Iconic festival South by Southwest (SXSW) is sure to bring in a ton of people to Austin, Texas, for 10 days of music, music and more music, plus some film for good measure. However, Slash has just announced that he’ll be bringing a new component to SXSW this year, throwing the first-ever ‘Slashathon,’ which will challenge software developers to “create solutions for artists to engage their communities for an album release.”

The ‘Slashathon,’ which is described as an “artist-focused hackathon,” will take place March 12 at Capitol Factory, and within period of 12 hours, the competing developers will rush to create their applications and technology. Powered by Geeklist, the ‘Slashathon’ has the potential to change the music industry, as Slash himself will use the winning “hack” for the release of his next album.

Along with Slash using the winning software to help release the album, which is slated for a late 2014 due date, the ‘Slashathon’ victor will be rewarded with a Gibson guitar autographed by the legendary axe-man and $1,000 prize money. Judges for the ‘Slashathon’ will include Slash himself, Bram Cohen, who is the Chief Scientist & Founder of BitTorrent, and Ben Parr, Co-founder & Managing Partner for DominateFund.

Slash has helped pioneer new music-related technology in the past, launching music apps ‘Slash360′ and ‘Slash AmpliTube’ to promote the guitarist’s 2012 ‘Apocalyptic Love’ album.

If you’re interested in entering the ‘Slashathon,’ click here to register. SXSW badges are not required to participate.