Austin musicians playing gigs downtown have a new parking program helping to reduce costs associated with lugging gear around. Metropolis Technologies, a major parking operator across the United States, has announced that its Park & Play program is coming to the Live Music Capital, offering parking discounts at participating venues.

The program sets a flat fee of $5 for the duration of each gig. Four parking venues have committed to participating at launch on November 2:

• Alto - 924 E 7th Street, Austin, TX, 78702
• Lavaca Plaza - 504 Lavaca Street, Austin, TX, 78701
• Frost Bank Tower - 171 E 4th Street, Austin, TX, 78701
• Hotel Indigo Austin - 505 Ash St., Austin, TX, 78701 (select music venues only)

To verify that they are musicians, users will need to use a QR code provided by venues participating in the first phase of the program. Those include:

• Antone’s
• Barbarella
• Cheer Up Charlies
• Elephant Room
• Flamingo Cantina
• Hotel Vegas
• Kingdom Nightclub
• Mohawk
• Nica on 4th
• Parker Jazz Club
• Swan Dive
• 13th Floor

Regular on-street parking, if it can be found nearby and in time for the show, comes at a comparable rate for the first two hours — $2 per hour, plus a $0.50 card fee — and then hourly rates start going up from there. Austin already has an affordable parking program that's open to entertainment employees downtown, but it comes at monthly rates and requires an application.

"Parking is available for the employees of some of Austin’s most popular tourist attractions, including the Texas Capitol, Zilker Park, Barton Springs,” said Shinyribs frontman Kevin Russell, a well-known local musician, in a press release. “Even the bats under the Ann Richards Bridge get free ‘parking’. It only stands to reason that Austin’s musicians should have access to affordable parking downtown as well.”

The Park & Play program launched in Nashville first, and Austin is only the second city to get it. In a year, the release says, Nashville musicians saved nearly $1 million on parking. The program is now active in 25 facilities there.

A group of Austin organizations helped design the local implementation: City of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment (ACME); the Austin Federation of Musicians (AFM); Austin Texas Musicians (ATXM); Music Venue Alliance Austin; and the Red River Cultural District.

"Parking is one of those costs that doesn't show up until you add up a month of it," said musician and secretary-treasurer of AFM Local 433 Benjamin Triesch. "I know musicians who turn down gigs because after parking, the night wasn't worth playing. Cutting that cost means more musicians can say yes to the work."