{"id":14111,"date":"2025-10-21T16:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/14111\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:24:07","slug":"austin-opens-live-music-fund-art-grant-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/14111\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin opens Live Music Fund, art grant applications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grant applications for Austin\u2019s Live Music Fund, as well as other art and culture programs, have opened<\/a> up. More than $25 million<\/a> is available across the city programs, with about $7 million earmarked for live music.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re gonna see one application, not just for the Live Music Fund, [but] for the Creative Space Assistance Program, for the Elevate Program, the Nexus program, and the Heritage Preservation grant,\u201d said Erica Shamaly, the division manager for music and entertainment at Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment (known as ACME).<\/p>\n

The Live Music Fund, paid for by taxes on hotel stays, has been supporting Austin musicians and venues since it was established in 2019. This is the third year the program is awarding grants. The first round, in 2023, provided $5,000 and $10,000 grants, giving away a total of $3.5 million. It produced the largest number of grant recipients so far: 368 people out of the 660 who applied.<\/p>\n

The fund increased to $4.5 million for the second round, in 2024. The program opened up to venues, which were allowed to apply for grants of $30,000 or $60,000. Artist grants increased to $15,000 and $30,000. Only 137 applicants \u2014 17 of which were venues \u2014 received grants out of more than 1,000 applicants.<\/p>\n

The decrease in recipients \u2014 despite an increase in funding \u2014 didn\u2019t sit well with some musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt devastated me, you know?” said Tameca Jones, an Austin-based singer and songwriter, who did not get funding<\/a> last year. \u201cI was going to get a publicist. I was gonna get some new photos. I was going to make some more music and pay the people who helped me make music a fair rate. When I did my taxes, I met the poverty line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shamaly said the increase in applicants during the second round was intense, so Austin brought on more staff. The city partnered with the Long Center in 2024 to go through applications.<\/p>\n

Because there were fewer grant recipients, the city spent less on administrative costs and, in turn, had more money for grants, Shamaly said.<\/p>\n

The program is launching again after a reset.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aFor 2025, we’re just gonna try to find a middle ground. So instead of $30,000, it’ll be $20,000 [for individual artists],\u201d Shamaly said. \u201cAnd then we will also do a $5,000 grant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Musicians and venues can apply for different grant amounts over a one- or two-year period. <\/p>\n

Even though there\u2019s more money available, there still isn’t enough to support every applicant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand for the Live Music Fund has been really high,\u201d Shamaly said. \u201cLast year there were over a thousand applications, and the total amount that people applied for was $29 million. So a lot of people want grants, but there’s just not enough money for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The application\u2019s format will look different this year. It includes a narration portion where applicants can describe what they will do with the money and a series of scored multiple choice questions.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThere isn’t any subjectivity whatsoever,\u201d Shamaly said. \u201cThere’s a set of guidelines, there’s some scoring criteria. We asked a question if an applicant answers and selects, something pops up that says \u2018Upload your documentation to evidence your answer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Professional musicians and independent promoters now must also answer questions about their achievements, like playing a show to more than 300 people, download numbers and radio play. Applicants seeking $5,000 grants will not have to answer these questions.<\/p>\n

The rest of the scoring categories \u2014 artist development, cultural tourism and Austin music economy development \u2014 will remain the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is to go back and do a big update every three years” instead of annually, Shamaly said.<\/p>\n

Applications close Dec. 4. Recipients will be notified if they have won the grant by February.<\/p>\n

This story was adapted from an episode of Pause\/Play. Listen to the full episode here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grant applications for Austin\u2019s Live Music Fund, as well as other art and culture programs, have opened up.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11580,132,11581,134,133,4621,11584,11585,11583,11582,27],"class_list":["post-14111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-acme","tag-austin","tag-austin-arts","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-culture","tag-grant-funding","tag-hotel-taxes","tag-live-music-fund","tag-music-and-entertainment","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}