YouTube head of music Lyor Cohen to keynote at SXSW, in latest speakers announcement

Lyor Cohen, global head of music at YouTube and Google, heads the latest round of speakers for South By Southwest, held March 9—18 in Austin Texas.

Other speakers announced overnight were musicians Kim Deal, Steve Albini, Common and Shakey Graves.

Others were one time hacker turned Giphy CEO Alex Chung; journalist and author Katie Couric, visionary XPRIZE Foundation founder and executive chairman Peter Diamandis who is working on the world’s first commercial space flight; Uber chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John; the cast of NBC drama This Is Us; actress, producer and Emmy Award-winning writer Lena Waithe; and chef, businesswoman and marketer Bethenny Frankel.

“Over his 30 year career Lyor Cohen has been behind the most prolific musical acts and at the helm of the biggest labels,” said Hugh Forrest,chief programming officer.

“His creativity and passion to keep the music industry innovative continue to flourish with his leadership at YouTube.

“Cohen and the additional Featured Speakers announced today continue to define SXSW as the premiere destination for creative people.”

Cohen joins previously-announced SXSW Keynotes Darren Aronofsky (Film Keynote), Ta-Nehisi Coates (Convergence Keynote), Barry Jenkins (Film Keynote), Sadiq Khan (Convergence Keynote), Esther Perel (Interactive Keynote), and whurley (Convergence Keynote).

SXSW Conference programming is organized into 24 Tracks divided between Interactive, Film, Music, and Convergence, presented in a variety of session formats.

Continuing last year’s initiative, SXSW is offering expanded access to events for all registrants. Attendees will receive primary access to programming associated with their badge type but now also enjoy secondary entry to most other SXSW events.

Headhere to register for the event. SXSW’s next registration deadline is January 12, 2018.