Free Music: New Songs from 100 Bands Performing at South By Southwest 2012

The 2012 South By Southwest festival is scheduled to feature more than 2,000 musical acts, plus many more impromptu shows in various parking lots and sidewalks. Meaning, if you listened to only one three-minute song by every band, you’d have invested more than 100 hours, and, unless you’re a music journalist who gets their music hand-delivered, a whole bunch more time and money locating and purchasing each song.

Enter The Austin 100, a streaming collection of “100 handpicked festival highlights and thrilling discoveries in a meaty but digestible microcosm of SXSW.”   The mix is available as a continuous seven-hour stream…I’ve been working on it on-and-off for four days now, and am still not sure I’ve heard the whole thing. And the bonus? More than 70% of the songs are available for a free download. How’s that for public media?

If you like music, you like this. Join me, and listen now!

NPR Music: The Austin 100