With more people living and visiting Downtown and the restaurant scene booming, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership would like to see more of a soundtrack.

Currently, there are only a handful of Downtown bars and restaurants presenting live music, including NOLA on the Square, The Fairmont, the Backstage Bar, Olive or Twist and the newly opened Eddie V’s, and much of that is small combo stuff.

There needs to be more music and more variety, according to Jeremy Waldrup, president and CEO of the PDP.

“We have some great venues and some fantastic artists, but when you think of Pittsburgh as an outsider, music doesn’t come to mind, and that’s something we’ve heard from VisitPittsburgh and the studies they’ve done of conventioneers and visitors. They think one of our weakest points is our nightlife scene.”

Last month, he and a group of 20 Pittsburghers representing various neighborhoods attended the Responsible Hospitality Institute’s conference in Austin, Texas, where they studied cities with thriving music scenes such as Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, London and Amsterdam.

“The key reason we were there was because they were highlighting key music cities and what it takes to be a city with a robust music life,” Mr. Waldrup said. “What we concluded is that we need to engage and really understand the music scene in Pittsburgh. There’s an interest on our end in understanding the impact the music economy has.”

Pittsburgh has its share of music venues, but they’re scattered about. From the ’70s to ’90s, it was Oakland and Shadyside. The closest to a critical mass now is the South Side with the Rex Theater, Smiling Moose and Club Cafe, among others, and Lawrenceville with Spirit, Hambone’s, Cattivo and the Thunderbird, which is under renovation to expand capacity. Bloomfield has Howler’s and Brillobox, Millvale has Mr. Smalls, the North Shore has Stage AE, etc.

“I can get defensive and say, ‘Well, look at the things we already have,’ but clearly that isn’t resonating,” Mr. Waldrup said.

At least not with visitors.

“We have to do a better job of highlighting what we have but also looking at our gaps and understanding, well, where is that group of four that just finished dinner on their company and are looking for a nightcap, where is that opportunity for them to go? Is there a place they can consistently hit? Where are those venues that, if you’re the hotel concierge, you say, ‘Oh, you wanna hear live music? Go there.’”

In Downtown, especially, there isn’t much at all, and it’s easily walkable, so the Partnership is making it a priority over the next few months to approach bar and restaurant owners to discover how to enliven the nightlife scene.

“You go to Austin, everyone has a soundboard, they’ve got lights, it’s how they function,” Mr. Waldrup says, “and it makes life much easier on bands rather than throwing them into a corner and like ‘there’s an outlet.’ It’s that intentionality we want.”

Justin Strong, who books Spirit and previously owned the Shadow Lounge, was part of a panel discussion Wednesday at the PDP’s annual at the JLL Center at Tower Two-Sixty devoted to the subject of Downtown nightlife.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Strong said “I think from a strategy standpoint, trying to market the city and the region, you could take $5 million and help to finance five 200-, 300-capacity venues right along Fifth Avenue. I said that when they were doing Lazarus, so I’m dating myself, but why spend money on department stores when you could plop down five venues dealing in interesting subgenres and spheres of influence, and you’ll probably have more goodwill and marketing built for that.”

Among the challenges, he says, is that the venues need a full-time person to run the music side, they need to invest in sound and lights, and they need to weigh the decision of charging a cover or paying the band or DJ out of the bar.

He doesn’t think a vibrant Downtown scene would detract from the neighborhoods.

“The more people are going out, the more options they have, the more they start switching their spending patterns. I think it lifts the whole scene. You’re competing with Netflix and a couch.”

Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576. Twitter: @scottmervis_pg.

First Published: March 8, 2017, 8:20 p.m.