Austin News

The Austin music industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and one record store owner who closed in March said he has seen many businesses shutter for good.

John Kunz, owner of Waterloo Records, said in a phone interview that while personally he has weathered the pandemic fairly well, his business has suffered a severe sales slump. He has opened for curbside delivery and online orders, and recently started offering customers half-hour appointments to browse his store.

"It's been very slim with people not being in the store not browsing," said Kunz, noting that his store would typically have two to three bands playing in his store each week but that it no longer the case.

"We don't know when we're going to be able to do that sort of thing," said Kunz. 

"At one point they were saying surfaces were a contagion place...that was our biggest concern," said Kunz. How to sanitize each record after every customer flipped through them would have been a huge challenge, he explained. 

As cases started to spike in Texas, record stores stood in solidarity. 

"We wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem," said Kunz. 

Austin's music industry in has been hit hard, he said. 

"It's really done a pretty good job decimating it," said Kunz. He also said that music tourists are not visiting Austin.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the city council have talked about helping the music industry, but adequate relief has not materialized.

Kunz said a relief fund helped, but it took way too long to get the capital to the industry and it "was like a drop in the bucket. Some clubs got a third of one month's rent after five months of being shut down." 

He said predictions he has read show "75% of music venues would end up going away depending of how long this lasts. A number of businesses have already gone by the wayside."

Kunz said the mayor and city council should help the industry but added, "I think the problem is that the wallet isn't there." 

When told Austin had $200 million in reserves for the convention center expansion, he said, "I've never been in favor of expanding our convention center." 

He added, "I would say yes to that," referring to using those funds for the music industry.

Kunz, a founding member of the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, said that this week the organization is celebrating its 15th anniversary. There would have been a huge celebration, with bands playing and city stores raising funds for local musicians' health care and wellness. The pandemic pushed everything online.