McDonald’s Asks Indie Bands to Play for Free at SXSW

You’d expect a company valued at over 90 billion to offer bands compensation for playing in their official SXSW showcase…especially since they asked them to play.

McDonalds communicated to artists (like Carolina indie duo Ex Cops) that there is no budget for an artist fee (unfortunately).

Their selling point was this was “a great opportunity for additional exposure,” and that “McDonald’s will have their global digital team on site to meet with the bands, help with cross promotion, etc”

This goes to show you how difficult it can be an indie musician when even large corporations choose not to pay you.

What do you think? Should McDonalds pay the indie musicians THEY asked to play at South by Southwest (SXSW) or is the additional music exposure enough?