Live Music Capital of the World

Austin is well known as being the Live Music Capital of the World. There are dozens of venues throughout the city featuring live music nightly. The city also hosts several world renown music festivals including South By Southwest, Austin City Limits, Urban Music Festival, Old Settlers Music Festival, Austin Reggae Festival and many more.

South by Southwest is a music, film and emerging technology festival hosted annually in March by the city of Austin. Main events are held at different venues throughout the city such as the Austin Convention Center, JW Marriott, Alamo Lamar A, Cheer Up Charlie’s, Empire Room, Auditorium Shores Stage and many more. The majority of the events occur in the downtown area of the city. While tickets are available for visiting main acts, there are many free events offered to the public featuring local talent. For more information on South by Soutwest Festival please visit: www.sxsw.com

 

Austin City Limits is a music festival that takes place annually in October in beautiful Zilker Park. For two weekends, over 130 bands and artists come from around the world to perform on 8 stages. Apart from the music, patrons can also explore the Art Market. Zilker Park also offers 351 acres of natural terrain for ACL goers to explore. For more information, please visit: www.aclfestival.com

 

Many of Austin’s local music venues host weekly open mics for aspiring musicians. Sunday through Thursday, one can find several venues to perform at throughout the Austin area. For an updated list of Austin’s open microphones, please visit www.openmicaustin.com

 

For musicians looking to record, Austin has many A-list recording studios available. See below for a list of links:

Bismeaux Studios, Fire Station Recording, Flashpoint Recording Studio, Pedernales Studios and Arlyn Studios (Willie Nelson’s place), Tequila Mockingbird, 

Terra Nova Mastering, Yellow Dog Studios