350 Aussie acts to get exposure at SXSW’s Australia House hub

Over 350 Australian acts will get major exposure at the Austin, Texas conference and showcase South By Southwest (SXSW) via the inaugural Australia House.

Australia House is the new multi-million dollar initiative by the Australian Government (through its successful G’Day USA program) and Sounds Australia where a local club is turned into the Australian hub.

It will be opened between Sunday March 11 and Friday March 16.

Acts and delegates can use the space to perform, hold meetings and exhibit their products and services, screen their movies, highlight their food and beverages, and essentially show off how innovative Aussies can be.

Sounds Australia will drive the live music program. Queensland-based music tech company Nightlife Music has struck a deal to provide a soundtrack of 350 acts including Gang of Youths, Stella Donnelly and The Teskey Brothers.

Director of licensing and business affairs Stuart Watters said Nightlife Music had worked with Sounds Australia to curate over 600 tracks from the 350 artists.

“We will be profiling talent and the key players in the Australian music scene, including Secret Sounds, MGM, and Future Classic with a keen focus on artists, labels and other music companies that are making the trek to SXSW,” he said.

“This will be the first time a properly licensed platform will be utilised at such a global event like SXSW.

“We are so excited to be involved and have the opportunity to bring even more Australian artists to the world stage via Australian created technology.”

The 600 track-strong playlist also draws from triple j Unearthed (to complement the Aussie BBQ event), as well as videos associated with BIGSOUND and Creative Victoria showcases at Australia House.

Sounds Australia executive producer Millie Millgate opined there was nothing better than ‘live’ to showcase Australian talent, but with Nightlife on board even more artists will be exposed to a global audience.

“If we could bring every talented Australian artist to the stage at SXSW we would, but of course that’s not possible,” said Ms Millgate.

“At the heart of Sounds Australia is spotlighting our talent so with Nightlife’s platform, we can effectively expose over 350 talented Aussie artists in one hit.”

These will be through audio tracks, videos and visuals as album artwork and Spotify profiles, played on a couple of large screens including a wall-sized one.

Nightlife will be showcasing its crowdDJ app which allows patrons of venues to select the music they want.

Since it launched in Australia in March 2016, it has been licensed by 1200 venues.

It has just entered the UK market, and crowdDJ is using the Australia House experience to chase up US and global interest.

Visitors and delegates to Australia House will be able to contribute to the playlist choosing to hear what they want.

Says Watters,  “Whether an artist is showcased live or through Nightlife it will still create the desired impact.

“It will be on the big screen, commercially produced, perfectly mixed and loud.”