Music Commission asks city to include fair pay standards in SXSW negotiations

The Music Commission has joined the Parks and Recreation Board and other entities in pushing the city to require South by Southwest to further raise the amount it pays showcasing performers at the annual spring festival.

The commission’s recommendation, approved 7-0, asks City Council to ensure all negotiations with SXSW for city resources include provisions requiring fair pay for domestic artists. It also recommends that the city require the festival to increase its payments to artists before waiving fees for public parks or other facilities typically used by the festival.

SXSW’s compensation for performers became a national issue in February, when the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers launched a campaign calling for compensation to be increased to $750, in addition to full festival credentials. In recent months, the festival has responded by increasing its pay rate for a festival set during the 2024 event to $350 for bands and $150 for solo artists – an increase of $100 for bands and $50 for solo artists.

In June, the parks board passed a recommendation calling for fair pay conditions to be met before the city waives any fees for the use of its facilities.

Commissioner Scott Strickland, who is a working musician, said performers are being overlooked and marginalized in a fast-growing city that has sold itself as a hotbed of music and creativity.

“Our music economy generates a billion dollars a year in music. Why is it that we can generate a billion dollars a year cumulatively as a city, but then we have an exodus of musicians leaving the city because of affordability issues?” he said. “If we have to choose between a badge or little to nothing, I guess we’ll take the badge. … You’re always going to get undercut as a musician, because you’re going to want the opportunity.”

Much of the meeting concerned the city’s legal latitude to push for collective bargaining considerations, since Texas is a right-to-work state. There’s been debate about what language – from a combination of possible recommendations – could be implemented without violating a recently passed state law that limits cities’ power to regulate matters relating to labor, agriculture, natural resources and finance.

Members of the Austin Federation of Musicians union watched while holding signs calling for fair pay, while commissioners heard from union representatives and at times expressed frustration over the city’s legal constraints in negotiating with a private company.

Standards for employee wages are set by state and federal laws, with any local regulations likely to be preempted by the state, according to the city’s legal department in response to a question from the commission.

Chair Nagavalli Medicharla last month submitted a resolution that was put on hold. She opted to withdraw that resolution because of the likelihood of its legal invalidity.

“The integrity of this commission, and the fact that we send viable and actionable recommendations to city government and to City Council, is very important,” she said. “It is not for me a matter of prosecuting for or against South By, or prosecuting for or against musicians.”

Strickland and others said they’ve had productive conversations with SXSW executives in recent weeks and are encouraged there will be progress on the issue of fair pay.

Some commissioners pushed for the city to join music advocates in taking action to bring more money to performing musicians, including making Austin’s recently adopted $200 minimum compensation a standard.

“The environment that we work in is broken, and it’s broken for musicians, and it’s the music industry that takes advantage of those that are most vulnerable,” Commissioner Oren Rosenthal said. “When South by Southwest comes to town, there’s a lot of police work. There’s a lot of construction work. There’s all kinds of work that happens, and these groups all find ways to get themselves paid fairly.”

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