Austin Music Office Expands Musician Payment for Certain City-Sponsored SXSW Events

Caramelo Haze played the DAWA Unity concert on March 14 (Photo by Jana Birchum)

The city of Austin has partially stepped into the discussion over artist compensation for South by Southwest showcases. Last week, the city rolled out payments at a standard rate of $200 an hour per musician for acts playing the festival’s expanded 2023 roster of official events that are free and open to the public.

The city first sponsored a SXSW showcase held by Spaceflight Records last year at Auditorium Shores, prior to which the standard rate had been $150 since 2016.

The policy, which applies only to city-sponsored performances, has expanded this year to also cover five showcases as part of the festival’s community programming.

The news broke as payment notifications were sent out to Austin artists playing DAWA’s Tuesday Unity concert at Stubb’s and KUTX show The Breaks’ Wednesday showcase at the Sheraton Backyard. Incoming this week, local orgs EQ Austin, Austin Music Foundation, and Latin Music Coalition wrap up programming in the Sheraton’s backyard space Thursday through Saturday.

In all, the city’s Music & Entertainment division has a $30,000 budget commitment to pay Austin artists playing showcases that are free and open to the public.

Music & Entertainment Division Manager Erica Shamaly said the city’s role in funding local musicians performing at SXSW began in conversations with James Minor, vice president of the music portion of the festival. Rather than the music office continuing to hold its own showcase every year, Shamaly said she saw direct payments for other free events as a more productive use of the city’s dollars and resources.

“It used to be that we would book a showcase ourselves and pay the artists that way, and we did that for several years, but it's a lot of work during this time [of year] and there's a lot of amazing nonprofits and community organizations doing the promoting already,” said Shamaly. “I wondered, ‘Why are we competing?’ We would rather take this funding that we have and provide it to the community.”

Grupo Fantasma bassist Greg Gonzalez, a recent hire as program manager in the music office, has spearheaded the logistics of coordinating payments to the musicians and working with showcase organizers. SXSW is the start of a robust schedule of city-funded community concerts with Austin musicians this year, with Shamaly set to revive the pre-pandemic busking concerts at 500 West 2nd Street in May. Later in the year the music office will organize performances at Brush Square and the historic Old Bakery and Emporium building on Congress Avenue.

All of those concerts will include the standard $200 hourly payout per musician.

SXSW has come under scrutiny recently for its payment practices, with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers demanding last month that the festival raise its longstanding compensation for showcase artists to $750. On Thursday morning, that union and representatives from the American Federation of Musicians held a rally outside the Austin Convention Center. Shamaly said the city’s role in funding free SXSW showcases spotlighting Austin musicians was underway long before the recent attention on the festival’s compensation terms for showcasing artists.

“Our role is to demonstrate what we'd like to see happen,” Shamaly said. “There's lots of businesses out there that have their own ideas about what's fair compensation, and we do as well. Once it's all said and done, $200 an hour per musician is still nothing when you look at practicing, loading in, loading out, and all of the expenses associated with just playing any show anywhere.

“This is what [we think] should be happening out there, which is fair compensation for the community to see and the artists to benefit from.”

Alex Vallejo, a co-founder and board member for EQ Austin, praised the city’s decision to fund the already-booked showcases at the Sheraton that let the public experience local music without the cost of a festival badge or wristband.

“This was a surprise since we’d already booked the shows. When this news came, it was obvious that the artists and everyone involved were impressed that this was out there as a possibility,” he said. “I’m sure it feels awesome to the musicians as well because it’s a little extra money for them at a time when most of them are playing for free or for a wristband. This is something the musicians deserve.”