Here are a few places where you might find some interesting data for your first project:
The City of Austin has a lot of data on their site and some areas specifically about music:
- ATX Music Division – an economic development accelerator and centralized resource center for Austin’s music industry.
- Economic Development Reports and Publications – a range of reports about the city’s economic progress.
- Austin Music Commission – advises city council on music development issues
Texas Music Office – promotion and clearinghouse for information on music in Texas.
Health Alliance for Austin Musicians – provides healthcare for musicians. This page links to their annual reports.
Center for Texas Music History – right here at Texas State. Might be good to stop by there and check it out.
Austin Music People – Advocates for bands. There’s a white paper on the site that might have some good data.
You might also dig and find data about attendance or revenue for any of the festivals, like SXSW, ACL Fest, Fun Fun Fun.
And, how about our very own Mr. Fest? Dan Schumacher might be able to direct you to some aggregate data on that event.
And here are just a couple links about companies that are working with music and data:
One of the SXTXState students did a preview of a panel on music and data that might provide some background.
And good ole Wikipedia is always a place to start. Make sure you verify any data. But Wikipedia has references, so you can look up a festival or event and see if there is more information about it.
Don’t limit yourself to these sources. This is just to get you started. And remember to source the information on the chart and provide textual context for it on the page.