With weekly US CD sales down 20% on last year's totals, the whole mood of the 'conference' part of SXSW this year seems to be one of 'Ahh, What's happening?!' but, alas, with no big answers seeming to be forthcoming. This morning's first panel - 'What do you want from life?' - featured a number of artists talking about how to succeed in an industry that's increasingly less able to make money by selling records. The session was very artist-focused (and therefore possibly a bit artist biased), with Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave), Matt Hales (Aqualung), Britt Daniel (Spoon), Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Guru) and Taylor Hanson (Hanson) all sharing bad experiences of major labels, talking about record contracts becoming increasingly egregious, and accusing labels of using new technology (from CD to MP3) as an excuse to simply pay artists less money. Aside from the oddity of seeing Hanson on the same stage as Rage Against The Machine, in the end the panel didn't really deliver a great deal - certainly there was little advice as to how artists should be changing their strategies to cope with changes in the wider music business. One panel member suggested that new artists should perhaps try to find a mentor - another artist who has accomplished what they want to do - and use their mentor for advice, though how you'd find such a mentor I'm not sure. The one thing everyone did seem to agree on is that, as was said at a session yesterday, bands shouldn't think of getting signed as 'the end' of the work, because it's actually just the beginning of most bands' careers.
Unsurprisingly, much discussion has taken place on the subject of digital music here in Texas. A number of panels, with titles like 'reinventing payment models' and 'predicting the future' have dealt with the issue, and some had some very interesting suggestions. Perhaps the best suggestion came from former artist manager and Cambridge educated economist Peter Jenner (who, as you may remember from the report here in the CMU Daily, recently penned a report for MusicTank on the future of the music biz) who suggested that if every music fan was to pay the record industry an annual fee in order to access its entire collected catalogue of music then each person would only have to pay $50 for all the record companies to be earning at least what they make now through direct to consumer music sales - that's around £26. Neat, hey? Unfortunately, he reckons we're never likely to see such a system put into place - mainly due to flaws in the business models built by labels over the years. A lovely idea though - I'd be happy to pay thirty quid a year to own as much music as I could ever want.
The good news is that today I managed to catch a least one of the artists I was planning to see. That's one more than yesterday. Pete & The Pirates are from Reading - my hometown - so I thought it'd probably be rude not to see them. Unfortunately they were lacking Pete, due to passport difficulties, but they soldiered on nonetheless, storming through an impressive indie-rock set. Although they were first on the bill for the night, the Pete-less Pirates won a lot of new fans - they were very warmly received. Or perhaps it was just fans without a badge or wristband feeling like they really should be enjoying themselves after paying forty dollars to get in. Later that evening, the venue would be hosting Perry Farrell, Badly Drawn Boy and Damon Albarn's new project The Good, The Bad And The Queen, but I was off across town to catch a different show.
Simian Mobile Disco are quietly revolutionizing British dance music. After their monster hit with Justice - the French producers' remix of their song 'Never Be Alone' finally released last year as 'We Are Your Friends' (actually originally from SMD's days as four piece band Simian, but helping promote the new slimmed down outfit also) - they've been the darlings of many a music blog and rock columnist. But they didn't play that song, nor did they play their other big track 'Hustler'. Instead, the audience was treated to a number of remixes - most only very loosely connected to the originals, featuring just a snatch of heavily distorted vocals or the slightest hint of the original melody. SMD really tore the place up, putting on an awesome show. Listed on the bill last for the night was 'SPCLGST' - which most people had worked out was electro vowel-haters MSTRKRFT. Coming on straight after Simian without dropping a beat, MSTRKRFT continued exactly where Simian left off, and the kids danced happily into the wee small hours.
As I'm sort-of cheating by writing this on Sunday, I won't list any bands that I was intending to see on Saturday - mainly because, once again, I didn't end up seeing anyone I was intending to. That's the thing about SXSW - you end up going to a lot of shows that you didn't even know existed. Wandering past bars, you'll think 'that sounds interesting...', drop in, and will stagger out again at around 3am. SXSW is a crazy experience, and not for the faint-hearted. Saturday's round up will be in tomorrow's Daily. DG