AUSTIN, Texas - The ability to make a living as a full-time musician has never been easy, but the current threat facing the entire music industry is unparalleled in recent history. The economic effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been decimating for independent artists. A temporary ban on mass gatherings has emptied the well, cleared the stage and sent musicians home for the foreseeable future. 

  • Closure of music venues has put most Texas musicians temporarily out of work 
  • Musicians often don't enjoy the benefits people in other industries do
  • Federal bill will provide some financial relief

“The state of the music industry right now, I’d have to say, is perhaps a lot worse than other industries out there,” said Matt Ott, co-founder of the Austin-based nonprofit Black Fret. “So many aspects of the music industry were already on life support even before the pandemic happened.”

In other industries, many employers have managed to provide temporary, work-from-home accommodations for their employees while the world is sheltered in place. Unfortunately, working from home isn’t exactly an option for a live sound engineer or booking agent. Long before the world was facing a pandemic, most musicians and artists in the music industry were adapted to not receiving the same benefits in a gig economy as full-time employees receive in other industries. Choosing a career in music has always been risky, but the odds of "making it" have only gotten worse over the last 20 years. With that in mind, the current state of the Texas music industry is a result of much more than the crisis it’s facing right now.

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“The income we see artists bringing in from their art, sadly, is not nearly what it needs to be,” said Ott. “Most musicians I know still have day jobs. They can’t do their music full time. Whenever I see a musician doing music full time, it’s really an incredible thing - but for them to be able to do that, they had to work for years to build their audience.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, what cost $20 in 1999 would cost about $31 today. With an increase in the cost of living, the U.S. dollar no longer stretches as far as it once did. The pace of inflation has outpaced the increase in household income, and the increase in the cost of goods has outpaced the rise in inflation. 

The U.S. has seen a dramatic rise in the freelance workforce in recent years due to the flexibility and opportunity a freelance career can provide. However, in a gig economy, musicians have little to no financial backing. Health care and benefits aren’t included, there’s no financial guarantee, and getting booked for enough gigs to pay your bills will depend on several factors.

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“Austin’s getting harder and harder to afford, but there are so many things that are going on,” said Ott. “Between the hot dollars that are coming in from the Prop B bill, to HAAM, SIMS - we’re really trying to create a great business ecosystem in addition to a support-ecosystem here in Austin for local musicians.”

The music industry’s existence relies on day-to-day support from venues, ticket sales, promoters, booking agents, and lots of fans, but its ability to survive is diminished when any of those pieces are taken away. When all venues are closed, and there’s no longer tickets to be sold, nothing for promoters to promote, nothing for booking agents to book and nowhere for fans to go, the impact is swift and devastating.

“When you look at the ability of venues to be able to survive an economic downturn, when you look at the bands that relied on every single gig and every single tip in the tip jar to make it day-to-day, the moment that’s taken away, there’s no safety net,” said Ott. “When a pandemic hits what was, in effect, an immuno-compromised patient to begin with, we’re gonna be in trouble, and that’s where we are right now.”

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Ott and his co-founder of Black Bret, Colin Kendrick, were confronted with an early glimpse of what Austin would like if/when the first cases of coronavirus reached the city. In 2019, with the success of Black Fret’s sustainable model for musicians in Austin, the nonprofit decided to expand into Seattle. In February of this year, Ott and Kendrick flew there to host an official launch party. A turn of events led to a surreal experience.

“That day, February 29, was the day that some of the first cases were identified there,” said Ott.

On Saturday, February 29, King County health officials in the state of Washington announced the first coronavirus-related death in the United States. Three new presumptive positive cases were also confirmed in Seattle the same day.

“Things changed there so quickly,” said Ott. “From the Saturday we arrived to the Monday we left, you could see the difference in the streets. You could see how quickly they reacted. Staying in touch with those folks there, it’s really been a foreshadow of what I knew was gonna happen in Austin, and here we are in the same boat now.”

After returning home from Seattle, Ott and his team began collaborating with other organizations and nonprofits to create a plan of defense. Numerous live-streamed benefit concerts have raised thousands of dollars for struggling artists, and many musicians have used the online platform to host nightly solo gigs for Venmo tips. The generosity from the Texas music scene has gone a long way in helping artists get through the short-term struggles. 

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Thanks to music advocates in Washington D.C., some long-term relief is also becoming available. The largest stimulus deal in American history went into effect this week, and the $2 trillion relief package includes funding for independent artists. The Coronavirus Stimulus Bill gives self-employed musicians, independent recording artists, songwriters, sound engineers and music support crews the eligibility to apply for several relief grants and loans. The new federal law also allows independent contractors, sole proprietors and the self-employed to apply for unemployment benefits.

“We know the gigs will resume some day,” said Ott. “I’m hopeful that a lot of people are gonna wanna come out and see live music after being stuck in their house for however long we’re gonna be! I’m really hopeful that people take a lesson away from this - that the things that we value in life need to be valued. They need to be cherished. And if we don’t, we’re gonna lose them.”