MUSIC

Austin Live Music Task Force releases draft report

City-level music department, newly redesignated downtown live music district among recommendations.

By Joe Gross
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A city level "Music Department" to function as a clearinghouse for all issues related to music, a redefinition of live music districts and venues, and better communication among stakeholders in Austin's live music scene are a few of the recommendations in a draft report issued this week by the Austin Live Music Task Force.

The department, which would be independent of the city's cultural arts division, in part because of its focus on the "for profit" nature of live music, would work on attracting industry elements to Austin such as publishing agents and management, as well as manage the live music issues that intersect with appropriate city departments.

Rich Bailey, chief of staff for Mayor Will Wynn, said the department would start small. Very small.

"People think of a department as something with a director and managers and multiple employees," Bailey said. "At this point, we're looking at a person within the economic development department whose primary responsibility will be live music. We already have many employees whose jobs touch on live music," including creative industries development manager Jim Butler, who attended nearly every meeting and subcommittee meeting of the live music task force.

The task force is scheduled to present its findings and final recommendations to the City Council on Nov. 20. The council would have to approve the recommendations before any implementation.

Task force Chairman Paul Oveisi, who owns the live music club Momo's, said he was mindful of city belt-tightening. "We've been talking to the city about our ideas for some time," he said. "We're not talking about building a building."

The existing Austin Music Commission would continue in its advisory role to the City Council. The Music Department would fall under the city manager's purview.

The 15-member task force was created by the City Council after the Planning Commission's attempt to institute a noise limit in some areas angered many in the music community. The task force, which includes such stakeholder representatives as Diverse Arts founder Harold McMillian, Planning Commissioner Saundra Kirk, Continental Club owner Steve Wertheimer and Transmission Entertainment co-founder James Moody, has been meeting since March.

Among the task force's recommendations is ensuring that live music venues use city-qualified sound engineers. That touches on the findings of the task force's sound enforcement subcommittee, which is in favor of each live music venue having a full- or part-time sound engineer who would serve as the point person for sound issues. Outdoor live music venues would be required to have such a point person on site during performances.

Oveisi said the task force found that musicians' most pressing concern was parking. For example, if a band has five members and each pays $6 for parking at a gig, that's $30 that comes out of the night's take-home pay.

The report suggests solutions such as the donation of empty evening parking spaces to musicians and their crews by garage owners, city-lot sponsored parking vouchers for musicians in entertainment districts and the identification of new short-term loading and unloading areas for gigging bands.

The other major change recommended by the task force is to the notion of entertainment districts.

The only places in Austin designated as live music districts are Sixth Street and the Warehouse District downtown, though much of the heart of the scene has migrated to Red River Street and to smaller areas such as parts of South Congress Avenue.

The task force recommends the creation of a large, centrally located entertainment district — or "Downtown Entertainment District" — that roughly mirrors the current central business district. That would incorporate density bonuses that provide affordable live/work space for musicians and incentives for creation of a program for soundproofing and sound attenuation.

Smaller, satellite districts — or "entertainment district nodes" — would be places that encourage live music but do not contain all the benefits of the Downtown Entertainment District, taking into account their proximity to residential neighborhoods.

"We want the city to make Austin as attractive for live music as it is for film and the tech sector," Oveisi said. "This seems fitting for a city that bills itself to the world as the live music capital."

jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926