This piece plots the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival on the world atlas of the music biz. It begins with a brief history of the ascendancy of Austin Texas as a music hub, and the genesis of this festival as an enticement for the bi-coastal music industry to take notice of the unique sounds of Austin. It then muses about how the festival has been changed by its own success, and its struggle to find balance between big-name performers and up-and-coming acts. Though there?s quite a bit of music and actuality, this is more of a business piece. The music is used to dress up the story, but doesn?t propel the narrative as it might have. Some of the actualities have that ?take me behind the scenes? quality while others lack that immediacy. The tempo of the piece starts off quick and is quite textured with songs and actualities, but it loses momentum about halfway through. Two songs are played in their entirety, and the piece ends with a rather long interview. What I like the most about this piece is that it does pull back the curtain on the music industry?explaining the importance of creating a buzz, showing the exhilaration of discovering a hot new performer, and conveying the frustrations of musicians who despite their best efforts never catch the ear of the career-makers. Individual passages of this feature are quite strong, yet as a whole it doesn?t quite sing.