For businesses

The Guild's membership is Austin working musicians: people who buy instruments, strings, cases, amplification, recording time, printing, insurance, transport and coffee, and who ask each other what to buy before they buy it. They gather in person twice a month.

If that is your customer, this is an unusually direct way to reach them. If it is not, this page will not pretend otherwise — a partnership sold to a business whose audience is elsewhere produces one unhappy quarter and no renewal.

Partner packages — $50 to $500 a month

Partnerships are priced by placement rather than by tier name, so you buy the visibility you actually want. The range runs from $50 to $500 a month.

Directory listing — your business in the member partner directory with your offer, category and contact. The entry level, and the one most partners start with.
Member offer distribution — your offer put in front of every member rather than waiting to be found, including at the point where a new member joins.
Newsletter placement — a position in the member newsletter, which goes out around every show.
Show presence — your name on the shows in a run, on listings and on screen.
Booth and product demonstration — a table at Guild Live where members can put their hands on what you sell. For anything physical this converts far better than any placement above it.

Placements combine. What a partnership costs within the range depends on how many of them you take and how often, and it is quoted rather than picked off a menu, because a strings supplier and an insurance broker want completely different things.

Show sponsorship — from $500

Sponsoring a single show is a different product from a monthly partnership. It attaches your name to one night, and it includes:

Logo on the show artwork, listings, ticket page and on-screen material
A stage mention from the host, delivered as a sentence rather than an advertisement
Newsletter inclusion in the announcement and the reminder
Social coverage across the run-up and on the night
A booth at the show, staffed by you
A product demonstration slot where the format suits it
Tickets for your team and your customers
VIP access — the artist area, the sound check, and the room before doors

Sponsorship scales from $500 upward with the size of the room and the profile of the bill. A Showcase night, where industry guests are in the room, prices differently from an ordinary Tuesday.

What the Guild will not do

Three limits, stated in advance because they will otherwise be discovered awkwardly.

Member data is not sold or shared. Your offer reaches members through the Guild's own channels. You do not receive a list.
The music is not interrupted. A stage mention happens between sets, once, and it is short. Nobody talks over a band on a Guild stage, including for a sponsor.
No exclusivity by default. Category exclusivity is available and is negotiated separately; it is not assumed because you sponsored a night.

What makes a partnership work

The partners who get the most from this are the ones offering members something specific and slightly generous: real terms on a real product, not a token five percent. Musicians talk to each other constantly and a good offer travels through the membership within weeks. A cynical one travels faster.

The audience here is small, technical and highly connected. That combination punishes marketing and rewards a genuinely good deal.

Starting