• Country radio returns to NYC
  Story from NY Times.
• What did Beyonce sing and when did she sing it?
  Story from BBC News.
• Elvis Costello records with The Roots
  Item from The Guardian.
• Mega is no Megaupload
  Story from Wired.

Photo by Merrick Ales Co-presented by API (The American Poster Institute), Flatstock showcases the best in music poster art – presented and for sale by the talented artists who create them.

Flatstock is gearing up to be bigger and better than ever in 2013. Now in Exhibit Hall 4 of the Austin Convention Center, the show will feature over 100 artists and studios, onsite printing, and a stage with acoustic sets from your favorite SXSW artists.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to Play SXSW: NPR Music Showcase at Stubb’s: North American Tour in Support of Push The Sky Away to Begin March 13 in Austin

We are pleased to announce that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will be kicking off their 2013 North American tour at SXSW on Wednesday, March 13. Cave and company will perform this year's NPR showcase at Stubb's, supporting their 15th studio album, Push The Sky Away (out Feb 18th on Bad Seed Ltd).

Nick Cave is an internationally acclaimed author, composer, screenwriter and actor. In recent years, Cave wrote the screenplays for The Proposition and Lawless, while he and Warren Ellis scored The Proposition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and The Road. The two more recently presented the Lawless soundtrack featuring Cave/Ellis originals and classic compositions performed by The Bootleggers and the likes of Ralph Stanley, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and more.

On Tuesday, 12th March, in conjunction with his SXSW performance, SXSW Film and Music will host Nick Cave in Conversation with New York based author Larry Ratso Sloman. Sloman's numerous collaborators include Howard Stern, David Blaine, magic historian William Kalush and Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he worked on the memoir Scar Tissue. Sloman also wrote an account of Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour, On the Road with Bob Dylan, and penned Reefer Madness, a history of marijuana use in the United States.

SXSW is proud to announce that the complete emcee and judging panel has been named for the 2013 SXSW Accelerator and we were lucky enough to gather a phenomenal group for the job. This panel will select the grand prize winner for each category and the results will be announced shortly thereafter.

We wouldn't trust such an important task to just anyone, so the following esteemed judges and emcees have agreed to contribute their expertise toward the success of the event. We couldn't be more pleased with the assemblage of personalities we've gathered and we're excited to say that this innovative competition has an inspired panel of judges and emcees to match.

Image courtesy of Fadil Berisha

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference and Festival is proud to present Clive Davis as a Featured Speaker on Thursday, March 14.

Clive Davis, renowned record producer and music business executive, is currently Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment. Davis' autobiography "The Soundtrack Of My Life" is set for release on February 19. He has won five GRAMMYS and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. He has been closely involved with a large list of notable artists through his tenures at Columbia, Arista and J Records. From early signings with Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind & Fire, to Patti Smith, The Grateful Dead, and Santana, and through Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson among many others, Davis has made a profound impact on popular culture. The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU is extending his legacy and looking to the future of the music business.

Photo courtesy of midemmidem, Europe’s top music industry conference (and long time SXSW participant) is taking place this coming weekend from January 26th-29th in Cannes, France. While you might not be able to make the trip, there are plenty of channels through which you can watch, engage and participate in midem’s exciting programming.

The midemblog will be the hub of live coverage, with conference reports, videos, interviews and a daily, crowdsourced wrap of midem concerts. Stuart Dredge will provide daily business wraps, and Reed MIDEM’s Johannah Cantwell will provide an essential overview of the event.

Twitter will also provide access to the conference, with livetweets & other key updates via @midem and the #midem hashtag. Add #festival for concert tweets, and #vmon for Visionary Monday insights on January 28. Tweetwalls in the Palais and Debussy Auditorium will also encourage conversation.

• Is Spotify a musician's friend or foe?
  Commentary from The Independent.
• Is the new Mega a cynical cover-up for a new piracy business?
  Commentary from Paid Content.
• Crate digging and the resurgence of vinyl
  Feature from BBC News.

Clockwise from top left: Toro Y Moi, Dent May, TEEN, Prince Rama, Popstrangers and Dog Bite

This year's SXSW Music Festival with include it's own live streaming venue for the first time. From March 12-16, each night at The North Door (501 Brushy St) will be programmed with an awesome mix official SXSW showcases. However, for those you who can't make it, they will all be viewable at sxsw.com in real time! Joining us in this new endeavor are SXSW favorites Carpark and Paw Tracks, showcasing on Friday, March 15th at SXSW Live at The North Door.