Council to formalize $200 minimum pay for musicians at city events

City Council will likely adopt a new pay scale for musicians performing for city events today, adopting a rate of $200 per musician as a base rate with a sliding scale for performers in larger groups. The resolution set for a vote Thursday would formalize a rate that has been in place in many departments since last year, sending a clear message to all local agencies that there is a new, higher minimum rate for municipally sponsored concerts.

The resolution calls for paying at least $200 per musician for groups of up to six people, $150 per musician for groups with seven to 10 members, and $1,500 total for groups with 10 or more members. That pay language does differ from the recommendation made by the Music Commission last year that called for a simple $200 per hour per musician rate for city-sponsored performances.

Council Member Ryan Alter said the new pay rate wasn’t directly motivated by the attention on musician pay caused by the criticism against South By Southwest for its pay scale for showcasing artists, but he said the city wants to send a message regarding the importance of paying musicians fairly.

“We had both been looking at the conversations around musician compensation as it related to some of the conversations that we have had for South By, but more broadly we were looking at ways that we can help bolster the music community here in Austin,” he said. “It was about how can we make sure that musicians aren’t being forced out of the city due to affordability issues or just other challenges that they’re facing. It’s something that we as an office have been talking about of just kind of how can we better help keep our musicians in Austin and preserve that fabric of our city.”

The Economic Development Department, among other city departments, had adopted the increase suggested last year – the first since 2016. With this resolution, Alter said affiliated agencies such as Project Connect will now have a clear message about what payouts are expected for all sponsored events with live music.

An additional portion of the resolution asks the city manager to create a program that promotes and celebrates partners who abide by the new pay scale, possibly including recipients of grants from the Live Music Fund.

“We want to highlight and really promote that out in the public and create a movement that everyone can join and see that this is really what a premium valued wage is,” Alter said. “To the extent that we can not only signal just from our change but then acknowledge others in the market who are following suit and promoting those entities, to say we think this would be a good partner because they are also valuing our musicians.”

Nagavalli Medicharla, chair of the Music Commission and a performing musician, said the higher pay rate acknowledges the time and expense musicians undertake to prepare for a performance that may last one hour or less.

“​​First and foremost, this is a very valuable statement from the city in demonstrating how the city values musicians that live and work here” she said. “There is so much work that goes into preparing band rehearsals, booking spaces for band rehearsals, the loading unloading time usually doesn’t get accounted for, so there is numerous hours that a musician and a band puts in that leads up to even a 40 minutes performance. So it’s a given that artists spend a tremendous amount of time in honing their art as well as just the time that is spent in getting ready for a show.”