Optimism shadowed by uncertainty at SXSW

CD sales are down. Digital hasn't heat shrink tubing caught up. Record companies are consolidating. New bands are trying to find their own way.
Despite all the challenging news, thousands of industry professionals and eager music fans turned out for the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, over the weekend. The festival, tailored to recording industry talent seekers and the talent they seek, officially ended Sunday.
While optimism ran high at the heat shrink tubing five-day whirlwind of panel discussions, trade shows, live concerts and private parties, much of the conversation throughout the event focused on the sobering reality of the music industry's uncertain future.
"Obviously we're going through a transition. All of the major record labels have gone through some sort of cost-cutting and consolidation over the last few years," said Rand Hoffman, head of business and legal affairs at Interscope Geffen heat shrink tubing A&M Records.
"Right now CD sales are falling more rapidly than digital is going up," he told a group of SXSW festival-goers at a panel discussion on the future of the industry.
According to a release from Nielson SoundScan, which tracks record sales, over a billion songs were downloaded in 2008, an online music industry record.
But the success of the individual digital song sales on popular sites such as iTunes has not replaced the lost revenue from the declining number of CD sales. Total album sales fell 14 percent in 2008, which accounts for a huge portion of record company profits.
Sony Music Entertainment's Julie Swidler noted that despite the stressed state of affairs for the corporate music industry, the major labels will stay relevant, but probably as smaller versions of their past selves.
"We'll still be major, just smaller major," predicted Swidler, who works as the executive vice president of business affairs and general counsel.
The growing trend of established heat shrink tubing artists selling and distributing their music without the aid of a major label paints an even bleaker picture for the corporate music business.
"The bottom line is if we want to continue, we have to break future superstars, and the only way to do that is artist development," Swidler said.
Both Swidler and Hoffman see light at the end of the tunnel, however.
Hoffman acknowledged that the major labels must find a way heat shrink tubing to turn the digital sales momentum into a greater profit and predicts that the United States will eventually have a terrestrial radio performance right law, which would require radio stations to pay artists each time they play their songs.
"I can't believe that if almost every single ... Western country in the world has [a performance right], that the U.S. will go on indefinitely not having this. There's no rational basis for it. Its just politics."
And Swidler believes that heat shrink tubing the labels can adapt to the online music movement with new, creative ways of directly connecting the artist to the consumer.
"I think you're going to see online where suddenly instead of buying an album by your favorite artist, you'll buy a year's subscription to that artist," Swidler says. "So it's almost as if an artist will trickle out a story for you for the entire year."
Good turnout, but not everyone is happy
If the turnout at SXSW 2009 is any indication of consumers' willingness to spend money on music, then record label executives have heat shrink tubing reason to be hopeful. The festival brought in an estimated $103 million to the Austin-area economy in 2008, and though this year's numbers have yet to be tabulated, SXSW representatives expect the amount will be on par with last year.
Almost 2,000 artists played SXSW this year, which is about a hundred more than last year. An impressive list of major recording artists brought their high-profile acts to the intimate Austin stages. Kanye West, Jane's Addiction, Big Boi and Metallica all played unannounced shows, primarily to exclusive crowds of industry insiders who heard about the concerts through word of mouth, though news of Metallica's set at the release party of "Guitar heat shrink tubing Hero: Metallica" on Friday was well-known around town early that morning.
In addition to the surprise appearances, SXSW showcased scheduled performers PJ Harvey, the Indigo Girls, Ben Harper, Third Eye Blind and droves of other hit groups, almost all of whom garnered huge crowds of enthusiastic and devoted fans.
Not everyone was pleased with the festival's exclusive nature, however. To many locals, the perception is that major music acts are stealing the thunder from unsigned, local artists who are trying to attract as many label representatives to their shows as possible.
Austin-based band the Vincents played a slew of gigs throughout the week and received positive feedback from the people who heat shrink tubing attended their shows, many of whom purchased their CD. But they ultimately felt overshadowed by the swarms of industry types who were constantly rushing to the next secret show or exclusive party.
Local find
In spite of a few complaints from Austin residents, SXSW can provide an amazing opportunity for a lucky few whose acts get picked up by industry folks.
The "feel good" story of SXSW 2009 might have been local, buzz-worthy heat shrink tubing band The Black and White Years, which recently took home five Austin Music Awards, including best new band, song of the year and best producer, the latter for former Talking Heads keyboardist-guitarist Jerry Harrison.
Harrison stumbled across The Black and White Years at a small performance at SXSW in 2007. He liked their sound and decided to produce their debut album.
"People think when you play these South by Southwest things that nothing ever happens. Sometimes it does. You've got to be skilled at your instrument, but it takes a little luck. You just never know, it might heat shrink tubing happen," said drummer Billy Potts.
Though dominated by music, SXSW also features a robust film festival and an innovative interactive gala, where techies from around the country showcase their latest software, gadgets and gaming technology.
This year the film festival had 57 world premieres, 133 features and 127 short films screened, many of which fulfill SXSW's primary heat shrink tubing role of providing a platform for indie films and documentaries. Whereas the big studio movies have seen a boost in sales during the recession, the economic crisis has crippled many foundations that provide the funds for independent documentaries. Indeed, New heat shrink tubing York's Tribeca Film Festival announced last week that it would be making cuts to its line-up because of economic conditions.
But producer Erin Essenmacher, whose film "Mine" premiered at SXSW and took home the documentary audience award, remains confident about the entertainment industry's future.
"I hate to say things are recession-proof because heat shrink tubing I don't even know what that means anymore, but there's always going to be a need for content, whether it's on the Web or on TV," she said. "And as the economy gets worse, I think people want that outlet."

Hearing set for Monday in Lohan case

A hearing is set for Monday in a case involving heat shrink tubing actress Lindsay Lohan after an arrest warrant was issued for her Friday, officials said.
Lohan's attorney told heat shrink tubing CNN the warrant was issued "out of a misunderstanding." It was not known whether she would attend the hearing Monday.
The warrant was issued by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in Beverly Hills, California. It apparently stems from Lohan's 2007 convictions for drunken driving, police said Friday. She is serving three years probation.
Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles County District heat shrink tubing Attorney's office told CNN on Sunday the warrant is believed to be in connection with a possible probation violation. The district attorney's office prosecuted the original 2007 case, she said.
The hearing is set to begin sometime after 8:30 a.m., she said.
Lohan "has the right to appear" at the hearing, said Alan Parachini, Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman. "That decision is up to her."
Lohan's attorney, Shawn heat shrink tubing Chapman Holley, told CNN on Sunday that she will appear at the hearing on Lohan's behalf.
"Since her case was resolved, Ms. Lohan has been in compliance with all the terms and conditions of her probation and all orders of the court," Holley said in a statement.
"The warrant issued on Friday was, in our view, born out of a misunderstanding which I am confident I can clear up next week," Holley said.
Police said Saturday they were not actively seeking Lohan, as they heat shrink tubing would not usually go after a person to take them into custody in such cases. Beverly Hills police Sgt. Mike Foxen said on Friday authorities were hoping Lohan would turn herself in.
Lohan was arrested twice in 2007 on driving under the influence charges, with a cocaine possession charge in the second incident.
The first arrest, in May 2007, came after Lohan lost control of her Mercedes-Benz convertible and struck a curb in Beverly Hills.
Just two weeks after heat shrink tubing checking out of a Malibu drug and alcohol rehab facility, she was arrested again in July 2007 after a woman called Santa Monica police saying Lohan was trying to run her down in a car.
A judge sentenced Lohan to three years probation after she entered guilty and no contest pleas to the charges.
Lohan's acting career, which heat shrink tubing started at age 10 on a soap opera, took off on the big screen a year later when she played both identical twins in Disney's "The Parent Trap."
Since then, she has starred in at least a dozen movies, including "Georgia Rule" with Jane Fonda in 2007.
Her pop music recording career, boosted heat shrink tubing by her movie roles, has floundered in the past year. Her last album was released in 2005

'Apocalypse' writer: Most scripts today 'are garbage'

You know that line in "Dirty Harry" in which heat shrink tubing Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan describes the power of the .44 Magnum? John Milius wrote that line.
Remember the line in "Jaws" when Robert Shaw, playing the shark hunter, talks about his buddies being eaten alive heat shrink tubing by sharks during World War II? That was Milius.
How about the line in "Apocalypse Now," when Robert Duvall, playing a surf-loving Army colonel, says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"?
Milius again.
And he hasn't lost his bold way with dialogue -- including his own.
For example, here's Milius on stopping murderous drug traffickers in Mexico: "We need to go down there, kill them all, flatten the place heat shrink tubing with bulldozers so when you wake up in the morning, there's nothing there," he said in a phone interview. "I do believe if you have a military, you use it."
Or Rush Limbaugh: "I was watching Rush Limbaugh the other night, and I was horrified. I would have Rush Limbaugh drawn and quartered. He was sticking up for these Wall Street pigs. There should be public show trials, mass denunciations and executions."
And that's despite being identified as one of Hollywood's most outspoken conservatives. But Milius isn't all blood heat shrink tubing and thunder. As a surfer, whose surfing exploits as a teen helped to forge his self-sufficient world view, he's lent his gruff voice as narrator to a new documentary about surfing soldiers during the Vietnam War.
"One of the most poignant things of the film is how many California surfers went to Vietnam, and how many didn't come back," said Milius, 64, who learned to surf while growing up in Southern California.
"One of the reasons I put surfing in 'Apocalypse heat shrink tubing Now' was because I always thought Vietnam was a California war."
Instead of the cliche GI of World War II who hailed from Brooklyn and the Bronx and played stickball in the streets, Milius thinks of Vietnam's soldiers as having the laid-back attitude associated with the West Coast lifestyle.
"You had the guys hopping up their Huey choppers with new engine parts and painting flames on the rocket pods."
Milius clearly loves heat shrink tubing surfing. He credits it with forging his most powerful friendships and uses it as a metaphor for life. As a lifeguard along California's treacherous Zuma Beach north of Malibu, Milius learned "to be a loner, because when you get planted by a big wave, there's no one who can help you," he said, audibly lighting a cigar. "Your heat shrink tubing fate is involved in a different universe."
The 1978 surfing coming-of-age film "Big Wednesday," co-written and directed by Milius, has become a respected classic in surfing culture.
"Apocalypse Now" has its own morality, said Milius. "It has its own rules."
That might also be said about Milius himself -- who displays what might be described as a larger-than-life heat shrink tubing personality. He's said to be the model for the character Walter Sobchak in the Coen brothers' "The Big Lebowski," an item Milius doesn't dispute.
"They told me they based that character on me," Milius said, adding that he had previously turned down the Coens' offer to appear in their film "Barton Fink" as a studio chief.
His self-image as a loner laid the foundation for heat shrink tubing his conservative politics. When his parents sent him off to a small private school in Colorado "because I was a juvenile delinquent," he learned to love the mountains, guns, hunting, tracking and "living off the land."
He's also used his experiences to create his scripts.
Milius' days in Colorado showed themselves in his screenplay "Jeremiah Johnson," the 1972 film starring Robert Redford as the lonely fur trapper and mountain man.
In 1984's "Red heat shrink tubing Dawn," Colorado is the battlefield where Americans fight a guerrilla war against Russian invaders. "We were promised, when I was growing up, this war with Russia," he said, explaining the film's legacy. "We were promised World War III."
His love of firearms -- he's a board member of the National Rifle Association -- helped inspire his "Dirty Harry" lines.
"I have a .44 Magnum, I love the .44 Magnum, in heat shrink tubing fact I still have the .44 Magnum that inspired that line," he said.
"The Second Amendment becomes more important every day," he added.
After marinating in the zeitgeist for 30 years, Milius' iconic movie lines have flavored American pop culture -- embraced by "The Simpsons," mocked on "Saturday Night Live" and spoofed in Hollywood comedies.
A lot of it is hard work, of course. But sometimes, as Dirty Harry might note, you just feel lucky. Robert Shaw's " heat shrink tubing Jaws" speech about how sharks attacked survivors of the torpedoed USS Indianapolis was written "literally over the phone," Milius said. "I gave it to them, and they went out and shot it." (Milius work on the film was uncredited; Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb are the credited screenwriters.)
And then there's the famous "napalm" line from "Apocalypse."
"I just wrote it -- it just came up," said Milius, describing the famous line uttered wistfully by Duvall's surfing Col. Bill Kilgore. "That's what happens. People love to think that all this stuff happens when you write a famous line -- that you really heat shrink tubing thought about it a lot."
Another famous line by Kilgore in the screenplay, "Charlie don't surf," is Milius' personal favorite. That line, he said was inspired by a published quote by Israel's Ariel Sharon during the 1967 Six-Day War.
A victorious Gen. Sharon went skin-diving after capturing enemy territory, Milius said, and declared, "We're eating their fish."
"That just really heat shrink tubing appealed to me," he laughed. "He was saying, 'We blew the s*** out of them, and now we're eating their fish.' Charlie don't surf."
Milius' latest project is a screenplay for a three-hour biopic of Genghis Khan, "the son of a hit man whose father is murdered and who went on to conquer the known world and become the greatest military and civil genius in history," as Milius described him. Production could begin in early 2010, he said.
Milius said Khan inspired another popular line, Arnold Schwarzenegger's list of a few of his favorite things in 1982's "Conan the Barbarian": "To crush your heat shrink tubing enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women," goes the line.
That came right from the history books, said Milius.
"That's the most famous Genghis Khan line. It's a paraphrase of what he said when he was with his generals heat shrink tubing and he was asked what was the greatest thing in life," he said.
Although he admires a few scripts from modern-day Hollywood -- such as P.T. Anderson's "Boogie Nights," "Hard Eight" and "There Will Be Blood" -- most Hollywood scripts that get made today are "garbage," Milius said, written by "broken writers" with no "shame."
"There's no shame in the world, and without shame, you cannot have honor. Our world is ruled by consensus now. There heat shrink tubing is no sense of honor."
If that sounds like the lament of an outsider, Milius said it's probably because he feels like he's been treated like one through much of his career, given his reputation as a conservative and his opposition to gun-control laws.
"I've led a whole life behind enemy lines. I've heat shrink tubing been the victim of so much persecution," he said. "I'm the barbarian of Hollywood."