Music Row is two streets – 16th and 17th Avenues South, called Music Square East and Music Square West – that together form the institutional center of the American commercial music industry. Not country music specifically. The American commercial music industry. More hit songs, publishing deals, recording contracts, and songwriter agreements have been negotiated and executed within a few blocks here than anywhere else in the country.
How It Started
Owen Bradley and his brother Harold built the first recording studio on what would become Music Row in 1954, at 16th Avenue South. Bradley’s facility – a Quonset Hut building – became the first music industry business on the block. Within years, RCA Victor followed, building their own studio in 1957 that would become Studio B. Columbia Records came. Decca set up Nashville operations. The major labels concentrated their country music recording on these two streets because the talent was already here (drawn by the Grand Ole Opry), the session musicians were here (Nashville’s A-Team), and the work was producing hits.
By the early 1960s, major labels were completing a significant portion of their country releases in Music Row studios. The district expanded through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s into a dense ecosystem of recording studios, publishing companies, management offices, and industry services. At its peak, there were more than 200 music businesses operating within a few blocks.
What’s On Music Row
RCA Studio B (1957) is the most historically important surviving building. Elvis Presley recorded here. Dolly Parton recorded “I Will Always Love You” here. The list of recordings made at Studio B covers a significant portion of American popular music history. The Country Music Hall of Fame now owns and operates it as a living museum with regular tours. It was designated a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2015.
Studio A – located adjacent to Studio B – was nearly demolished in 2014, which would have been a cultural catastrophe. A private buyer stepped in and saved it. It remains operational as a recording studio. Hatch Show Print, the 145-year-old letterpress print shop that made posters for every major touring act in country music’s history, operates out of the Country Music Hall of Fame building on Music Row. Owen Bradley Park sits at the entrance to Music Row, with a bronze statue of Bradley himself.
The Demolition Crisis
Since 2013, more than 50 buildings on Music Row have been demolished to make way for luxury apartments, offices, and hotels. An entire block of 19th Avenue lost four recording studios (including Butch Walker’s studio, Studio 19, Studio 20, and Spirit Music) and now holds apartment buildings. Sound Shop on Division Street – where Paul McCartney and Wings recorded “Sally G” – was demolished for an apartment complex.
Bobby’s Idle Hour, the last tavern on Music Row and one of the last places where working Nashville musicians gathered informally, was shuttered and demolished along with four adjacent properties to make way for an office building. The Nashville Nine preservation watchlist, maintained by Historic Nashville Inc., tracks the most vulnerable remaining properties.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation designated Music Row as a National Treasure in 2015 and added it to the 2019 Most Endangered Historic Places list. The designation did not stop demolitions. The city’s Metro Planning Commission approved 64% of demolition projects through Specific Plan rezoning exemptions that allow taller, denser development than standard zoning permits.
In May 2025, a former Decca Records building at 27 Music Square East, which sold for $2.3 million in January 2024, was cleared for demolition to make way for a new three-story building housing a music company’s Nashville operations – though with three new recording studios as part of the replacement.
What Music Row Is Now
Music Row still functions as the center of Nashville’s commercial music industry. More than 200 music businesses remain. The major publishing companies operate here. Session musicians still book through Music Row. The business model has changed – streaming, independent production, and the de-centralization of the recording industry have reduced the concentration – but the infrastructure persists.
The physical character of the district is changing faster than the functional one. The modest converted homes and small commercial buildings that gave Music Row its working-neighborhood feel are being replaced by generic mid-rise development. The argument being made is that the buildings were ordinary; the counter-argument is that the industry that operated in them was not.
Sources
- wikipedia.org – Music Row
- historicnashvilleinc.org – Save Music Row!
- savingplaces.org – Nashville’s Music Row (National Trust for Historic Preservation)
- nashvillepost.com – Music Row building to be razed (May 2025)
- tennesseeencyclopedia.net – Nashville Recording Industry