South By Southwest 2015 Music Festival: Free Downloads, Webcasts, & More

See below for details on free SXSW Music downloads and more.

Today is not just St. Patrick's Day, it's the kickoff of the music portion of the sprawling South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. Here's our guide to how to take part in SXSW Music if you're not there, an annual (usually) feature of Podcast Party.

NPR Music is doing its usual extensive coverage, including song downloads and streams, live webcasts, podcasts, previews, and more.

• listen to NPR's All Songs Considered SXSW 2015 preview 
• listen to or download their hand-picked collection of 100 songs from this year's SXSW artists, the Austin 100 (you can download all or just the ones you want) 
• and read their article on how to experience SXSW Music without being there

(If you want a lot more free song downloads from SXSW 2015 artists (and we mean a lot), go to the unofficial SXSW torrent page. It features two parts containing a total of more than 8 gigabytes of tunes.)

NPR hasn't announced a webcast schedule yet, but we'll update this post when (if?) they make this info available. They also do "late-night dispatch" podcasts each night of SXSW Music, in which each of the NPR Music correspondents on hand sum up the best acts they've seen that night (sometimes recorded in random places like a parking lot).

[Update, March 18th: NPR's SXSW showcase takes place tonight and while it won't be streamed live, it will be posted online "in the days after the concert." The show features Australian Courtney Barnett (playing her new, not-yet-released album live) ... Belgian singer Stromae, who's gotten hundreds of millions of views for his video "Papaoutai" ... and TV On The Radio, playing tunes from their latest album, "Seeds."]

Santa Monica's KCRW also has great SXSW coverage. Start with this article on "Newbies to Know at SXSW 2015." And see KCRW Music during the week for more coverage.

Also, check out Podcast Party's coverage from previous years, including 2013, 2012, and 2011.

Enjoy!

South by Southwest Music 2013: Free SXSW Downloads, Podcasts, Streaming Shows, & More

Hear live concerts and more from South by Southwest; see schedule below.

The music portion of this year's South by Southwest festival starts March 12th (running through the 17th), and as usual there are plenty of ways to sample music by the artists involved and the actual concerts down in Austin. Here are a few of the best ones (I'll post if I come across them):

* NPR Music's SXSW coverage is, as usual, pretty extensive; there are live webcasts of concerts and the keynote, interviews, and more. On March 13th there'll be live webcasts with Nick Cave, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Youth Lagoon, Alt-J, and more; the next day they'll stream Dave Grohl's keynote address. Other live sets include Divine Fits, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Iron and Wine, Dawes, and Charles Bradley.

NPR's Alt.Latino will broadcast live sets as well, featuring Café Tacuba, Molotov, and Bajofondo. And if you miss any of these live webcasts, don't worry: NPR tends to archive them online and make many of them available for download as free podcasts.

See the complete schedule of NPR Music's SXSW 2013 lineup here, and listen to their "Austin 100" playlist of songs (which you can also download individually, or in one big 800 MB zip file).

* Sample more than 1,200 songs by SXSW 2013 artists with this year's edition of The (Unofficial) SXSW Torrents. It's split into two files, the first is over 6 GB, the other a little over 1 GB.

* Amazon.com has two free SXSW 2013 samplers, one from Polyvinyl Records (featuring Deerhoof, Japandroids, Of Montreal, and more) and "Don't Mess with Texas" from The Orchard, with Loal Natives, Charles Bradley, The Virgins, Young Galaxy, Ra Ra Riot, and more.

* L.A.'s KCRW radio was one of the first radio stations to broadcast from SXSW, and it will have plenty of festival coverage as well. See the complete KCRW SXSW schedule here.

* The Alternate Side and its parent, WFUV, will have plenty of live music from SXSW on March 15th as part of the Public Radio Rocks SXSW Day Stage featuring Vampire Weekend, Divine Fits, Iron & Wine, Emmylou Harris, Dawes, Charles Bradley, and Pickwick.

* Fellow blogger Andriana of Gluttony is the New Black has put together a very thorough guide to the essentials of surviving SXSW for the website The Line of Best Fit. It covers music, of course, but also gives tips on the best food, open bars, parties, getting around, and more.

Music Notes: The Civil Wars Make Billboard Cover, Imperial Teen Contest, & More

The Civil Wars are the subject of a recent cover story in Billboard.

This edition of news from the music world includes another big accomplishment for an acclaimed duo, a unique contest to get attention for a returning indie-pop band, a new signing for an established rocker, and more concert podcast downloads from South by Southwest.

* The run of good luck just keeps on going for The Civil Wars, with the duo making the cover of last week's Billboard. The accompanying story describes their other accomplishments, including scoring a movie, having one of their songs featured on the "Hunger Games" soundtrack, and co-writing a song with megastar Taylor Swift. Oh, and that's all besides their one-minute appearance on this year's Grammys, which gave them the show's second-largest bump in sales after the telecast (trailing only Adele).

* Imperial Teen has come up with a novel way to drum up attention for its latest album, "Feel the Sound": it's encouraging fans to download and print out masks of the band members, and then create videos of themselves wearing them. The idea came from fans' requesting their own copies of the masks that appear in Imperial Teen's "Runaway" video. And that led to a full-blown contest.



"Feel the Sound"(Merge Records) is Imperial Teen's fifth album, and the first in five years for the San Francisco band that features Roddy Bottum, formerly of Faith No More. See reviews of the album in Rolling Stone and Spin.

* Speaking of Merge, the indie label added another prestigious name when it announced during South by Southwest that it had signed Bob Mould. The former member of Hüsker Dü and Sugar is working on a new album, which will be out on Merge in the Fall. According to Mould's website, the album will be "recorded with his current bandmates, Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats), and Jason Narducy (Robert Pollard, Verbow)."

As noted here before, Mould is planning a limited number of shows in the coming months at which he'll perform Sugar's album "Copper Blue"(which was released 20 years ago). He was scheduled to perform "Copper Blue" at South by Southwest last night (March 17th).

* There are more SXSW concert downloads available from NPR Music, including Sugar Tongue Slim, Lower Dens, and Poliça. The set by The Magnetic Fields will be posted sometime later, NPR says. And if you didn't hear or see Bruce Springsteen's SXSW keynote address, make sure you check it out; it's a great discussion on the history and meaning of music, and is definitely worth your time.

* WFMU has posted the archives from its March 17th live show at Beerland for SXSW, featuring performances from The Men, Jason Sigal and Brian Turner, Electric Jellyfish, and more.

Concert Notes: Fiona Apple at SXSW (Video), SXSW Podcasts, The Shins & More On Sale

Fiona Apple performs "Anything We Want" last night in this fan-filmed video. 

There's lots of current concert news, and not all of it's related to South by Southwest. In fact, there are a number of interesting concerts coming up in the New York area that are going on sale tomorrow. Here's what's up:

* If you missed last night's late concerts from Stubb's at SXSW on NPR Music, they're up now for streaming or podcast download. See these links for sets Sharon Van Etten, Dan Deacon, Alabama Shakes, and Andrew Bird.

* Fiona Apple's return to the stage had people talking, and you can see videos of two new songs by her ("Every Single Night" and "Anything We Want") at the Village Voice's wrap-up of Day 1 at SXSW.

As for those NYC-area concerts (all of which go on sale tomorrow, March 16th, at 12 Noon, except for the first show):

* Chip Taylor, writer of "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning," is having a record-release show March 22nd at Hill Country for his new album, "F*ck All the Perfect People." Tickets are on sale now.

* Fresh off their appearance on "Saturday Night Live," The Shins are on the road and will play three nights at New York's Terminal 5, April 29th and 30th, and May 1st.

* Like The Shins, Garbage is making a return from a number of years off with a new album and tour. Garbage plays Webster Hall on May 22nd.

* Another returning act, That Dog, has added a second show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 25th. The original show on the 24th is sold out.

* Beach House plays a SummerStage benefit concert on June 23rd.

* Bonnie Raitt plays the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ (with Mavis Staples) on June 19th.

* Jonathan Richman plays two shows at Bowery Ballroom, June 12th and 13th.

NPR Music's Live SXSW Webcasts Start Tonight

NPR Music kicks off its live SXSW music webcasts with nine shows on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sharon Van Etten kicks off NPR Music's schedule of live webcasts from the SXSW music festival tonight. There are four shows this evening (going late into the night), and five shows tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Van Etten's set is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Central time (yes, apologies for the very late notice here). Fortunately, most if not all of these sets will be posted online later for viewing and/or listening.

The live webcasts scheduled for tonight and tomorrow:

Wednesday, March 14th:
Sharon Van Etten, 9 p.m. Central
Dan Deacon, 10 p.m.
Alabama Shakes, 11:15 p.m.
Andrew Bird, 12:30 a.m. (Thursday morning)

Thursday, March 15th:
Bruce Springsteen (delivering keynote address), 12 noon Central
La Vida Boheme, 1 p.m.
Sugar Tongue Slim 1:45 p.m.
Polica 2:30 p.m.
Lower Dens 3:15 p.m.
The Magnetic Fields 4 p.m.

One SXSW show that happened earlier tonight that may be online later: Fiona Apple staged her triumphant return to performing with a set that had a lot of critics in attendance raving. Spinner tweeted, "Fiona Apple's first show after being away for what feels like forever is terrific, terrifying, triumphant." [Update: You can see one of the new songs Fiona Apple performed tonight here at Consequence of Sound, in a video recorded by a fan. (The song is “Anything We Want;" she also played the new songs “Valentine” and “Every Single Night.”)] Apple's new album (which is 23 words long) is set to come out in June.

The Fiona Apple set was presented or sponsored by NPR, which has said it hopes to put it online for viewing, if Ms. Apple approves.

South by Southwest 2012: Free SXSW Downloads, Podcasts, Streaming Shows, & More

See what's happening the the SXSW Music Festival below.

The music portion of this year's South by Southwest festival starts March 13th (running through the 18th), and as usual there are plenty of ways to sample music by the artists involved and the actual concerts down in Austin. Here are a few (I'll add more as I come across them):

NPR Music's SXSW coverage grows each year, with live webcasts of concerts, podcasts, and more. Stream or download their SXSW preview podcast here, which notes some of the musicians they're most interested in seeing. Check out their "Austin 100" playlist of songs, see their full SXSW broadcast schedule, and visit the NPR Music SXSW home page for all the latest news, streams, and downloads.

SXSW coverage from L.A.'s KCRW radio includes news, reviews, and tracks to listen to, including those from its own nightly showcases, such as Oberhofer and Temper Trap.

The Alternate Side and its parent, WFUV, have SXSW coverage including Bruce Springsteen's keynote address (1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 15th) and live and recorded music sets from Sharon Van Etten, Alabama Shakes, Shearwater, The Magnetic Fields, and many more.

Spinner.com takes a look at the breakout bands of SXSW 2012, as chosen by music bloggers and writers including those from Billboard, Spin.com, Rawkblog.net, and Consequence of Sound.

Spin.com has a free download of songs from 30+ artists who'll be getting lots of attention at SXSW this year; this "Austin Power" collection has tunes from Hospitality, Sharon Van Etten, Screaming Females, Pujol, The War on Drugs, Widowspeak, and more.

Concert listing website Oh My Rockness has a guide to SXSW music featuring its 10 must-see bands, a guide to free shows, listings of what it considers the best unofficial SXSW gigs, and more

Canada's Arts and Crafts record label has a Soundcloud sampler of songs from its artists, including Dan Mangan and The Darcys.

Fellow music blogger Andriana (Dre) at Gluttony is the New Black has her own SXSW Soundcloud page with picks of musicians she wants to see, including Matt Easton and Fanzine.

Live SXSW Audio on NPR Starting Sat. afternoon: Bright Eyes, Felice Bros., Kurt Vile, & More

There's more live audio from South by Southwest (SXSW) coming at you right now from NPR Music. Head to their SXSW website for webcasts starting at 4:30 p.m.:

• Kurt Vile - 3:30 Central Time/4:30 Eastern
  
• Man Man - 4:35 CT/5:35 ET
  
• Middle Brother - 5:30 CT/6:30 ET
  
• The Felice Brothers - 6:15 CT/7:15 ET
  
• Bright Eyes - 7:30 CT/8:30 ET

Their previous webcasts are available online for streaming or, in most cases, podcast download (through iTunes and other podcast programs). You can watch SXSW sets from:

• The Head and the Heart
  
• The Antlers
  
• Raphael Saadiq
  
• Smith Westerns
  
• The Joy Formidable
  
• Wild Flag
  
• Khaira Arby
  
• Colin Stetson
  
• James Blake
  
• Yuck
• tUnE-yArDs

… and Jack White's impromptu set played in a parking lot.

SXSW Music: Concert Podcasts, More Coverage

Brooklyn's The Antlers (shown here at NYC's RiverRocks festival last summer) will be webcast live on March 17th.

SXSW is in full swing, and you can get a lot of content online. NPR Music hosted its first live webcasts from SXSW 2011 today, and a couple are already archived for download (by the Smith Westerns and the oddly named, yet catchy, band known as Yuck). Others you can stream online, including Raphael Saadiq and electronic musician James Blake.

Thursday the 17th NPR Music will start webcasting at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, but I'll be checking in later on to listen to three acts I'm interested in: the new band Wild Flag at 3:30 (featuring Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney and Mary Timony from Helium), the Welsh group The Joy Formidable at 4:15, and The Antlers at 5:00.

For people like me who enjoy alternative Latin music, NPR Music's Alt.Latino blog takes a look at some of the new Latin musicians who are playing SXSW.

There are plenty of Canadian bands at South by Southwest, and CBC Radio 3 is doing some live audio webcasts. You can find those and the network's other SXSW coverage here. And check out their SXSW preview podcast, which spotlights some of the Canadians performing in Austin this week, with tunes by Jenn Grant, Said the Whale, and Oh Susanna.

For more international coverage of the goings-on in Austin, check the British newspaper The Guardian's SXSW section.

South by Southwest 2011 (SXSW): Free Music for Download and Streaming

The music part of the South by Southwest festival gets underway in Austin, Texas tomorrow, but you can enjoy a lot of the music in the comfort of your home with free podcasts and online streaming. Here are some of the choices available. The SXSW Music festival runs from March 15th through the 20th.

* The official 2011 SXSW Music website has links to free iTunes downloads and the SXSW Shoutcast radio stations. You can also subscribe to the SXW Music Blog feed and get updates by connecting to SXSW on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

* As usual, there's a huge collection of songs by SXSW artists to download via torrent (this year's is over 6.5 GB). (From what I've been told this download is legal, though I can't find any statement explicitly stating that.)

* NPR Music will once again be offering extensive SXSW coverage, including live concert webcasts (mostly audio, but there may be some video) that are usually archived for streaming or podcast download later. See their SXSW Music site for the Austin 100 Mix, a streaming collection of new songs by artists playing the festival, and see their SXSW preview (streaming or podcast) for the artists the NPR Music staff is most looking forward to.

* L.A. radio station KCRW will have a big presence in Austin as well, and you can find their schedule, a free SXSW sampler, and more at their SXSW site. "Morning Becomes Eclectic" host Jason Bentley will be broadcasting the show live from Austin, too.

* Amazon.com has a selection of free SXSW music samplers, including Bloodshot Records and Saddle Creek Records.

* Pitchfork has a link to a compilation Bandcamp has done of  "467 SXSW artists that host their music on the site, complete with a huge grid of images assigned to said bands, a streaming player, and a counter telling you the amount of music you still have yet to listen to." I haven't checked that out yet, but it sounds very promising.

* Due to its location, it's not usual that SXSW has a decent selection of Latin music. As a fan of Latin rock and pop music, I was glad to see that the Remezlca Music website has a free 10-song SXSW Latin music sampler that you can stream or download. Artists include Mexican Institute of Sound and David Garza.

* Paste has an article covering "20 SXSW Bands You Might Not Know (But Should)," with links to free MP3 downloads for each one.

* Also check out Spinner.com's SXSW free song sampler and AOL Music's SXSW website.

There are plenty of ways to enjoy SXSW with free podcasts, webcasts, and downloads—no need to catch a plane and deal with lines, crowds, heat, or spilled beer!

Free Live Concert Podcast Downloads from 2010 SXSW (South by Southwest)

Above: Austin natives Spoon playing in their hometown earlier this year. Their March 17th showcase at SXSW is one of the free concert downloads available. Photo: Zachary Ground.  

Get a taste of some of the great live music taking place in Austin at the South by Southwest music festival with the free live concerts posted online by NPR Music. All are available for online streaming, and most can be downloaded as free podcasts as well. Many of the sets clock in at around 45 minutes, with the Spoon concert being more than an hour and others (sadly, that by one of my favorites, Visqueen) at only around 20 minutes. 

Sadly, SXSW is coming to an end today, but there are plenty of sets you can listen to at home. Here is the selection of free SXSW concerts you can download:

• Broken Bells
  
• Spoon
  
• Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
  
• Visqueen
  
• Quasi
  
• Sleigh Bells
  
• Surfer Blood
  
• Local Natives
  
• G-Side
  
• Brooklyn Rider
  
• Smith Westerns
  
• The Walkmen
  
• Title Tracks
  
• Best Coast (available for online streaming only)

It's a lot of free music, and I've only begun to scratch the surface. But it'll keep me busy with new music until the outdoor music season starts in a few weeks.

Free Song Downloads and Webcasts from the 2010 SXSW Music Fest

If you can't be in Austin, Texas for the 2010 SXSW music fest, you can download or stream plenty of free music to get the feel for the hundreds of bands that will be playing there. The music event runs from March 17th to the 21st.

* SXSW offers 5.43 gigabytes of free music downloads from SXSW showcasing bands. You can download the free songs from the official SXSW Web site, or go to the unofficial SXSW torrents site.

* For music videos, check out the SXSW music Youtube Channel and the SXSW Videos and Podcasts page. 

* NPR Music offers plenty of podcasts, streaming audio, and concert Webcasts from SXSW. Check out their SXSW preview show and their listing of free live streaming SXSW concerts (most of which will be archived for streaming or podcast download).

Enjoy!

South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW) - Free Downloads, Music Player, and More

It's almost time for the 2009 edition of South by Southwest, the Austin festival of sensory overload. I'll concentrate here on the SXSW music festival (there are also film and interactive festivals), which runs from March 18th to 22th. In that short span there will be hundreds of bands playing on more than 80 stages. Here's some help in listening to what'll be featured at SXSW 2009, including some free downloads and other ways to sample the music.

At the SXSW music page there's a Music Player link, which will open a stream of continuous music from bands playing at the festival. In the past SXSW has offered free MP3 downloads of dozens of songs, but I don't see that option listed this time around. (UPDATE: Apparently there are SXSW downloads available, but they're being offering through BitTorrent, not through the SXSW site. An article on TorrentFreak says there is a full 6GB of songs from SXSW 2009 artists available for free download, featuring more than 1,200 tunes.)

Howver, NPR Music is offering a free 10-song sampler of tunes by SXSW 2009 artists that you can download from iTunes. Check their SXSW page for details on live concerts they'll be Webcasting from the festival, including The Decemberists on March 18th and Blitzen Trapper on March 19th.

For info straight from South by Southwest ground zero, head for the SXSW Web page of Austin radio station KUT. Check their page for their schedule of live performance broadcasts, breaking news from the festival, and more.

And if you're interested in what Canadian bands are playing the festival, you'll want to listen to the CBC Radio 3 podcast SXSW Survival Guide 2009.

Free SXSW Concerts Online: R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo

You can hear free, live South by Southwest concert streams online at the NPR Music Web site. R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, and Yo La Tengo are just some of the bigger names that will be featured. Other artists to be presented in concert are guitarist extraordinaire Kaki King, Canadian alt-rockers The Weakerthans, and Swedish pop singer Jens Lekman.

Some will be audio-only live streams, some will be Webcasts with video, and I'm sure that many of these will be archived for future listening. Some might even be available for download.