From March 14-15, over the course of 24 hours during SXSW, hackers will collaborate and compete in three hack categories: Music, Film, and VR/AR.

Questions our hackers can/will address within or across each category:

 

Commerce & Industry
How is money getting to artists, creators, and rights-holders and can emerging technology like blockchain or micro-licensing help facilitate and manage the process? How can creatives connect with the right industry players to mutually further careers?

Creation
How can musicians, filmmakers, or VR/AR designers use tech to create, perform, and display in new ways? What tools can we create to make the process easier or more inventive?

Distribution
With the fragmentation of distribution systems, physical media, and streaming options, how do I get my work out to the public and in front of my ideal audience?

Consumer
How can we improve the fan, customer, listener, viewer or user experience?

Cross-discipline
How can creators collaborate more easily and more creatively across audio, visual, and immersive fields?

Participating hackers get to show off their skills, play with the coolest APIs from each category, work with our Artist/Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and present to high-profile industry celeb judges in one crazy, marathon 24-hour coding experience.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$11,900 in prizes

Best Music

$2000

Best VR/AR

$2000

Best Film/Video

$2000

Best use of ​MapQuest

15" laptop backpack from STM Goods for each team member on the winning team

Best Use of Amper Music

Free Adobe Creative Cloud - 12 month subscription for each member of the winning team

SOCAN

$2000 for team for best use of SOCAN API

Sonos

Hackers that build with the Sonos Platform will each receive a Sonos-branded battery pack. The members of the team we determine built the best hack on our Platform will each receive a Sonos Speaker of their own, to be mailed after the event is over.

Verizon

1st $800, 2nd $400 & 3rd $200 - For the best use of Verizon Thingspace APIs

Cloudinary

Best use of Cloudinary wins 12 months of a Cloudinary Advanced plan (valued upwards of $2,500!) and free promotion via social media coverage for the team and its solution.

MergeVR

Best Use of HoloCube by Merge: $1,000 Prize

Automatic Prize for teams who build something on HoloCube:
$200 Prize
Merge VR Goggles
HoloCube by Merge

Square

Square contactless and chip readers to each member of the team with the best use of our APIs

PubNub

$1000 Cash Prize – plus 12 Months of PubNub Starter Tier Service. All teams must register below, appear on-stage, mention and clearly demonstrate their use of the PubNub Data Stream Network (DSN) and to qualify for the Civic Hack Challenge, teams must create an app that clearly demonstrates that it fulfills a civic need by benefiting your local government or community.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

How to enter

Participation in the SXSW Hackathon is open to the public, pending approved application – complete the form to enter. A variety of programming/hacking expertise is welcome to join, and you can apply solo, as part of an existing team, or be partnered up with other hackers during the event!

Judges

Josh Constine

Josh Constine
Techcrunch

Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble
Transformation Group VR

Santiago Rodriguez

Santiago Rodriguez
Andreessen Horowitz

Ann Greenberg

Ann Greenberg
Sceneplay, Gracenote

David Dufresne

David Dufresne
500 Startups

Gigi Johnson

Gigi Johnson
UCLA Center for Music Innovation

Benji Rogers

Benji Rogers
Dot Blockchain, Pledge Music

Judging Criteria

  • Creativity
  • Ingenuity
  • Potential Impact
  • Technical Proficiency

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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