Austin to vote on standard pay rate for all city-led music performances

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The City of Austin could approve Thursday a new, uniform pay rate scale for musicians hired to perform at City-led music events.

Currently, there isn't a universal, standardized pay rate across all City departments, and some pay discrepancies exist across departments.

For example, the city's Economic Development Department approved a pay rate of $200 per musician for a City Hall performance during council meetings, while the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport currently pays musicians $150 for two 50-minute sets.

In recent years, continued calls have advocated for increased wages for Austin musicians, particularly as the city's cost of living has skyrocketed.

As a result, Austin City Council will weigh in on the following proposed standard pay rate for all city-led performances across departments:

• $200 per musician for groups of up to six people
• $150 per musician for groups between seven and 10 people
• $1,500 total for groups of musicians of 10 or more

If approved, the increased rate will be funded through both city department budgets and the Live Music Fund, which receives its funding from Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) revenues.

For Scott Strickland, a full-time musician who's lived in Austin for a decade, he said it's been challenging to be a performer while living in the city.

"Being a musician, especially post-COVID, is extremely difficult," he said. "And it's because the overheads are too high at bars, the musicians aren't making enough money, basically, because we're having to pay people more than we used to be able to pay them. Operational costs are extremely high in terms of our production and our photography and just all of these different things. It's pretty dire to be a musician right now in Austin."

That overhead cost Strickland described is called the "nut." Essentially, the "nut" reflects what it costs for a music venue to operate each night.

He said so many factors come into play -- how much the operational cost is for the venue and how many tickets the performer needs to sell to make that nut before the musicians see any of the revenues.

"You have musicians that are, basically -- if they're not part of a band, they have no guarantee. So they're going to show up, they're going to play drums and bass, guitar and keys, and they're gonna get paid a certain amount of money, no matter what," he said.

"The musician -- the artist guy, the front man, is the one that's going to assume basically all of that risk," Strickland continued. "And so if the venue doesn't make its money in terms of ticket sales and if people don't show up and show out, then the front guy holding the bag -- they've got musicians to pay, and now there's a problem because that pay, basically, isn't very equitable."

Strickland said he hopes city leaders approve a new, uniform pay rate that can help signal to other venues and music-friendly destinations that guaranteed pay is critical.

"If the city can be a beacon of hope or if the city can be an example of what people should be paid -- if they have a guarantee show or something like that, then maybe we try and make it there," he said, adding: "It's not going to be an end-all-be-all. That's not a silver bullet, but it will help alleviate some of the pressure for musicians taking and assuming risks in venues."

The resolution calls for continuous review by the Austin Music Commission of compensation and musician pay rates, as well as to propose future adjustments.

"The City acknowledges the needs of its musicians to earn a living wage in order to maintain the cultural and artistic fabric of this City," the resolution reads in part. "The City intends to remain the Live Music Capital of the World by supporting the local music industry and its musicians through regular investments, including by means of paid performances."

The agenda item, if passed, would also direct the city manager to create a voluntary program that "markets and celebrates community partners that adhere to the City's pay rate for musicians, and events or venues that book artists through the Live Music Fund where artists are paid this rate."