This year, for some reason SXSW decided not to release a torrent showcasing the artists (yet). However, all the mp3s are available for download on the SXSW website. Luckily, Greg Hewgill took the time and effort to put all the MP3s in one big torrent, which makes it much easier to download and share. It’s no OiNK, but it is certainly a good way to discover new artists.

Greg writes: “Since 2005, I have supported the annual South by Southwest music festival by operating a “seed” for the BitTorrent files they have created. From 2005 through 2007, SXSW created the torrents themselves and hosted them on their own tracker. I learned that this year, for whatever reason they won’t be doing that for us.”

“So, I took matters into my own hands and have created a torrent of the 2008 showcasing artists.” Greg adds.

The torrent of the 22nd SXSW edition features MP3s from 764 upcoming, as well as established artists who are scheduled to perform at the festival. In total almost 3.5GB of DRM free music. All the torrents previously released by SXSW are also available for download.

For those who are interested, this year’s SXSW music festival takes place from March 12-16, in Austin Texas.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

This is the third year in a row that SXSW uses BitTorrent to share music of the artists that perform at the conference. Last years MP3s were released in two sessions that are both still available. The 2006 release is a collection of almost 1000 MP3s, and both torrents are still alive and kicking.

A torrent with film trailers from the movies featured at the 2007 Film conference will be put up later this month.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.