After a very active SXSW Interactive (you can see my students’ work at SXTXState.com and my wrap up), I was ready for the madness of Music. I took a day off on Wednesday, but jumped into the swing of things on Thursday, hitting a few panels about tech, data and music. The panels at Music this year are really an improvement over years past. They have assembled the right people to speak, those who work in tech companies or those with data competencies in this area. This is in contrast to past SXSW Music panels that I have attended where label dinosaurs lamented the past and were confused and vague about the future. I saw panels with titles like “How Data is Changing the Modern Music Business,” “Tools and Tech for the Next Generation of Musician,” “The Future of Digital Music,” and “How Tech Companies are Improving Event Discovery.” These panels were all very clear, there are millions of dollars to be made in the music industry if you know how to use all the data that is available. This means figuring out what social platforms to use and how, how to mine data to determine markets, touring and to identify fans and tastemakers and to better manage your band’s brand and business. This all makes sense. But we have definitely reached the point where bands need a team to help them with all this data analysis. This doesn’t mean getting someone to tweet for you. Bands still need to be involved in all forms of content production. But to get the expertise for advanced data analysis is going to require hiring people with those skills for your team. If your label isn’t doing that, get out, and find people who can.
Personally, I think this is one step further in the direction that the SXSW itself should be a converged tech conference that happens to have music and film festivals attached.
Enjoying music is really the point of SXSW Music, and I did that too. My Thursday scheduled included Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, on the Day Stage at the Convention Center. I caught a song by fun pop group TOFFEE from Taiwan on the International Day Stage. I also saw Spoon again at Auditorium Shores and then headed to Central Presbyterian Church for The Wild Ones and Alberta Cross. I covered a lot of ground, had a great time and saw a good range of acts.
