When looking at the massive list of official SXSW artists, it can be hard to figure out where to start to determine who you might want to catch at the fest. While we’re always advocates of going with the flow and checking out bands you might not have heard of before SX, we’ve found that subscribing to a few Spotify (or Soundcloud) playlists is the best way to preview music. We need long playlists to listen to while we’re on the hunt for SX RSVP details and party info – so we thought we’d pass along a few of the best playlists we’ve come across (so far!). Are we missing yours? Send a link via Twitter.
RSVPster SXSW 2014 Playlist: We’ve been (slowly) working on adding more of our favorite artists to our SXSW 2014 artist playlist.
SXSWISLIFE Spotify Playlist: New tracks added daily to this massive list of official artists from the person behind an unofficial SX twitter account, which provides festival tips, RSVP links and festival updates.
Hippohonk.com’s SXSW 2014 Picks: Hippohonk is an Austin-based site that allows users to rate who they want to see at music festival – the site basically lets you know what artists other people are excited to see as a way of music discovery. Check out their SXSW section and they also have a SXSW Soundcloud playlist.
@james_gatsche’s SXSW Playlist: We came across @james_gatsche’s playlist on Twitter – there’s the general SX picks playlist, a hip-hop playlist and a playlist of Austin artists playing the festival.
SXSW 2014 – The 188 Bands You Can’t Miss: The title of this playlist – “I listened to the 1,271 bands on the official SXSW 2014 line-up so you don’t have to” – caught our attention on Reddit. This playlist is well-curated and great for an afternoon at work listen.
SouthbySouthJESS 2014: New tracks added daily from Twitter user @SXSJess.
Do512’s SXSW 2014 Playlist: The largest ‘What-to-do-in-ATX’ site, D0512, curated this playlist with a track from every official artist playing the fest.
Outside of these playlists, we love Operation Every Band, which takes on the task every year of reviewing every band playing SXSW before the festival. The site keeps track of the ratings through daily blog posts and a spreadsheet, which includes rankings for 2011-2013. The easiest way to keep up is to follow Operation Every Band on Twitter as they post the 2,000+ write ups of official festival acts.
Want more #SXSWtips? Follow RSVPster on Twitter and Facebook for the latest festival rumors, RSVPs and more.
