About Us

The Support Austin Musicians research project evaluates City of Austin programs designed to help musicians and the entertainment landscape. It examines existing arts programs, local musicians’ perceptions of City services, their individual concerns and challenges, and suggests policy changes to address those concerns. As opposed to existing studies, our research proposes ways that City institutions could more directly benefit local live music making. The analysis draws upon mixed-methods research including statistical and demographic surveys, interviews, and an overview of existing academic literature related to arts management derived from national and international sources. On this website you will find a full analysis in our Executive Summary document, a shorter White Paper describing our results in brief, quotes from Austin music workers on various topics, a sample of fully transcribed interviews with participants, a listing of all individuals we interviewed, and a list of further reading on particular topics related to urban music policy.

Musicians in Austin currently face a myriad of challenges. While the City relies heavily on tourism related to music — and promotes itself as a ‘live music capital’ — musicians increasingly struggle to make ends meet. The current infrastructure in place to support musical life, which generates millions of dollars for Austin each year, is insufficient. Recent local studies such as the Greater Austin Music Census point to issues straining the local ecosystem comprised of musicians, venues, non-profit organizations, and other culture brokers. Key concerns among these individuals include low wages, rising housing costs, a lack of adequate healthcare, a lack of retirement income, and the displacement of musicians outside of the urban core as a result of gentrification. Our project extends work initiated by the Austin Music Census; it involves presenting additional data on cultural revitalization strategies nationally and internationally and exploring the experiences of numerous actors in the Austin music scene in greater detail.

The study involved interviewing over 50 musicians who regularly perform in Austin and who rely on live performance as a central component of their income, in addition to music producers, songwriters, or composers, venue owners or managers, local music industry workers such as booking agents or promoters, and representatives from organizations that engage with or support the music community (e.g., HAAM, SWSW organizers, the Arts Commission). The research team consisted of faculty and graduate students from the University of Texas’ Butler School of Music and staff at Texas Folklife.