New Orleans has been touted as the “It City” for the past few years. Obviously, Hurricane Katrina’s wake created more than just destruction. New Orleans has had a spotlight shone on it because of what happened 10 years ago, but also because the city, she is a’ changin’.

Now New Orleans is the place to be for the hip and cool, young entrepreneurs and aspiring tech moguls who’ve decided that the southland is better than high-priced San Fran or NYC.

Restaurants and bars are opening on every corner. I’m not dealing with statistics here, but I can tell you that in my neighborhood and vicinity, the restaurant business is booming. I’m amazed at how many people are in little places on Monday and Tuesday nights, typically slow nights for restaurateurs.

Restaurants are going gangbusters. But how much has the population increased to support a new restaurant that seems to spring up at the rate of two or three a month?

What about bars? Goodness knows that Frenchmen Street is crowded full of bars/music venues/restaurants now. The only empty location is Café Brasil (more’s the pity). There’s a new B.B. King’s that’s being constructed in the old Margaritaville location on Decatur Street. Bars—mostly of the slick or hipster type are popping up right and left.

But music venues are not.

So I have a couple of questions: is the market for live local music growing? Stagnating, or decreasing? Do the newbies who are moving into the city participate in the live music scene? Or do they only want a place to drink and dance to recorded music or a DJ?

I’ve spoken to a few music venue owners in town, and they question whether or not all the music venues in New Orleans—the ones outside areas frequented by tourists (this has to unfortunately include Frenchmen Street, in addition to Bourbon Street)—can survive.

“The market is definitely changing,” said one of my contacts (a successful music venue operator). “There are now a lot more music venues than there used to be, and I wonder how many of them can actually be making any money.” He was not only referring to the music clubs in town, but the larger venues that have come on line in the past few years: the Joy Theater, the Civic, the Orpheum.

How many of the younger demographic who’ve moved to New Orleans from less-than-hip cities are actually going out to listen to live local music? And if they aren’t, is there a way to encourage them to dip into New Orleans culture and keep our music scene thriving and growing? Will it survive?