Last week, organizers for SXSW announced they were dramatically scaling back what was once the world's largest music festival. Home to countless performances by artists big and small for nearly 40 years, the annual event is being folded into the Film and Interactive festival, which typically happens the week before Music; it's also being shortened significantly.
On this episode, NPR's Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson join host Robin Hilton to talk about what was — and hopefully what will be again — special about SXSW, how the festival reached this point, and what it means for the future of artists and the industry.
Enjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: allsongs@npr.org.
Hear new songs from past episodes in the All Songs Considered playlists in Apple Music and Spotify.