Kinch, Marianne Dissard, Gospel Claws and Mega Ran are the Only Arizona Artists Confirmed for SxSW So Far

• Am I allowed to still be excited about going? We are hoping we can meet some new people to help us launch our new Gospel Claws Slim Jim. Sloan

• And Cheap Trick and Guided By Voices have never done commercials or played gigs with sponsors before. To bad SXSW makes them play events with sponsors. You also have obviously never been to SXSW. There are hundreds of bands playing at any given time and you will always find tinny new bands playing in front of big crowds at the same times a something huge. It is why I like SXSW. So much going on. I am not saying sxsw isn't corporate as hell. My point is IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

• The thing is, it is what you are saying it's not. Cheap Trick wasn't there to meet up with industry people. Nor were Guided By Voices. Same with Janes Addiction. There are big stages and there are thousands of fans. You think anyone is going to see Hunx and His Punx if they're playing at the same time as whoever the huge band is this year (I haven't looked). It's about selling stuff. It's about Miller Light, Chevrolet, AOL, Pepsi, Free Credit Report and Monster drinks.

• Or "Unless you want to make music your carer, don't bother" SXSW has ALWAYS been an industry event. You don't go there to play on huge stages in front of thousands of fans (like say Coachella). You go there to WORK. Music was a business for Mozart, it was a business for Bob Dylan and it is one today. SXSW is a chance for WORKING musicians to come together with the professional agents, managers, publicists, labels, writers, lawyers, sponsors, talent buyers and other artists that they interact with (or would like to) all year long. Anyone who complains about what it is becoming doesn't understand the point from the start.

• Jack's right on it! Stakes have gotten smaller for indie bands. As the NY Times wrote last March 18th: "The music festival, which gave birth to the whole franchise, keeps growing and growing despite the industry’s collapse, but the stakes keep getting smaller and smaller. A generation ago, fat major-label contracts were there for any band that won the popularity contest; now the majors are largely invisible, the financing has shifted to aggressively self-serving corporate sponsors, and the tastemakers are an array of blogs, media outlets and marketing companies. For a band that is welcomed into this jungle, the goals are usually to grab some eyeballs, make some contacts, find a corporation willing to make a moderate, short-term investment — in other words, <b>to survive on a small scale</b>, not to become a star." <i>(Bold emphasis mine)</i>

• SXSW has become more of a business conference than a music conference (which I guess it always really was anyway). It's about corporate sponsors, beer sales, and what the record labels are going to make "the next big thing". I guess it comes down to what your goal as a musician/band are. Unless you want your music to be consumed as a product, don't bother. And even if you do, you probably won't get what you want anyway.

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