According to research by Sonos, the 2012 South By Southwest showcase will attract 500 bands to Austin, TX – from all over the place. The charts below show the bands’ origins worldwide, as well as where outfits are coming from in the U.S., as American bands make up over half playing the festival.

Interestingly, 2 bands are coming from Estonia (the most free online community in the world), as well as 2 more from Mozambique. As for the U.S., most bands are not surprisingly coming from Texas, New York and California, at 51, 48 and 45 respectively.

According to SXSW’s history statement, “the classic problem facing Austin musicians was being isolated from the rest of the world here in the middle of Texas. SXSW was a way to reach out to the rest of the world, and bring them here to do business. To do that successfully, SXSW needed to appeal to people other than local artists whether they were from Austin, Ft. Worth, Chicago, Toronto, Munich or Tokyo.”