Visit Austin staff described their music marketing work, artist referral programs and updates to destination sales tools that promote Austin as a music destination.

Amal Lozano, director of music marketing at Visit Austin, said the organization is a private nonprofit (501(c)(6)) contracted by the city to market Austin for leisure and meetings. Lozano outlined Visit Austin’s role in licensing music for destination content, producing the "Sound of Austin" campaign and maintaining the Hire in Austin musician referral database.

Hire in Austin and local artist support
Lozano said the Hire in Austin database includes roughly 800 artists; in the most recent fiscal year Visit Austin reported 136 hires from that program for a total of about $289,000 paid directly to musicians. "We have 800 artists in our database…for the year, this past fiscal year, we were able to hire about a 136 artists totaling over 289,000 directly paid to musicians," Lozano said.

Content, visitor center and in‑market activations
Visit Austin licenses local compositions for video and promotional content and runs Local & Live performances at the Austin Visitor Center to create a touchpoint for visitors. The live music portion of Visit Austin’s website drew about 1.1 million page views and 462,000 users in the last reporting year, Lozano said, and staff highlighted recent programming that placed local musicians into international showcases and partner campaigns.

Convention center rebuild and TPID
Tom Noonan, Visit Austin president and CEO, provided updates on the downtown convention center rebuild (construction began April 2025; planned reopening 2029) and the new Austin Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID), a 2% guest fee to be used for sales and marketing. Noonan said TPID revenue is expected to generate roughly $20 million annually at the start and will be allocated across convention‑center business, sales and marketing, hotel incentives and administration; a portion of funds will help homelessness initiatives tied to event costs.

Why it matters
Visit Austin’s marketing and content work channels visitors to venues and operators; staff said more than 100,000 direct referrals to Austin music venues came from Visit Austin web listings last year. Commissioners asked how venues and artists can be listed; Visit Austin staff gave a listing contact and said the Hire in Austin sign‑up is open to Austin‑based musicians.

Ending note
Visit Austin invited the commission to continue regular engagement; staff said they will refine venue listings and web presentation as part of an upcoming website refresh.