Sounds Like a Plan.

Red Bull Sound Select Enters Dallas Market, Launches With Free Erykah Badu Show.

During the music portion of this year's South by Southwest festival down in Austin, the folks at Red Bull announced the launch of a new platform and music series called Red Bull Sound Select that's aimed, rather specifically, at bringing some shine to the lesser-known, up-and-coming artists in various cities across the country.

The format, essentially, is as follows: Starting in July and running once a month in 10 cities across the country (Dallas included) through at least the end of the calendar year, Red Bull and a group of locally embedded curators — in Dallas' case, Spune Productions and our team right here at Central Track — will join forces to bring audiences a unique, free concert experience featuring a headliner, plus some of the city's finest local artists in supporting roles.

The program will launch in Dallas on Friday, July 26, with an all-out local assault: Local icon Erykah Badu will headline the party; soul favorite Larry g(EE) and bona fide rap hustler Dustin Cavazos will open. Fans can request their free tickets to the 1,000-person-capped show right here.

The idea here, in many ways, is to give the power back to the artists by giving them even more direct access to the fans that help pump up their reputation. To that end, simply requesting a ticket is only a part of the game: Fans that go the extra mile and show love for the supporting local acts on the bill on their social media accounts (through Facebook and Twitter alike, using the #soundselect hashtag as they do) will be hand-selected by these artists to receive special show-related bonuses, such as special access to the show and, possibly, some pre- and post-show treats. If requested access for the show exceeds the venue's capacity, this same process will be used by the artists themselves to determine who gets let in to the show and who gets locked out.

Pretty cool, yeah?

Know too, though, that is only the very beginning of the process. In the coming weeks and months, we'll have much more information for you to take in — on free shows happening in various venues across town, on surprise appearances from acts you've been dying to see come through town, and on even more ways in which we can ensure that people know that there's a significant crowd out there that truly supports the Dallas scene.

This is exciting stuff, y'all. And we're super stoked to be a part of it. Trust us when we say this is the start of something super rad.

For now, though, I guess we'll just plan on seeing you on July 26 at the Prophet Bar, yeah? Yeah.

Cool.

Cover photo from our coverage of Erykah Badu's birthday bash at the Granada Theater back in February.