SXSW Music Fesitval: iPod, iTunes, and Free Music

I f you wonit be able to make it to this yearis South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival, taking place this week in Austin, TX, you can still get a taste for the music by downloading the entire SXSW 2005 Showcasing Artist MP3 library.

The 2.6GB BitTorrent download features over 750 free, full-length MP3 tracks. If that sounds like too daunting a download, 30-second clips of all the songs are available in a 345MB package. And be sure not to miss the 20 additional songs added last week (85MB).

If you are at the festival, have your iPod with you, and havenit yet discovered CitizenPodis FEST4Pod SXSW guide for your iPod, be sure to download it.

Playlist, meanwhile, reports that Apple has used SXSW to debut customized prepaid Apple iTunes cards. Unlike regular cards, which can redeemed for any song at the iTunes Music Store, the custom cards are linked to specific artists or tracks, providing a great way for artists to steer fans to their iTunes Music Store pages.

At last yearis SXSW music festival, organizers provided more than 600 songs for listening throughout many parts of city via wireless access points and Appleis iTunes Music Sharing feature.