Music scenes are inextricably connected with the spaces and places they are emerging from (Bennett/ 2000; Bennett/Rogers 2016; Cohen 1991). In this sense, scene activity appears as symbolic and socio-cultural revaluation of their ¬¬– mostly – urban surroundings. Emanating from discourses on urban symbolic economy and the delusion of the ‘creative city’, local and translocal scene activity received increasing recognition in urban development during the 2000s. Hence, scenes and scene related heritage has been increasingly used as a tool for symbolic valorization, gentrification and place making by urban planners and local policy (Cohen 2007; Reckwitz 2012; Lloyd 2006).

Whereas scene related research has long been focused on the inside of scene related processes and structures, current research among concepts like Music City clearly shows the missing of thinking outside the box as a weak point of the scene concept´s explanatory power. Questions of social embedding, urban environments and the significance of external influence are increasingly getting important in scene-related research – and especially for what this means for music scene as a theoretical concept.

In order to initiate a more theory-based discourse, this paper critically discusses current challenges of the concept and questions potential ideas for updating the theorization of music scene for research. Therefore and against the backdrop of growing complexity and multi-layered facets and spaces within the spheres of urban culture, the paper relates ‘scene’ to recent notions of ‘network’, ‘ecosystem’ and ‘infrastructure’. In which way these concepts might be a valuable approach to further conceptualize a current an ‘advanced’ understanding of music scene? Which role the scene perspective can play as self-reliant entity – or as a sub-category within urban cultural infrastructure or local ‘music ecosystems’?