The Greediest Music Festival 

SXSW is losing relevance in the age of social media. bands used to trip over themselves trying to get booked there, but now they can get similar exposure online doing things their own way. Thanks for speaking up dude.

My band in high school got paid more for a gig at a random Southern California venue - as openers - 20 years ago. Not much more, mind you, but this is insane.

Big agree with everything you brought up. I live in Austin and work in the arts and entertainment both as a performer tech and producer, and I stopped taking gigs associated with sxsw. There's a fairly large anti-sxsw scene of events, big, small, diy, etc. Unfortunately it's not enough to compete.

Grew up here in Austin, my Dad played at SXSW in the 80’s & 90’s. They weren’t payed at all, always was a bs play for exposure type thing. His joke would then be to say “but you know, you can die from exposure” 😂

The entire time I lived in Austin, musicians were never paid fairly unless they were already considered “made”. Which is a pretty high bar. What that bar is tends to be fluid depending on where you want to play. To reiterate: there WERE and ARE some venues that still cater to the budding musician in Austin, and around Austin like San Marcus. I moved a couple years back so how many that is Im unsure.

Man, i remember when SXSW used to look like one of the funnest festivals in the 2000’s and early 2010’s. What a shame a corporate greedy space it’s become

The "either playing or attending" rule is bonkers. Even D-list bands playing for pub goers are given drink and food vouchers to get served at the damn pub.

The best part about SXSW is the unofficial shows all around town anyway. Because of the low pay, most artists visiting play other non-festival venues the same week and those are where the really cool shows happen.

SXSW has been acting this way for decades now. It should legitimately be boycotted entirely. It's hilarious that a festival in a town with that thriving a live music scene as strong as Austin's has been consistently that fucking cheap when a band can simply wait a month and go make four times as much money for a normal show.

Holy fuck that is a tiny ass amount. For a festival making that much it's insulting to even consider this fair

Incredible that these festivals would not have a dollar in revenue without the artists and they disrespect them like this. Music industry as a whole needs to be trashed

I wouldn’t call the RNC a music festival, but i see your point.

My band (UK based) played SXSW last year, although we had an incredible experience and met some brilliant people it truly did skint us…if not for our amazing fans crowdfunding to pay for us we would never of been able to afford to play SXSW

Damn, SXSW be paying its artists less than Spotify

As an Austinite, I just hate SXSW for blocking traffic on one of the busiest routes into the city. Fucking pain in the ass in a city with already shitty traffic.

Artists are so underappreciated in this society.

„I can only describe this as Satanic, that's all I can say“ As a Satanist, I am offended by this. We Satanists would never do something so disgusting

That is genuinely insane. I've been paid more for a gig and I'm nobody.

In September 2022 my band, Inner City Witches, applied to be in the showcase. We didn’t make it but now I don’t want to try again because it legit WAS $55 to apply and they said we’d either be paid $100 to play their or get wrist bands to see anything you want. We’re from St Louis Missouri where we would have to drive around 24 hours to Austin in a 2004 Toyota 4Runner with 200,000 miles on it that guzzles gas only for $100 and the hope that some big label sees us. Which they probably wouldn’t. I know 2 bands who played it from St Louis and they only lost money. But hey! My friend met the CEO of Dell computers there so I guess that’s a win??

The locals hate SXSW too, it makes the city a nightmare for commuting for a week+

I got to go to SXSW in 2008 and 2009. The corporate cancer was already heavy, but I’m glad I got to go that long ago because it sounds like it’s gotten way worse.

In 2013-2014 i did music booking for a very small college in Ohio (~1200 students). We typically budgeted around $500-$1000 to book the band for each show (plus a hundred or two to spend on food, drinks, whatever was on their rider) and most of the time they weren’t even well known bands. Insane to think that not only were we paying 5-10x as much as SXSW did back then, that was A DECADE AGO and it’s still 5-10x the rate they’re giving TODAY

I’ve lived in Austin for 18 years. Worked in the music industry there for 10 years. It’s sad to see how downhill the festival has gone. The lineups for the last 3-5 years has been absolute trash save for a few private/surprise guests that pop up, but it’s clear it’s just a 2-3 week corporate convention at this point. Real music fans should just skip this and do ACL instead.

I'm surprised it took so long for someone to request better compensation. I've never attended SXSW but the fact that an entry badge can run between $1,500 and $2,000 is insane.

A reminder that the best music festivals are the small to medium sized local ones

$750, minus application fees, equals 1 full-time paycheck if you were payed $8.69/hr assuming you work a 40hr week and get paid every other week. Essentially, they’re fighting to be paid a dollar and some change above minimum wage in Texas.

As an Austinite I think the majority of us dislike SXSW. It just brings a bunch of traffic into the area and I think 99% of attendees are tourists. I didn’t know that they paid artists so low though, just another reason to dislike it I guess lol.

I live in Austin and just love to see my city continue its path into pseudo culture bs

They just announced the artist line-up for SXSW Sydney, it's pretty grim

I have a friend playing SXSW this year and they only give the acts a single +1. Acts can't even bring both a single merch attendent and equipment tech

Actually, growing up in Austin, there was a ton of good shows that were affordable. Then SXSW happened, they built parking garages over all the best music venues, ie liberty lunch, southpark meadows, the backroom etc... Was really weird watching people pay exuberant amounts of money for wrist bands once that started.

SXSW is less of a music festival and more of a tech conference at this point.

It’s tough, on one hand, it’s infuriating to reward these companies for blatantly disrespecting their performers by going and giving them money. But on the other hand, my brother is an indie producer that has performed at SXSW for years and it is a genuine tool to get his sound, name, and credibility out there, and I don’t want his chances of being heard diminished just because he has to play in this system.

I can't believe you would just talk about Elon Musk for 8 minutes and call him a Music Festival...

Idk man Fyre Fest's pretty hard to beat

I took out a reverse mortgage to headline SXSW.

I live in Austin. No one from Austin goes to that. Transplants and tourist festival.

Pls do the 20000 album list Anthony

There’s many bad ones

That sucks. I am a musician who is wanting to start playing again soon, not for money or anything but that sucks that it's so hard just to play your shit. Great stuff as usual Tony

Fantano - never stop using the boingy sound effect noise on your vids, it’s the gift that keeps on giving

i’m a tx native so i feel inclined to speak on this. south-by has gone the way of austin itself. a city that sold out to the tech companies and undercut everything that ever made it cool and unique. my dad is a UT grad, and hearing his stories of austin before it became a mini technocracy makes it seem like the best place anyone could live if their into music, art, food, culture, blah blah blah. everything has been taken from the city and replaced with a pinterest board version of what an “artsy” city is. not to mention the effects it’s had on the city’s poor/working class communities and communities of color. i live in richmond virginia now and as austin has become more and more expensive the spillover is coming here and other “up and coming” cities and starting to do the exact same thing. rents raising, local haunts closing, all to be replaced by air BnB’s and tech startup offices. anyway, rant over. this isn’t just an issue with a festival it’s a symptom of an all encompassing material issue that one day will effect everyone below a certain tax bracket.

It should be noted most of the festival staff is volunteer, so looks like barely anyone is getting paid apparently. (The reward is a lower-tier wristband if you sign up for a certain amount of hours).

The volunteer coordinators came by my college’s rtf department and for the week of spring break they were asking for a full time work schedule from 6-2a for the full music week, with only one day off to enjoy the fest. No comp for either gas or board if you couldn’t make that commute daily. They really assume you don’t have any other course work to work on, or you’re not at school part-time and have to go to an actual job.

Played last year and can confirm. Total fucking shit show for artists. Parking blocks and blocks away from your venue to carry all your gear through packed streets to play shows that will do about as much for you as a show at any of your local venues. Wouldn’t prefer to do it again unless they make big changes.

As someone who has lived in Austin for the past 5 years, I’ve never quite understood SXSW, nor why passes were so damn expensive.

Paying 100$ to solo artists is ridiculous. That's literally just grocery money.

The one year I went to SXSW the shows were free. It was cool I saw Emarosa, The Used, and watched the spectacle that was Family Force 5. I also saw Sam Brown from WKUK just walking around and got to say hi. I never really cared about it at all after that.

Nice to see Heba Kadry sign this, love her work

Hey Fantano, did you ever cover Steve Miller's takedown of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies?

You're the greedy one, Anthony. You get to say "hey," "hi," AND "hello" at the beginning of every damn video.

I went to sxsw in 2013. For 11 days. I spent literally 85 dollars total. Food and drinks were free everywhere. Everything was free except a few ‘exclusive’ events you paid like 15 bucks to get into. And thats fucked up. No wonder no one gets paid

0:18 sounds like the beginning of Pss Pss lol

Just moved to Austin after finishing college and getting a salary offer in ATX

Living in Austin, SXSW used to at least be worth checking out a few events. Now I literally leave the city that week.

its so disgusting. i've played festivals and not being a bigger artist, they look down on you, deny you service, catering, or access, and then after all the expenses you and your band split up crumbs. if you're lucky you break even and get some beer money. taking into account all the time it takes recording, writing, producing, rehearsing, etc you're easily making less than minimum wage. artists deserve so much more

This why I refuse to buy a pss for SXSW, I just show up and break into shows to buy merch

Being FROM Austin and not even realizing musicians got paid for SXSW until I signed that petition. We’re gonna rally and do ditch the fest (usually for acl) but for SXSW and the unofficial shows will thrive. Fuck my hometown and the Californian wasteland outsiders have deformed it into ❤️

I didn't pay, or get paid, when my squad performed at SXSW. It was fine tho, it was honestly worth it for me. I went there with literally 0 presence in the industry, and left with lots of new friends and connections. My boy Chris Hasty performed 11 times, at 3 different venues, over the weekend and didn't get paid for any of it tho. That was rough to watch.

For foreigners SXSW offers the chance to play USA without getting a $3-5k working visa. Most international bands that play SXSW won't ever be able to afford to tour USA because it costs $1000+ a day with van, hotels, backline, Tour Manager etc so it's good for that reason because it legally allows live shows due to it's unique "Visa Waiver" status. It's illegal under US law to pay acts without a working visa so they can't pay foreigners. Some lucky international acts get funding for flights/hotels so it's a good trip for those but it's the only chance many get to play USA because of the most expensive visas in the world. Europe has zero visa cost, UK is £150. For USA acts it's less useful unless a band signs to Secretly or similar and gets a load of press from SXSW before or around a signed to campaign. We had Leggy there treating it as a holiday and they did 20 shows in a week and had a ball but the unofficial shows paying bands beet are not any better as they profit more than acts but for International acts it's good and can set bands up for festivals.

Thanks for doing this video! Artists should go sign the demands in the link in the description

I almost never see eye to eye w Anthony, but on this I'm 100% with him. Genuinely a pointless amount of money to pay the people who make your festival a thing.

wanted to go to sxsw film festival and was absurdly expensive. make sense now

melons are so underrated in our society

Kudos to Melon for showing off the latest experimental mustache fashions.

bands in London are literally having to do multiple fundraising gigs, as 250 isn't even enough for a flight to Texas smh

That’s just how Austin is now, super corporatized

As someone who is an artist and who has lived in Austin on and off since 2016 (from Houston) This has been known l!! I have friends in all forms of entertainment who have and have not performed or showed at SXSW but we can all agree it's become so corporate and I've never gotten a wristband or anything because I can't afford it! It's only gotten more expensive to live in this city overtime But what I'm glad that happens every year is people like What When Where Austin who curate lists of all the free shit or non official SXSW shows that are REASONABLY PRICED and probably pay artist better then south by And HUGE S/O to all Austinites and people who have to work during this chaos of time, I've done it It's not fun!!! Because gig workers and essential employees and artists are the BACKBONE of the Austin economy!!! When SXSW was canceled during the pandemic me and thousands of others lost millions of dollars and pay and recognition because that's one of the biggest economic boosters for Austin during the year If it wasn't for mutual aid funds and regular degular folks coming to help one another Austin would not have survived Hell it's barely surviving now for regular folks and not tech ceos

Back in the early 20210s I used to play the Sux by Sux West noise fest lol.

It costs more money to buy tickets than the artists get paid. Staggering

If South By is looking to create a cheap experience, they could’ve fooled me. Sure, allegedly they offer a limited amount of cheaper tickets to locals (good luck getting your hands on any), but most general admission passes to the actual music festival are, like, approaching $1000 if I’m remembering recent prices correctly. Unless you can write it off as a business expense (or you’re otherwise getting passes from your workplace or as a gift), you’re better off just walking around town and hovering across the street from a venue. It’s increasingly becoming a festival that caters to the networking crowd of rich or rich-seeking tech sector socialites instead of to music lovers of all walks of life. The fact that they’re insulting international artists (who used to be one of the best parts of the festival) is the rancid icing on the cake for me. You can’t really live up to the title of “Live Music Capital of the World” when you can’t get anyone from outside the country to play your festival cuz they’re sinking probably thousands of dollars into getting there with no expected return. Sure, for KPop production companies with more money than God, maybe the exposure to the American market that SXSW can grant a new band is worth that loss, but that’s *one* country (maybe two, if you throw in the rare Japanese corporation who’ll send an act over), and it’s not even representative of that country’s music scene. It’s horrendous.

I lived in Austin for 4 years and never went. $1k+ for a wristband seemed like such a ripoff. Makes traffic in the city insane too. Us musicians avoid it for the most part save for a few DIY shows. Not surprised they frown at that too

Something about the idea of bathing in indie musician blood is absolutely insane

This reminds me of Mehta muhta from some ordinary gamers. Good 👍😊 work fantano

1:30 and also the Circuit of the Americas just for Formula One and a concert afterwards.... Lol

Not nearly as bad the 04’ incident. But we don’t talk about that

SXSW hasn’t been the same since the mid 2010s. ACL is getting there.

they're operating like a fucking charity concert lol

by doing simple math i was able to figure out that 3000 is easily attainable payment

Fantano: The Peoples Musician

Bruh what self-respecting artist would get ripped off like this holy shit lmao 😭😭 SXSW is evil

Promoters have long capitalized on the idea that musicians are dreamers and will work for exposure. It’s the same everywhere. A few times, our band didn’t get paid, with the excuse, “well you guys already have jobs.” It’s total bull. We aren’t volunteers.

Te quiero Melon

The artists are the backbone of the industry. YES. That is the absolute truth and the next part of this is? The Skexis all have a hunchback.

Austin's the new LA. I was born and raised in Austin but right around 2015 it became pretty much completely corporate and techy. Denver is weirder than Austin now.

To show how low 250 dollars is for a band at a festival, my band completely local to buttfuck middle of nowhere Missouri gets paid AT LEAST 300 dollars a gig at a BAR and we are all teenagers and haven't been playing for incredibly long.

Finally some backlash. As a German working in the field for years: Even for European bands they pay the same (or less), let them pay the flights AND telling bands to LIE at the flipping ESTA sheets!

Commenting twice for the beginning artists out there. Unless it's your absolute 1st gig, it's a place that doesn't normally have musicians, and you're the opener, you should be able to get free admission for you, food and drinks if they serve them, and $100. If you don't get food and drink, it should be discounted or a food truck not associated with the venue. For a known festival not to include those things is unacceptable. Your local town events will treat you better than this, and there won't be application fees.

$250?! And what the band is suppose to spilt that between themselves?! What about the roadies and the merch…and idk, fucking everything?! That’s absurd.

anthony the goat fr hes such a nice guy.

Hey Anthony. Have you checked out BC's rising indigenous hip hop artists Snotty Nose Rez kids yet?

If enough artists girlcot the festival, then SXSW will only get the dregs and the most opportunistic of manwhores... After the application fee, solo artists only get $45 to play there? And yet they charge customers up to 2 grand a pop? I swear, yesterday and today was backup April fools, or something. This just can't be real. And neither can that $1600 Teenage Engineering Field Desk (card table). What happened these past couple days? Was it the green comet?

Man I donate plasma for money, and I get paid like $100 for just sitting in a chair and playing on my phone lmfao I can't believe a solo artist gets paid that little to play a festival

I'm a nobody and I don't even think I'd play SXSW for that little.

A More Perfect Union is based. Love them.

ok but drinking indie musician blood gets you really fucked up

Austin is so under appreciated in this society.

Application fees are a scam in general. Either they want you to participate or they don't.

I am very confused. If these artists are getting paid so little to perform then why did they agree to perform? Is “South by Satan” forcing these artists to fly to Austin and perform? Can a someone help me out here

SXSW is an industry festival. You play to be seen by industry people. I’m surprised the bands aren’t paying to play, and I bet some of them are. Bands will try to even just get a gig in town at the time of the festival. There are some larger free concerts for the locals that happen during SXSW.