The Buzz

This past weekend marked the final days of the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin and like many of you, we have been keeping our eyes and ears close to the events. For those of you that have no idea what SXSW is, simply put:

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas. Originating as the Austin Battle of the Bands, SXSW officially began in 1987 and is centered around the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts run relatively independently, with different start and end dates. SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in the United States, with more than 1,400 performers playing dozens of venues around Austin over four days in March. - wikipedia.org

This years edition of the festival had about 1,750 musical acts take part. The Montreal Gazette today published an article about the festival describing the overall feel of the event as experienced by journalist John MacFarlane. An entertaining read to say the least, but more importantly a nice insight on whats happening with the US music industry and its blatant approach in profiting from these corporate festivals…music festivals and musicians.

I watched Lightspeed Champion, Liam Finn and the Weakerthans play an afternoon show at the Paste Magazine/Stereogum Dell Lounge, co-sponsored by Fuze, a really hideous beverage, and Best Buy. My hotel key-card was sponsored by a record label, as were the backs of my taxi receipts.

- John MacFarlane

The Truth

The SXSW festival reportedly brings in upwards of $38 million for the city and is the highest money-making public event for the Austin economy. The SXSW ‘history’ section of their website provides some added info:

South by Southwest (SXSW, Inc.) is a private company based in Austin, Texas, with a year-round staff of professionals dedicated to building and delivering conference and festival events for entertainment and related media industry professionals.

but wait there’s more:

SXSW’s original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas. That continues to be the goal today whether it is music, film or the internet. And Austin continues to be the perfect location.

Their “original goal” seems to be positive, but have they achieved it already or do they continue to refer to it as only a “goal” ?

We’re interested in hearing what you have to say about SXSW.

Leave us a comment !

UPDATE:

We found a short clip from CBC Radio 3 who was at SXSW and interviewed Wintersleep - we thought it would fit nicely with this post. -Enjoy