Soulection is the coolest, most awesome thing happening in music right now. They are a collective rather than a group running a label; independent, with a super-positive management providing a platform for deserving artists to blossom in an overly saturated market. These guys just do good music. Period. Also, they know how to throw a damn good party.  Towkio has an amazing project, .WAV Theory, coming very soon. Trust me, it’s great. Chance the Rapper, LIDO and the Social Experiment, among others, are featured. His live show will not be one to miss.  Finally, Post Malone. This guy. What an amazing thing to happen. His debut single, White Iverson, is sure to be the biggest thing to hit SXSW. Any opportunity at all to see Post Malone, please heed my advice and go.  Featuring members of Women, Viet Cong made a bit of a splash at last year’s SXSW, inspiring tons of buzz going into the release of their debut earlier in 2015. The band may be the year’s first success story, channeling their technical post-punkisms while trying to dodge Wolf Parade comparisons.  Coming from the same scene that launched bands like Merchandise, Sheer Mag do a style of female-fronted pop-punk that tips its hat to glam, pop and Thin Lizzy all in one fell swoop. With their second seven-inch about to hit, there is already tons of buzz behind this Philadelphia band.  The Spits are one of the best-kept secrets in punk rock. With a catalog of near perfect pop-punk strewn across more than half a dozen releases, the band is the picture-perfect definition of cult favorite, due to their wild live shows and instantly hummable melodies.  iLoveMakonnen is one of these new breed of artists who gets called hip-hop but whose music has as much in common with Drake as it does with Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend (coincidentally, he has worked with both). Check him out if you like genre-hopping, lo-fi yet massive tunes about big Tuesday nights out.  Instead of what normally passes for a video these days – band looking enigmatic, walking around a forest, someone setting off a flare at the end – the video for Tei Shi’s Bassically is like a live comic action. A great song and an even better video – go see her live at SXSW if you get chance.  I met Shamir when he was visiting XL in London for the first time. He played us some of his favorite country songs on guitar – which was a bit of a surprise because his music sounds like Sylvester fronting LCD Soundsystem. But the more I learn about him, the less I’m surprised because the guy is so talented. And that voice, wow.  GoldLink is a 21-year-old, up-and-coming rapper from Washington DC with only debut album The God Complex under his belt. With more than 11m plays and 65,000 followers on SoundCloud, his career is taking off. He has started working with music legend Rick Rubin and has been on tour with artists like SBTRKT, Flume and more. He has been covered online in XXL, Fader and Complex, appearing in lists of artists to watch in both 2014 and 2015.  Another 21-year-old, Metro Boomin, is currently one of the hottest rising hip-hop producers based in Atlanta. He has produced for rappers like Future, ILoveMakonnen, 2Chainz, Young Thug, Wiz Khalifa and more. He also recently started a side project with the rapper Young Thug called Metro Thuggin.  George Lewis Jr, aka Twin Shadow, is a talented multi-instrumentalist (guitar, keys, drums) with a unique musical perspective. He is releasing his first major-label debut, Eclipse, this month that further explores his admiration and original take on synth-pop – similar to his previous efforts – while maintaining a raw, edgy sound.
We asked four music industry figures to tell us who they think could stand out and blossom into stars at this year’s festival