SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/317841
1 0 S X S W O R L D / M A Y 2 0 1 4 First SXSW Music Hackathon Showcased Tech Talent The first annual SXSW Music Hackathon Championship brought together more than 100 top software developers and designers at SXSW 2014. The event provided a platform for the most innovative companies in music tech- nology to have their products deployed by champion hackers. Over 24 hours, 30 teams competed and were eventually narrowed to 11 finalists who presented to a panel of judges that included Mack Maine (President of Young Money Entertainment), James Williamson (guitarist from The Stooges), Stephen White (President of Gracenote) and Jonathan Dworkin (SVP of Digital for Warner Music Group). MOOT won the AT&T $10,000 Grand Prize. AR Pop won the $2500 prize for best hack benefitting artists. The $1000 prize for the best hack benefitting fans went to Crowdscaler. Chevrolet awarded a $2000 prize for best use of its API to MySongs. Tech Open Air Berlin also awarded prizes for best uses of their artists' music. Additional prizes were awarded by Rdio, Beats Music, Gracenote, Senzari, Echonest, Spotify, TouchTunes and Jawbone. Other spon- sors included Choose Digital, Open Aura, Decibel, Ableton and Warner Music Group. Organizer Travis Laurendine said, "I've organized a bunch of music hack- athons and never has there been such a gathering of talent and technology in one hackathon. Nearly all aspects of the music experience were available to be hacked with brand new technologies at the hackers' fingertips." What's Happening Now & Exciting Things to Come! South by Southwest unites creative disciplines with a wide array of businesses to foster an environment that will spark the next big thing. Here are some of the people, ideas, industries and innovations that are taking us there. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Music hackers M E R R I C K A L E S