Austin Parks Board unanimously calls for pay hike for SXSW performers
The Austin Parks and Recreation Board has unanimously called in the City Council to force a pay raise to performers at South by Southwest (SXSW). The festival has paid $250 to bands and $100 to a solo performer.
SXSW says that it will raise payments to $350 for bands and $150 for solo artists in 2024 and offer special artist credentials that allow access to one-on-one mentoring sessions and a lounge area. According to festival organizers, about 90% of performers chose to be compensated with a free pass. In 2023 a SXSW Music Badge cost as much as $895.
But many musicians and the Parks and Recreation Board are calling for more.
Austin traditionally waives all fees for SXSW’s use of city parks and facilities, and the new resolution demands “that any contract negotiation between the City, PARD, and SXSW include a provision requiring fair pay for domestic artists performing at City of Austin parks, park facilities, and city-owned property.” It further calls on the City to “require changes to artist pay and compensation by SXSW before waiving any future fees at Vic Mathias Shores, or at other parks, park facilities, or city-owned facilities.”
The resolution did not define “fair pay” for artists, though the United Musicians and Allied Workers Union has called for $750.
The UMAW protested outside Austin City Hall before the meeting, which also featured testimony from local musicians.
“To only receive a tiny amount of compensation for all the work that goes into it while they bring home millions of dollars, yeah, it’s insulting,” Phillip Balke, keyboardist in the band Soralia, told local TV station KXAN.
The Parks and Recs Board claimed that SXSW has annual revenues of $142.3 million, a figure that SXSW called inaccurate without offering its own figures. “SXSW does not disclose its revenues or costs,” the festival said in a statement. Penske Media – the publisher of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety – bought an estimated 50% stake in the festival in 2021.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
