In order to put on a great show, you need to have the funds to back it up. Financial strain impacts small music venues across the country and inevitably leads to many venues demise. However, the Texas State Senate is looking to aid that problem. On April 24th, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill on to the Senate that would “provide certain music venues and festival promoters with rebates funded by mixed-beverage gross receipts and sales taxes collected by those venues and festivals.” This bill, which they are calling a Texas music incubator rebate program would help ease the financial strain many music venues face.
In Texas alone, the music industry provides almost 97,000 jobs and earns a whopping $4.1 billion annually. However, many venues do not get to see this profit as they are having to turn around and put any profit towards the next show. Also, the cost of leases and permits for the buildings these venues occupy is not excluded from the increasing real estate market. In 2016, a study reported that 53% of the venues surveyed were not expected to renew their leases due to financial strain on their businesses and being unable to keep up with their monthly payments.
This is why the Texas House decided that the new bill needed to be passed. Music venues provide communities a place to relax, have fun, and listen to music by spectacular artists from all over the world. If the music venues shut down, the musicians struggle as well and so it just becomes a ladder effect until there is no music to go around anymore. “There are some bands, or some kids, who are coming up like we did that might not get a chance to show their talents or showcase their skills or hone their skills if the venues are no longer here,” said Tomar Williams, a soul musician from Austin. With hopes and prayers arising from venues everywhere, the bill is expected to pass soon in the Senate. Once the bill is passed, the Texas Music Office could begin processing rebate applications for venues starting as early as September 2020.
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.”
-Frank Zappa.
Source: communityimpact.com
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