Austin music leaders rethink the idea of ‘selling out’ as business support becomes a necessity

More than 60 years after Willie Nelson brought the hippies and the rednecks together at the Armadillo World Headquarters and helped forge Austin’s identity as the “Live Music Capital of the World,” the city continues to enjoy an outsized influence on the global music scene.

Maggie Phillips, music supervisor for Deep Cut Music, attributes this in part to Austin’s isolation, both geographically and economically, from the music industry hubs in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.

“We don’t have the business influencing bands as much as we do on the coasts,” she said Saturday during a panel at the inaugural KUT Fest. “And because of that, I feel like the art, the music, that people make here is art for art’s sake and music for music’s sake, and it has a very DIY, punk attitude toward creating.”

As rising costs and massive growth change the city’s demographics, how Austin can continue to be a welcoming place for musicians — and keep them here — are becoming increasingly important questions for city leaders and people in the industry.

“I think our city is going through a bit of an identity crisis,” musician Alejandro Rose-Garcia, who goes by Shakey Graves, said, pointing to parallels in changes in the city and the music business. “All the arts are going through a bit of an identity crisis. When I was growing up, ‘selling out’ was a hill to die on. Now, that’s changed. The reality of the situation is that musicians can’t just sit back and play music all the time; you have to be a self-marketing machine.”

Preserving that rich history of creative freedom while navigating the new realities of making a living in the arts here is the mission of the city’s new Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment Department. Director Angela Means said she wants the city to be a conduit for artists to connect with the new businesses and industry moving to Austin.

To have an environment where creatives thrive, she said, there needs to be support systems for artists as well as collaboration with all of the parties who want to call Austin home.

While nobody in attendance was thrilled with the idea of a Tesla Stage at The Continental Club, the panelists all recognized the need for financial support for music to remain a fixture in Austin. Longtime Austin City Limits Executive Producer Terry Lickona tried to imagine ways these partnerships could work.

“I wouldn’t complain, say, if a local Austin-based startup tech company that was successful wanted to give back in a way by supporting the music scene by putting their name on a stage without messing with the creative side of things,” he said, “or taking away from the history or legacy of what was there to begin with.”

Means said the city recognizes the difficulty in managing corporate influence in creative spaces, but still believes it’s one of the best ways to protect the artists and venues that make Austin so unique.

“Where is that fine line, and is there a model that will work for Austin, Texas?” she asked. “It will absolutely have to include partnering with our business community to be sustainable.”