Though many blamed an abnormally slow and underattended Miami Music Week on the fact that it overlapped with South by Southwest, the Austin music conference wasn't all bad news for the Miami music scene.
As we saw for ourselves, many bands made the journey west to participate in SXSW, giving the rest of the world a taste of our often-overlooked Miami sound. During our time there, we caught up with Miami's own Plastic Pinks, the Gun Hoes, and artists Ahol Sniffs Glue and Brian Butler. We watched as they played, lectured, and drew their way across the ten-day collaborative conference of all things music, film, and art.
In many ways, SXSW is what Miami Music Week should be (and what Winter Music Conference once was): a place where artists come to share new music, meet like-minded folks, and inspire one another. Though SXSW has no doubt lost some of the magic from its early years as it grew into a massive, national behemoth, it still feels collaborative and is a better opportunity for local acts to gain national exposure than Miami Music Week, where oftentimes big-name DJs are passed from party to party, leaving little room for experimentation or innovation.
SXSW still values the little guy. And Miami could learn a thing or two from that kind of attitude.