downloaded below, but brief headlines include

• The digital map consists of 554 businesses across the 22 local authorities of Wales, comprising of 75 recording studios, 7 dedicated rehearsal studios and 472 music venues of various sorts.

• Cardiff has the most businesses (64), followed by Swansea (49), Carmarthenshire (48), Pembrokeshire (43) and Powys (36). The Isle of Anglesey and Torfaen have the least number of businesses (7), followed by Vale of Glamorgan (8), Blaenau Gwent (11) and Flintshire (12).

• The local authority of Swansea marginally has the most music venues (47), followed closely by Cardiff (45), Carmarthenshire (44) and Pembrokeshire (42). The Isle of Anglesey, Torfaen and Vale of Glamorgan have the least number of music venues (5), followed by Blaenau Gwent (8) and Flintshire (10).

• Powys is the authority with the most music festivals (10), followed by Gwynedd (5), Swansea (4) and Ceredigion (4). 

• Cardiff and Swansea are the authorities with the most Grassroot Music Venues (7 and 5 respectively), followed by Wrexham (3), Rhondda Cynon Taf (3), Newport (2), Flintshire (1) and Monmouthshire (1). 

• The authority of Ceredigion has the lowest ratio of population to music venues (2804 to 1), closely followed by neighbouring Pembrokeshire (3018 to 1), Gwynedd (4316 to 1), Carmarthen (4320 to 1), Powys (4434 to 1) and Swansea (5246 to 1). 

• Those authorities with significantly the highest ‘population to venue ratios’ are Vale of Glamorgan (27059 to 1), Caerphilly (22716 to 1), Torfaen (18966 to 1), Flintshire (15685 to 1) and Isle of Anglesey (14088 to 1).

• The average authority population to venue ratio across Wales is 9259 to 1

Related Publications

Carr, P (2022). ‘Mapping the Music Industries in Wales: A Report for Creative Wales’. 

Carr, P., Bop Consulting (2022). ‘Economic Costing of Welsh Music Industries (2019)’.

Carr, P., Bop Consulting (2022). ‘Economic Contribution of the Welsh Music Industries: 2019, 2022 and Beyond’.

Carr, P (2022). ‘Covid Recovery and Early Covid Music Literature’. Journal of World Popular Music. 9/1-2.pp. 5-30.

Carr, P (2022). ‘The Impact of Covid 19 on the Welsh Music Industries’: A Strategic Partnership with Welsh Government. Journal of World Popular Music. 9/1-2.pp. 144-169.

Carr, P (2022). The Impacts of Covid 19 on the Music Industries of the Global North. Guest editorship of a ‘double edition’ of The Journal of Popular Music of the World. Equinox.

Carr, P (2021). Popular Music Education in Wales. Guest editorship of The Journal of Popular Music Education, (5.1). Intellect.