SXSW, or the South by Southwest Music Festival, gathered more than 1,700 bands this year in Austin, Texas.

The festival is America’s most important music convention, bringing together many musicians and their fans and exploiters from the United States and the rest of the world.

Southwest Festival has been strongly promoted on the Internet, where free music available online damaged the business of established recording companies. The ones who are truly enjoying the digital evolution are music fans and musicians who want their music to be heard. 12,500 people registered for this year’s festival, compared to 7,000 registrations in 2001.

Many bands that will perform at the festival are not going to gain too much money, but will try to promote themselves and gain an audience.

Major labels that used to promote musicians are out-of-date nowadays. Multimillion-selling musicians such as Radiohead prefer to be their own free agents.

The South by West festival has encouraged musicians to promote themselves on the Internet and through other methods since 1987, when it started. Music makers clearly do not depend on major labels anymore.

An interesting thing about this year’s gathering is the support of gay artists. Many new gay artists will perform and therefore, Gay.com will also be there.

Eight of the most talented gay indie musicians will be performing in two simultaneous concerts at Austin’s two highest-profile gay venues, each gathering at least 1,000 fans, PlanetOut.com informs.

Among the big bands performing at the convention are R.E.M., Body of War, My Morning Jacket, Paramore, Vampire weekend and rap-rock collective N.E.R.D.

Some of the smaller bands are Robyn, Duffy, She&Him, Yeasayer, The Cool Kids.