Welcome to the 2009 SXSW website! Come back often for SXSW Music News, The Daily Chord, showcasing artists and speaker announcements, staff blogs, and more.

REGISTER TO ATTEND SXSW 2009
A registration badge for the SXSW Music Conference and Festival includes admission to the SXSW Conference and Trade Show and priority entry for SXSW Music Festival venues. Registration also gives access to the special rates at the best hotels in Austin during the event. The price goes up and the choices in rooms goes down the longer you wait to buy your badge. Register online for a badge and request your hotel today through our easy-to-use and secure e-commerce system.

APPLY TO SHOWCASE AT THE 2009 SXSW MUSIC FESTIVAL
SXSW is now accepting showcase applications for music acts to perform at the SXSW 2009 Music Festival. Upload your music and promotional information online without a trip to the post office. This year Sonicbids members can now apply using their accounts. Deadlines for applying are October 24 for international artists and November 7th for artists in the USA.

Original post by jimmy

Posted: August 1st, 2008 under Music News.
Comments: none

• John Lydon is never at a loss for words
  Story from Daily Record.
• CBS to sell 50 of 140 radio stations
  Story from NY Times. (site reg req’d)
• There’s life after a one-hit wonder
  Story from LA Times. (site reg req’d)
• Music supervisor Patsavas interviewed
  Story from BBC News.
• R2G, IODA launch music service in China
  Post from LA Times blog.
• New ‘In Rainbows’ numbers offer lessons for music biz
  Post from Wired’s Listening Post.
• John Rich pens ode to McCain
  Story from AP.
• Rare images mean big money for labels
  Story from Rolling Stone.

Original post by jill

Posted: August 1st, 2008 under Daily Chord.
Comments: none

SXSW is proud to announce this year’s Jury and Popularity Contest winners for the 5th Annual SXSWclick Festival. The Grand Jury Award, the jury’s favorite finalist from the entire competition, is Pinny Grylls’ Peter and Ben!

These films are the first official selections of the 2009 SXSW Film Festival We also want to thank all of our media partners and award sponsors, and a special thank you goes to Boston University Department of Film and Televison, the official sponsor of the 2008 SXSWclick festival.

The SXSW Film Festival is now accepting entries for the 16th Annual Film Festival to be held March 13 - 21, 2009 in Austin, TX. Submissions are being accepted here.

This is also your first chance to register to attend the SXSW Festival and Conferences. You may be asking yourself, why should I buy my badge now? Well, here are two reasons:

1. You are gonna save a ton of cash if you buy your badge before the first deadline. The Film badge and Gold badges are 33% cheaper now than at the festival and the Platinum badges are almost $300 cheaper than the walk-up rate. Click here for more information on buying your badge today.

2. There are no “Sold Out” hotels! Yet. As you may know, hotels in downtown Austin are a hot commodity during SXSW and the only way to guarantee you’ll be at your first choice hotel is to click here and register for your Film, Gold, Interactive or Platinum Badge today.

See you in March!

Original post by jarod

Posted: August 1st, 2008 under Film News.
Comments: none

August has arrived and we are now open for business for SXSW 2009! Click here to register (and to book your downtown hotel room). Meanwhile, allow us a deep breath in preparation for the many busy days that lie ahead. Not that we didn’t have plenty of activities to occupy our time over the last several months. To this end, here is a quick glimpse at some of the projects that Team Interactive devoted our attention to during the so-called off-season…

A New Flavor to SXSW.com
In an effort to remove barriers to you the end user, we teamed with Blue Flavor to develop an all-new information architecture for the SXSW website. While we haven’t yet integrated all of their fabulous suggestions, their work has vastly improved the usability of our stockpile of online data. Many thanks to Nick, Tom, Tiffani, Keith and the rest of the Seattle crew for pushing us (err, pointing us) in the right direction on this stuff.

Revised Look and Feel
We were honored to work with Austin’s Sibley/Peteet Design to develop the fresh new identity for 2009. Sure it is difficult to represent all that is SXSW in one small image, but these guys came up with a plan that makes sense. The symbol for Music is a microphone; for Film, it is a movie camera. As for Interactive, the handheld device represents the human element and microburst nature of communication within our core audience.

Even More Blog Content
More content than ever before will flow through the Bits & Bytes blog (that’s the space you are reading right now). From news about past speakers to updates on the 2009 programming to previews of Trade Show exhibitors to information about scheduled technology-related events around Austin and around the world, this is the spot to stay on top of all things that matter to the SXSW Interactive community. Make it even easier by signing up for the RSS feed.

Podcasts Galore
All the amazing audio content from the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival has now been posted to the 2008 Podcast Blog. Which of these 150+ sessions do you want to listen to first? Check out the 2008 ratings to find out what panels event attendees thought were the most interesting and most beneficial. Special thanks to our former intern Andrew McNeill for pulling together all these podcasts. Now get back to studying for your exams!

Panel Voting Begins August 8
2009 marks the third year that we will use the SXSW Panel Picker to help select event programming. When the proposal submission process closed on Friday, July 11, we had received more than 1100 incredible ideas from across the United States and around the world. These speaking proposals will be displayed on the Panel Picker voting interface, which will run from August 8-29. Thanks again to Lindsey Simon for developing this amazing online application.

The Tinkering Continues
Stay tuned to sxsw.com as we continue to add new content and information to the site in the coming weeks. Find something on the website that isn’t clear? Then please let us know. And, as always, if you have any SXSW-related questions, give us a shout and we will provide all the right answers.

Original post by hugh

Posted: August 1st, 2008 under Interactive News.
Comments: none