SXSW Music Festival

SXSW Music Conference and Festival is one of the largest, most influential, and most anticipated music events of the year. Artists, agents, promoters, and talent buyers mix and mingle with hundreds of media representatives, managers, legal experts, and other professionals to hear amazing music of every genre and conduct crucial business. Careers are launched, deals are struck, advice is shared, fans are created, and media around the world fill TV screens, airwaves, magazine pages, and websites with daily reviews and reports.

Last year, SXSW Music Conference and Festival drew 11,750 music industry professionals for compelling panels, industry discussions, demo listening sessions, trade show exhibits, and - as always - five nights of music by more than 1,500 acts hailing from 33 different countries, performing in over 70 venues in downtown Austin, Texas. 2008, the 22nd consecutive year of the Festival and Conference, will showcase more music from the best new talent and established artists alike, provide more opportunities to network, have more unique panels and artist interviews – in short, will offer even compelling reasons to make Austin a must-be-there destination in March.

Photo by John Carrico

What the Press Says About SXSW:

"Rappers, indie-rockers, bluesmen metalheads, DJs, sensitive acoustic troubadours and heartsick honky-tonkers - all came to South by Southwest in 2007 to play together, to hang together and generally party like idiots together in perhaps the most musically inclusive era of the festival's 21-year existence. The most age-blind, too. Not only is SXSW the sort of event where it's not unusual to find 60-somethings quaffing cocktails with 20-somethings at sunup, it has also in recent years become a festival where representatives of different generations of popular music mingle respectfully with, and draw vital energies from, one another." - Toronto Star, March 19, 2007

"Part industry trade show, part fan feast, SXSW provides one-stop shopping for those looking for music discovery." - NPR.org March 20, 2007

"SXSW gives a band a chance to be heard by most of the movers and shakers in the business...." - Jon Pareles of the New York Times on billboard.com, March 15, 2007

2007 Music Festival Highlights

Aesop Rock
Against Me!
Lily Allen
Allison
Antibalas
Attic Jam with Rachel Fuller & Pete Townshend
Aqualung
Badly Drawn Boy
Beirut
Bloc Party
Blonde Redhead
Bonde do Role
BORIS
The Bravery
Brother Ali
Vashti Bunyan
Buzzcocks
Dennis Coffey
Cold War Kids
Cursive
The Dears
Deerhunter
Detroit Cobras
Devin the Dude
Thomas Dolby
Donovan
Steve Earle
El-P
The Faint
The Fratellis
Fujiya & Miyagi
Galactic
Gallows
Ghostland Observatory
Girl Talk
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
The Gossip
Hoodoo Gurus
The Horrors
Jamie T
Rickie Lee Jones
Junior Senior
Kid Koala
Kings of Leon
Tracy Lawrence
Charlie Louvin
Mastodon
Midlake
Mika
Crime Mob
moe.
Bob Mould
The Mountain Goats
MuteMath
My Brightest Diamond
Paolo Nutini
The Octopus Project
Ozomatli
Peaches
Elvis Perkins
Perry Farrell's Satellite Party
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Peter, Bjorn and John
The Pipettes
The Polyphonic Spree
The Ponys
Public Enemy
The Rapture
Razorlight
Reigning Sound
Sage Francis
Simian Mobile Disco
Sparklehorse
Spoon
Stax 50 Revue
The Stooges
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Police Club
Trae
Turbonegro
UGK
Mary Weiss
Amy Winehouse
Yo Majesty

2008 Showcasing Artists

SXSW Music Festival is pleased to announce SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists. This list is subject to change. Check back often for updates.

My SXSW

Photo by John Carrico

SXSW can seem like a massive amusement park for music lovers with something ear-catching vying for your attention every minute: bands to hear, panels to learn from, the trade show to peruse, schmoozing to pursue. Four days (and nights) can fly by in the snap of a guitar string. So how do you even begin to recount your experience? We asked some of the artists and panelists who attended and showcased at SXSW 2007 what made the biggest impression on them. here's a few of the responses:

"SXSW is a chance to trawl through the music business, pull out your net and see how many of last year's fish you recognize. Sea-beam from A&R, radio bass, Japanese rays, tentacle management, promo crabs and soft-shelled musicians - SXSW lets you get acquainted with them all. And there's always Jody and Mac"
- Robyn Hitchcock

"..hearing and seeing music everywhere, getting some good barbeque, fresh juice at that breakfast joint"
-Rickie Lee Jones

"Connections made. We secured a publicist and got great national press. thank you SXSW." – Zykos

"The advancement of our career, which is why we came, we made a lot of contacts and re-united with old friends. It was an essential event professional speaking." - Paul Collins Beat

"The invitation to attend made me feel humble and I was thrilled by the crowd at Antone's it was nice to be 'back'! I actually wrote a song whilst I was there." – Terry Reid

"I had to see the 'Stax' review celebrating the 50 year anniversary (boy what a show) and it sums up SXSW that I had the opportunity to bump in to Steve Cropper and the "Duck" at my hotel bar for a few(?) drinks at the bar afterwards, it totally made my day/life!!" - Hugh Cornwell

"The highlight for me was the panel on race "Say It Loud, I'm What? and I'm Proud." Chuck D and Alejandro Escovedo on the same panel? It's like the organizers of SXSW read my mind." -DJ Jester the Filipino Fist

Photo by Charlie Llewellin