Local musicians struggle to keep up with rising costs

The lights dimmed Wednesday, June 10, at Nocturne Jazz & Supper Club in Denver. Piano, bass and drums filled the room as the crowd watched the musicians work through the set. For upright bassist Matt Smiley, the music still resonates deeply. But when the last song ends and the applause fades, the realities of making a living as an artist in Colorado return quickly.

“It’s especially difficult since you’re getting paid less and at the same time, everything is more expensive in Colorado,” he said. 

Colorado’s rising cost of living has put new pressure on local musicians, many of whom are trying to balance performances with teaching, service jobs, recording work or other income. The Colorado Scorecard, released by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, ranked the state 47th for cost of living, down from 46th the previous year and 34th in 2022. 

For musicians, that shift has made an already difficult career harder to sustain.

“Going back to the 1990s, musicians used to make $150 a gig for local gigs,” Smiley said. “But the problem is in 2026, so many of those gigs continue to only pay $150, but back in the 1990s and early 2000s, rent was $300 a month. So you played two gigs and your rent was covered. And now, your $150 gig, that’s like one trip to the grocery store to last you like a week or two.”

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Colorado’s median gross rent was $1,761 between 2020 and 2024. For Smiley, even income-restricted housing has become expensive. Four years ago, he moved into an affordable housing community in Lakewood after market-rate housing became unaffordable.

“Even though I live in low-income housing, this is the most expensive apartment that I’ve ever lived in,” he said.

To cover rising costs, Smiley teaches students throughout the week, supplementing the income he earns from performances. He said many musicians piece together work from several sources.

“A lot of my friends teach music as well as perform, and that’s what I do,” he said. “Other people have a background in the recording arts, so they’re also recording engineers and mix and master projects. Some people work with live sound production and some people do instrument repair.” 

Not every artist has a side job connected to music. For Denver-based rapper Bojack Carter, the gap between making art and making rent is filled by a grocery store job.

“Currently, I work at a King Soopers,” said Bojack Carter, a Denver-based rapper. 

Carter shares an apartment with his girlfriend, which helps with rent. Still, the rising cost of living has made it harder for him to invest as much as he would like in his music career.

“I know things take time, but it can be very, very stressful,” he said.

Carter released his first album in 2023 and has been trying to gain traction in Denver since then. But breaking through in Colorado’s hip-hop scene has proved difficult.

“The hip-hop scene [in Colorado] is very divided,” Carter said. “We’ve got these groups of the older generation that’s been doing hip-hop since the 90s and 2000s, and we’ve got this new generation of boom-bap artists, and we’ve got these trap artists. Everyone is just so divided, and they have all these little communities, and it’s just very hard to excel.” 

Despite those challenges, Carter has no plans to walk away from music.

“I’m definitely not at the point where I can just focus on making music,” he said. “I’ve still got to have a good job to pay my bills and also put some of that money to invest into my music career. But every now and then, I have a couple shows, I get a check, and I make some sales from tickets. It’s not steady for sure, but there are opportunities where I do make some money, which always feels good.” 

One of the most significant challenges confronting artists of all genres today is the limited income generated by streaming platforms. Spotify, for example, pays $0.003 to $0.005 per stream on average. 

“I think, unfortunately, trying to make money in streaming is never gonna be a thing,” said Chuck Coffey, owner of Snappy Little Numbers, a rock record label based in Denver. “My personal opinion on streaming is it’s here, and it’s here to stay until the next technological revolution, and I view it more as pre-advertising for people to check out your band and come to a show or buy a record if they become a big fan, and that would be where any positive financial consideration comes in.”

Coffey said artists today rely heavily on ticket sales, merchandise and physical record sales to make money.

“Playing shows and selling stuff at shows is how most bands can actually make any money,” he said. “Most bands are just for fun, and if you put the band funds on paper, everybody would be operating at a loss, but in terms of actually having cash in hand at the end of the night, it’s shows and merch.”

Coffey points to another pressure in Colorado’s live music scene: large corporate-owned venues that he says often offer unfavorable deals to newer artists.

“If you’re a newer band trying to play some of the shows that those places put on, the financial deal that you can arrange with them, the initial offerings, get worse as time goes on,” he said. “I always advise bands before they play a show at a corporate venue to make sure they understand the payment policy, and if it’s not artist-friendly, I always remind them that they don’t have to play there.”

That reality has led some artists to prioritize smaller venues that have a reputation for supporting local musicians. Smiley said Nocturne, where he often performs, is one of those places.

“They treat us well,” said Smiley about Nocturne. “What’s really great about Nocturne is they hire musicians quite often to play residencies, so you’ll get hired to play like once a week for a month.” 

Smiley said Nocturne’s commitment to local artists makes a difference.

“Nocturne very much prioritizes local artists, I would say well over 90% of their bookings are local artists,” he added. “I definitely prioritize playing in venues that support local musicians.”

Nicole Mattson, owner of Nocturne, said the venue has intentionally built itself as a home base for Colorado musicians.

“I think that there are venues in town that are always going to be a great venue for national touring artists to come through, and we do that occasionally, but I think having a home base for our local artists is hugely important, and I really like what we do at Nocturne.”

Mattson said she regularly thinks about whether both staff and musicians can afford to live in Denver.

“We think about the guys and girls that are working in our kitchen or on the floor, and whether or not they can afford rent, and then we think about the musicians on stage and whether or not they can afford rent,” she said. “I think it’s tricky as the city grows and as it gets more expensive to live here. It is challenging as a small business.”

Since opening in 2015, Nocturne has raised its live music fee to keep up with the cost of presenting shows.

“When we first opened, a weeknight bar seat was $5, and now it’s $29,” Mattson said. “It’s definitely gone up.”

Still, Smiley said Colorado audiences do show up for local music. At the venues where he performs, he sees people buying albums, merchandise and tickets — support that matters in an industry where musicians often depend on several small income streams.

“There’s good turnout for events between the different venues I play at,” Smiley said. “I always try to bring albums and merchandise to sell at shows, and, at least with an older audience that is more used to vinyl, CDs and physical media, people will go out of their way to purchase things. So I feel, at least in Colorado, that there is a supportive kind of audience and local scene for local music.”

Smiley and other musicians hope that in the future, live music in Colorado will be more sustainable, with venues paying better.

“The hope I have for the future is just that people that do have the means to hire musicians look at all the struggles within what people are dealing with and all of the costs that go into training yourself and becoming a very highly skilled musician,” Smiley said. “That these things are being thought of when you’re getting compensation to perform for people.”