‘People can die of exposure.' Is musician payout worth the prestige of playing SXSW?

Yahoo

08-05-2025

In the Live Music Capital of the World, a harsh reality hits a high note: some music industry workers say they're underpaid by SXSW — one of the largest festivals of its kind. While the event claims to pump hundreds of millions into Austin's economy each year, KXAN investigates the striking gap between SXSW's financial effect on the community and the paychecks of those who help make it happen.
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Late on a Tuesday in early March, Curtis McMurtry and Diana Burgess set the stage at Saxon Pub. It's their first show of a long week of performances during South by Southwest. They're on at midnight, fourth on a bill of five acts at the 'official SXSW' showcase.
The annual SXSW conference and festival started in the late 1980s as a way to celebrate the convergence of entertainment and technology, starting with a focus on music.
Burgess, in all black with tights under denim shorts, slides haunting notes across her cello as McMurtry, donning a black suit with flowers on the lapel, begins plucking the banjo.
The pair's incandescent delivery of their lyrics, paired with the folksy and orchestral yet dark sound of their songs, instantly captivates the audience, setting the tone for a journey through the cynicism-laced, contemptuous social commentary of McMurtry's self-described 'spite pop.'
The themes within McMurtry's lyrics seemed to reflect his personal experiences in the music industry, which he expressed several frustrations with when we sat down with him and Burgess in their home post-SXSW to talk about how the week went.
KXAN's Abigail Jones spent months looking into complaints surrounding pay for musicians who perform at SXSW, what has been done in response, as well as the challenges in advocating for musicians.
Both McMurtry and Burgess are born-and-raised Austinites and essentially lifelong musicians, having come from musical families.
'Each of us grew up seeing them [our fathers] in that career, and I think that that's what made it make sense to us,' McMurtry said. 'I think sometimes you – you choose what's comfortable or what makes the most sense.'
Music is a full-time job for them both, aside from Burgess' part-time work with the Austin Federation of Musicians – the local chapter for the American Federation of Musicians, a labor union representing 70,000 professional musicians in the United States and Canada.
When asked about the pros and cons of working as a performer in the industry, McMurtry quipped, 'It's easier to think of the cons, somehow.'
'Every year, it is more and more difficult to make the same amount of money from playing music, both live and recorded,' McMurtry explained. 'It's… it does not make sense anymore, and you cannot do it expecting to make lots of money.' He added that musician-centric organizations like Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, or HAAM, help, noting that without them, 'budgeting just simply wouldn't work for us living here.'
Results from the 2022 Greater Austin Music Census substantiate McMurtry's claim. The census is a community-led initiative with more than 50 partners, including KXAN. It was first conducted in 2014, becoming the first census of its kind in the nation.
Census highlights changes in Austin's music scene, as high costs push musicians to suburbs
Data reported in the 2022 census revealed that music industry workers were relocating outside Austin due to the cost of housing. The census said that 38% of respondents overall were struggling to afford housing. Additionally, 89% of respondents were planning to continue their music work over the coming three years, but only 64% said they'd continue living in the greater Austin region during that time, indicating that 'a third of the ecosystem is considering not just moving further from central Austin, but out of the metro area completely,' the census report said.
When it comes to the sustainability of and struggles with affordability within the music industry, McMurtry and Burgess said one of the periods that hits them hardest each year is during South By Southwest.
'So, for most of the shows we played during South by this year, we were not paid for them. And we do make the calculation that there are so many more people in town right now in all of the places that we're going to play – it does help us to get out in front of them and play our music,' McMurtry explained. 'Ordinarily, I would advise against anyone playing for free. South By… South By is a weird time for that.'
Burgess has played at SXSW since 2011, and McMurtry since 2015. The duo played six shows in as many days during this year's festival, and said they couldn't even count how many hours of work went into them. The Saxon Pub show was the only 'official' SXSW show they played this year.
McMurtry and Burgess said SXSW is the only time they'll even consider performing for free, let alone paying to play. Some artists are excited to play SXSW and are OK with the 'calculation' of playing without being paid. One pro of playing the fest is the brand recognition of SXSW, Burgess noted.
'It does have a certain, like, prestige that is universally known outside of the music industry, too. So it's like, in that sense, it is worth playing,' Burgess said. 'And I think playing during South By and either not making money or making very minimal money is kind of the only time that we allow ourselves to play for exposure, which we usually will not do the rest of the year.'
KXAN's investigation found this mindset is somewhat of a standard for SXSW artists – the majority must, at least initially, 'pay to play' because artists must apply to play at the festival, which requires an application fee.
Artist application fees for SXSW 2025 were $35 for regular entry and $75 for late entry, with the exception of some HAAM members who could've received fee waivers if they applied ahead of the SXSW early bird deadline. HAAM said 131 members applied to receive the discount code for SXSW 2025, but it did not know how many used the code to apply for SXSW.
Creativity 'the North Star' of SXSW, but some Austin musicians feel eclipsed during event
If chosen as a showcasing artist, musicians have to choose between receiving a SXSW Artist Badge or monetary compensation. If the acts chose monetary compensation rather than the badge this year, they received $400 in total for full bands consisting of three or more performers, or $175 for a solo/duo act, per SXSW's website. SXSW values the badge at $995 each.
McMurtry chose badges for himself and his band members, but also paid his three bandmates $100 each for the Saxon Pub show, noting he wished he could've paid more because the musicians are 'worth more than that.'
'Given the choice, I've found that it's easier for me to get other musicians to play with us for the showcase if I take the wristband option and then I go out of pocket to then pay those musicians as well, so I lose overall,' he said. 'But if I just say, 'Hey, can I give you this little bit of money and nothing else?' then it's harder to get other musicians involved.'
Outside of SXSW, McMurtry said the landscape of their work is more lucrative and less demanding.
'We make less and do more work during South By, yeah, than our average week,' McMurtry said.
But he also explained there's no real consistency in terms of pay rates or compensation for performances across the board.
'Totally different beast.' Austin musicians worry about industry amid SXSW changes
'It fluctuates so wildly, like we will do shows for a $250 guarantee if there's going to be tips there, or we really like the venue. We've been paid $3,000 to play four songs before,' he said. 'It makes no sense. There's no consistency to any of it.'
According to the music census, only 54% of gigs guarantee a base pay, yet musicians' key earnings come from 1-3 paid gigs per month.
There also isn't an industry-specific standard wage for musicians. In the restaurant industry, waiters make $2.13 per hour, plus tips, or at least $7.25 per hour, as set by the U.S. Department of Labor. Something like that does not exist for performing musicians.
'We've played house concerts in people's backyards for thousands of dollars, and we've played clubs and ended up with like, less than $100 each.'
Curtis McMurtry, Local Musician
Most performing musicians operate as freelancers, or 'independent contractors.' Austin Kaplan, an Austin-based employment law and civil rights attorney and litigator, and founder and managing attorney at Kaplan Law Firm, explained some legal shortcomings for people who operate professionally as freelancers.
'In Texas, unfortunately, if you're a freelancer, or what the law would call an independent contractor, there really are almost no protections for you, other than you get what you agree to receive,' Kaplan explained. 'In other words, it really is just, you know, your options are, take it or leave it.'
According to data collected in May 2024 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, the national median hourly wage for the occupation 'Musicians and Singers' was $42.45 per hour.
In Austin, the median hourly wage for musicians and singers was $31.14.
Though considered the 'Live Music Capital of the World,' the Austin area did not rank in the BLS's list of top 10 metropolitan areas with the highest employment level in musicians and singers, nor did it make the list of the 10 top-paying metropolitan/non-metropolitan areas for musicians and singers.
The map above shows the hourly median wages for Musicians and Singers across the United States. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and data.gov (KXAN Interactive/Abigail Jones)
The metropolitan areas with the highest employment level in Musicians and Singers are as follows:
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Urban Honolulu, HI
The BLS reported self-employed workers made up 53% of employees within the musicians and singers, the largest 'employer' of the job. Following self-employment, the largest employers of musicians and singers were:
Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations at 30%
Performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries at 13%
Educational services; state, local, and private at 3%
The BLS data did not include pay information for self-employed workers because these data are not collected by the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, the source of BLS wage data in the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
McMurtry thinks something that could help in Austin is to implement a standard pay rate across the city for music venues.
'If we could have an agreement that every musician on stage needs to make $200 for X amount of time on stage, that would be fantastic,' he said.
The city of Austin does have a standard pay rate for musicians hired to perform at city-led events, but not across the city overall. City Council in July of 2023 approved a resolution ensuring a standard rate of pay for city musical performances.
$200 per musician for groups of up to six people
$150 per musician for groups between seven and 10 people
$1,500 total for groups of musicians of 10 or more
Some of those rates are higher than what SXSW lists as the pay rates on its website. Still, in 2023 and 2024, the festival independently worked to increase its rates, even as a push for the city to support 'Fair Pay for SXSW Performing Artists' failed to gain traction.
City support for better SXSW pay has faded, music unions say
Wage is one issue the local AFM chapter is working on tackling. According to its website, the Austin chapter was formed in 1907 and since then 'has organized local musicians to improve wages, working conditions and other issues relating to employment.' The union represents private lesson teachers, freelance musicians, touring musicians, recording musicians, composers, band leaders and more.
AFM's president, Aaron Lack, said he and the union have tried for several years to contact SXSW to negotiate with leadership on musician pay rates, but have not received a response.
Hugh Forrest, who was the President and Chief Programming Officer of SXSW during its 2025 iteration, told KXAN that paying a union scale would be a 'largely different business model' for SXSW.
'Perhaps that's something that we embrace in the future, but again, it's simply a different model than what we do now, and what we have seen has been well received by the community,' Forrest said.
SXSW went through some major changes in its leadership just weeks after KXAN spoke with Forrest, leading to his departure from the conference and festival.
Hugh Forrest no longer leading SXSW
We asked spokespeople at SXSW and Penske Media Corporation, SXSW's parent company, for further details on the leadership change, and whether or not raising musician pay or negotiating with the union would carry over as a priority to the new leadership team. We will update this story when we receive a response.
Stephanie Bergara, a musician from Austin and lead singer of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez tribute band Bidi Bidi Banda, agrees with the importance of pay consistency. She's currently the Programming and Event Manager at Waterloo Greenway and worked for the city of Austin in the Music and Entertainment Division for almost 10 years.
'From a personal standpoint, I am a single mother to a seven-year-old little boy. I am a homeowner in Travis County. It is vital and critical that I make sure that my income and my plan and my finances are streamlined,' Bergara explained. 'So I'm not saying that there's no room to fail, but there's not really any room for me to, you know, exert myself in a way where I could risk losing, you know, losing big monetarily,'
Bergara said that while she was working for the city, she helped establish the city standard rate for musicians, emphasizing the harm that 'exposure gigs' or free work can cause.
'[If] this is just an exposure gig… It's like people can die of exposure,' Bergara said. 'And also like, are you really getting anything out of playing for [free]? Are you going to get more gigs? Are you going to sell some CDs? You know, what are you getting out of this exposure piece?'
Bergara is another lifelong Austinite and a huge fan of South By Southwest.
'I am as old as South By Southwest is. Like, we're the same age,' Bergara noted. She's attended it for 17 years and has played at the music festival a couple of times.
'It is a super cool, super, super important investment in economic culture in Austin,' Bergara said. 'It is huge, like it drives economic culture in a way that just no other.'
She said before she was part of the music industry, she saw SXSW as 'a thing that was for musicians.' But as it's evolved, it's hard for her to justify some of the offers she gets to play the festival.
'I love it, and it's vital to my career,' Bergara said. 'From a networking standpoint, from an exposure standpoint, I realized maybe seven or eight years ago… as my band was becoming more prominent, and we were being asked to do more things, that there were just some opportunities that didn't really seem worth it.'
Bergara firmly believes that no artist should be playing for free, going as far as to making a post on Instagram stating her case.
'Attention musicians,' the post started. 'There is. No reason. Whatsoever. For you or your band to be playing for free during SXSW.'
She was referring to both 'official' and 'unofficial' shows in the post, but it went on to say, 'This is your livelihood. This is my livelihood. It impacts all of us when you play for free.'
In a conversation on the Friday of the final weekend of SXSW, Bergara furthered that point, adding that for some people, performing for free and choosing the badge may be worth it, but for many, it can be a tough choice.
'Yes, it is fun and it is art, and it is deeply ingrained in your soul, the willingness, or the wanting this — to create,' Bergara said. 'And South By Southwest is a place that celebrates creators like no other place in the world. So it's really what you make of it.'
Burgess thinks unifying could help change things in the music industry when it comes to fair or consistent compensation.
'I feel like a lot of times musicians are like, 'Oh, I'll do it for free, like it's good exposure.' But that kind of sets – that affects all of us,' Burgess said. 'When there are certain people who will do it for very cheaply or for free, then that's what people come to expect. And if we all collectively could value ourselves even just a little bit, it would definitely help.'
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