The Music Commission wants to increase funding for the Live Music Fund from its current $4.5 million total, and could push for hotel taxes from short-term rental sites as a funding source.
At last week’s meeting, the commission received an update from the Music and Entertainment Division about the nearly 1,200 applicants for this year’s LMF grant program. With grants available in $15,000 or $30,000 amounts for performers or producers or $30,000 and $60,000 for independent music venues, there is only enough money to fund about 170 grants total.
Commissioner Scott Strickland said the 5:1 ratio of unsuccessful applicants to grant recipients shows the level of need in the local music community. In addition to finding more money for the program, he also suggested reducing the grant amounts in future years to allow for a higher number of awards.
Last year, in the debut of the Live Music Fund, the city named 368 grant recipients for awards that were much smaller at either $5,000 or $10,000 each, with none available for music venues.
“Next year we need to make sure that the funds are going to more people. There’s like 800 or so people that are gonna get denied and there’s like a hundred or so people that are gonna get awarded,” he said. “There are really famous acts right now that are out there touring, and they’re touring solo because they can’t afford to take a band, so I can only imagine how it is for the little guy, and actually I’m the little guy and I know how it is.”
With the program funded entirely by the city’s portion of Hotel Occupancy Tax receipts, commissioners turned their attention toward the possibility of the city enacting comprehensive regulations and agreements with short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO that would allow for the collection of an estimated $15 million to $20 million annually in additional hotel taxes. If accurate, that estimate would translate into about $3 million more each year for the Live Music Fund.
In recent years the Arts, Music, and Tourism commissions have all passed recommendations for the city to move forward with an STR framework that would enable better noise and quality-of-life regulations while increasing hotel tax receipts that could fund music, cultural arts and historic preservation in addition to covering costs for the Austin Convention Center.
Earlier this summer, city staff indicated City Council could take up the STR question in the fall.
Commissioner Lauryn Gould said she and others should discuss those recommendations with the Council members who appointed them. She and others also discussed exploring outside partnerships to bring in private and philanthropic money to increase the Live Music Fund’s support for local musicians.
“We’ve discussed that when we were first getting this off the ground, exploring how we can create some public-private partnership,” she said. “It would be great to have a conversation before the next rollout of what is really possible for us to grow this pot beyond (hotel) taxes.”
Erica Shamaly, head of the Music and Entertainment Division, said the analysis her staff and the Long Center for the Performing Arts, which is administering the program, are doing on grant applications could be made available to determine the level of need in the music community. That data, she said, would be a first ingredient for outside fundraising.
Commissioner Pedro Carvalho, who was appointed by District 4 Council Member Chito Vela, said Vela has indicated taxes from STRs are his preferred first option for increasing aid for music and cultural needs.
“He said that if we as a city can push back on Airbnb enough to make these people register to pay these (hotel) taxes, then a lot of these people that do come up to us for help can be helped and the funds are there,” he said. “I just know that the money is there and people aren’t giving it or they aren’t paying their bills. That’s just not fair.”
Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.
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Austin Music Commission: The Austin Music Commission guides city practices on music development issues, including the SxSW music festival.
Hotel Occupancy Tax: A tax on the rental of a room in a hotel or other rental properties (including apartments) that cost 6 percent of the cost of a room.
