Explore Toronto’s Music Compass

Your guide to live music venues, record shops, and listening lounges in select neighbourhoods

Toronto’s music scene lives in its neighbourhoods. Music Compass helps you explore the city’s sounds—one stop at a time—from historic concert halls to indie bars, and record shops to listening lounges.

What Is Music Compass?

Music Compass is a self-guided experience that connects you to Toronto’s local music culture. Scan a QR code in participating neighbourhoods to discover nearby venues, learn local music history, and find your next live show.

🎶 Use it to:
– Explore venues by neighbourhood
– Discover local talent and international artists
– Catch concerts and events nearby

This program is brought to you by the City of Toronto, in partnership with Destination Toronto.

The shops and restaurants of Yorkville Village at night on Cumberland Street

Bloor-Yorkville

Founded by entrepreneur Joseph Bloor in 1830, the Village of Yorkville has always been the heart and soul of Toronto. Distinguished by Victorian houses, quaint laneways and picturesque gardens, it has had many incarnations since its beginning.

Arts-Theatre-Music-At-Home_Okan_Lula-Lounge

Broadview Danforth

Anchored by the iconic Danforth Music Hall, Broadview-Danforth is an east-end hub for music and culture, and home turf for artists and industry leaders in music, film, and media.

@sunblushee

Chinatown & Kensington Market

The corner of Dundas and Spadina is the focal point of this dynamic community, whose sidewalks overflow with fruit stalls, vendors, and throngs of people shopping, eating, and socializing.

Aliane Schwartzhaupt/Unsplash

Close-up of live drums under stage lights at a music venue

Danforth Village

Danforth Village is a lively, eclectic 3.5km stretch between Greektown and Main Street. Cultural diversity shines through in its African, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean shops and eateries.

Downtown Toronto

Yonge Street was once ground zero for Toronto’s music scene. In the 1960s, Canadian icons like Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, Joni Mitchell, Jackie Shane, and Oscar Peterson lit up clubs along the strip.

Toushif Alam/Unsplash

People waving their hands in the air at a concert venue

Junction, Roncesvalles & Parkdale

A walk from The Junction through Roncesvalles into Parkdale reveals some of Toronto’s most eclectic and music-rich neighbourhoods.

@ryanbolton

Little Italy

One of Toronto’s social and cultural hotspots, the area along and adjacent to College St offers everything from international touring acts at Axis Club to local faves at Sneaky Dee’s and the Monarch, with a taste of everything in between.

Little Portugal

Dundas Street West from Lansdowne to Shaw is one of Toronto’s prime locales for street culture, with a cacophony of public art, boutique stores, galleries, eclectic bars and restaurants–and top independent music venues offering country and hard rock to Latin and global sounds.

Ossington & West Queen West

One of Toronto’s top creative clusters and the city’s centre of artistic innovation, West Queen West’s Art + Design District between Bathurst Street and Gladstone Avenue is home to over 300 galleries, design houses, unique shops, restaurants, and boutique hotels.

Destination Toronto

Queen Street West

Art meets commerce on vibrant Queen Street West, the historic area that drove Toronto’s cultural renaissance a generation ago. This district nurtured Toronto’s early punk, rock, and alt-country scenes.

Alex Korolev / Unsplash

Live music performance with vibrant lights at a venue

St. Lawrence & Old Town

Between the Financial District and the lakefront, the St. Lawrence Market and Old Town area blends history with vibrant performance spaces.

Destination Toronto

The shops and restaurants of King West at night

Must-See Music Venues in Toronto

From historic theatres steeped in decades of musical heritage to cutting-edge clubs showcasing the latest sounds, these are the city’s most celebrated stages.