Creative highs, economic woes mark SXSW festival
AUSTIN, Texas - By night, more than 12,000 music fans flock to 80 stages in nightclubs, bars, backyards, alleyways, tents, and patios in this vibrant college town, eager to soak up everything from scrappy indie rock and Norwegian electronica to Iranian pop and Spanish hip-hop.
By day, the dwindling ranks of industry executives gather in conference rooms, attempting to divine the future of the struggling music business.
It's a time of creative highs and economic woes at the 22d annual South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival, which began Wednesday and continues through tomorrow. Music lovers have never had more choices, or easier access, to great music, and independent bands continue to flourish in a global market fueled by technology.
But a familiar tune is being played on the business side, where traditional infrastructure is crumbling. The industry has been in a tailspin for more than a decade, entering its fifth straight year of steep decline as downloading and file-sharing continue to chip away at the old business model. A telling sign of the times: This year legal panels comprise a full eighth of the seminar discussions at the Austin Convention Center.
And yet there is one theme that transcends economics and artistry at this year's event. Politics is on everyone's mind, from commentary about the war in Iraq to impromptu caucuses on the upcoming election. SXSW managing director Roland Swenson summed up the general mood in his opening remarks for a packed ballroom at Thursday's keynote address featuring Lou Reed.
"Last year I stood up before the same audience and said that I feared that a year from [now] the war would still be going on and none of the major political candidates would be advocating an immediate end to the war. That's still true," Swenson said. "To borrow from our keynote speaker last year [the Who's Pete Townshend], 'Let's get on our knees and pray we don't get fooled again.' "
Times have certainly changed since the Dixie Chicks' controversial indictment of President Bush in 2003. Now artists are openly critical of Bush even in his home state. Wednesday night, at his band's debut SXSW performance, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe drew wild cheers when he said, "I'm terrified of how history will look back at the overreacting of the current administration to 9/11. We have a little less than two years to make something more of this decade."
A showcase for the documentary "Body of War" - chronicling the story of paralyzed Iraq war vet Tomas Young, and also screening at the festival - included performances from politically minded artists Serj Tankian (of System of a Down), Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine), Ben Harper, Billy Bragg, and Kimya Dawson. Young joined them onstage.
While the artists found fresh ways to express their views, the executives sounded more like a broken record. Everyone was discussing the same challenges, but across the board solutions were hard to come by.
"The overall theme here is, 'What is the condition of the commerce of music?' " said Ken Abdo, an entertainment lawyer who helped organize many of the legal panels. "There's a concomitant decline of physical sales at the same time [that] there's a rise in digital album sales. And the question is, when those two trajectories converge, will it be at a level that can sustain the current record company model? I say no. It will implode and the labels will become primarily marketing and promotion companies. And there is progress: They're firing everybody, downsizing rapidly."
"Music continues culturally to be very powerful," said Danny Goldberg, a former major-label executive who is now president of indie Ammal Records and manages Steve Earle, among other artists. "I don't think there's any glimmer of recovery in terms of monetizing recordings. There are theories about the subscription model, but whether that's real or not, we'll see. I think that people are trying to adjust to a smaller pie."
Goldberg went on to note that although things are bad across the board - with consumers gravitating to other media for entertainment - live music is one of the few thriving sectors of the industry.
"A video game isn't like a live show; you can't feel that explosive energy anywhere else," said veteran concert promoter Louis Messina during a panel appearance.
That was clear during the evening showcase performances as veterans and up-and-coming acts pulled out all the stops to impress fans, media, and industry movers and shakers. Musically speaking, the buzz was that there was no buzz. Unlike recent years, in which artists such as Amy Winehouse and the Arctic Monkeys emerged from Austin on a wave of rave reviews, there was no single, universal, must-see act this year. Granted, there was palpable excitement surrounding sets by British electro-rock duo the Ting Tings and young singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn.
"There's been no whispering campaign or shouting campaign for any particular band this year," said SXSW veteran Dan Peraino, agent for Boston-based booking agent Concerted Efforts, who cites Doveman as one of his own must-sees. This may result in fewer headlines for a particular act, he said, but ultimately it's a positive. "A lot of times with the Arctic Monkeys and the buzz bands in the past, labels dumped money into forcing those bands on us. I feel like since the whole system is failing and they're not signing as much as they used to, it levels the playing field."
Indeed, Lynn Grossman, artist manager and music supervisor for the TV show "House," said the business doldrums have had no effect on her scouting experience. "I can't tell that it's any different from any other year," she said, adding that she's curious about several artists, including British pop sensation Duffy. "I definitely get a lot of people the next morning really excited to talk about what they've seen."
And now that television shows, commercials, and video games are the premier outlets for exposure, talent buyers in those areas are looking not for marketing hype, but real grassroots excitement.
"Hearing a good song is just the beginning. There's so much good music; the artists with the other elements are what we're after," said Jim Pitt, who books musical acts for "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," at a panel.
Among the many Boston-area acts performing at SXSW, soul singer Eli "Paperboy" Reed was stirring up buzz with a torrent of high-profile gigs and attention from local press.
South by Southwest has become a showcasing event not just for aspiring young artists, but also for veteran acts launching new projects. R.E.M., Van Morrison, and Moby all performed here to build excitement for new albums out next month. Reed was on hand to promote the Julian Schnabel-directed concert film "Lou Reed's 'Berlin,' " which screened at the festival, and to give the keynote address.
In his remarks, Reed mentioned that he is still listening to new music, singling out Dr. Dog and Joan as Police Woman, but admitted he was still finding his way in the brave new world of technology. He was downright dismissive of how music is reaching consumers and lamented the sound quality of MP3s. "Technology is making it easier to make things worse," he snapped.
Reed might be cranky, but his stature as a maverick still resonates with artists who would rather play in the bars and alleys without caving to the demands of the bottom line. That might be bad news for the industry, but it's good news for music fans.
