Los Angeles Times music critic Todd Martens reports, for the most part, the conference feels pretty much like it does every year because the focus isn’t on the mainstream music industry.

The emphasis instead is on showcasing emerging talent and deciphering ways in which those acts, buoyed by the enthusiasm of the independent community, can thrive in a climate of considerable adversity.

“I can’t say we’re not affected by the meltdown, or whatever you want to call it,” said SXSW co-founder Roland Swenson. “But it’s kind of marginal at this point. We’re down some in music registrations – maybe somewhat between 10 and 15 percent.”

Swenson said that any dip in music registrations would be evened out by the growth of the festival’s five-day interactive confab, which has seen a 30% upswing in registrations.

Last year, SXSW had 12,600 music attendees.

So obviously, people are still in the mood for a party, because if you ask anyone who’s ever been to SXSW, they’ll tell you that’s basically what it is – four days of people living it up on the boss’s dime.

But while the picture may be fairly rosy for SXSW organizers (the number of bands this year is 1900 – up 100 from last year), the same can’t be said for the indie labels themselves as Martens found out firsthand on Tuesday, a day before the conference started.

“The bottom line is that we have to look at every dollar that we spend, and we have to wonder what are we really getting for it,” said Jeff Castelaz, co-founder of Dangerbird Records.

His company is about to start promoting a new album from one of L.A.’s most recent rock ’n’ roll success stories, the Silversun Pickups. The act will perform new songs in Austin, but Castelaz said he trimmed the number of staffers going to the Texas capital.

“It doesn’t mean we’re lowering our sights on our core business, which is marketing rock ’n’ roll,” he said. “It’s just: Why exactly do we need all those extra people down there? What are they really going to be doing other than drinking beer out of plastic cups?”

Uh oh. Looks like the jig is up for some of you.

Not everyone travels to Austin for an extended weekend of partying though, like Minnesota Public Radio Music Director Melanie Walker, who blogged on the station’s Web site this morning:

SXSW for me, as a Music Director, is not just a place to come hang out and have a good time, it’s also a place that I come to discover new music and meet new people in the music industry. I work hard down here to find our audience the best new music for the coming year and to hopefully establish great relationships with record labels and band managers.

Way to go Mel! It’s nice to see somebody is trying to squeeze a little work in with their club-hopping.

At an early morning music panel this morning (which I’m betting our friend Melanie attended) Martens got an earful from indie label execs, including one speaker who got laid off after he was scheduled to attend.

Never mind coffee, Howard Greynolds, formerly of Chicago’s well-respected and long-running Touch & Go Records, woke up the sleep-deprived crowd. He noted that of Touch & Go’s 23 staffers, 21 had been cut, and the disconnect between the labels’, retailers’ – and sometimes even the artists’ – needs is becoming greater than ever. He lit into SXSW performing act Grizzly Bear, arguing the band had delivered mixed messages to its fan base regarding the leak of upcoming, Veckatimest.

And if bands don’t have problems with their albums leaking, Greynold’s offered this: “Give back the $20,000 the label gave you to record the record.”

In briefly hitting on Touch & Go’s troubles, he noted that the economics for independent labels have completely shifted. Today, there is no”middle ground,” Greynolds said. He noted that indie labels thrived on selling between 20,000 and 30,000 copies of an album. Those days are over, despite the greater presence given to adventurous music (see the time-conflicting panel on the influence of blogs).

“What has happened is that it is now 5,000 [sales] or less, or 50,000 or more,” Greynolds said. “The middle is gone.” And the new model of digital sales isn’t making up the difference, as Greynolds argued that the margins from iTunes are too thin to “maintain a staff of 10.”

One place where the effects of the economy are blatantly obvious is the festival’s swag bag, which Martens discovered is not as stuffed with goodies as it was in years past.

How much lighter than last year? “It is much lighter,” said one of the SXSW volunteers handing out the bags (that’s as technical as we can get for now).

Wired Epicenter noted that SXSW interactive attendees received iPhone and smart phone cases. No such promotional items in the music gift bag. So what do we get? Some magazines – Paste and American Songwriter among them – a fancy hotel brochure, gum an 80-calorie nutrition bar, throat relief, Blackberry-sponsored magnets and a bunch of other random items that won’t make the trek back to Los Angeles (of course, none of the swag – aside from an army action figure – came home with this writer the last four years.)

“A fancy hotel brochure”? Definitely not a Grammy Awards swag bag. At least the folks attending have all of those great performances to look forward to. And who knows, they might be the one to discover the next big thing.

Read Todd Marten’s overview of SXSW here, his coverage of the indie label’s panel here and his thoughts on this year’s swag bag here.

Read Minnesota Public Radio’s Melanie Walker’s SXSW blogs here.