Nashville: The Creative Business Cluster and its Life Cycle

Nashville, Tennessee, otherwise known as Music City, exhibits the characteristics of what has been called a creative business cluster that is centred around the business of country music. The presence of major record labels in the city devoted to the genre of music has created career opportunities for various types of music professionals as well as a community where there is a sense of camaraderie and cooperation among competitors. The community's success has bolstered the local economy due to the successes of the genre of music as well as the tourism country music has brought to the city. Business clusters have been shown to have life cycles that include the emerging phase, growing phase, sustaining stage and declining phase. This study utilises research from the literature on business clusters and their life cycles, along with the literature gained from the interviews of workers within the market, to determine where Music City currently lies along its creative cluster life cycle.