SXSW 2010

South By Southwest 2009 was a blast and i'll be back next week for SXSW 2010 next week. Check out the new blog at wmgsxsw2010.blogspot.com/. My friend Nick and I will be posting daily.

South By Southwest Panels

As promised here are the recordings of some of the SX panels.  Sorry for the poor audio quality on most of the files, if you're interested in hearing better quality files, email me and i'll give you the edited file on CD.

Here's the A&R 3.0 panel.

Crash Course #2: Management

Crash Course #3: Getting Gigs

Crash Course #4: Online Resources

The Sound and the Fury

Innovations in Digital Music

Saturday, Saturday

Today was the last day of panels. The Day Started off with 'Quickies #5: In the Studio.'  In this session, panel goers sat in small groups while panelists went around to each table for quick ten minutes discussions answering questions about the studio environment.

The next panel that I saw was about Neil Young's archive.  Neil Young's Manager and two other panelists went through the new 10 Blu-Ray disc set to show everyone how thorough, user friendly and personal the archive box set is.  It was really pretty cool.

The last panel of the day was "Fan-based Marketing."  This was definitely the most interesting panel of the day.  The panelists discussed all sorts of new and old marketing techniques for the music industry.  Throughout the week, the importance of using blogs, e-mail, facebook, myspace, a <>.com, twitter and any other social networks was stressed a lot.  Fans love having a personal connection with their favorite bands or artists. E-mail as well as the many social networks available make it incredibly easy for bands to make that connection.

Pictures, Audio bits, and video to come.

Drew

Friday...more panels, more music.

Today's schedule.

11am Innovations in Digital Music (Steve Knopper)

This panel discussed the current technology in the Record Industry and how it has affected the industry.  Steve Knopper was the moderator.  Ceo of Limewire, pres of (RED)wire and VP programmer for Rhapsody were some notable panelists.  P-2-P filesharing was a huge portion of this panels discussion.  I sensed quite a bit of head butting between the CEO of Limewire and other panelists.

 

12:30pm CLE1: Copyright Royalty Board

The CLE track is an 8 hour credit course for attorney's.  this particular CLE discussion was about copyright and a lot of legal information that went over my head.  

1pm SXSW Interview with Steve Knopper, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age.

2pm The Sound and the Fury

This panel was probably the coolest panel of the day.  panelists included, Matt Caws ( Nada Surf), Matt Hales (Aqualung), Mikel Jollett (The Airborne Toxic Event), Jordan Kurland (Zeitgeist Artist Management), Anya Marina (L.A. Radio Personality and Artist), Jon Poneman ( Sub Pop Records), Sylvain Sylvain (New York Dolls) and Karen Glauber (pres. Hits Magazine) who was moderator.   This was the most down to earth, realistic, humanistic and entertaining panel of the week.  It was very interesting to hear about the Record Industry from the perspective of artists and their stories of getting to where they are today.  Sylvain Sylvain really stressed the importance of just playing shows.  He said that bands need to get out of the rehearsal room and get audience feedback.  They [audience] will tell a band whether they are worth it or not.  more on this later, i'm late for the next show. 

5pm Ben Harper and Relentless 7

6pm Third Eye Blind

Drew

Day Two

Right now I am sitting in the SESAC day stage listening to an interesting folk, bluegrass-ish quartet because the keynote (Quincy Jones) is packed...no surprise there.  The quartet is bass clarinet/keys, electric upright bass/vocals, viola, and a guitarist/lead vocalist.  They have a Sufjan Stevens esq sound and unfortunately, the sound guys are having a handful of technical difficulties with the mix.  The group is called Jenn Grant.  I'll upload a picture later.  They have a really great sound and feel as a group.

I got a late start this morning but so far its been successful.  I met up with a Professor at Drexel Universities music business program.  we chatted about How Mad Dragon Records works and a little bit of the nitty gritty.  He's a pretty cool guy and i look forward to keeping contact with him.  I also attended a Panel called 'A&R 3.0.'  It has definitely been the most interesting and informative panel so far.  So much information to sort though and absorb.

Schedule for the afternoon

330 Do a 360 deal with yourself

400 SXSW Block party

500 Speech- Devo

1230am Ben Harper and Relentless7 at Stubbs 

Adios for now

Drew

Unreal

Austin is unlike any city that i have ever been to.  There are more bars, pubs, clubs, speakeasies, and music joints within a few city blocks on 6th street than i thought possible in a single city.  By 8pm, every single place had a live band whether or not it was related to

 South by.  My favorite band of the night was probably "The Evening Rig," a really unique, fun

 sounding bar band from Minnesota.  These guys have a killer drummer that my roommate should probably check out.

Coming in second for the night was this Japanese Jazz combo.  the sound was great, the singer was having a great time, the guitarist really nailed his solos and the bassist was smooth and cool.  overall, these guys were Tight. Unfortunately, i wasn't able to catch their name, but i'll look into that for later.

The last group of the night was my third favorite.  They were a Thick blues trio (Guitar, Keys/synth, drums) whose sound had a color and uniqueness that really was all about feeling.  not to mention, the bass amplitude was enormous and made everyone in the venue feel a very intense depth to the music. 

It's quarter to 3 here...so almost 4am by my clock and that would make it time to sleep.  Tomorrow is another very full day with loads of good things in store.

Drew

P.S. I welcome encourage comments, questions, thoughts, anything! 

Day one. panels. Done.

Todays Schedule (Panels):

Crash Course #2: Management

Crash Course #3: Getting Gigs

Crash Course #4: Online Resources

Crash Course #5: Merchandising

I'll upload audio from the panels this evening.  For now, its time to find lunch and dinner before even more live music starts up.

(Note to self, print up business cards next time...people ask for them at the Tradeshow.)