Government Shutdowns Could Kill Nearly All of Austin’s Live Music Venues
“Of the 50-something venues in the city, there’s going to be five or 10 left after this.”
By Jacob Asmussen | July 22, 2020

https://texasscorecard.com/local/government-shutdowns-could-kill-nearly-all-of-austins-live-music-venues/

AUSTIN — In the “Live Music Capital of the World,” government officials have recently forced at least 132,000 citizens out of work and are now on the brink of killing off a whole local industry—live music.

“I think there’s a real risk of losing 90 percent of independent music venues in the next few months,” said one respondent to a recent survey of Austin businesses. The survey, commissioned by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and conducted by the University of Houston, asked more than 1,000 business owners in all industries about their experiences from the recent government shutdowns.

The results revealed how the music industry is in a dire fight for survival in Texas’ capital city.

Just 19 percent of local live music venues were able to pay their full June rent, while 83 percent laid off their full-time employees—the most layoffs among all business industries surveyed.

Even more, 62 percent of local live music venues said under current government shutdowns, they would not survive past October—at the latest.

In fact, some local venue owners say nearly all of them could die off.

“Of the 50-something venues in the city, there’s going to be five or 10 left after this,” said Steve Sternschein, co-owner of Empire Control Room and co-founder of the National Independent Venue Association. He said even venues owned by large corporations are facing termination.


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This is very sad.