Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Music on Tuesday 15th March

Major and indie artists are leveraging new technologies and smart marketing to re-define success in today’s music industry. These artists are not only reaching their goals, they are profiting from their success BIGGER & FASTER than ever before; this panel will show you how to do the same. Since new technology start-ups are a dime a dozen, its critical to know which strategies and companies will drive success while making you the most money online, offline and on the road. This panel features representatives of innovative, tech-savvy artists and best-in-class technology providers to discuss recent developments and relevant success stories from tour-centric to online marketing strategies that employ both innovation and technology to improve the bottom line. After this panel, you will walk away knowing how to take immediate action and make career defining decisions.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Who cares about metadata? You should. In a world where millions of digital music transactions take place on a daily basis, it's more important than ever that music, video, and application content appears correctly in digital storefronts, customers can find them, and that the right songwriter, artist and/or content owner gets paid.

This panel will review the current landscape and make sense of the various identifiers such as ISRC, ISWC, GRID, ISNI as well as XML communications standards such as DDEX ERN and DSR messages. We'll also cover why these common systems are critical as the backbone of digital music commerce from the smallest indie artist to the biggest corporate commerce partners.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Since the web began we've been talking about artists having a career without a label and going to fans direct. We finally have examples of it working. So what does it look like? SXSW Veteran Heather Gold sits down with collaborating songwriters Allee Willis (September, Boogie Wonderland, over 50 million albums sold) and Pomplamoose (over 28 million YouTube views) and you to find out.

Allee and Pomplamoose met online after Pomplamoose covered Allee's September and decided to collaborate together. By SXSW 2011 they will have released 3-10 songs, videosongs, a podcast and an online game together as part of a single project. This is a kind of collaboration, art and business that would not be possible without the web.

Allee has sold 50,000,000 records and yet cannot read or write music. Pomplamoose make all their songs in a tiny room crammed with a piano and instruments. Both are exceptionally accessible and conversational.

In this case study we’ll find out how "limitations" and openness serve them in an era of "personal brands." We’ll also dig into their collaborative process in making music and visuals together and find out how they've succeeded creatively and in every other way.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Named one of the 100 Greatest Living Songwriters by Paste, lauded as “cream of the young singer-songwriter crop” by the New York Times, and hailed by Stephen King for “the most exuberant outburst of energy since Bob Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,’” Josh Ritter is a beloved musician whose albums include The Animal Years and So Runs the World Away. Known for the storytelling and literary sophistication of his lyrics, his session at SXSW Interactive marks the launch of his newest method of self-expression: his debut novel BRIGHT’S PASSAGE (on sale June 28). Ritter has written a deeply affecting story about the unlikely journey undertaken by a veteran, his infant son, and their guardian angel in the aftermath of World War I. Joining him on stage to discuss his novel, its genesis and what it represents within his larger body of work is Bob Boilen, creator and host of “All Songs Considered” from NPR Music.

Filmmaker Richard Linklater sits down with prolific Music Supervisor Randall Poster, to talk about the importance of music in film. Poster has worked with the greats, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, and Jason Reitman.

Emerging social media platforms offer musicians unprecedented opportunities to distribute music and engage fans, often circumventing the traditional models of label deals and radio airplay. Today, it is more about creating a community around your music and engaging your fan base than major label deals and platinum sales. For some artists, fan engagement has happened organically, as a result of the quality of their music, years of touring or their innovative sound. Certain bands have always had fans that followed them from city to city, meeting other fans, sharing music and stories. New social media tools, like the location-based social networks Gowalla and Foursquare, can be used as platforms for rewarding fans for desired behaviors.

Currently, these platforms are in their infancy. Their focus is evolving toward event as well as location-based check-ins. Musicians can engage these services by encouraging fans to check-in at shows, offering rewards for multiple check-ins on a tour, providing a space for fans to aggregate photos and videos, and offering a way for fans to develop their own interactions, like organizing meet-ups and creating trips. Once fans are signed up with a location-based service, bands can offer merchandise discounts, meet and greet access, limited edition items and downloads or other incentives. The key is engaging passionate fans wherever they are in the world via mobile devices. Let them help by giving them the tools they need to spread the word. Co-presenting on this panel will be Jonathan Carroll, Community Manager at Gowalla.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Mobile is by far the fastest growing sector of the game industry. The growth of the app market is buoyed by an explosion in hardware. New mobile devices appear almost weekly, each promising heightened user experience. It’s no surprise that consumers are expecting better audio in their mobile games. This has created infinite revenue possibilities for composers, bands and sound artists. Join Ben Long as he reveals the technical, creative and business aspects of audio in mobile games. Also, Shane Vitarana and Adam Randall will shed light on the present and future of drum apps and how they relate to mobile games.

LEVEL: Intermediate

As the SXSW Interactive Festival continues to grow, it often becomes harder to discover /network with the specific type of people you want to network with. Hence a full slate of daytime Meet Ups are scheduled for the 2011 event. These Meet Ups are definitely not a panel session -- nor do they offer any kind of formal presentation or AV setup. On the contrary, these sessions are a room where many different conversations and (and will) go on at once. This timeslot is for registrants to network with other SXSW Interactive, Gold and Platinum registrants who are interested in how music is involved in the gaming industry. Cash bar onsite.

Discovering and listening to music today is a fragmented experience. Most consumers discover in one place, purchase in another, and listen somewhere else. While iTunes remains the dominant way people buy and organize their digital music collections, on-demand music services like Rdio, MOG and Spotify are creating new ways to discover, play, organize, and share music.

The wide-spread adoption of smartphones and connected devices, along with the growing ubiquity of wireless networks, has increased the promise of music-in-the-cloud, but are consumers ready to give up their iTunes and owning their music outright? While, early adopters and music enthusiasts are latching on, what will it take for the mainstream to shift their thinking? This session will explore how connected devices and cloud services will affect the way consumers find and buy music going forward.

From the walkman to the iPod, music has long thrived in the mobile medium and now the merging of music and wireless phones is a reality. Thus far mobile music has been controlled by only a few companies and the creation of music applications has been limited to those with technical resources. But new mobile applications and social networking technology is extending more control and power to musicians and music teachers. These apps are making it easy and profitable for musicians to share their experience and knowledge with consumers, students and the up and coming talent in the music world. This discussion will cover the democratization of learning music via the phone, what this means for the music industry, the issues to overcome and examples of these emerging applications that give more power to the people.

Many web companies target the musician community for their first (and sometimes only) segment of users. Sometimes this works and the company is a success within the music space. Sometimes early traction with musicians is elusive and the company is forced to pivot to target a different customer base. This panel looks at why targeting musicians might be a good or bad idea, and how to be effective if you decide to do it. Panelists will include companies who have started and stayed within the music space as well as companies who have switched from music to another vertical. Some other important questions to consider: Should you think of selling to musicians more as consumers, prosumers, or small businesses? Is a one-time purchase, subscription, or advertising revenue model better when targeting musicians?

LEVEL: Intermediate

The House of Songs is an Austin, TX based project focusing on musical creativity through international collaboration. The House has been operating since September 2009 and has provided the foundation for creative collaboration between some of the strongest Austin and Scandinavian songwriters. Through these experiences, the participating songwriters have created numerous potential relationships and have attained unique experiences benefiting their musical careers. This panel will discuss how digital media influences these collaboration efforts in the present and in the future. The conversation will also cover current trends in this area, challenges artists face in developing and expanding their audience, how artists today can succeed in procuring worldwide digital revenue, and ultimately emphasize the need of having this conversation.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Classical musicians have always enjoyed a close relationship with their audience, one that is well understood in the traditional context of performance. However, with the growth of social media and an ever-increasing number of people listening to music online, that relationship is changing. How will this transformation affect classical music artists and their audience?

In a blog post earlier this year, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross wrote of the continuing downward trend in the consumption of classical music by Generation X. While classical music listening in other generations has tended to increase as people approach middle age, Gen Xers are showing a precipitous decline in interest. He writes, “Every classical organization in America should print out this graph, pin it on the bulletin board, and ponder what is to be done.”

Could attracting wider participation in classical music from a broader and younger audience online be the key to preserving the genre? The panel discusses this question in the context of several projects, including The YouTube Symphony, The Royal Opera House’s “Twitterdammerung,” The Greene Space’s Battle of the Boroughs and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Project 440, with an eye not only to what works and what doesn’t, but to how these projects can be adapted to support music and the creative process.

LEVEL: Beginner