Demo Listening Sessions

Is it an audition? Is it music education? Is it group therapy? SXSW Demo Listening Sessions offer a unique opportunity for registrant musicians to get direct feedback from music professionals, the kind of people who listen to demo tapes as part of their job. Producers, A&R representatives, venue buyers, and publicists will all sit on various sessions. While not every session will assess every submitted band, you will undoubtedly learn something about how to present your music just by attending. For your scheduling convenience, the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference offers seven demo listening sessions over the four days of the event.

Demo Listening Session Tips

1. Fifteen minutes before the start of each session, a SXSW representative will be at the doorway of Room 19A with the Demo Box. Registrants may place one copy of a CD in the box. Registrants are encouraged to note the preferred track number on the cover of the disc. Sticky notes are provided for this purpose. The speakers on each demo listening will select discs at random. No guarantees are made that all submissions will be reviewed. Speakers will listen to as much of the tracks as they deem necessary to form their comments.

2. Our speakers are selected because they listen to demo tapes regularly in a professional capacity. The responses the speakers give are genuine, first take reactions. They provide their opinions both for the artists and for the rest of the registrants on the panel. Their opinions reflect the range of reactions that these professionals have, and are intended to be constructive. Please treat the speakers with respect. It is at the discretion of the speakers whether or not to engage in dialogue directly with the artist during the session.

3. While we won't stop anyone from attending all the demo listening sessions, we encourage registrants to check out the other conference sessions as well. If you've attended multiple demo sessions and had your material reviewed, we ask that you allow other registrants the access which you've already enjoyed. Similarly, we ask that you respect your fellow registrants and not monopolize the speakers' time with multiple questions.

All Demo Listening Sessions will be held in Room 19A at the Austin Convention Center.

# 1 Wednesday March 14, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
# 2 Wednesday March 14, 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
# 3 Thursday March 15, 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM
# 4 Thursday March 15, 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
# 5 Friday March 16, 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
# 6 Friday March 16, 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM

(Speakers on all sessions are listed on the Panels Schedule page.)