December 19, 2002 — The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference will take place in Austin, Texas from March 12 - 16, 2003. A rundown of the panelists and bands thus far includes:

• SXSW 2003's Keynote Speaker will be Daniel Lanois. An artist about to release his third solo album, and the producer of such masterworks including Bob Dylan's "Time Out of Mind," Peter Gabriel's "So," and U2's "The Joshua Tree," Lanois will be sharing his experiences with SXSW conference attendees on Thursday morning, March 13, 2003.
  
  
• With only a fraction of the bands selected so far out of the 6000 applications, a sampling of the artists scheduled to perform include Camper Van Beethoven (Santa Cruz CA), Condor44 (Tokyo JAPAN), The Constantines (Toronto ON), David Cross (New York NY), The Datsuns (Hamilton NEW ZEALAND), Cedell Davis (Helena AR), The D4 (Auckland NEW ZEALAND), John Doe (Frazier Park CA), Estradasphere (Santa Cruz CA), Gogol Bordello (New York NY), Grandaddy (Modesto CA), Idlewild (Edinburgh UK), Kinski (Seattle WA), Sondre Lerche (Bergen NORWAY), The Locust (San Diego CA), Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (San Francisco CA), Willie Nelson & Family (Pedernales TX), Pan Am (Auckland NEW ZEALAND), Pretty Girls Make Graves (Seattle WA), Billy Joe Shaver (Waco TX), Simian (London UK), 16 Horsepower (Denver CO), SOMBA (Belo Horizonte BRAZIL), Turin Brakes (London UK), Tony Joe White (Nashville TN), Keller Williams (Boulder CO), Lucinda Williams (Nashville TN), and Lee Ann Womack (Nashville TN). This list is subject to change. For a listing of the bands scheduled to perform go to www.sxsw.com.
  
  
• The Wednesday Crash Courses and introductory panels will again be presented this year. The topics will be Touring and Booking, Merchandising, Management, Legal Matters, Publicity, Publishing, The Basics of Indie Labels and Distributors, and Radio Stations That Actually Play New Music.
  
  
• Conference panel topics Thursday through Saturday will include the SXSW Interview with Anthony Wilson; Label Heads Sound Off; Creating A Rock Biography; Listen For Yourself: Comparing Audio Formats; When Should You Sign With A Major?; Auditing and Accounting at Major Labels; Latin Music and the Media, Launching A Project; Fair Use Today; Retail: Creating a Customer Base; Music in Games; Be My Guest: Music on Television; AAA Radio: More Listeners, More Impact?; and A&R in the Big Picture. More topics will be announced, and everything is subject to change.
  
  
• Confirmed speakers include Bill Bentley, senior VP/Media Relations, Warner Bros Records; Todd Brabec, exec VP Membership, ASCAP; Jeffrey Brabec, VP Business Affairs, Chrysalis Music Group; Chris Castle, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; Tomas Cookman, president, Cookman International; Joe D'Angelo, writer, MTV News; Jim Derogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun Times; Peter Edge, VP of A&R, J Records; Jack Emerson, owner/operator, Praxis Recordings; Leslie Fram, program director, WNNX; Holly George-Warren, writer, Jackalope Press; Karen Glauber, president, Hits Magazine; Brad King, digital ent. reporter, Wired News; Bruce Lundvall, president, Blue Note Records; Ian Montone, attorney, Davis Shapiro & Lewit LLP; Bill Nowlin, director, Rounder Records; Peter Rauh, The Nehru Ellis Company; Frank Riley, agent, High Road Touring; Bonnie Simmons, manager, Bonzilla Corp; Graham Stairs, popguru sound & vision; Jennifer Toomey, executive director, Coalition for the Future of Music; and Jaan Uhelszki, writer.