SXSW season will be here before you know it. On October 11, the celebrated Austin festival announced the first wave of more than 200 music acts set to perform in March 2018.
Highlights this year include German R&B singer and H&M designer Ace Tee, Japanese indie rockers DYGL, Las Vegas electro-pop artist Shamir, Baltimore three piece Snail Mail, Indonesian rapper and comedian Rich Chigga, and post-punk legends The Wedding Present.
As always, Austin is well represented with psychedelic trio Night Beats, singer-songwriter David Ramirez, family hip-hop act The Bishops, electronic breakout Dylan Cameron, Latin funk ensemble Cilantro Boombox, and garage rockers Leather Girls on the schedule. Other Austin acts include Curved Light, Charlie Faye & the Fayettes, William Harries Graham, Greenbeard, Warren Hood, Oliver Rajamani, Adam Torres, VVV, and World Music Unleashed from the School of Indian Percussion and Music.
SXSW 2018 takes place March 9-18. The music portion of the festival runs March 12–18. Following last year's change, badge access to the festival will remain expanded, allowing non-Platinum badge holders secondary access to events from other parts of the festival (for instance, a Music badge would get secondary access to Film events).
Badges are currently on sale at a discounted rate of $925 for Interactive, Film, and Music and $1,250 for Platinum. That price will go up after October 20.
To help ensure his career is “alright, alright, alright” in the AI era, Oscar-winning movie star Matthew McConaughey has trademarked two of his greatest assets: his face and voice.
Last year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued eight trademarks designed to prevent AI users from mimicking McConaughey’s likeness or voice without authorization. Applications for the trademarks, known as “motion marks” and “sound marks,” include:
A 7-second video of him seated near a fireplace and Christmas tree in his living room.
A 7-second video of him standing on a porch
A brief audio clip of him saying, “Just keep livin’, right?” J.K. Livin Brands, which owns McConaughey’s Just Keep Livin apparel business, controls the trademarks.
A brief audio clip of him uttering his iconic “Alright, alright, alright” catchphrase from the 1993 cult classic film Dazed and Confused.
“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it,” McConaughey, a Uvalde native and longtime Austin resident, told The Wall Street Journal. “We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.”
As AI continues to infiltrate the entertainment business, McConaughey and other Hollywood A-listers are pursuing trademarks to stop AI-driven misuse of their faces and voices. However, everyday actors with limited resources may be unable to afford going through the trademark process and defending a trademark violation.
“Some actors fear a possible future in which studios will pressure them to sign away their likeness,” Scientific American reported in 2023, “and their digital double will take work away from them.”
The Wall Street Journal notes that various actors and singers have grappled with AI-created fake videos, audio, and images on the internet, including Tom Hanks and Taylor Swift. A study released in 2024 by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers predicted AI-generated content could cause music creators to lose 24 percent of their revenue by 2028, and could lead to screenwriters and directors losing 15-20 percent of their revenue.
The threat of AI stealing work from actors became a sticking point in 2023 negotiations between entertainment studios and striking members of SAG-AFTRA, a labor union representing performers, recording artists, and broadcasters.
Kevin Yorn, founder and managing partner of Southern California law firm Yorn Levine, which handled the trademark applications for McConaughey, says that while the actor and his attorneys support the evolution of AI, legal boundaries must be put in place.
“Protecting individual voice, image, and intellectual property is essential to building a future that works for everyone,” Yorn says in a statement provided to CultureMap. “Along with Matthew, we are forward-looking, engaged in the possibilities of AI, and thoughtful about how everyone’s creative identity is represented and protected.”
