Exodus: Census shows musicians leaving Austin over affordability

Austin’s political and business leaders now have clear data to back up years of anecdotal evidence that local musicians are being driven out of the city due to the high cost of living and the general affordability crisis.

The cost crunch faced by Austin musicians is one of the starkest findings of the new Greater Austin Music Census 2022, which gathered survey results from just over 2,200 musicians and music industry workers and business owners to gauge the state of the local music industry. The census is something of an update to a 2015 effort (using responses from 2014) commissioned by the city that found musicians struggling to earn at a level above the poverty line.

The consulting group Sound Music Cities conducted the survey gratis for the city using data gathered from online surveys last summer.

The new census didn’t seek specific data about earnings and other explicit financial matters, but it did find that 38 percent of respondents are struggling to afford housing, and roughly a third plan to leave the area in the next three years. It also showed most ZIP codes in the city’s core lost “music people” since the last census, with areas to the north, east and south absorbing most of that population.

There’s also an aging trend happening among area musicians. Compared to data from 2014, younger adults could be becoming more rare in the Austin music community overall. The 25-39 cohort dropped from half of all respondents to 38 percent, with those 40-54 and aged 65 and over showing single-digit increases.

In the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic that closed down event and hospitality businesses for months, the census found a noticeable but less severe shift with venues and opportunities to earn a living located within the 78704 ZIP code showing the greatest loss.

On the question of where money is made, live performances in Austin and on the road remained the dominant income streams followed by merchandise sales, recordings and teaching.

The questions regarding diversity, equity and inclusion found that as a whole, respondents see only some noticeable problems of bias, especially concerning ageism, sexism and the “elite” ecosystem. The results for various racial, gender and other subgroups were more alarming, however, with those identifying in specific communities reporting a statistically higher incidence of discrimination.

James Russell, executive director of Trail of Lights and a frequent adviser to local politicos on matters surrounding the creative economy, said the cities surrounding Austin can work together to establish programs and policies around sound ordinances and land code that will be even friendlier to the creative class.

“There’s a pretty large opportunity for the MSA and the five counties to work on ways to collaborate on ways to support the music ecosystem. As the exodus from Austin continues – because it will from people seeking cheaper housing and quality of life – the surrounding communities like Lockhart or Bastrop have a huge opportunity to learn from the data that’s been compiled and figure out how to embrace the folks that are coming to their communities from Austin,” he said.

“They can learn from some things that we’ve been chasing our tail and get in front of a lot of this stuff. Not that I want the exodus to continue, but the likelihood is probably pretty high.”

Pat Buchta, CEO of the trade group Austin Texas Musicians, said the city’s moniker as Live Music Capital may not neatly apply anymore as Central Texas as a whole becomes the locus of musical creativity and commerce. Like Russell, he said the cities absorbing musicians seeking affordability can look for ways to improve quality of life, including possibly contributing funding or resources to nonprofit groups such as Health Alliance for Austin Musicians and the SIMS Foundation.

“We have to expand what we think of when we think about supporting Austin music because so many musicians have been pushed to outlying regions like Bastrop or Round Rock,” he said. “You’re going to see more of an effort to coordinate more within Council districts but into other counties to see what resources we have available in addition to just what’s been in Austin.”

Peter Schwarz, the consultant who worked with Sound Music Cities to analyze the data, said the diversity of music-related professionals employed by local musicians suggests the local economy is evolving to serve more than just live music.

“Because we’ve been inside of this after the pandemic, it seems like it’s been crisis after crisis and we’ve known for a long time how marginalized this community was; in the meantime what we’re building is a pretty awesome developer of talent in more strategic ways, where our town is becoming attractive for people to do something they can’t do anywhere else in the whole world.”

On the affordability issue, he said the data shows the considerable pressure being put on local musicians who need to “have a seat at the table” in conversations around how to address housing needs.

“It’s frustrating that our most immediate insight is about the housing crisis and it’s such a large problem that there’s not a lot of low-hanging fruit specific to the design of music ecosystem stimulation,” he said. “Because we have updated numbers that show specifically how this creative workforce is in crisis, it gives us greater leverage … now they need to listen about why this is such an acute problem for us.”

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