"South by Southwest Used To Be About The Music, Man": Wall Street Journal

“If the annual South by Southwest Music Festival was once a highly prized opportunity for developing artists to win needed attention from music-industry personnel, it’s now a hydra-headed corporate carnival that employs some 2,200 musical acts to attract marketers and advertisers. Music is still its saving grace, but a question lingered here last week: Is it worth it for emerging artists to perform at an event that seems less about their art and more about branding, networking and deal-making? The five-day event must find the balance between a celebration of music and an opportunity to pitch just about anything to people who identify with rock, pop and related fields. This year, marketing, often graceless and banal, seemed the priority.”