The 2022 Greater Austin Area Music Census launches TODAY for 30 days

The Office of Mayor Adler, KUTX, and EQ Austin announce that the Greater Austin Area Music Census launches today, Friday, July 15 to gain an understanding of the current needs of Austin’s music community. The census will continue for 30 days until Aug. 15 and can be found here.

This launch marks the first time in nearly a decade that the music community will have new data from which to develop policy solutions and approaches, serving as a “health check” for the local music sector to inform community driven solutions towards policy reform and implementation. The census will collect data from a variety of local music professionals and analyze 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.

Over 50 local Austin organizations have signed up to be official community partners for the Census. As a community-led pro-bono effort by all entities involved, additional local partners are still welcome to participate in the outreach efforts. To become an official community engagement partner, please email mailto:info@soundmusiccities.com.

“The City of Austin is encouraged to see community leading data collection to inform the needs of their respective music industry members,” said Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, Director of the City of Austin Economic Development Department. “We look forward to partnering for outreach on the Greater Austin Music Census and support of a broad reach of constituents to inform the census data.”

“I am so proud to be an Austin-area music professional because our city is dedicated to ensuring that music remains an important and cherished part of our city’s culture by caring about the livelihoods of music people in our community,” said Christee Albino, Executive Director, Texas Chapter at The Recording Academy®. “Knowledge is power, and this updated data is needed to make sure all music people from various backgrounds are included. The Texas Chapter of the Recording Academy® is spreading the word to our Austin-area members to encourage them to participate.”

“The Austin Music Census data will help Austin local music organizations navigate better and more fair ways to support and serve our local music community that benefits all musicians of color,” said Alejandro Vallejo, VP of the Austin Music Foundation and Founder of Latin Music Coalition Austin.

“The Austin Economic Development Corporation, AEDC, is honored to serve as a community partner in the survey of the music (and creative) ecosystem,” states Theresa Alvarez, CEO, of the Austin Economic Development Corporation. “We will hopefully be one of many that will utilize this critical data to help support organizations, programs, and policy-makers create a more effective support system to retain and grow the sector, while remaining the Live Music Capital of the World.”

“The music census is the best tool we have to ensure that funds and policies supporting musicians of all backgrounds will actually solve problems,” said Frederico Salles do Mar of Austin Worldbeat Alliance & Frederico7 Music.

“We’re all excited about this year’s music census survey, plus we are looking forward to hearing from each and every participant that is on board,” said Tomar Williams of Carnival Beats Production and board member of EQ Austin. “Growth and being connected while growing in this great city of Austin, Texas is so important and essential to the movement and the future.”

“Central Texas musicians are experiencing unprecedented challenges as they struggle to live in the “Live Music Capital of the World,” Pat Buchta, CEO of Austin Texas Musicians. “Hard data that provides a clear state of our affairs is needed to drive future city, state and federal policy, and to cultivate equitable industry growth, corporate investment, and community well-being.”

The Greater Austin Music Census will be implemented by Austin-based Sound Music Cities, whose mission is to offer “strategic, community-driven solutions from policy to implementation.” KUTX will assist in presenting data from the Census once it is compiled.