You need to know that our positive organized action over the last 18 months has gotten us a lot of attention, but it has also ruffled some feathers and has some people organizing against us. Others in our Arts Community and in our City Government are threatened by our attempts to gain power as an industry and they're not going lightly. We thought the Neighborhood Groups were against us, and we found out they want to work together, but there's another set of roadblocks we have to overcome.

Many of you have said "The City of Austin can't fix all our problems like the national government is doing for other industries". And you are correct if you feel that way. Regardless, our City government does have to take our industry seriously and work with us the way they work with other industries. There's nothing Socialized about that. It's business in a free market system.

The proposed Music Office would create a working liason between our industry and the City to deal with issues like giving us tax incentives, helping with infrastructure building, parking and permit issues, and noise issues. It's good for our industry and now, even the Neighborhood groups support the idea.

But we've hit a brick wall with our fellow creatives and with our new City Manager, Marc Ott. Arts organizations are seeing our industry as a threat to their financial stability, even though we create much of the money that funds their endeavors through hotel bed taxes and sales taxes. And we're seen as not viable in the City's budget. It's time to demand representation for our taxation.

We have to tell the City that we generate part of this budget that's not big enough for us and that if they want our votes, they're going to have to create a Music Office BEFORE ELECTION DAY on MAY 9th. We also have to break away from the "Cultural Arts" designation we have with the City.

The Fine Arts community doesn't want us standing out on our own. Not because they hate to see us go - it would mean division of funds and attention. What they fail to see is that the Fine Arts are philanthropic in nature and we are an industry which returns a lot of funds to the City's tax base. Simply put; they are non-profit and we are for-profit. That requires a different designation and different consideration. But they currently get almost all of the money and they won't let loose without a fight. Do we want to fund the Fine Arts? Of course we do. But we are starving as an industry while they are thriving. This isn't sharing fairly. We don't have a brand new Long Center, a funded Ballet, Symphony, Galleries, and Theatres. But the hotel bed tax we generate goes to pay for many of these. It's not unreasonable for us to expect say, half of this revenue. We currently can't figure how much we actually get, but it's well under 10% at first glance.

Our new City Manager has given strong indications that he won't create a Music Office, despite all the time and effort we have put in over the last year and a half to participate in the Live Music Task Force and its recommendations. All your trips to City Hall are being pushed aside because of our 2009 budget deficit. The City refuses to make use of our ability to create economic development and help us through this recession. They've basically patted us on the head and dismissed us like patronizing parents. One of Marc Ott's first Council appearances was the day we filled City Hall to support the LMTF's recommendations. He doesn't seem to acknowledge that he's supposed to be working for us and that we have given our support to Council and the Music Office.

Are you outraged yet? You're going to have to stand up on our behalf. We started making noise for a change and now we have to follow through. How?

We have to apply pressure on our City Council. It's election time and we have to get involved. We have to demand action in return for our votes. Which means that you'd better be registered and you'd better vote! There's only a month left to get our message to the candidates.

The current Council has asked Marc Ott to create a Music Office and he is stalling until after the elections. There's no guarantee that the new Council will apply any pressure to the issue after election day. So we have to act now. We asked Council and Council has asked the City Manager. We won't get what we want without applying pressure. It's why there's enough money for new bath houses at Barton Springs, new parking meters, a new $750,000 CoA website - but no Music Office. Others are making sure they get theirs and we have to demand ours and stand up for ourselves.

Otherwise, you can continue working 2 or 3 jobs to pay for all the money you lose making music in the Live Music Capital of the World. You can keep generating $47 million a year in bed taxes and seeing none of it. You can continue having nowhere to park, being afraid of noise ordinances, and you can keep being mad that the City isn't doing its part to earn our City Motto. It's up to YOU.

So what can you do?
Tell everyone you know about how the City is being unresponsive and the Arts community is trying to keep us from separating.
Register and VOTE ON MAY 9th - http://www.traviscountytax.org/pdfs/VoterRegistrationApplicationForm.pdf
Bring 5 friends to the Candidates forum on April 1st and demand that a Music Office be created before election day
Write City Council & the City Manager and tell them that we are not "the Fine Arts" and we want a Music Office before election day!
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/groupemail.htm
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/connect/email_marcott.htm

Hosted By:
Save Austin Music

When:
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Where:
Save Austin Music HQ
3708 Woodbury Dr.
Austin
78704

Description:
Join us Tuesday for the SAM BIG MEETING. We'll be talking about how to make you more money. Free beer while it lasts...

Click Here To View Event

....

Here are some FAQ's that we've been getting about the PSA campaign we're asking the City to fund: * Why are you asking for a handout/bailout from the City? Well, this isn't either. In the words of Mayor Wynn, his creation of economic stimulus in the bust of 2001 was hotly contested and although it took money out of an unbalanced City budget, it helped stabilize our local economy. This would do the same - especially at a time when nobody else is stepping up with a plan to create more local revenue. * So in this time of budget shortfalls, exactly how will this expenditure help Austin's economy? We have projected that our plan will contribute between $5 to 52 million to the local economy and $47,000 to $450,000 directly to the City budget EACH MONTH. This will pay by back the City threefold, even at a "failure rate" * Will it sidetrack City Council from creating the Music Department? Save Austin Music supports and suggested this Department to the LMTF and we support its creation 100%! But it will take months before it does anything to impact our community as a result of its creation - and we are in a crisis situation! Our plan is an interim plan which could actually help fund the creation of the Music Department. Council understands that we are not asking for an "either/or" scenario, and our industry can earn the City enough money to fund both. * This plan has a website component that will take attention from other listing websites, why? Our plan will actually create a cooperative of these websites and make a comprehensive listing site with resources that no single music listings site has. And our site will return this content to each of these websites so that they have the benefit of the resources they contribute as well. None of these sites has the ability to create the visitor traffic our PSAs will create, and when our interim plan is complete in a few months, we will return increased traffic and advertising opportunities to these local businesses. * Where will the money come from to fund the Music Department and the PSA? Well, despite the budget shortfalls, our live music helps contribute greatly to the $48 million that hotel taxes generate into our tax base. This amount will increase in 2009 as well. Given that the $5.5 million of those taxes that was allocated to the arts last year, Live Music received less than 10% of that money. Technically, we are receiving less than 1% of taxes that we easily help generate 1/3 or more of. Does that upset you? I sure hope so! * So how do we get that money that we earn in order to support our industry? Well, if this was Boston in 1773, we might be throwing tea into the harbor...  Currently, our good friends in the fine arts community are getting almost all of this money. We absolutely want and need to fund the fine arts, but we have to remember that not many people are flying into Austin to catch the Austin Symphony or the Austin Ballet and generating those hotel taxes. There's enough there for all of us in the fine and less-than-fine arts, but Live Music needs to be represented fairly by receiving more of that money. You have to tell the City that you're feeling like our fair portion of that money has been misdirected and we want it to help our industry create more contribution to our local economy! So click here to email City Council: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/groupemail.htm And here to email City Manager Marc Ott: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/connect/email_marcott.htm We are starting to get support within Council for our plan, but it won't succeed without your support.      Please forward this email to everyone in your address book, you'll be helping save our music and our local economy. Please say the following: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Mayor Wynn, City Council, and City Manger Ott; I am a concerned Austinite and voter who (loves music/plays music/am employed in the local music industry) and I am effected by both the financial crisis facing our local music industry and the compounding impact of the national economic crisis. My efforts to support my music career have been undermined by issues addressed by the Live Music Task Force, but they have now been made worse by recent economic crisis facing our national and local economy. While I support the LMTF recommendations, and want the City to create a Music Department, our community faces an immediate crisis while we await your action to help our industry. I am writing you urging you to support Save Austin Music's interim plan to mobilize Austinites into our local music venues and small businesses by funding their Public Service Announcement campaign and Music Listing Website immediately. I know our City budget is taxed beyond reasonable limits, but this plan will actually contribute back to our economy and the City budget within weeks of being funded. It will create immediate economic flow within our city by generating more local spending and increased sales tax revenue. And it will help ease the increasing financial difficulties that musicians have been enduring here for years. Save Austin Music's PSA urges every Austinite to "see one Austin band this month", which would put tens of thousands of people in Austin venues and millions of dollars into our economy each month. It would also serve as both interim plan and test project for the marketing plan recommended by the LMTF, until its plan is in place. Most importantly, it is an immediate solution for not just the music industry, but for Austin's economy. I want to stress that this is in no way a substitute for the proposed Music Department, but an emergency interim measure that will have a wider economic impact and possibly help fund the new department! Promoting Austin's music to Austinites in this manner will encourage many to spend their reduced recreational budgets here instead of traveling or shopping online. Austinites will be encouraged to take a one-night local vacation regularly by enjoying our music instead of traveling and spending elsewhere. Best of all, the SAM plan could actually return revenue to the City budget through ad sales on the listing website. We also urge you to look at "where the money is going" from the hotel bed taxes we help generate so much of, and the share that is returned to Austin's Live Music Industry in incentives, programs, and support. We estimate that we receive less than 1% yearly of the taxes we help generate ($48 million last year). While we agree it is vital to our City to fund the fine arts, we remind you that very few people visit Austin to take in our Symphony, Opera, or Ballet. We're helping generate bed taxes and we would like to be represented as such - especially since representing us better will allow us to contribute more to our local economy and tax base! For the last year, I have been a part of Save Austin Music, and I now believe that this plan will actually allow our music to "Save Austin" itself. This $15,000 expenditure each month will net millions in our local economy and prove that our City government really believes that Austin is "The Live Music Capital of the World" by tapping the financial potential our industry offers. Thank you for your time and for helping us to Save Austin Music. Yours Truly, +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Mayor Wynn, Mayor Pro Tem Dunkerley, Council Member Martinez, Council Member Kim, Council Member Leffingwell, Council Member McCracken, and Council Member Cole;

My name is Troy Dillinger. I am an Austin musician. I played my first paid gig in 1983 at Steamboat on 6th Street. In almost 25 years, I have had the good fortune of playing all over the world and I've gotten the chance to share my music with millions of people around the globe. Most all of them know I am from Austin, Texas. My pride in being an Austin Musician runs deep and I've "paid my dues" to do it too. I have watched our local music scene fall ill in the last 10 years, and I fear that if nobody takes action, it could actually be lost.

I'm writing to ask for your support and action. I want you to proclaim 2008 "The Year of Austin Music" so that I can pull our community together and take action to address this downfall. You will shortly be receiving letters from other Austinites urging you to do so as well. The survival of our music community may depend upon it. I'll explain why.

There's a joke I've been hearing since I started playing:
Q: How many Austin musicians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Fifty. One to change it and 49 to complain about how good it USED TO BE in Austin in the 70s

Every decade has updated this joke using the most recent decade, and every decade it has been told with more passion. The reason is that our music scene has come into increasing danger of disappearing and it seems all anyone ever does is complain. I complained right along with them for the last 15 or so years. But I started paying attention to what was going on around me in the business end of our community. In some small pockets, Austin music is alive and well, but these sectors are getting smaller and more fragmented. I have collected some data, and although it is not scientific, I have witnessed some very alarming things that just about any veteran in our music community will confirm:

- Austin musicians now make less than they did for nightclub performances 20 years ago (some say it is now less than 30 years ago).
- Audiences at local music venues have decreased up to 70% in the last 15 years, while Austin's population has nearly doubled.
- Almost no Austin musicians can make a living playing in Austin, and that many pay to play after their expenses are tallied.
- The number of Austin music venues has decreased steadily in the last 10 years and there are less than 10 live music venues on 6th Street.

That's as close as I'm going to come to complaining. Why complain if no one politician or band or club or music related business can fix this? Together we CAN save our local music legacy from extinction. How? It's simple (but not necessarily easy).

To rescue Austin's music scene from disappearing, we must get Austinites out to see live music. An audience for Austin music exists, but it is being neglected. In part, it's nearly impossible to keep track of the flood of new Austinites arriving here each day, but we as a community have dropped the ball with current Austin residents as well. So it's going to take a little effort from every single one of us that has something to do with Austin's live music community and its impact on our city.

I have set aside my complaints to take positive action. I am forming a not-for-profit organization that will partner our city's musicians, music venues, and music-related businesses to get Austinites out to see Austin music again. We will use public service announcements, advertising, events, and grassroots activities to encourage every Austinite to "go see one Austin band every month in 2008".

I am asking you to support this action and participate by proclaiming 2008 "The Year of Austin Music". I will make it my duty to take this proclamation and band together our community to increase the visibility, vitality, and community contribution of the local music community in our city. I will also be having supporters of this idea email you as well, urging you to proclaim 2008 "The Year of Austin Music" and to present this proclamation to my organization "TheYearOfAustinMusic.org" on or before January 1, 2008.

When I was new to this music scene, it was commonplace for people from all walks of life to come home from work, have dinner, tend to their personal business, get changed, and go out to see a band at an Austin music venue. Office workers, laborers, politicians, cops, and local media personalities came out and saw their favorite bands and went to work the next day a little tired, but with a song in their hearts. It was no more uncommon than catching a movie or a play. Our scene flourished, as did the economy of the scene, and the City's economy followed closely after.

Many Austinites (not just the huge surge of new ones) have no idea that they could go see a band just as easily as they can go see a movie – and for less money! They might not know that a great band is playing less than a mile from their home. They might not know that they are a vital element of the fabric that makes Austin "The Live Music Capital of the World".

TheYearOfAustinMusic.org is committed to restoring the vitality and contribution our music scene provides to our local economy, our quality of life, our unity as a city, and to the universally coveted title of being an Austinite. I and many others hope we can count on your support.

Please feel free to contact me at 512.773.5697 or at info@theyearofaustinmusic.org

Thank you for your time.

Troy Dillinger