This week, I’m on a fun trip to Texas for the SXSW Interactive and Music Festival. I’m out here trying to build up g14’s indie cred, because I feel that having Dave and Charlie around (when they’re not in NY or doing their own thing) just isn’t enough. So, what better way to showcase yourself as indie than by going to the most mainstream indie event of the year?
I kid, of course, I’m out here for my job. Bringing wonderful new opportunities to indie bands. But let’s hold off on bands for a minute, because I’m not quite there yet. Let’s talk about the “interactive” or “new media” portion of the show that I wasn’t able to go to. As my company wouldn’t pony up the additional $600 (what the fuck? $600? What kind of indie anybody has this type of cash to cough up for this?) for me to go to the interactive panels, I was left to simply wander around the convention center for the day and visit with online friends made real. Chatted it up with Rudy and Casey from Galacticast, which is always lovely and fun. Talked with folks from Blip.tv and DivX, and it seems like the interest is growing for g14 and our interesting brand of humor. We got an invite to something called Podcamp NY…and now that I think about it, I’m not sure if that invite was for us to go and present, or for us to just be audience members. My ego likes to think it was the former. Eh. We’ll see.
Overall it was a pretty good day, despite getting drenched in the pouring rains of Austin. It’s interesting, because I think for all the talk of how new media connects and unifies us, it has already become a very clique-ish field. I also find it fascinating how a movement which shuns old media and its ways so much (See: most of the Network2 entries for examples of this) is so desperate to adopt old media type business models and structures. It was a little surreal to sit as an outsider at this lunch filled with new media folks, and watch “the new schmoozing”. It was crazy to just watch these people who are building these new pathways and new empires chat and do their thing.
I don’t want you to get the wrong idea though, these new media peeps are some of the most open and accepting people out there. They’re very quick to embrace new people, and that’s what neat about them. Like I said, always interesting to see the brands of tomorrow being built today, but I wonder how long before it becomes tough for an outsider to “break in” to the new media elite. I hope it never does, but we as people tend to embrace the familiar way of doing things, especially when we try to get money for doing what we love. And I think in entertainment that always defualts to creating some sort of hierarchy.
Speaking of branding, there’s some interesting news on the horizon that we’ll hopefully be able to annouce in the next couple of weeks. No big changes or anything like that, just something that might make g14 a little easier to get out there. Sort of like our spoonful of sugar. Word.
Look for SXSW - Part 2 “Music Harder” to be up soon!
Matthew
