Austin, Texas - The Live Musician Capital Of The World

Austin, TX is known as the live music capital of the world touted as having the most musical artists per capita of any metropolis in the world. With over one hundred live music venues there are always lots of Austin, Texas bands to see any time you want of all assorted genres from punk to folk, pop rock, to a variety of eclectic styles that can be heard in no other part of the world.

The South By Southwest Music Fest is one of the largest music festivals and is hosted in Austin, TX showcasing 1,800 bands of all genres enlisted from across the whole world in over eighty clubs in Austin over a 5 day period. This music fest started off as a small event but eventually grew into a very large event which now draws industry personel from across the nation to check out the new talent. There are other world renowned emerging music festivals in Austin as well, such as the Austin City Limits Music fest, Urban Music Festival, and the Fun Fun Fun Festival. The Austin City Limits Music Fest happens annually in the fall and is a three day concert with over one hundred twenty five bands of all types of musical genres on 8 stages. This event has been known to attract over 65,000 visitors and bands from all over the globe. The Urban Music Fest started in 2006 and drew a crowd in excess of 10,000 to listen to some of the top Urban Music bands. Some of the artists of the Urban Music Festival have been Cameo, Boyz to Men, and the Sugar Hill Gang. The Fun Fun Fun Fest Is another yearly music fest that started up in 2005 and has featured a wide array of artists over two days on four stages. A couple famed artists of the Fun Fun Fun Fest have been the Bad Brains, All and The Dead Milkmen.

It is still a wonder why Austin became the large music mecca that it is, but as it grew, many musicians came from across the Nation expecting to find their ticket to the stardom waiting for them in this music capital. The bands and musicians that came to Austin searching for fame soon discovered that there wasn't any record label personel to sign them there besides the brief visit of record industry professionals during South By Southwest music festival and the ample number of artists and Austin cover bands only made finding gigs even harder because of all of the competitors.

The sheer volume of Austin, TX bands far outnumbers the total of bars providing jobs so only the most professional bands end up getting the jobs thereby furthering the common perception that Austin bands are considered to be the best in the state. Many musicians that had come to Austin desiring to make it in the local scene went back where they came from to face less rivals and found that being a big fish in a small pond was easier and more prosperous than fighting the competition with oodles of bands in one city for the few jobs there were amidst such a competitive music market.

There are many noteworthy musicians that hale from Austin, Texas including Vallejo, Ponty Bone, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jimmy Vaughn, Bruce Robison and Los Lonely Boys to list a few. All these things add up to make Austin, Texas a town that has been renowned as the "Live Music Capital of the World".