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The M.O. Interview: Austinist writer Tom Thornton and DoneWaiting editor Robert Duffy talk SXSW
The announcement of the SXSW Music band list is imminent. Or is it? While the public waits, bloggers surf the net hoping to confirm the lion’s share of the bands participating.
This year more than ever, the blogosphere has been abuzz about the expected line-up for SXSW. With festival promoters withholding names of bands until much later than in previous years, music bloggers and fans across the country are scouring the Internet in hopes of scooping the list or stealing the thunder of the uber-furtive SXSW honchos.
Chris Gray’s TCB column in last week’s Austin Chronicle (AC Editor Louis Black helped start SXSW) featured an interview with SXSW Music Creative Director Brent Grulke. In it, Grulke comes off as rather arrogant and aloof, making it clear in no uncertain terms that SXSW is an industry event and that organizers are not concerned about the general consumer. “The largest thing is we’re not trying to promote to consumers at all,” Grulke says in the interview.
The fact that the event is intended for industry insiders and corporations is no secret — just ask festival-goers for whom they work come mid-March; or take a look at the number of corporate sponsors’ tents and banners; or the paucity of wristbands (around 3,000) sold to non-registered attendees. But this year the organizers seem to be going out of their way to thumb their noses at the common music fan.
I caught up with Austinist music writer Tom Thornton and Robert Duffy, editor of DoneWaiting.com, two of the bloggers who have been at the forefront of the band, and asked them about SXSW’s strategy and the reasoning behind the bloggers’ labor-intensive endeavors to get the information to the public.
What led to your decision to scour the net and work your sources to get the information to the public? Tom Thornton: Last year, SXSW released a list of around 100 bands by 12/15 (as quoted in Pitchfork), then released a 700(ish) band list on 1/14 and a 1,000+ band list on 1/23. This year, as of today, they’ve announced around 100 acts on the site and in their newsletters and magazines for badge-holders. Obviously the rules have changed for 2007.
So, what was originally going to be a weekly series of posts from 1/1 to 3/15 focusing on day parties, label showcase previews, and “secret performer” type gossip temporarily became a post about “who is actually playing the festival?” We looked through the PR material from indie labels and publicists, at official band Web sites and MySpace pages, at long-established SXSW blogs like Done Waiting, and at Google News for foreign press stories and the like. So far, we’ve been able to find about 500 acts that confirm they are playing the festival.
Robert Duffy: I started the SXSW blog on donewaiting.com four years ago when I was heading to Austin for the first time for the festival. At the time, there wasn’t really any solid source online outside of the main SXSW site covering the event, so I decided to be that person. I’ve always found it funny that my site is such a huge source of information on the festival, considering I’m based out of Columbus, Ohio, but that’s how the Internet works, I guess.
Have you received any backlash from fest organizers? TT: SXSW has not contacted us in any way about the list. We’re using public information and information distributed to music media only, so there’s no cause for them to do so, really. I think there’s simply a big difference of opinion between their point of view (that delaying the list will discourage day parties and be more accurate, from what I’ve seen) and that of our readers (who are trying to book day parties and hotel rooms [bands] or are trying to decide whether to buy a badge/wristband and book a flight [music fans]). There’s a real demand for the information, especially given the precedents set in years past.
RD: I feel like we have a pretty good relationship. Over the years I’ve had a chance to meet some of the people running the fest, and they really have a passion for music. With that said, when I accidentally stumbled upon the entire 2004 schedule on their site before it was officially published, they gently asked me to take it down and I did. I didn’t want anyone losing their jobs over my blog.
What is your take on SXSW’s stance that they are solely concerned about being an “industry festival?” Do you think SXSW is hurting their public image by being so furtive and difficult? TT: I think that there is more of a consumer side to the festival than the SXSW position might indicate. Every year, many people fly from around the world to attend the festival who have little or nothing to do with the music industry. Of course, SXSW is right that some of those people made their plans months ago when hotels were available and badges were cheaper. So it seems that the ‘delayed’ list hurts bands and managers the most, especially from a logistics point of view, assuming some of them don’t yet know if they’re playing.
Finally, let me just say that I love SXSW, and I’ve bought a badge for the last three years. It is one of if not the coolest week of the year to live in Austin. So, we don’t want to cause trouble - we’re just trying to help SXSW attendees make decisions and stay informed.
RD: Their excuses don’t seem to add up. They’ve said that they don’t want all this attention from the consumer audience about trying to get tickets to the big-named bands, but it’s the big names like Iggy Pop that they announce first! It seems like the organizers want to have their cake and eat it too. If it’s just for industry, I don’t know what’s the point of having huge, well-established bands involved.
Like I said, this is the fourth year I’ve covered the SXSW festival on my site. For the first three years, everyone who spoke to me and wrote me spoke of SXSW in a special way only reserved for Mother Teresa and Christmas. This year, it’s a little different. People are really upset about how SXSW is handling the release of the band information. And when SXSW organizers give interviews, it seems like they’re talking down to the public, trying to shame us for being anxious about the festival.
On top of that, not releasing the information is really hurting the smaller bands. In the past, if I was a small band playing at SXSW, most of the industry would know that in January, giving all the booking agents, record labels and press a chance to stumble upon a little band. At this point, these small bands (which are what an industry festival is supposed to be about, right?) are going to get lost in the shuffle, with less than a month to spread the word about their festival appearance…
(Full disclosure: Prior to coming to the Statesman, I worked as editor at the aforementioned Austinist, for which Tom Thornton writes.)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Music
Comments
By Bre
February 7, 2007 04:40 PM | Link to this
T-Thor is my hero. He owns the biggest television I’ve ever seen.
By WTF?
February 13, 2007 03:42 PM | Link to this
Tom Thornton’s got an interesting yet uninformed perspective, because my band’s playing and we found about a month and a half ago. The “little” bands (like every band) finds out whether they are playing by checking their email, not by checking the SXSW website.
The list hasn’t been made PUBLIC until now, so the only people it’s hurting are rabid fanboys who wanna see Iggy Pop before they die.
By ok
February 14, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this
i think you mean before he dies