The paper examines how music venues as spaces of collective representations of local scenes are affected by ongoing transformations in the fields of cultural production, urban development/ -regeneration and the Music Industries.
Regarding the case of Hamburg, the paper analyses how self-concepts and action of local music spaces like clubs and their users handle neoliberal influence of the city as well as of the industry and in the field of music production and consumption itself. These different kinds of tension deliver questions referring to the defense and preservation of cultural/social values and (subcultural) space, changing local identities and alternative strategies between the poles of DIY-ethics and constraints towards professionalization.