SXSW: Day 2

Every year roughly 18,000 artists, bands and songwriters apply to play a showcase at SXSW. The organisers whittle it down to about 1800, and then allocate a venue and time slots for each act.

The act will then get around 20 minutes for a showcase of about 4 or 5 songs. There are over a hundred music venues in downtown Austin and today I managed to check out a few of them. The thing that really impressed me was that the sound was superb at every venue, and all the showcases are very professionally run. My custom ACS earplugs came in handy. I always carry them around when there is a chance of seeing some live music.

The British and Northern Ireland acts were playing at a venue called Limelight, and it has been renamed the British Music Embassy. Today the Output Festival from Belfast were hosting an event and showcasing a number of bands from my home country as well as Nashville (the sister city of Belfast).

It is amazing who you meet and get introduced to at SXSW. I met the Lord Mayor of Belfast and heard about how Belfast City Councils provide a lot of support for SXSW.

I also managed to attend a few panels during the day. There was a fascinating one by Jeffrey Brabec and Todd Brabec that talked about music and the monetary values in TV, film, streaming etc.

Managed to see a demonstration of an 8k screen with 22.2 surround sound by the Japanese broadcasting service NBK. They are launching an 8k channel at the end of 2018. Very impressive, this has to be the future.

Ended the day at the Budweiser party and showcase (Kane Brown) and stood in line for a personalised leather Budweiser Cozy – something that every composer should have!
 
To be continued…