Austin? (Houston, Dallas, Atlanta: 2015, credit, job openings)

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by DPatel304

Of course, that's why I was asking what made the music scene so great back in the day, and why it declined? I just don't get how a city can go from being the 'live musical capital of the world', to what it is today, that's all.

"Back in the day", you could find great music of a variety of forms, as I said, just about any night of the week. And ACL Festival and SXSW, in their infancy, reflected this and were nowhere near as commercialized as they are now. It's hard to describe, but Austin had a sound track that was about Austin and music and life, not all about money. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of music, but the musicians who used to live on Rainey Street when it was affordable, and in other parts of Austin, the artists that made Austin a music capital, have been forced out to make room for condos and skyscrapers. A lot of them have moved to surrounding small towns (don't ask me where, I won't tell you online, I've learned that lesson!) or out of state entirely.



Austin is fine if you want Any City, USA, or you're all about money. (Something that there was precious little of back in the day and people didn't care, they preferred to be poor here than rich in Dallas or Houston or other big cities.) But it's lost it's special glow, no matter what the Chamber of Commerce and City Council try to sell.

[Skipito]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

"Back in the day", you could find great music of a variety of forms, as I said, just about any night of the week. And ACL Festival and SXSW, in their infancy, reflected this and were nowhere near as commercialized as they are now. It's hard to describe, but Austin had a sound track that was about Austin and music and life, not all about money. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of music, but the musicians who used to live on Rainey Street when it was affordable, and in other parts of Austin, the artists that made Austin a music capital, have been forced out to make room for condos and skyscrapers. A lot of them have moved to surrounding small towns (don't ask me where, I won't tell you online, I've learned that lesson!) or out of state entirely.



Austin is fine if you want Any City, USA, or you're all about money. (Something that there was precious little of back in the day and people didn't care, they preferred to be poor here than rich in Dallas or Houston or other big cities.) But it's lost it's special glow, no matter what the Chamber of Commerce and City Council try to sell.

Not really. What you need to understand is that the whole method of distributing music has changed dramatically over the past 10-15 years.

I’ve been involved in multiple bands since the 90’s and for years it was the same ladder to climb:

Sell shows
Work your way up the card
Put out an EP/demo
Sell merch
Play as many shows as you can
Get your demo on radio
Get picked up for a small deal with a local label
Play bigger shows
Put out an album
Album tour
Sell merch

Now?
Put your song on YouTube/SoundCloud and wait for a label to call or just collect ad revenue off your YouTube channel.


You’re trying to make this an “Austin changed due to immigrants” thing, when it’s really just the music industry that changed.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Skipito

You’re trying to make this an “Austin changed due to immigrants” thing, when it’s really just the music industry that changed.

Do you mean "transplants" and not "immigrants"? I think THL was referring to the gentrification of the city, not "immigrants." The "immigrants" in Austin that I know are living in low income areas of the city and are struggling to make it in a city that needs them to build their city but they can't afford their homes because rent for a 1/1 is $1200.

[Matty1277]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Do you mean "transplants" and not "immigrants"? I think THL was referring to the gentrification of the city, not "immigrants." The "immigrants" in Austin that I know are living in low income areas of the city and are struggling to make it in a city that needs them to build their city but they can't afford their homes because rent for a 1/1 is $1200.

Should I do it? Should I do the stereotypical thing? I'm sure he meant Californians aka Transplants!

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Matty1277

Should I do it? Should I do the stereotypical thing? I'm sure he meant Californians aka Transplants!

I am on the same page as you, but went to be clear that immigrants in Austin are on the struggle bus. They aren’t the ones living in the high rises. They’re building them.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Austin is the incredibly superior leader in the Texas tech industry by a huge margin because it's the best of both worlds for what tech companies look for. They like scenery and greenery, and us Texans must admit it, Austin is far ahead in outdoors activities with their greenery. While COL is relatively high, the ease Texas business laws make it easier for them to set up there. Not to mention the growing events city that Austin is.

I will always prefer Houston. And I'll always prefer Dallas. I like the diversity and nightlife more. But if people wonder why Austin's tech industry is so severely ahead of the rest of Texas, its a natural fit.

[DPatel304]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Austin is the incredibly superior leader in the Texas tech industry by a huge margin because it's the best of both worlds for what tech companies look for. They like scenery and greenery, and us Texans must admit it, Austin is far ahead in outdoors activities with their greenery. While COL is relatively high, the ease Texas business laws make it easier for them to set up there. Not to mention the growing events city that Austin is.

I will always prefer Houston. And I'll always prefer Dallas. I like the diversity and nightlife more. But if people wonder why Austin's tech industry is so severely ahead of the rest of Texas, its a natural fit.

By what metric are you using to determine that Austin is the tech leader, and how does that metric compare to DFW and Houston?

[Chopperz4Life]

You should come to Idaho Falls, ID...
Then you'll appreciate what a REAL city is!
Haha

I would love to move to Dallas Fortworth or Austin.
Hopefully sooner rather than later.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by DPatel304

By what metric are you using to determine that Austin is the tech leader, and how does that metric compare to DFW and Houston?

I'm 100% with you. I will always prefer the other 2 cities over Austin. But just about every single tech company (especially the larger ones) have huge presence in Austin. Austin is one of the nation leaders in attracting software engineers. Apple already had its largest campus outside of California in Austin, and its already going through a major expansion. Amazon same thing. Big companies, small companies, all search for software engineers in Austin because there's a lot of talent base there. It's not even close as much as I'd wish.

DFW is a major logistics and IT hub, but even Dallas' tech companies look for their software engineers in Austin. The only exception I can think of off the bat is Texas Instruments, who has their additional Texas presence in Sugar Land (Houston area) instead of Austin. Every large Houston based tech company I can think of (HostGator, FlightAware, cPanel, BMC, HighRadius, etc) also search for their engineers in Austin.

[DPatel304]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

I'm 100% with you. I will always prefer the other 2 cities over Austin. But just about every single tech company (especially the larger ones) have huge presence in Austin. Austin is one of the nation leaders in attracting software engineers. Apple already had its largest campus outside of California in Austin, and its already going through a major expansion. Amazon same thing. Big companies, small companies, all search for software engineers in Austin because there's a lot of talent base there. It's not even close as much as I'd wish.

DFW is a major logistics and IT hub, but even Dallas' tech companies look for their software engineers in Austin. The only exception I can think of off the bat is Texas Instruments, who has their additional Texas presence in Sugar Land (Houston area) instead of Austin. Every large Houston based tech company I can think of (HostGator, FlightAware, cPanel, BMC, HighRadius, etc) also search for their engineers in Austin.

I'm just wondering what the actual numbers are. I've actually heard that the DFW has more tech jobs:
The association noted that North Texas posted 108,975 tech job openings in the last year.
https://outline.com/uv6DSc

IT jobs are plentiful in Austin, with more than 37,000 tech jobs posted in the last year
https://www.aitp.org/blog/aitp-blog/...-to-call-home/

I'm not really disagreeing with your statement, I'm just not convinced Austin is the 'clear leader' when it comes to tech.