SXSW
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It had been seven years since PartyNextDoor had performed in The 6. But one Thursday night last May, approximately 2,500 fans at History — the Toronto venue Drake, Party’s OVO label boss, opened in partnership with Live Nation in 2021 — welcomed him home to the city, feverishly chanting the lyrics to his beloved hits like […]
Mexican star Christian Nodal is heading to South by Southwest to perform at Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW on Friday, March 15. The Latin Grammy-winning artist has collected a robust catalogue of hits since launching his career with the mariacheño song “Adiós Amor” in 2017. Now, Nodal is the soloist with the most No. […]
South by Southwest is back to take over Austin, Texas, this year, with programming beginning March 8 and running through March 16.
This year, SXSW Music (March 11-16) features performances from The Black Keys, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala aka DE FACTO, Swamp Dogg, Audrey Nuna, Kneecap, Flyana Boss and J Noa.
If you’re heading to the event and looking to get even more access to the SXSW Music Festival, the event is offering two special badges for purchase. With a standard music badge, for $945, attendees will receive “primary entry to our legendary Music Festival showcases, music programming, mentor sessions, and workshops at the SXSW Conference, Comedy Festival showcases, and online programming, plus secondary access to most Interactive and Film & TV programming,” per SXSW’s website. See here for the full list of details and purchase options. For Billboard readers, enter code reg-music-specialoffer_c439f88fe8 for a limited time to save more than 20% off the current price.
With an upgraded platinum badge, for $1,990, fans get primary access to all official SXSW Conference & Festivals events, plus up to five SXXpress Passes per day to enjoy your favorite programming. See here for the full list of details and purchase options. Enter code reg-plat-specialoffer_311a0ab5e3 for a limited time to save more than 25% off the current price.
Elsewhere at SXSW, Billboard is returning to the event with THE STAGE at SXSW, which will kick off with a night dedicated to R&B headlined by singer-songwriter and producer PARTYNEXTDOOR on March 14; on March 15, a night celebrating Latin music will feature TJ the DJ and singer-songwriter Christian Nodal; and on March 16, a dance-centric night presented by Carnival Cruise Line will kick off with DJ Sober before electronic giant ILLENIUM takes the stage. Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW takes place at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin. Tickets are available here.
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Billboard’s parent company PMC is the largest shareholder of SXSW and its brands are official media partners of SXSW.
Nicki Nicole took to social media to seemingly hint at a breakup with Peso Pluma after he is seen with another woman in a viral video. Beyoncé was seen swarmed at New York Fashion Week. Her new country track “Texas Hold ‘Em” has caused a bit of drama after a country radio station in Oklahoma […]
The Justice comeback is gaining momentum, with the French duo confirmed as keynote speakers at SXSW 2024. Happening at the Austin Convention Center on March 13 at 2:30 p.m., this rare public conversation from Justice’s Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay will focus on their forthcoming album, Hyperdrama (due out April 26), and the legacy and future of the renowned […]
On Wednesday (Feb. 14), Billboard announced its return to South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, for three star-studded concerts running Thursday, March 14, through Saturday, March 16. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW will kick off with a night dedicated to […]
The Black Keys aren’t just coming to Texas for a talk.
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, founding members of the six-times Grammy Award winning blues-rock outfit, are already locked-in as keynote speakers for the 2024 edition of South by Southwest. When the annual live music bonanza rolls around this March, the dynamite duo will also join the lineup of performers.
Organizers today (Jan. 24) announce the third wave round of showcasing artists for the 38th annual edition of the SXSW Music Festival, set for March 11-16 in Austin, TX.
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As previously reported, Auerbach, the band’s singer and guitarist, and Carney, the Black Keys’ drummer, will lend their support to the new documentary, This is a Film About The Black Keys, which enjoys its world premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival.
The Black Keys lead a list that’s predictably stacked with heavyweights and hot newcomers from around the globe.
Among the highlights are U.S. funk legend Bootsy Collins; ARIA Award-winning, chart-topping indie Sydney act Lime Cordiale; and Finland’s Eurovision Song Contest 2021 reps Blind Channel.
Other performers in the latest wave include include Angélica Garcia (El Monte, CA), The Black Keys (Akron OH), Boza (Panama), Chase Shakur (Atlanta, GA), Fabiana Palladino (London, U.K.), Flyana Boss (Los Angeles CA), and GOKUMON (UchikubiGokumonDoukoukai) (Tokyo Japan).
They following a first round that included British indie band Dry Cleaning, New York punk rockers Bodega, and Swedish alternative act Waterbaby, and a second announcement with Glasser, SPRINTS, GRÓA, Gruff Rhys, Ho99o9, Holly Macve and many others.
Founded in 1987 in Austin, TX, SXSW has grown to encompass tech, film and TV, music, education and culture. The entirety of the 2024 conference and festival will run from March 8-16.
In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
SXSW 2024 is sponsored by Porsche, C4 Energy, Delta, and The Austin Chronicle.
Visit SXSW.com for more.
The Black Keys are heading to South by Southwest 2024.
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, founding members of the chart-topping blues-rock outfit, will take their positions on stage as keynote speakers, organizers announce today (Jan. 16).
Auerbach, the band’s singer and guitarist, and Carney, the Black Keys’ drummer, will lend their support to the new documentary, This is a Film About The Black Keys, which enjoys its world premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival. Directed by Jeff Dupre, the feature-length film is said to trace the band’s journey, which began nearly a quarter century ago as kids jamming in a basement in Akron, OH, and has seen the rockers complete the journey to the biggest stages on the planet.
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Along the way, they’ve soaked up commercial and critical success, including six top 10 titles landed on the Billboard 200 chart, with a No. 1 for 2014’s Turn Blue, and six Grammy Awards.
“The impact of artists has made music the foundation of SXSW,” comments Hugh Forrest, chief programming officer and co-president. “For this reason, we’re especially excited to welcome Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys, one of the most compelling rock bands around, to the Keynote Speaker lineup for a discussion on their prolific career.”
The rockers are among the big names in the fourth round of featured speakers, a list that includes legendary actress and activist Jane Fonda; three-time NBA champion and Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade; Twitch CEO Dan Clancy; and Lord of the Rings actor and co-founder of indie production company SpectreVision, Elijah Wood.
Conference sessions include the panel, “The Transformation of Music Sync: When the Songwriter Becomes the Screenwriter,” and “Death of the Follower & the Future of Creativity on the Web.”
Additional keynote speakers and featured sessions will be unveiled in the coming weeks, reps say.
Founded in 1987 in Austin, TX, SXSW has grown to encompass tech, film and TV, music, education and culture. The entirety of the 2024 conference and festival will run from March 8-16.
In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
Visit SXSW.com for more.
South by Southwest Music Festival 2024 has revealed a second slate of artists set to perform in Austin next year. Among the highlights are Glasser, SPRINTS, GRÓA, Gruff Rhys, Ho99o9, Holly Macve, Kikuo, LAIR, Pink Pablo, PVA, Pylon Reenactment Society and Ralphie Choo, all of whom will showcase their talents during the six-day festival.
Next year’s SXSW Music Festival will take place from March 11-16 throughout the Austin area. Other emerging acts announced on Wednesday (Dec. 6) include RUBIO, Sinkane, Sofia Kourtesis, Sycco, Tamera, TENGGER, 250, Alexander Biggs, Enola Gay, DICE, HALLEY, HIEN, Skateland, Yo Diablo, Water Damage, TENGGER, Sui Zhen and RUBIO. The festival has created playlists on Spotify and YouTube featuring the music of the showcasing artists.
The list of showcase partners for the 38th annual SXSW has also grown, with labels like New West Records and Bayonet Records, as well as promoter High Road Touring and agency Mint Talent Group, being announced. Elsewhere, newly announced presenters include Adult Decisions, All The Vibes, ATC Live, Atomic Music Group, Breakout West, CareFreeBlackGirl, Chicken Ranch Records, City Slang, Dear Life Records, Dedstrange, Don Giovanni Records, Everything R&B, Father/Daughter Records, Fierce Panda, FOCUS Wales, Island Wave, Italians Do It Better, Gorilla vs. Bear, Jazz Re:Freshed, The Line of Best Fit, The Loyalty Firm, M for Montreal, Music from Ireland, Now Wave, Pop Montreal, Reeperbahn Festival, The Smoke Out, Space Agency, The Spanish Wave, Synásthesie Festival, Taiwan Beats, Tokyo Calling, Traffic Music and Wide Days Scotland.
Founded in 1987 in Austin, SXSW has grown to encompass tech, film and TV, music, education and culture. The entirety of the 2024 conference and festival will run from March 8-16.
In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
See below for the full list of showcasing artists announced on Wednesday.
250 (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)Afternoon Bike Ride (Montreal CANADA)Akira Galaxy (Los Angeles CA)Ako（a子） (Himeji City JAPAN)Alexander Biggs (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Alex Nicol (Montreal CANADA)Amis du Teche (Breaux Bridge LA)Angelo Moore and the Brand New Step (Austin TX)Anna Smyrk (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Anna Vaverková (Prague CZECHIA)Another Sky (London UK-ENGLAND)Arches (Hong Kong HONG KONG)Askew (London UK-ENGLAND)Axel Flóvent (Reykjavik ICELAND)Äyanna (London UK-ENGLAND)The Ayoub Sisters (London UK-ENGLAND)Bad Bad Hats (Minneapolis MN)The Beatbox Collective (London UK-ENGLAND)beccs (Warehan MA)Bee Bee Sea (Castel Goffredo ITALY)Being Dead (Austin TX)Benjamin Walker (Chile MEXICO)Bess Atwell (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Bleach Lab (London UK-ENGLAND)BLK JKS (Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA)Bloomsday (Brooklyn NY)Blue Lake (Copenhagen DENMARK)Boy With Apple (Gothenburg SWEDEN)BROTHER DEGE (Lafayette LA)Buffalo Nichols (Milwaukee WI)Caleb Landry Jones (Garland TX)Camidoh (Accra GHANA)Carla Geneve (Perth AUSTRALIA)Certainly So (Nashville TN)Cha’keeta B (Austin TX)Chalk (Belfast UK-N. IRELAND)Chartreuse (The Black Country UK-ENGLAND)Chelsea Carmichael (London UK-ENGLAND)Chiaki Mayumura (Setagya JAPAN)Chief Cleopatra (Austin TX)China Bears (Bridgwater UK-ENGLAND)Chxrry22 (Toronto CANADA)CLT DRP (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Conchur White (Portadown UK-N. IRELAND)CURRLS (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Danny Bonilla (Dallas TX)Dasom Baek (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)Daydream Twins (Austin TX)Dead Tooth (Brooklyn NY)Delights (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)DICE (Perth AUSTRALIA)Dirt Buyer (Brooklyn NY)Discovery Zone (New York NY)Divorce (Nottingham UK-ENGLAND)Dobrawa Czocher (Warsaw POLAND)DOMICO (Tokyo JAPAN)Do Nothing (Nottingham UK-ENGLAND)Dream Nails (London UK-ENGLAND)Dumb Buoys Fishing Club (London UK-ENGLAND)dust (Newcastle AUSTRALIA)Earth Tongue (Wellington NEW ZEALAND)Eleni Drake (London UK-ENGLAND)Elisapie (Salluit CANADA)Elle Shimada (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Ellie Bleach (London UK-ENGLAND)Emily Barker (Perth AUSTRALIA)Emily Frembgen (Brooklyn NY)Emma Aibara (Yokohama JAPAN)Enola Gay (Belfast UK-N. IRELAND)Etta Bond (London UK-ENGLAND)fantasy of a broken heart (Brooklyn NY)Fat Dog (London UK-ENGLAND)FAZI 法兹 (Xi’an CHINA)Field Guide (Winnipeg CANADA)Folk Bitch Trio (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)FONTINE (Winnipeg CANADA)Forest Claudette (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Friedberg (Berlin GERMANY)Fust (Durham NC)Gavin James (Dublin IRELAND)Glasser (New York NY)Glixen (Phoenix AZ)Good Looks (Austin TX)Grandbrothers (Berlin GERMANY)GRÓA (Reykjavik ICELAND)Gruff Rhys (Cardiff UK-WALES)Gurriers (Dublin IRELAND)HALLEY (Waseda JAPAN)Harvest Thieves (Austin TX)Hause Plants (Lisbon PORTUGAL)The HawtThorns (Nashville TN)HIEN (Budapest HUNGARY)HighSchool (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Hinako Omori (London UK-ENGLAND)HMS Morris (Cardiff UK-WALES)Ho99o9 (Newark NJ)Holly Macve (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Hooks & The Huckleberries (Albuquerque NM)Hour (Philadelphia PA)The Howdies (Athens GA)Humour (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)HYPNOSIS THERAPY (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)IFE (New Orleans LA)Iona Zajac (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Iris Jean (Alkmaar NETHERLANDS)Izo FitzRoy (London UK-ENGLAND)Jack Barksdale (Fort Worth TX)Jack Harris (Cleveland OH)JADA (London UK-ENGLAND)Jad Fair and the Placebos (Manor TX)Jaimee Harris (Nashville TN)JÁNA (Stockholm SWEDEN)Jazz re:freshed DJs (London UK-ENGLAND)Jeannel (Berlin GERMANY)Jeshi (London UK-ENGLAND)JFDR (Reykjavík ICELAND)JM Stevens (Austin TX)Jon Muq (Austin TX)Jon Vinyl (Toronto CANADA)Juani Mustard (Viña Del Mar CHILE)JUANPALITOSCHINOS (Mexico City MEXICO)Justin Webb (Nashville TN)Kali Claire (London UK-ENGLAND)Ken Yates (London CANADA)Kikuo (Tokyo JAPAN)Kroi (Tokyo JAPAN)LAIR (Jatiwangi INDONESIA)Laney Tripp (New Smyrna Beach CA)Larry Seaman (Austin TX)Laura-Mary Carter (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)Laura Misch (London UK-ENGLAND)Lauren Housley & The Northern Cowboys (Sheffield UK-ENGLAND)Lauren Lakis (Austin TX)L E M F R E C K (Newport UK-WALES)Library Card (Rotterdam NETHERLANDS)Lindsay Beaver & Brad Stivers (Austin TX)Lisa Morales (Austin TX)Logan Crosby (Milledgeville GA)Logan Halstead (Powell County KY)Los Cogelones (Mexico MEXICO)Lottery Winners (Leigh UK-ENGLAND)Madam Radar (Austin TX)Malugi (Berlin GERMANY)Mama Terra (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)The Manatees (Southampton UK-ENGLAND)maxime. (Montreal CANADA)May Rio (Brooklyn NY)Meagre Martin (Berlin GERMANY)Mia June (Perth AUSTRALIA)Mick Flannery (Cork IRELAND)Minas (Cardiff UK-WALES)Miranda and the Beat (Brooklyn NY)Miranda del Sol (New York NY)MØAA (Seattle WA)Moody Bank$ (Austin TX)Nagasaki Swim (Rotterdam NETHERLANDS)Natalie Jane Hill (Asheville NC)Native Harrow (Brighton UK-ENGLAND)néomí (Den Haag NETHERLANDS)NeOne Wonderer (Wolverhampton UK-ENGLAND)Neon Waltz (John O’groats UK-SCOTLAND)Night Lunch (Montreal CANADA)NOBRO (Montreal CANADA)O. (London UK-ENGLAND)Omni (Atlanta GA)OSKA (Vienna AUSTRIA)PAPISA (São Paulo BRAZIL)Pelvis Wrestley (Austin TX)Perennial (Amherst MA)Pink Pablo (San Juan PUERTO RICO)Planet Giza (Montreal CANADA)Plastic Palms (Turin ITALY)poolblood (Toronto CANADA)Population II (Montreal CANADA)Presence (Camarillo CA)The Psychotic Monks (Saint-Ouen FRANCE)PVA (London UK-ENGLAND)Pylon Reenactment Society (Athens GA)Rainbow Girls (Bodega CA)Ralphie Choo (Madrid SPAIN)The Rare Occasions (Los Angeles CA)Redbud (Austin TX)rEDOLENT (Edinburgh UK-SCOTLAND)Robby Hecht (Nashville TN)Rodeo Boys (Lansing MI)Rory James (Edinburgh UK-SCOTLAND)RUBIO (Mexico City MEXICO)Sam Williams (Paris TN)San Gabriel (Austin TX)San Saba County (Austin TX)Seafoam Walls (Miami FL)Selfish Sons (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)She’s In Parties (Colchester UK-ENGLAND)Sinkane (Brooklyn NY)Skateland (Austin TX)SNACKTIME (Philadelphia PA)Soda Blonde (Dublin IRELAND)Sofia Kourtesis (Berlin GERMANY)Sofi Paez (Berlin GERMANY)Softee (Moorhead MN)South Summit (Perth AUSTRALIA)SPRINTS (Dublin IRELAND)Stuck in the Sound (Paris FRANCE)Styrofoam Winos (Nashville TN)Sui Zhen (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)The Sully Band (San Diego CA)Sultan Stevenson (London UK-ENGLAND)Swallow the Rat (Auckland NEW ZEALAND)Sycco (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)Talia Goddess (Brooklyn NY)Tamera (London UK-ENGLAND)Teenage Sequence (Fort-Worth TX)Telehealth (Seattle WA)TENGGER (Seoul SOUTH KOREA)t e s t p r e s s (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Texas String Assembly (Austin TX)TFD (Total Fucking Darkness) (Vancouver CANADA)This Is Lorelei (New York NY)THUS LOVE (Brattleboro VT)The Tiarras (Austin TX)Tokyo Syoki Syodo (Shimokitazawa JAPAN)TRACY DE SA (Sevres FRANCE)Tufan Derince (Diyarbakir TURKEY)twst (Barry UK-WALES)Venus Twins (Brooklyn NY)Vera Sola (Los Angeles CA)The Vices (Groningen NETHERLANDS)The View (Dundee UK-SCOTLAND)VLURE (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Vulva Voce (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)Water Damage (Austin TX)William The Conqueror (Newquay UK-ENGLAND)Wyldest (London UK-ENGLAND)The XCERTS (Aberdeen UK-SCOTLAND)Yb. (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)YHWH Nailgun (New York NY)Yo Diablo (Valencia SPAIN)Yogetsu Akasaka (Tokyo JAPAN)YU-KA (Tokyo JAPAN)Zheani (Brisbane AUSTRALIA)Zoon (Winnipeg CANADA)ZÓRA (Budapest HUNGARY)zouz (Montréal CANADA)
SYDNEY, Australia – After seven days, roughly 300 performances (nearly 40% of which were international) and upwards of 600 speakers, the inaugural SXSW Sydney is done and dusted.
The likes of Chance The Rapper, Nicole Kidman and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker were among the guest speakers who donned a SXSW Sydney lanyard and brought star power to the show, as Sydney turned it on for the music, tech, film and entertainment extravaganza.
October in Australia is a place and time asking for action. In this music and sports-mad country, the weather is heating up, but there’s a lack of competition for eyeballs, attention and cash. The Bigsound music conference finished more than a month ago, the ARIA Awards is a month away. The AFL and NRL seasons are recently wrapped up, the quadrennial cricket and rugby World Cups are playing out abroad, the NBA season has yet to start.
With its brand splashed in the districts around Darling Harbour, and activations dotted around the city — Australia’s biggest metropolis — SXSW Sydney had the place all to itself.
Billboard was there to soak it up at the International Convention & Exhibition Centre, the Tumbalong Park outdoor events space, and the network of pubs, bars and venues that embraced SXSW for a full week, from Oct. 15-22, completing its first expansion out of Austin, TX.
Check out five highlights from the inaugural SXSW Sydney below.
Songtradr’s missionTiming is everything in music and business. So it made perfect sense for Songtradr founder and CEO Paul Wiltshire to participate in a special interview at SXSW just days after his company completed the acquisition of Bandcamp. “Our mission is to stabilise and grow,” the U.S.-born and Australian raised, California-based executive said of the new asset. “There’ll be no adverse changes to the existing product. The team is amazing, and the Bandcamp community is extraordinary and we want to protect that. We’re very confident about the future and where we’re going to be able to go together.”
Wiltshire also confirmed that a flotation for Songtradr is something his team has “definitely looked at.” He continued, “we don’t have a definite timeline as to whether that will happen. The public markets have gone through pretty significant changes in the last two years in particular. But it’s something we continue to observe and we do love Australia.” The ASX, it’s “a very healthy market.”
Will ABBA Voyage set sail?Thanks to the power of Netflix, the story of Per Sundin and his frontrow seat for the evolution of Spotify is known to millions. The veteran Swedish music industry executive has worked closely with the late Avicii, Tove Lo, Swedish House Mafia, and, of course, ABBA, and is the face of “The Industry” in The Playlist, Netflix’s dramatized account of Spotify and its founder Daniel Ek. After a decades-long career with major music companies, first with Sony Music then Universal, Sundin now serves as CEO of Pophouse Entertainment, the Stockholm-based entertainment company which, among its assets, owns the SHM catalog and a 75% stake in Avicii’s works. Pophouse is the lead investor and production partner for ABBA Voyage, the virtual live concert experience in London.
Sundin, on his first trip Down Under, regaled with tales of the music industry post-millennium SNAFU, working with Björn Ulvaeus (in short, the ABBA star won’t settle for second-best), and he told SXSW Sydney what everyone wanted to hear: that ABBA Voyage could set sail to these parts.
“We have a lot of interest from Singapore and from Australia, from (promoter) Paul (Dainty) and (TEG CEO) Geoff (Jones) and his team. We’ll partner up with them to see if we can find a place, because you need to build an arena. Because in the roof of the building is 600 tons of equipment,” Sundin said during the featured session, Unlocking the Power of Entertainment. “We can’t just go into an existing theater. That’s a challenge for everyone.”
There has been talk about doing another ABBA Voyage in Europe, and, Sundin added, “Las Vegas is really calling for it.”
Chance raps on hip-hop and capitalismWhen Chance The Rapper was announced as a keynote speaker at SXSW Sydney, some delegates were quick to hose down the excitement. The Chicago hip-hop star wasn’t booked to perform on this trip, aside from his on-stage interview with The Brag Media editor-in-chief Poppy Reid. And, for those with a decent memory, he canceled his appearance at the 2019 Splendour In The Grass festival, just one day before he was due to deliver the closing headlining set.
There was no drama, just action, as Chancelor Johnathan Bennett made the journey and delivered a compelling SXSW Sydney Q&A which delved into capitalism, and hip-hop on the genre’s 50th anniversary.
“We all live in a capitalist society and no matter how close you are to your moral center, you’re still working and operating within a system that lives on the backs of the least empowered people. I do a lot of philanthropy work, I do a lot of advocacy, I do a lot of just trying to help people,” he told Reid. “But also just the way that the world is set up right now, I gotta sell merchandise, and even producing T shirts — it’s really hard not to be a capitalist.” To be able to operate “outside of that and to create more cooperative economic systems is something that I’m working towards but I haven’t fully figured out yet.”
Chance also stepped out to enjoy some of the showcase program, throwing his support behind 11-year-old Aussie rapper Inkabee.
GenAI, Web3, Metaverse. Jump in, cautiouslyAI is “not on the horizon. It’s here now and it’s not the Wild West.” APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormton told guests at the PRO’s breakfast gathering at SXSW Sydney, during which the organization’s annual results were explored. Computer learning is both “a huge challenge and potential opportunity for music,” Ormston told guests. Those challenges and opportunities are something the PRO and every major content provider and partner is currently trying to figure out.
A separate daytime session on “Activating Music in Web3” brought together Con Raso (Tuned Global), Matty Soudagar (The Metakey) and Becky Yeung (Warner Music Group). “We’re coming into a space where some of these experiments are making some real impact,” explained Soudagar. Four years ago, the popular Roblox game has gone from 20 million users a month to 200 million users a month today, he continued. “It could be half a billion a month in a few years from now. If you zoom out of this metaverse conversation, we realize its primed for exponential growth. The next stage is, how to put together a solution that brings everything together in a frictionless manner for a specific industry. We’re at the stage where we have the technology and we can bring together some strong minds.”
K-pop isn’t slowing downK-pop is roaring, and there’s a lot of fuel left in the tank. Over the course of the week, Spotify House at The Lansdowne Hotel proved a popular hideaway for thousands of SXSW Sydney guests, with its curated lineup of daytime panel discussions, and evening showcases, which included hip-hop star TKay Maidza, punk outfit Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, Thai rapper Milli and more.
The House opened its doors on its fourth and final day for a special daytime session on Hallyu (Korean wave), featuring Jungjoo Park, Head of Music at Spotify Korea; Live Nation Australasia’s Wenona Lok; and Virgin Music’s Claire Tate.
Ten years ago when PSY’s “Gangnam Style” blew up, many observers figured Korea’s music scene was a one-hit wonder. Nope. Five years ago, folks were thinking, “this is it guys. It’ll never get bigger,” noted Lok. “This year, Live Nation, we’re bringing the first K-pop act to a stadium in Australia for the first time” with TWICE. “What’s more amazing is, it’s the first girl group of any genre to play a stadium in Australia.” In terms of streaming and ticket sales, there’s no sign of slowing for the Korean music explosion.
To drive home the point, South Korean rappers Lil Cherry and GOLDBUUDA performed at Billboard‘s one off night at The Stage.
Penske Media Corporation, Billboard‘s parent company, is an investor in SXSW.