SXSW History Gets “Outside Industry”
Posted by Matt Singer on
This was my worry about “Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW:” that it was going to be a self-congratulatory home video of a documentary, of interest only to the people featured in it. Thankfully, “Outside Industry” has more to talk about than the admittedly fascinating story of how a couple of music lovers from Austin, Texas built one of the biggest (and, based on the people I see walking past my hotel at night, dirtiest) music festivals and conferences in the world. Director Alan Berg shows us how SXSW serves as a microcosm of the changes that have been sweeping through the entire music industry over the last twenty-five years, as labels, distributors and retailers, have grown less and less powerful, and outsiders like the guys who built South By have become insiders in their own right. I spoke with Berg about how and why he chose to tell SXSW’s story and what the future of SXSW looks like in a world where its original purpose — showcasing bands that couldn’t find an outlet anywhere else, connecting them with record labels — has been rendered obsolete by the digital revolution.
Part 1:
Part 2:
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