No, not HAM and not Spam.  Sure, Austin is home to Spanfest, but HAAM is something entirely different.  HAAM stands for Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.  Austin is called the Live Music Capital of the World" and yet there are so many musicians here, not many actually make a good living.  HAAM was put together to help the low income and uninsured Austin musicians obtain affordable medical coverage.

HAAM Benefit Day of 2008 will be Tuesday, October 7.  When you eat or shop at over 180 Austin area businesses on the 7th, participating businesses will donate 5% of what you spend to HAAM.  There will be Austin musicians all over the place performing in most of the 180 or so participating businesses.  You can go watch and listen and have part of your purchases donated or toss a donation into a box onsite.  Click HERE for an interactive map for the 2008 HAAM Benefit Day.

So this organization, HAAM, helps low-income musicians obtain affordable health care.  From what I have researched, funding for the organization is provided by business and private donations and grants.  Sounds great to me.  I don't know if the city of Austin kicks anything in or not, but I hope it doesn't.  Not that I would not want to help low income musicians, but that just wouldn't be fair to other groups of people without health insurance.

My thought is that many businesses in Austin have a very good idea of how the music industry helps this city.  It attracts a lot of people through festivals like the Austin City Limits Festival and South by Southwest.  The people who come for those spend a whole lot of money here and that generates a whole lot of tax revenue.  Many people visiting Austin for business or family or just to explore Austin end up on 6th Street in clubs checking out local talent.  These people also generate money for club owners and tax revenue.

So if you're out and about tomorrow and hear music pouring out of a local business, check it out.