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Louis Jay Meyers, co-founder of South by Southwest, has died, reports the Austin American-Statesman. The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack. In 1987, Meyers started the music festival and conference with business partners Roland Swenson, Louis Black, and Nick Barbaro. He booked the bulk of the music for the festival until leaving the fold after the 1994 event. (Today is the first day of this year's SXSW Interactive, which kicked off with a keynote talk from President Obama.)

Meyers backed Austin venue Liberty Lunch in the 1980s, when he was also a manager for local bands. From 2005 to 2013, Meyers was executive director of Folk Alliance International, an annual folk music conference held in Kansas City.

Meyers also played music with the likes of Bill & Bonnie Hearne, Bob Schneider, Killbilly, the Killer Bees, Mojo Nixon, Fastball, Willis Alan Ramsey, Tommy Ramone, and Jello Biafra, as Billboard reports.

"The reason South by Southwest worked for the industry is because we took the time to be the A&R people," Meyers told Kansas City's Pitch in 2013. "We cleared through thousands of showcase entries to find a few hundred acts that we felt were ready to be seen by the industry. It was critical to me personally that every act at South By was worth seeing, that nobody could walk away going, 'How the hell did that band get booked at this thing?'"

Folk Alliance confirmed the news on Facebook. "He will be dearly missed by his friends and colleagues on our staff, board, in our membership, and the music community at large," the post said. "We are all thankful for having had the recent joy of his presence with us at our conference, and are forever grateful for his incredible role with us over the past decade."