Nashville, Tenn. has just been ranked by Forbes as the Third Most Creative City in the country, beating Austin, New York City and Los Angeles.

Forbes partnered with Sperling’s Best Places and used funding sites Kickstarter and Indiegogo and music platforms Bandcamp and ReverbNation to determine a city’s standing, measuring the number of projects or artists per site as compared to the local population. Since the majority of creative professionals split their artistry with a profession that more easily pays the bills, Forbes opted against more traditional methods of measuring creativity, such as looking at a city’s number of patents or employment numbers.

Forbes highlights Nashville’s changing music scene, where indie, rock and punk have all utilized the well-worn country music infrastructure- making for a more rounded Music City.

“What has made Nashville a destination for folks who want to make music a career is the infrastructure that does exist because of country music: more studios, more professional musicians, more clubs,” says Patrick Rodgers, music editor at the Nashville Scene.

Belmont University’s creative programs and performance rights powerhouse Broadcast Music, Inc. were just two of the touted Nashville advantages, while some newer creative projects like Porter Flea were also cited.

Though Nashville has a smaller population than both San Francisco, ranked first, and Boston, ranked second, it has the highest number of artists per capita on music site ReverbNation than any other city in the nation.

View the full list of rankings here.