SXSW Prep

In preparation for SXSW next week I've been listening to every showcasing artist listed as either a dance, DJ, or electronic artist, and some of the hip hop/rap artists. I've discovered a few things:

1. Despite the thousands of crappy artists out there that us music fanatics are subjected to listen to as a result of being handed homemade EPs, attending two-to-six shows a week, and a general inability to turn down hearing a new aritst because maybe - just maybe - they will rock your world, there are some amazing musicians out there. Thank you, SXSW, for weeding them out for me so that this process has been overall enjoyable. I know I'm shockingly behind on some of these discoveries, but bear with me - some notable musicians worth pointing out pre-SXSW follow (note: I've only gotten through L on the SXSW list):
• Afrojack
• 12th Planet
• Badbwoy BMC
• Black Milk
• Dillon Francis
• Eclectic Method
• Gobble Gobble
• High Rankin
• Le Castle Vania
• Lynx
2.  Soundcloud and Bandcamp have proven to be the best method for getting the average schmo to hear your music. I consider myself a pretty average schmo... or maybe I'm just above average in terms of how deep I will dig to find an artist's music. MySpace has never been the best platform and now that they require users to sign in after a certain number of listens in order to continue listening to full-length songs free, the site is even less appealing.
   
   Second, whereas MySpace takes ages to load a page, Soundcloud and Bandcamp pages load quickly so I can click "play" within 2-3 seconds, which is how I'm ultimately going to judge your music. Yes, a brightly colored background that says "We play synth keyboards and have fun!" grabs my attention but at what cost? If I can't hit play within twenty seconds I'm onto the next artist. (Think that sounds harsh? Try waiting twenty full seconds for a webpage to load. You will see it's a generous amount of time.) Both Soundcloud and Bandcamp offer great features. I won't go into detail, as that isn't my purpose here, but they include unique listener commenting options and easy free downloading (should the artist choose to enable it).
3. Did I mention how much I hate MySpace?