The Tangled Web

SXSW DIGITAL: Venerable music festival and conference South By Southwest (SXSW) kicks off this week in Austin, Texas, with hundreds of bands playing packed showcases to crowds full of industry insiders and just plain music fans.

In conjunction with the music festival, the technology sector is holding this year its eleventh annual SXSW Interactive Festival, which gathers members of the creative online world to discuss trends and breakthroughs in Web technology and its artistic uses. The cornerstone of the Interactive gala is the SXSW Web Awards, which were handed out Sunday (March 14) in Austin.

Designer Dave Shea won the "best in show" prize at the Web awards for his CSS Zen Garden site, an interactive example of the possibilities of CSS coding.

Visit the SXSW Web site for a full list of award winners and more information about the SXSW Interactive festival.


THE MP3 SALON: Web news magazine Salon.com turned to a subscription-based business model a couple years ago, and is still around as a result. While anyone can read the headlines and first few paragraphs of most stories and certain features in full, "premium" subscribers have access to the site's full offerings, among them free downloadable music by well-known artists.

The site regularly posts "premium music samplers," which consist of 15 or more MP3 tracks culled from new releases, paired with mini-artist bios and when applicable, bonus content. The latter comes in the form of past Salon features and interviews, streaming video clips and tour schedules.

The most recent sampler, up on the site now, includes music from the likes of June Carter Cash, Frank Black, Richard Thompson, Steve Earle, Evan Dando, the Pretenders, Susan Tedeschi and the late Warren Zevon.


FREE IPODS FOR MEDIA PLANNERS: Musicians, labels and publishers are increasingly looking for new ways to make money in today's hardscrabble industry, and licensing deals that place songs in film, television, advertisements and video games are becoming more popular.

Universal Music Publishing Group is trying to take its licensing efforts to the next level with a new Web site, Synchexpress.com, and is giving away free 15-gigabyte Apple iPods throughout the month of March to any music supervisor/licensing professional who licenses a song from UMPG using the Web site.

Users can search or browse through UMPG's catalog using the site and listen to 30-second streaming song samples.