About AMW

My name is Mark Grossman and I founded AustinMusicWorks in 2005 primarily as an artist management firm. I quickly realized that there are no true entertainment buyer advocates in the special events industry, and buyers, because of the “one off” or, at best, infrequent nature of their entertainment buying, need guidance the most. So, I expanded my business to fill that role, an easy move for me as I already assist the clients of Memphis Train Revue, my flagship management client, in the same capacity and I have an extensive background in entertainment and buyer advocacy. (Watch out! Here comes a flash back . . .)

I went to law school to become an entertainment attorney so that I could help protect artists from an unscrupulous industry. I moved from Austin to Los Angeles to New York working my way from booking agency to management firm to record company to law firm, learning everything I could about the business – but rarely did I help anyone. My various jobs generally required me to do whatever resulted in the most money for some corporation. It was never about the people, it was always about the money. Over time, my professional life grew increasingly empty and I began to wonder what the heck I was doing with my life.

Eventually I found myself working in New York City, a few blocks from where my sister lived. In September of 2001, she gave birth to her first child, my first nephew. For three days it was an exciting, beautiful time filled with joy and wonder and then we were attacked on September 11. Like so many people, my life turned to a swirling nightmare of panic, fear, terror, sleep deprivation and depression. Between my boss’ genuine complaint that I missed work the week of the attacks (can you believe that?) and the realization that when people needed real help - garbage men, barge captains, steel workers, and hundreds of other professions were vastly more valuable than lawyers - it became undeniably obvious that I was shoe horning myself into a career that was a terrible match for my values and my need to feel some satisfaction that I was making the world a better, happier place.

I did some soul searching. I thought back to the time in my life when I was happiest and why. I thought of my time in college when I managed a local band called “Those Who Dig”. I thought of John Stuart Mill’s book, Utilitarianism, that argued that good and bad were the direct result of the net gain or loss of happiness and the quality of that happiness. A thing is good if it increases happiness and bad if it decreases happiness. I realized that I gravitated towards entertainment for the simple reason that while we are entertained, we are happy. For that usually all-too-brief moment, we aren’t thinking about tax returns or troubles at work or at home, we are simply and beautifully happy. And happy at a high level – interacting with and relating to other people in a shared experience, not just plopped on the couch watching TV. It dawned on me that creating happiness, no matter how large or small the scale, is the most noble calling. That is why I work with people to wring the greatest happiness out of those moments in their lives that are worth celebrating. It is why I take my job seriously, but not myself. The world needs more happy and AustinMusicWorks exists solely to create it.

What more do you need to know?