The Office of the Mayor, KUTX, EQ Austin, Juice Consulting and Sound Music Cities are proud to announce that the results from the Greater Austin Music Census have launched today. A community-led initiative with over 50 community engagement partners, the 2022 Census aims to gain a better understanding of current needs of the local music sector. In 2014, Austin was the first music city to conduct a census and quantify its music ecosystem. Today, Austin is the first music city to repeat the census, enabling a continuity of data from the 2014 census that offers [directional shifts].
A summary report for the public has been prepared by Sound Music Cities and includes key findings and recommendations to guide immediate and longer-term strategies for the music community, municipal partners and civic partners. Two appendices showcase [responses]. The organizers are working with the City of Austin to make the entire dataset available for further analysis through their open data portal in an effort to make the data as accessible and friendly as possible to everyone in the music community. All of the organizations involved in this initiative invite the community to embrace and work with this new dataset to develop ways forward that will continue to strengthen and build the greater Austin music ecosystem. Please visit austinmusiccensus.org to download the summary report and data appendices.
Some of the key insights include:
- In the composition of our ecosystem, music creatives are increasing.
- Housing costs are both shrinking the ecosystem and pushing it outside central Austin.
- While still anchored downtown, the [current] Austin music ecosystem is expanding into satellite communities beyond downtown.
- The fastest growing areas for music people are in San Marcos, Pflugerville, Manor, Buda, Bastrop, Round Rock and Kyle. ...
- Local ecosystem is interdependent, comprehensive, and synergistically strong.
- Average annual spend for creatives services is $10,500 and 60% of that is spent locally ($6,300).
- On the survey's new DEI measures, the community is more positive than negative about most adjective pairs tested.
The census collected data from a variety of local music professionals and analyzed the results to establish a new baseline of data for Austin music industry members living and working in the Live Music Capital of the World, including musicians, venue owners, music nonprofits, and music business professionals. Responses will be collected from industry workers of all kinds living or working in the Greater Austin area, including Travis, Williamson, Hays, Caldwell and Bastrop counties.
Having this data gives us insights into what we are doing right in Austin for our music sector as well as areas for improvement,
said Nagavalli Medicharla, local musician and Board Chair for EQ Austin. We are grateful that the music community came together to represent the diverse voices of our city and look forward to any positive shifts that may arise in the local industry with this new data set.
Lead partners in the Greater Austin Music Census are KUTX, The Office of Mayor Adler, EQ Austin, Juice Consulting and Sound Music Cities. Community engagement partners include AGNI Foundation for the Arts, Antara School of Indian Classical Music, Austin Asian Impact, Austin Asian Music, Austin Community College / Music Business, Performance & Technology, Austin Creative Alliance, Austin Dance India, Austin Economic Development Corporation, Austin Latino Music, Austin Latino Music Association, Austin Music Foundation, Austin Persian Foundation, Austin Tejano Music Coalition, Austin Texas Musicians, Austin Worldbeat Alliance, Black Fret (now Sonic Guild), BMI, C3 Presents, Carnival Beats, City of Austin Economic Development Department, DESTRUX10N PRODUX10NZ, Do512, Fiesta Austin, Flamenco India, Girl Gang, Girls Rock Austin, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, House of Songs, Housing Opportunities for Musicians and Entertainers, Indian Fine Arts Inc., Khush Entertainment, KOOP Radio, KXAN, Latin Music Coalition Austin, Mosaic Sound Collective, Music Venue Alliance Austin, Recording Academy Texas Chapter, Red River Cultural District, School of Indian Percussion & Music, Shelley's Music Studio, SIMS Foundation, SXSW, Texas Music Office, The Breaks, The Long Center, Thoughts in Order Counseling and Consulting, Urbainan Entertainment, Urban Artist Alliance and Urban Music Fest.
The Greater Austin Music Census was implemented by Austin-based Sound Music Cities, whose mission is to offer strategic, community-driven solutions from policy to implementation.
Don Pitts, Founder of Sound Music Cities states, We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the greater Austin music people on developing this census and data set and look forward to seeing good things emerging from this community effort and data collected and shared.
For information on Sound Music Cities, visit SoundMusicCities.com.
See additional information below or visit:
Greater Austin Music Census
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