Out of a record 50 Australian & New Zealand music artists invited last month to showcase at the 20th annual South by Southwest Music Festival & Conferences from March 15-19 in Austin Texas, 30 Australian and 10 New Zealand acts have now confirmed their appearances at the world’s largest and most prestigious music event. It’s an eightfold increase in artists performing over 2002′s SxSW and the registrations are also eight times 2002.

The 40 artists will be joined by over 200 music industry professionals, operating from government sponsored stands in a combined three day trade show and five day conference filling the daytime hours. But at night, they’ll be competing with over 1200 other bands from around the world who will be showcasing for five nights in 50 venues trying to capture the eyes and ears of over 1000 tastemaker media attendees and thousands of talent scouts from labels, booking agents, management companies and publishers.

The breakdown as of January 9 is 14 VIC, 9 NSW, 3 WA, 2 QLD, 2 SA and 10 NZ. There are still a few bands that have been invited who have not yet confirmed, and of course the ones that have confirmed are always subject to change due to changes in recording, touring or promotional commitments. The artists confirmed by their labels, agents, managers or the artists themselves are:

Airbourne (Melbourne)

The Avalanches (Melbourne)

Avotor (Auckland NZ)

The Bats (Christchurch NZ)

Sarah Blasko (Sydney)

The Brunettes (Auckland NZ)

Bluebottle Kiss (Sydney)

Coco Solid (Auckland NZ)

Cut Copy (Melbourne)

Dappled Cities Fly (Sydney)

Decoder Ring (Sydney)

Die! Die! Die! (Auckland NZ)

End Of Fashion (Perth)

Faker (Sydney)

The Fanatics (Auckland NZ)

The Flairz (Fremantle)

Flip Grater (Christchurch NZ)

The Gear (Melbourne)

Gestalt Switch (Dunedin NZ)

The Grates (Brisbane)

Gyroscope (Perth)

Grey Daturas (Melbourne)

Missy Higgins (Melbourne)

Kisschasy (Melbourne)

Chris Knox and The Nothing (Auckland NZ)

The Living End (Chelsea)

Love of Diagrams (Melbourne)

Lovetones (Sydney)

Ryan McPhun and The Ruby Suns (Auckland NZ)

The Mess Hall (Sydney)

The Morning After Girls (Sydney)

New Buffalo (Melbourne)

The Presets (Melbourne)

Xavier Rudd (Torquay)

Shifter (Brisbane)

Sia (Adelaide)

Something for Kate (Melbourne)

Wolf And Cub (Adelaide)

Wolfmother (Sydney)

Youth Group (Melbourne)

BACKGROUND on South by Southwest–Facts, stats, expanded info on government support & quotes below

Over 420 Australian and New Zealand artists applied for the crucial showcase side of SxSW, which has proven to be a groundbreaking event for our artists seeking recording, publishing, management, agency or touring deals in the lucrative North American market. But a whopping 8000 artists from around the world submitted applications for the coveted one-hour shows that make or break bands to music and media professionals.

The 40 bands playing in 2006 is an eightfold increase from the five that appeared in 2002.

The 200+ OZ & NZ registrants in addition to artists will be over eight times the 25 attending in 2002.

With over 10,000 music business registrants including 1000 key print, radio and television journalists, it’s a networking beehive which the Australian Trade Commission (AUSTRADE) has supported for four years with a major 36 square metre stand presence, a sponsored 10 act Australian Barbecue Concert on top of the night shows & a 36 page free ‘street-press’ style magazine with 15,000 copies of the ‘Australian Music Guide’ circulated at key music and book retailers, venues and in each delegate’s showbag.

New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, in concert with the New Zealand Music Industry Commission, has also booked its fourth annual stand and will hold an opening night party/concert of Kiwi bands. In addition, the West Australian state government will host its third private party at SxSW and assist in travel expenses and promotion of participating WA acts through Arts WA and the WA Music Industry Association. Continuing support of governments has added to continued success of Australian and New Zealand artists & businesses.

Commenting on the largest number of Australian bands and music executives in the US at any one time, AUSTRADE’s Business Development Manager of the recently created Australian Music Office at the Los Angeles Consulate, Tony George, states, “AUSTRADE’s Music Office has gone the extra mile this year by spearheading innovative new ways to give artists, bands and music industry executives exposure and networking opportunities at this mammoth music marketplace which has been a critical strategy of music exporting over the past three years as the result of government and industry synergy. Our continued investment is a result of escalating success.”

Among the initiatives are a teleconferencing ‘boot camp’ where bands and delegates will gather in AUSTRADE offices across Australia six weeks out from SxSW, to get the latest information on visa procurement, publicity, promotion, dealmaking opportunities and other strategies of attacking the North American market from experts in the online networking session. Aside from the resources of the three day trade fair stand presence and marketing magazine, media appearances and in-store shows are also being lined up as well as airplay on satellite radio and Internet sites.

AUSTRADE–in association with the non-profit Australian Music Collective which produces the SxSW Australian Barbecue Concert of ten acts March 17 in Austin–is also facilitating a major showcase for the industry in Los Angeles Monday March 13 prior to SxSW at the legendary Troubador in Hollywood as well as two New York showcases in New York March 21 and 22 after SxSW concludes for music executives and agents in that industry centre at venues to be announced.

SxSW representative for Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, Phil Tripp, is based in Sydney at IMMEDIA! which for four years has expanded the attendance and enabled the success of participants from the farthest countries in the world that participate. “Having been in the industry 30 years, Australia for 25 and having run national presences at global music markets for 20, we knew the potential for Australia and New Zealand at SxSW was phenomenal since our live performance based artist and contemporary music styles matched the needs of the North American marketplace that SxSW services. As the event has grown over the past four years to incorporate more countries’ attendees, we’ve reaped the benefits from creating and maintaining a strong Australian ‘brand’ at the event through the governments’ support of stands, promotion and media. At least 10 major deals have come out of 2005′s SxSW AustralAsian Invasion and we feel the outcome of this year’s participation will make a major contribution to our export music income.”

The AustralAsian South by Southwest website is at http://www.themusic.com.au/sxsw.

The official South by Southwest website is at http://www.sxsw.com

For further information, images & interviews contact Phil Tripp tripp@sxsw.com or (02) 9557 7766

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