AUSTIN’S GROWING MUSIC INDUSTRY

time keeping up with they’re trying and I just I don’t want to, I hope that we don’t lose all of our artists because of either being priced out or being not being able to afford a musician because they’re not getting paid enough.” According to Texas Monthly almost 70% of the musicians in Austin claimed that they are making less than $10,000 a year from music. This is most likely the reason that less than 22% of Austin musicians commit to live music as a full time. 36% of the people who work in the music industry, that don’t make music, make less than 25,000 annually, but that’s still more than the musicians. With Austin growing so rapidly, and a higher desire to live here, musicians aren’t getting paid as much, because the money is focused elsewhere. Akina Adderly, singer in “Akina Adderley & Vintage Playboys Modern” and 2017 Black Fret nominated Artist, said. “ Because of the pandemic. You know, some changes have happened, that are permanent [...] some venues have closed [...]Some artists are ready to operate normally, and including myself kind of aren’t.” The bounce back after the pandemic has been yet another challenge, where financials have been an immense issue. “Some venues have closed, so venues that we artists have depended on as places to go and share our work are no longer available, “ Sison said. With there being less venues, there is less space for musicians to go out and perform, and to have a great time. Now it has become a big race, to find a venue, and make the highest offer and such things. “The impact that the huge influx of people and money into our city is having on artists you know, it’s tough some artists are having to move out of sound when they move away to another city or whether they just sort of move to the outskirts like to Cedar Park or Buda or San Marcos.” Adderly said. The musician population in Austin is growing quite rapidly, because it is the place to be, but with the big influx of people it has made it more difficult. Currently

the issue is there are a lot of musicians and not enough venues, so when all these people come in they lower the chance of success for the locals. Now all the new people coming in are not an issue, it’s the money. Musicians could really use some support from the city, whether that is providing support in, financial, housing, or venues, it would make all the difference. As for the digital aspect, this isn’t necessarily part of just the Austin music industry, but it applies everywhere. “I know that right now, currently, in the media, there’s so much controversy going on with like Spotify, and streaming media and how it’s taking advantage of its artists and not paying them enough and what not” Sison said For musicians, online is one of the best ways to get your music heard by more people than you would live, but that has its own issues. People are not making nearly enough on spotify and youtube as they The Austinite 29 would like.

Rock band Moving Panoramas member Leslie Sison stands in the middle of the 3 band members. (photo courtesy Mike Manewitz)

When musicians are struggling with the live aspect, they have nowhere to go other than the digital aspect. If the rates are so low it’s hard for them to keep up with the cost of producing music. It comes down to doing something you love and whether you can be able to survive off of it. Kane Yoder, a musician in the band AZXO, said “So you know, you don’t make a lot of money from YouTube unless you have millions and millions of views. And same thing with Spotify. The amount of money you’re making is like, each listen is like point 3 millionths of a cent or something, ” A place where people feel like they would make more money, they are not. At this point you need to have multiple jobs, and that is very tiring especially if you are trying to produce music at the same time. Everything starts to become a hassle. The industry is evolving immensely and very quickly at that. COVID has also affected the quality of everything. Venues have closed creating less opportunities, and it also caused a loss in money, because musicians are having to pay more, and are getting paid less. More people are moving in and they are “kicking” people out with lower income such as musicians. I believe that we need aid, most likely financial, for our local musicians. As a community we need to keep our reputation of “The Live Music Capital of the World”, but we will not be able to do that without live music. “You sort of brag about what is wonderful and unique about our city and you need to be us a city. And your infrastructure needs to be doing what it takes to support those harvests, so that you can continue to make that business. So that’s affordable housing, you’re parking issues downtown, who wants to come, make $100 or $150, play a club gig and then have to pay like $20 back in parking, like that’s insane.” Adderly said. Some musicians believe there needs to be more support from the city. If the city wants to take pride in their uniqueness, and titles, then they need to support the people that make those things possible. The city could help by providing things for musicians such as parking assistance at venues, financial aids, reasonable pay rate for bands to be mandated. “Musicians who’ve been working for a long time, it’d be very cool if there was like a system set up where where there were like workshops, for newer musicians coming in to sort of, we can talk about things like knowing your worth knowing your value and undercharging, because then when newer musicians come in, and kind of under charge for what they request venues to pay them,” Akina Adderly said. When more and more bands or performers that undercharge come in, venues expect the same from everyone, so then it makes it harder for older bands to charge a normal price without resistance. All of the

Akina new musicians coming in have

Adderly’s not had the same experiences album cover and stories about the industry, for “Say Yes” so they are not able to relate, (Photo courtesy or understand the struggles,

Spotify) and “rules” of Austin’s music industry. As the industry grows there is a lot of difficulty. Musicians struggle because of all the different factors there are. Not only do they have to focus on creating music, but also on where they are going to live, play their music, rehearse, promote, and other such things. Austin is known for being “The Live Music Capital of the World” which makes it very tempting to want to play music there, but just as any other place, Austin has its own hidden flaws.