Late last year, the Austin Public Library launched its own music streaming service, offering up a collection of tracks by local musicians. It’s called Electric Lady Bird, and it’s free to use for anyone with an internet connection, whether or not they have an active Austin library card.

The idea behind the service is to share Austin music with listeners both local and otherwise, and to help practicing musicians find some new fans. “We kind of have a two-fold purpose with this,” Kittendorf says. “[One part] is curating music for our patrons… but the other part is to actually help the musicians. So as a part of this, we’re paying them. That was a big part of it."

“It’s local Austin musicians, and we have curated the collection by asking bands to submit tracks to the library through this portal,” says Austin Central Library’s sight and sound curator Dale Kittendorf.

Once music has been submitted, it’s listened to by a panel of music professionals who select albums and EPs to add to the platform. “In the first round, we had approximately 200 submissions of one to three songs each,” Kittendorf says. “We selected fifty of them.” The aim is to have a submission period every six months or so, and the second such period is going on right now. Through the end of June, local musicians can submit a sample of their music at the library’s website. Musicians that are chosen to be a part of Electric Lady Bird are paid $200 per album (or $100 for an EP) for a non-exclusive streaming deal; that’s not a lot of money, but as Kittendorf points out, “that’s maybe better than Spotify or something like that.”

This second round of music submissions will soon be curated and another fifty artists will be added to Electric Lady Bird, but the selection will remain small when compared to the larger streaming services out there. That’s partly because of the project’s limited budget and partly by choice. “We do want to keep it curated,” Kittendorf says. “Part of the appeal is for people to come to Electric Lady Bird and look at the selection of music that we have curated, so you’re getting a really nice slice of what Austin has to offer.”

While there’s a limited number of slots for musicians on the service, Kittendorf and his team are working to make sure you can find all different types of local music. “We really want to get to all the corners of Austin music,” he says. “You know, reggae and jazz music and blues and Americana, which is a very deep well. [There will be] a bunch of different varieties, so you might find an artist that you already know and love but hopefully you’ll discover something new. Maybe become a fan and go out and see them. And that’s the beauty.”

You can listen to Electric Lady Bird here and submit your own music here.