Seattle prides itself on a strong indie music culture, from the wonderful KEXP to the legacy of Pearl Jam to the rise of artists such as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. And now here’s some evidence that Seattle has more indie street cred than anywhere else in the country.
According to Amazon’s new “Cities that Rock” list, Seattle ranks #1 in indie music albums sold on a per capita basis. And the city that birthed Nirvana (well, technically, that’s Aberdeen) isn’t too shabby in music sales, generally speaking.
Seattle ranks 7th in sales of MP3s, CDs and vinyl records, according to Amazon’s analysis of internal sales data.
Below is a look at the cities that purchased the most music on a per capita basis, with a few surprises in there.
Pittsburgh (just 114 miles from Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) comes in second place, and Washington state’s Vancouver and Bellevue also crack the top 20. Cambridge, Mass. ranks #1 for classical music sales, while Columbia, South Carolina led in the categories of R&B, Rap and Christian music.
It’s interesting to see Amazon.com mining its internal sales data in this way, one of the reasons why the company is looking to become a powerhouse in online advertising.
