Wednesday, March 6, 2024 Chad Swiateki
The music commission has asked the city for just over $3 million in the next budget to expand some of its existing programs and provide additional financial and medical support to local musicians.
At Monday's meeting, the committee unanimously approved six requests for the 2025 budget, which will be submitted to the Department of Economic Development as part of the department's larger request during summer budget negotiations. The largest request was $1 million to fund the ongoing Creative Spaces Assistance Program, which was launched to increase revenue by supporting rental assistance and capital improvements for arts and live music venues.
Other requests include $800,000 to create a disaster relief fund specifically aimed at assisting musicians affected by extreme weather events. The committee also awarded $500,000 to support the Austin Musicians Health Alliance with insurance coverage costs and $250,000 to fund a navigator to assist applicants with the Live Music Fund grant program. , and also approved a request for $100,000 to fund a live music performance program sponsored by the Music Entertainment Association. Split.
The most controversial item was Commissioner Scott Strickland's proposal for a new program that would use $400,000 in hotel occupancy taxes to help local musicians with costs associated with marketing and promoting concerts in the Austin area. The request was to create one. Strickland said the money is available for performances that are not funded by the Live Music Fund, which musicians are conducting as part of Visit Austin's $100,000 contract with the city. He said it will help expand music marketing activities both domestically and internationally.
“There's at least $400,000 in the (hotel tax) bucket, which is extra money that's not being spent. This can be used by local musicians and local venues to promote and target shows, so People can come to the show and generate money for the show and the hotel occupancy tax,” he said.
“It takes a significant amount of resources to promote local shows that people are performing on. So even if we don't get approval for the Live Music Fund, our ability to do in-store promotions will be limited. They may still have the ability to advertise on the radio. They may still have the ability to pay for advertising.”
Commissioners, including Chairwoman Nagavalli Medichara, questioned whether the program, which would likely be run through an outside agency, would overlap with the Visit Austin effort.
“We definitely need marketing funds,” she said. “It takes a lot of money out of your pocket to promote, even if it's just locally. If we're talking about local visitors, national tourists, or promotion at any level, I What we want to understand is: What are we not getting right now that Visit Austin already has in place?”
Silnovia Holt Love, director of EDD, said the city's Small Business Administration already offers a marketing component as one of the classes included in a course for small business owners that musicians and artists can take. .
He said the request will be evaluated next to the funding needs of other EDD programs and the ability of city staff to implement them effectively.
Holt-Love also said creating a supplemental program with funds available for live music funds could cause confusion for potential applicants.
“You have to decide whether you have the capacity to run a program of that nature. The music department is small but strong, but if you recall, even the current program is oversubscribed, so “We have surplus funds that could be used for the main program and now we may be setting aside funds for musicians, but that’s not part of it,” she said. “It's your prerogative to make a proposal, and it's our job to determine if incorporation is possible and work with the city's leadership team.”
Photo available through Creative Commons License via Pexels.
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