Austin establishes separate fund for emerging musicians in response to criticisms

The City of Austin is reworking a grant program that provides millions of dollars in public assistance to struggling musicians after a chorus of concern from artists earlier this year.

Austin’s Live Music Fund saw a record number of applicants in 2024, and with it hundreds of rejections from artists looking for city assistance. More than a thousand people applied to the grant program, and more than $4.5 million were doled out to nearly 140 recipients. But artists complained the selection and application process was opaque. Longtime artists told KUT earlier this year they weren’t given proper explanation why their pitches weren’t selected — and they felt they were passed over in favor of younger artists.

Now, the city appears to be addressing that feedback for 2025, according to the Economic Development Department, which manages the program.

Erica Shamaly, EDD’s music and entertainment division manager, told the city’s Music Commission earlier this month that staff plan to split the fund into two pots: one for emerging artists and one for established Austin musicians and live music professionals next year. Shamaly cited community feedback as the reason for the substantive changes.

“You’re going to have well-established artists who are like, ‘I’m going to spend this on a tour and that’s going to be in the next six months. I’m going to spend this on a record and a video and that’s going to happen in the next three months,'” she said. “I think that we want to have that flexibility for where you’re at in your career, so that the funds are like investment in your business, not just grants.”

The city also aims to raise the overall funding to $4.8 million. Grants would be doled out in $5,000 increments to emerging artists, while longtime artists would receive $20,000 in assistance if they’re chosen.

After a public input process, the city’s Music Commission will weigh in on the potential changes, then, ideally, the changes would be rolled into the next round of applications that are set to open in May.

Longtime Austin musician Taméca Jones was denied a grant earlier this year. She said the application process lacked transparency and welcomes possible changes to the program.

“It made me so happy that we made a change,” she said, “because the process was super hard.”

Jones planned to tour off the $30,000 grant and submitted a lengthy grant application, and she said she’s heard from other musicians who had to put their plans on hold after getting denied grant money. She’s hopeful the city will make good on the feedback it heard from working musicians like her.

“There’s so many well deserving musicians who did not get it,” she said. “So, I hope they right their wrong.”

The Economic Development Department aims to open up public input for the program early next year, Shamaly said, and it hopes to get more feedback to improve the first-of-its-kind program.

“We got some ideas … that we just hadn’t considered, so we’re very excited to hear from community about what they think of the proposed improvements — as well as what are some clever ideas that you have that we haven’t thought of,” Shamaly said. “I’m looking forward to that.”

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}