In the cold and dreary winter of 2009, alone in his bedroom and hidden from the darkness of the world outside Justin Paul Vallesteros had begun working on something that would change his life forever. What began as a couple notes played in experimentation soon transformed into vibrant melodies that soon shook Vallesteros' musical foundation to the core. Guitar chords laced over pulse sating synth melodies and drum rhythms was a departure from Justin's previous work; he began to create the dreamy nostalgic pop music that is Craft Spells.

DIIV is the nom-de-plume of Z. Cole Smith, musical provocateur and front-man of an atmospheric and autumnally-charged new Brooklyn four-piece.

Recently inked to the uber-reliable Captured Tracks imprint, DIIV created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut Sometime; finding it's way onto the esteemed pages of Pitchfork and Altered Zones a mere matter of weeks after the group's formation.

Facebook is launching a massive music integration, casting a spotlight on streaming music subscription service partners MOG, Rdio, Spotify & others. Leveraging a free model as a viral strategy and/or a trailing tool (an up-sell to a paid premium model) has proven successful for newcomers like Turntable.fm & Sirius XM, and will likely be a key strategy in subscriber acquisition through social music.

Music has always been an important agent for social, political, and economic change in America. This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, whose Depression-era songs of protest still resonate today. Digging into the songs and stories of his life adds a vital dimension to an appreciation of his work. First-person stories and historical perspective will frame the discussion.

Artists take on pseudonyms for a multitude of reasons, but in Zach Saginaw's case, those reasons run deeper than most. Zach records under the name Shigeto. It's his middle name; it's also his grandfather's name, a tribute to the Japanese branch of Zach's family tree. Shigeto also means "to grow bigger"—appropriate, given Zach's premature birth-weight of less than a pound. Today, Shigeto stands for Zach's vividly beautiful electronic music.

Janka Nabay is the undisputed king of bubu music, a frantically-paced electronic dance music with ancient, magical origins in Sierra Leone (known as Salone by locals). Before Janka, Sierra Leoneans thought of bubu music as a relic of the past, something best left in the hills with the folk singers and witches. But in the mid 90s, during the Sierra Leonean civil war, Janka resuscitated and modernized bubu. Salone quickly fell under its spell.

Depending on whom you ask, Matthew Dear is a DJ, a dance-music producer, an experimental pop artist, a bandleader. He co-founded both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He's had remixes commissioned by The XX, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Spoon, Hot Chip, The Postal Service, and Chemical Brothers; he's made mixes for the Fabric mix series and Get Physical's Body Language. He maintains four aliases (Audion, False, Jabberjaw, and Matthew Dear), each with its own style and distinct visual identity.

Raiden Integra (a.k.a. R.D. Peoples) is a Hip Hop and Electronic Dance Music recording artist. He has been active since 2006. He has a sound that is truly all his own, and it has led him to be compared by others with a wide selection of top-tier artists including Outkast and Eminem. Currently performing on his own 'We Are Everything' Tour, this eccentric entertainer will come back to the U.S. fresh off a Japan/Austrailia run to perform at SXSW 2013.

Conectado con el universo y las melodías así vive NICOLAS SANTOS un joven bogotano que desde temprana edad supo que el arte de hacer música sería su más ferviente pasión.

Their quick rise to the limelight comes as no surprise. With the addition of samples, a couple guitars, and live traps backed by programmed beats, Hills Like Elephants announces their presence on the national scene with a dance-friendly re-imagination of indie rock, lo-fi disco, and what frontman Sean Davenport calls "Motown with drum machines." On their sophomore effort, Feral Flocks, San Diego indie soul stalwarts grow from a solo project of keyboard crooner Davenport (Gun Runner, Abigail Warchild) into a full five-piece band.