VARIED, vibrant, diverse ... does this sound like Southampton’s live music scene to you?

These are the three most frequently used words used by musicians and audiences to describe live music in Southampton in the ongoing Southampton Live Music Census – but do you agree?

Whatever your views, it is not too late to have your say.

As a musician you may think parking is a pain, venues aren’t varied enough, or live music doesn’t pay. Or as a venue or promoter, perhaps you’ve been having issues with property developers or noise controls, or it’s simply getting more difficult to get bums on seats.

Live music appears to be under threat across the UK, so the better it is understood, the more can be done to help to protect it. The research team need local residents to take part in the Census and so that they can build the most accurate picture possible of Southampton’s live music activity.

The online surveys are open until May 31, accessed via the UK Live Music Census website, uklivemusiccensus.org – six lucky respondents will win an iPad or festival/concert tickets! (T&Cs apply.)

The Southampton Live Music Census is part of the wider UK Live Music Census – the world’s first attempt to map live music activity across an entire country, which started on March 9.

Volunteers took to the live music venues of Southampton to collect data about the gigs and concerts taking place around the city, and about the audiences who were out and about over that 24 hour period. What they found was a great diversity of music, including pop, rock, indie, psychedelia, punk, post-punk, metal, folk, jazz, classical, world and acoustic singer-songwriters.

Key venues for live music range from the O2 Guildhall Southampton and the Turner Sims concert hall to mid-size venues such as The Joiners, The Talking Heads, The Engine Rooms, The Brook and The 1865. There is also a broad network of small venues, pubs, coffee houses and clubs such as The Art House, The Hobbit, The Alex, The Platform Tavern, Mettricks and the Firehouse, which regularly host live music and electronic musicians.

Southampton has nurtured existing and rising stars such as Craig David, Howard Jones, Delays and Creeper, and is also host to a number of festivals including Rob da Bank’s Common People and the retro festival Let’s Rock Southampton. But what state is live music in today in the city more broadly? Have your say in the UK Live Music Census.

The Census is being led by academics from the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, in partnership with the Musicians’ Union, Music Venue Trust and UK Music, in affiliation with BIMM Brighton, Leeds Beckett University, and Southampton Solent University, and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

With enough data, organisers hope the UK Live Music Census will help measure live music’s cultural and economic value, discover what challenges the industry is facing, and inform policy to help it flourish. Get involved at uklivemusiccensus.org