SXSW Interactive 2011: Panels Worth Checking Out

Thinking of heading to Austin in March? Before the South by Southwest Music Festival, there's also South by Southwest Interactive, a conference that focuses on technology, media, marketing and culture. It's no surprise, therefore, that the evolution of the music industry is a hot topic at SXSWi.

The program is partially crowdsourced: people who are interested in presenting at the conference submit proposals, which are then made available to the public to vote on and to provide feedback. Voting opened last week, and is open until August 27th (you do need to register to vote, but it's quick and easy).

Here are six music / tech panel proposals that are intriguing:

Digital Strategies for Optimizing the Fan / Artist Connection
Pretty much what it says on the package: this panel will focus on the tools to measure and 'optimize' fan engagement.

Neither Moguls nor Pirates: Grey Area Music Distribution
Heitor Alvelos, of the University of Porto, argues that music distribution is typically seen as bipolar: music is either legal and paid for, or it's piracy. Alvelos looks at other models of music creation and distribution besides these two.

Free Is Dead. Fan Experiences are Priceless
This is a topic that's close to my heart (I wrote a related MTT post, "What Are Music Fans Willing to Pay For?"). Chris McDonald of Indiefeed focuses on the 'experience economy': providing unique experiences to fans, that they're willing to pay for.

Caching in on Collaboration: Allee Willis and Pomplamoose
Heather Gold moderates a discussion between artists Allee Willis and Pomplamoose, who collaborate on both songwriting and visuals.

A Digital Rolling Stone: Disruptive Technology & Music
This panel has a pretty broad brief: to "analyze the current digital ecosystem and reveal creative and innovative solutions to utilize digital technologies in music that progress with and reflect culture," but the proposer adds that they plan to present research as a case study, so that might make it a little more focused.

The Positive Effects of Music Tech
Samantha Murphy, of The Highway Girl, plans to discuss ways in which the independent artists have been empowered by new technologies around music, particularly those that simplify tasks like tour planning on clearing rights for cover songs.

I've highlighted another eight panels that are more technically oriented over at my own blog, zed equals zee.

Want more? Try searching the list of Interactive panel proposals using 'music' as a keyword. Know of a panel that belongs in this list? Feel free to add it in the comments.

Hope to see you in Austin!

Deb Chachra is a music fan, academic, and geek (not necessarily in that order). She writes zed equals zee, a blog focusing on the interaction of music, technology and culture, as well as the zed equals zee Tumblr. She's debcha on Twitter, Last.fm, and elsewhere.