Austin, Texas’ annual industry and music conference, South By Southwest (SXSW) is shaping to be quite the show for this year’s event, with 40 Australian bands confirmed to be flying the flag for their country at the ten day music and media conference, while Foo Fighter/drummer-for-hire/Sound City director/sleepless, prolific musician Dave Grohl has also been announced to give a key address at SXSW 2013.
Organisers have now added another industry veteran to the mix with the announcement that Clive Davis will be a Featured Speaker on Thursday, March 14.
Speaking for an hour (at 2-3pm that afternoon), Davis will be recounting his experience and expertise of his decades long career as a renowned record producer, talent scout, music business executive, and all-around media mogul.
Currently the Chief Creative Officer at Sony Music Entertainment, the five-time Grammy award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is also gearing up to release his autobiography The Soundtrack of My Life ahead of his SXSW 2013 address on February 19th.
There’s plenty for the tome to draw from, including his associations with a long and impressive list of artists through his work as the president of Columbia Records, and as the founder of Arista where he served for 25 years as president. Davis then went on to form J Records before becoming the Chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group and BMG North America.
Clive Davis helped sign Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind & Fire, and he’s also linked to Patti Smith, The Grateful Dead, Santana, as well as helping a number of America’s most prominent female entertainers like Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Hudson. He’s also the founder of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU, which is looking to develop the next breed of music industry entrepreneur.
Clive Davis’ appearance at SXSW 2013 is another major highlight of the music industry conference, which will hold sessions from various speakers, musicians, and industry figures to provide registrants a unique perspective and music education.
Altogether, SXSW presents unmatched networking opportunities, career-building conference programming and over 100 stages of music for showcasing bands and conference attendees. SXSW Music takes place Tuesday, March 12 – Sunday, March 17, 2013 in Austin, Texas. For more information on every aspect of SXSW, please go to http://www.sxsw.com.
