Rock Nashville, located in Whites Creek, hopes to become global music hub
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The entry to the Rock Nashville campus on Whites Creek Pike. Photo: Nate Rau/Axios
Altering the skyline on a working class, industrial stretch of Whites Creek Pike, a sweeping new project called Rock Nashville stands to elevate the city's status as a global live music hub.
Why it matters: Rock Nashville is a 55-acre campus featuring specially designed buildings where musicians and their crews can assemble the stages for their global tours and rehearse their live shows.
- The 610,000 square-foot facility is also positioned to serve as a collaboration center for an array of businesses and professionals who specialize in putting on concerts.
Between the lines: The facility is a partnership between Pennsylvania-based Rock Lititz and Nashville's Soundcheck Studios.
- It addresses a major need for more rehearsal space in Nashville.
- It also adds another branch to the city's live music ecosystem, which already includes concert production companies, booking agencies and a glut of niche vendors.
Zoom in: Top Rock Nashville executives guided local media on a tour last week of their massive facility.
- Rock Nashville includes two arena-sized spaces where bands can undergo full-scale tour rehearsals. It also features 13 state-of-the-art production studios. That means everyone from the most popular touring acts in the world to burgeoning young artists will have a space to rehearse.
- The property will be home to an industry vendor hub, where companies specializing in audio gear, lighting, transportation and special effects can set up shop. Rock Nashville will include a cafe, a barbershop, a medical concierge and unique companies like Alcorn Custom Case, which produces cases for musical instruments and gear.
The intrigue: Putting on a massive concert tour requires a level of logistics that would make NASA blush.
- To pull off a successful tour takes intricate practice, including assembling the gargantuan stage structures that artists like Taylor Swift and Metallica utilize. To do that, tours need enormous amount of space, and specially engineered buildings.
- That's where Rock Nashville comes in.
What they're saying: Once upon a time, Nashville's live music industry focused on country music, but Rock Nashville CEO and president Andrea Shirk says the city's pros now service "a broad, global live entertainment community."
- "We hope we both create a home and a space for those who associate Nashville as home, as well as welcome those from across the globe. We hope we drive some economic impact here, as well as inviting new people into the space," she says.
- Education will also be central to the company's mission, with plans for immersive experiences to teach young people every aspect of the live entertainment business.
By the numbers: When Rock Nashville is up and running, around 40 companies will call the facility home.
- Executives expect as many as 1,000 full-time and temporary workers on the campus most days, in addition to 200 to 400 touring crew members.