Tracks & Troubles

"I was just given this amazing song, and it's the perfect way to open my show. (pause) But, I realized that there's only one person who should sing it. Ally, will you please come up here and sing your song?"

- Kira Starr

"Tracks & Troubles" is the seventeenth episode in Season 2 of Austin & Ally. It aired on the 23rd of June, 2013. The episode was the sixteenth episode filmed of season 2. This episode got 3.289 million views on the night of its premiere.

Overview
Jimmy Starr signs his daughter, Kira, as the newest recording artist to his label. When Kira has her first performance, she wants to sing one of Ally’s songs, but Ally wants to sing it herself. Meanwhile, Austin accidentally records over one of Kira’s demos for her new album, and Jimmy thinks Austin and Ally are trying to sabotage Kira’s career. He fires Austin and the gang tries to change Jimmy's mind about firing Austin. Willing to give up her song to help Austin get his record deal back, Ally gives it up to Kira so she can convince her dad to change his mind about Austin. At the end, Kira realizes that Ally should sing the song she gave up and Austin and Ally both got signed at Starr Records.

Episode Summary
The episode starts with Austin and Ally playing football. Then Dez comes in, wearing a white snow-coat and posing. Ally tells him that is 90 degrees outside and asks why wear so much wool, but Dez said that the snow-coat is made of alpacan fleece because his cousin owns an aplaca farm. And when he tells the both of them to feel the wool, it turns out to be really soft. Trish came with an envelope, looking confused when Ally and Austin was touching Dez and when Ally ask Trish to feel Dez's coat, she refuses. Trish tells Ally that she has good news. Jimmy Star wants to meet her. Ally is confused because Jimmy says that he didn't want to sign her, but Trish said that she submitted Ally's song to him and said he loved it and wants to meet her. Austin bet that Jimmy will give Ally a record deal. Ally thanks Trish then hug her, then Trish tells her to submit her as "Manager of the Year", and then hands her the envelope of the application. When Ally opens it, she says she already filled it out and it just needs a stamp. Dez told Ally that he's so happy for her and then says group hugged everybody. Trish looks confused because she was touching Dez and it was soft.

Later, Ally and Trish are in Jimmy's office talking about the song and Jimmy tells them that she loved the sing. Trish mentions that she was nominated for the Manager of the Year Award. Jimmy tells her he can see why because she brought him a hit song, and that he wants his new female artist to sing it. Ally, thinks that he was talking about her and she was excited. But when Kira walks in and Jimmy and said "there she is" and Ally was confused, Trish assumed that Kira was his new female artist and she was right. Jimmy says that he wants to buy her song for Kira's album. Ally, disappointed, assumes that he's not offering her a record deal. Jimmy tells her that she is very talented, but he's still not sure if signing her and Austin on the same record label will be a good idea. Ally says that it's okay, but says she can't sell her song. Kira thought that it was because of the dating Austin drama but then Ally says it wasn't about that at all, she explained that the song title was Finally Me and it was about her and it would be wrong if someone else sings it and when Jimmy wrote the price for the song she refuses, even though Trish was about to seal the deal, Ally tells them she cant then leaves with Trish.

Meanwhile, back at the Sonic Boom Austin and Dez where preparing Ally's congratulation party of the record deal, Trish rushed into the store, without Ally and quickly tells them to put away the party because Ally didn't get a record label. And then they were running everywhere to put away the decorations but when Ally walks in on them and awkwardly say hi. Then, Austin says that he heard about Ally not getting sign and Ally said that its okay, the Dez asked why did Jimmy ask her to come if he didn't want to sign her. She tells him that he wanted to buy her song for Kira.

The next day, all four head down to Jimmy's new recording studio; there, they run into Kira who just finished recording Elevator Doors. Kira once more tries to get Ally to sell her the song, claiming that an already-written song would be great for her gig tomorrow night. Ally denies once more, and Kira and Jimmy temporarily leave the studio, leaving the gang all by themselves. They play with the studio, and then they discover that Dez accidentally recorded over Kira's new single. They worry, and concoct a plan to record Kira singing her song when she goes to yoga. After a few poses, they finally get a pose painful enough to get Kira to sing; Right before they are about to put Kira's singing with the music, they discover that Dez has, unfortunately, recorded over her singing again. This time, Jimmy discovers the messed up recording and thinks that they have purposely sabotaged Kira's career--as a result, he drops Austin from his label.

After Austin goes through a brief phase of wanting to rely on his back-up job, or being an electrician, they try to convince Jimmy to resign Austin. Both attempts unfortunately fail; this leads up to Ally giving Kira her song on the night of her gig to hopefully convince Jimmy to resign Austin. The other three arrive too late to stop Ally from selling her song; they decide to just watch Kira. Kira has a change of heart, however, and decides that only Ally should sing her song. Ally performs her song and Dez once again, tapes the whole thing with him talking in it. But they were in for a surprise when Jimmy decides that Austin has earned back his record deal and he also offers Ally a record deal.

Songs Featured

 * Can't Do It Without You (theme song)
 * Elevator Doors (premiere)
 * Finally Me (premiere)

Main Cast

 * Ross Lynch as Austin Moon
 * Laura Marano as Ally Dawson
 * Raini Rodriguez as Trish
 * Calum Worthy as Dez

Guest Cast

 * Kiersey Clemons as Kira Starr
 * Richard Whiten as Jimmy Starr

Trivia

 * Jimmy Starr wanted to buy Ally's new songs for Kira
 * Laura Marano, the actress who plays Ally, co-wrote the song Finally Me.
 * Two real actors - Taylor Lautner and Ryan Gosling -- were mentioned in this episode by Trish.
 * Jimmy says "Austin Monica Moon, get back here!", just like Austin's dad in Parents & Punishments.
 * At the end of the episode, both Austin and Ally got signed by Starr Records.
 * Partners & Parachutes is referenced in this episode: Jimmy says to Austin that "he broke her heart, and now ruined her first single."
 * The 'Auslly Arc' is referenced in this episode, when Kira asks if the reason Ally isn't selling her song is "because we both dated Austin and all that drama."
 * This episode earned the 3rd most amount of views on the night of premiere--it fell behind Good Luck Charlie and Shake It Up, but managed to do better, view-wise, than Dog with a Blog.
 * It's unknown if Ally accepted the record deal. She might have because this is the 16th episode filmed and Boy Songs & Badges is the 18th episode filmed and in that episode, Ally has to write 3 songs for her demo reel, so she probably did get signed. She said Trish messed up on the applications, so they weren't turned in on time.
 * This is the first time Kira has sang on stage on Austin & Ally.
 * This is the second time we hear  Kira sing; the first time was in Ferris Wheels & Funky Breath, on the Ferris Wheel.
 * This episode aired in the UK on the 20th September.
 * Kira is revealed to be a singer and is Starr Records new recording artist.

Goofs

 * Dez told Ally he recorded her performance, "So she can always remember this special moment," however when he played it back for her, after he accidentally just recorded over her performance, the recording on the camera actually says, "So you can always remember that special moment."
 * When talking to Jimmy and Kira in the beginning of the episode, Ally calls her song "Finally Me". When Ally goes to perform it she calls it "I'm Finally Me". It is also seen in the credits that it is called "Finally Me".
 * Dez is a bit out of character with him constantly messing up with technology, in all previous appearances he is incredibly good at using it.
 * Dez said this is just not my day but it was actually 2 days.
 * Trish said that she would never touch Dez when everybody wanted her to feel Dez's sweater, however right after she said that she touched him to push him out of the way.