EDM Magazine by Kevin Stadler

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S :I D AL M R IV A EA ST H M TR FE ED ST M NS AI ED OF PO M N OF to IO S IC ISE CT R RE T OM DI EN E ON C AT EC RE E OR S: TH RP AL IV CO ST E FE TH

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EDM CONTENTS 3 The Economics of Electric Dance Music Festivals A look into the ecominc side of EDM culture, unapologetically, the music of the millenial generation.

8 An Introspective Look at the Corporate Direction of EDM

With the explosive growth of the EDM industry and the result in influx of money over the past few years, the corporate beast has risen.

11 EDM Festivals: Recent Rise to Mainstream Music festivals like Tomorrowland in Belgium, Ultra in Miami and Hard Fest in Los Angeles serves as a taste-making force during EDMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ascent into the popular consiousness,.

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FEATURE

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The Commericialization of EDM

T h i e rr y G o d a rd

The growth of EDM would be virtually impossible without the internet. Similar to book publishing, the web has completely and thoroughly disrupted the music industry. Anyone and everyone with a fairly decent internet connection is only milliseconds away from a millenia’s worth of musical knowledge. Through Pandora, Spotify, Soundcloud, Twitter and Facebook we’ve all become DJ’s; discovering, curating, mixing a set list to carry us through the splendid banality of our technology driven lives. It’s during this great moment of musical re-exploration that everyone seems to have fallen in love with electronic music, dance music, or EDM. Ask anyone and they can tell you at least one electronic music producer, or DJ that they love, or love to hate. EDM is, unapologetically, the music It’s a match made in heaven where unknown DJs and of the millenial generation. A generation producers are able to share their tracks, remixes and sets which has witnessed the greatest technological across social media, forums, and blogs. This exposure can upheaval since the industrial revolution. A often lead to paid gigs which have the potential to generation that is simultaneously more connected to catapult obscure producers into international each other, and seemingly more detached from reality super-stardom. Though electronic music has than ever before. It’s the music of 20-30 years old’s who’ve grown popular, its roots still remain deeply been focused on the rapidly approaching future, while entrenched in underground culture. What remaining conscious of their past. And despite being more is even more peculiar is that electronic educated than any generation that preceded them, millennials are dance music is nothing new. What more than likely to earn less over the course of their professional we commonly identify as EDM careers than their parents. has been around for nearly The acceptance of EDM into the cultural mainstream allowed the 10 highest 45 years, yet it has only paid DJs to command a combined $115 million in 2012 according to Forbes. recently been The highest paid DJ on the Forbes list, Tiesto who brought in a whopping $22 million acknowledged. last year, attributes the much of electronic music’s growth to social media.

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These advancements were further compounded by the establishment of digital radio stations like DI.FM (founded in a Binghampton University dorm room), Napster (founded in a Michigan University dorm room) and the emergence of social networks like Myspace (founded by Tom). This perfect storm allowed artists and DJs to instantly distribute their creations. In fact Los Angeles based electronic music Flying Lotus credits the growth of his own career to Myspace. For Americans, who were continuously subjected to the monochromatic sounds of popular radio, the internet provided an escape. Streaming through computer speakers, often at appallingly low quality, was an

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endless sea of new sounds, textures and beats played in steady 4/4 time. Anything and everything was game as long as the tempo ranged from 118 to 160 Beats Per Minute. What came along with the rising interest in electronic music was an interest in DJ’s who hosted internet radio shows. Legends like Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Oakenfold, and John Digweed all hosted their own radio shows for traditional radio. However for the first time they made their sets available for streaming or download via the internet. They had effectively created podcasts before there was an iPod, or iTunes. This new distribution channel helped grow Armin Van Buuren’s A State of Trance into a massive franchise. On March 30th 2013 the weekly radio show celebrated its 600th episode to a sold out crowd of

13,500 fans at Madison Square Garden. The internet and EDM remain joined at the hip, today social media is the primary ticket sales for electronic dance music festivals, concerts and club nights. According to a report by TicketFly, social media ticket sales for EDM events are six times higher than “traditional events” like plays, sporting and other music events. What is more interesting is that 58% of ticket buyers are usually males purchasing just one ticket. TicketFly speculates that the sense of community among EDM fans decreases desires to pair up prior to purchasing a ticket. This has the effect of increased ticket sales relative to the overall popularity of the performers.

Future music : mo’ money mo’ problems... It doesn’t take much math to see that the costs of staging a festivals like COG and New York’s Electronic Zoo are immense. Yet its ticket prices are less than half of Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, which offers multiple day passes for $399 and VIP access starting at $850. What Scott Emslie was quick to reiterate was that rising costs are attributed directly to the rising costs of booking in demand DJs, producing fantastic visual shows, and making sure the sound is impeccable. The promoters at Ultra Music Festival are conscious of the rising costs, and have introduced a payment plan for it’s pricey tickets. So even if you can’t afford to buy your tickets today, you can put your desire to rage on layaway. Which isn’t as terrible of an idea as it sounds. Miami is another struggling city that has reaped the benefits of the EDM festival boom. The south Florida city has hosted the Winter Music Conference for 28 years, of which Ultra Music Festival is one of the 500 events underway over the course of ten day days. In just one weekend Ultra, and its 165,000 attendees, generated $79 million in revenue for the Miame-Dade county economy. It also put $10 million in taxes into the coffers of state and local governments. The increased ticket prices also help to fund significantly improved stages, lighting and sound. Emslie added “People just want more, and the greater number of festivals has increased competition to provide bigger and better shows each year. For example we booked Calvin Harris, Deadmau5 and Skrillex for our 2010 festival. Back then Skrillex was basically unknown and we paid him a couple thousand to show up. When we tried to book him again five months later [for 2011] he had become so in demand that it didn’t make financial sense [for us] to have him play” said Emslie. Despite the festival’s impressive growth, it still cannot

match the ferocious demand of fans to see big name DJs play at huge festivals. As a recent lawsuit filed against Insomniac Events CEO Pasqual Rotell highlighted, not all of revenue generated passes on to the state through legal means. For Rotell, some of it goes towards greasing the palms of a Los Angeles coliseum officials to the tune of $1.8 million. The case was dismissed, but it does illustrate the very grown up problems festival producers are dealing with as pressure to put on more expensive and more impressive shows increases. Though EDM, and EDM festivals have proven to be as economically viable as any other form of music, it still has many detractors. There are many within its own ranks who dismiss the sudden popularity as a trend, or passing fad. Though they aren’t wrong, the insane salaries commanded by superstar DJs is nothing more than the market responding to years of pent up demand. People have always loved dance music, and for the first time it seems like it’s acceptable for Americans to be upfront about it.

Check out the Album Release Review for Aly & Fila in the latest issue of EDM World Magazine. Go to www.edmworldmagaz... now to check out the latest issue.

For a country (and a generation) still coming to terms with its penchant for racism, homophobia, sexism and rabid consumerism, there couldn’t be a more appropriate time for America to pop the EDM pill.

It’s entirely possible that electronic dance music won’t remain as popular as it is today. But for an industry determined to not be forgotten by history, continued growth remains the only option.

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ULTRA MIAMI

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Avicii

is the new face of electronic dance music

- young, marketable and Swedish.

An Introspective Look at Coporate Direction of EDM

Brian Jorgensen When it comes to the music industry, never was there a more accurate statement than that of Sean “Puffy” Combs, when he wrote “the more money we come across – the more problems we see.” If you look at the explosive growth of the EDM industry and the resulting influx of money over the past few years, you can clearly see how that aroused the corporate beast. While this new form of expression is thrust into the public consciousness as something relevant to youth demographics, major marketing corporations see nothing more than dollar signs. Now, a movement that was once held sacred to a relatively small community is teetering on the precipice

of either becoming publicly accepted as the newest form of serious musical expression, or a trending punch-line for late night talk show hosts with played out comparisons to disco. Though the public image of EDM will have little effect on its underground foundation, this castle we built over it can easily crumble once being touched by corporate hands. We’ve seen this happen before, and as a collective culture we need to do all we can to make sure that the money coming into EDM does not ultimately become its destruction. Unfortunately, those with the most responsibility/blame will be the ones with the most to gain. For disco it was The Bee Gees, for grunge it was Nirvana,

and for EDM, it’s deadmau5 (given name: Joel Zimmerman). These are not necessarily the inventors of their associated genres, but they certainly were the cause for the rise (and arguably the fall) of their genre in the popular culture. Recently, at the FutureSound conference in San Francisco, Zimmerman was asked if he felt protective of the EDM scene he helped catapult to cultural relevancy. In response, Zimmerman exclaimed:

“Burn all electronic music down, I don’t care. At the end of the day, scenes don’t evolve. Scenes are scenes. They’re there and they’re not.”

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This past spring, the Swedish DJ-producer Avicii opened the second half of his set on the monster main stage of Miami’s Ultra Music Festival with something totally unexpected: He brought out a stomping band – singers, guitars and a banjo – to strum through a new Mumford-sounding, bluegrass-tinged anthem called “Wake Me Up.” Ravers weren’t sure what to make of it, and their confusion spilled over into harsh criticism online. “After the show, he kept telling me, ‘There’s so many people on Twitter who hate what we were doing,’” says guitarist Mike Einziger, who was onstage. “He was kind of visibly affected by it.” Six months later, they’ve definitely come around to the 23-year-old spinner’s vision. The insanely catchy “Wake Me Up” is a worldwide smash. It’s the fastest-selling single of the year in the U.K. (beating “Blurred Lines”) and has gone to Number One in 63 countries. “It’s ridiculous,” says Avicii (real name: Tim Bergling). “I still don’t really feel like I’ve had time to slow down and really realize where it has all come to. A lot of dance music has gotten more and more repetitive – too focused on the dirty drop. I was always interested in the melodic part of house music.” As he often is, Avicii is in the middle of an absurdly long day. Last night he rocked a rave in Greece until 5:30 a.m., before hopping a private jet to Spain, where he’s playing Ibiza’s biggest parties. Since becoming one of EDM’s major stars with his 2010 Etta James-sampling smash “Levels,” he’s been playing around 300 shows a year, making a reported $250,000 payday for each. As a result, Avicii had a basically unlimited budget for his debut album, True (out September 17th), which ranges from rootsy singalongs to pummeling, vocoder-heavy EDM. He sought out some major talent to help: an eclectic crew including Einziger, who plays guitar in Incubus; Imagine Dragons; and legendary Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers. “I wanted to collaborate with songwriters who weren’t used to electronic music, which was interesting from the start,” Avicii says. “I wanted to make real music, in a sense. And I wanted every track to be a single.” While long overdue, Avicii is finally releasing his new remix of his recent hit Silhouettes. More as

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a promotional and marketing move than anything else, this remix is to highlight his recent partnership with Ralph Lauren and their Denim & Supply department. This remix comes hot off the wheels of the other remix package of the original, with new iterations by EDX, Lazy Rich and Syn Cole, that showcase stronger electro based versions of the original mix whereas Avicii’s new take on Silhouettes focuses on a more downtempo approach, that highlight the vocals by Salim Al Fakir. Overall solid new addition to the recent batch of reworks and does bring a breath of fresh air to the overplayed anthem.

“It’s up to the artist to make sure EDM doesn’t become too corporate.”

“Wake Me Up” was written in just two hours at Einziger’s Malibu home with neo-soul singer Aloe Blacc, who added yearbook-ready inspirational lyrics. “It was a very fast process – not a lot of thought went into it,” says Avicii. He kept the bluegrass vibe going on the even rootsier “Hey Brother,” trying out six vocalists before settling on Dan Tyminski, best known for singing “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” in O Brother, Where Art Thou? “I don’t like country,” says Avicii. “But bluegrass to me has always been something credible and kind of cool in the sense that it’s very melodic.”

Avicii the tune “Addicted to You,” which became futuristic, high-gloss disco – with Adele-style vocals from Oklahoma singer Audra Mae. “He’s a genius, no getting around it,” says Davis. “I’m a traditional songwriter. I put my guitar in my lap and sit there for half a day. To watch him work, I swear, is like watching a mad scientist, with his computer and his focus.”

The album’s most surprising collaborator? Definitely 71-year-old songwriter Mac Davis, who wrote “In the Ghetto” and “A Little Less Conversation” for Elvis Presley. “I may be an old fart, but I love EDM,” says Davis, who got the job through a golf buddy, Interscope A&R chief Neil Jacobson. Davis brought

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EDM Festivals: : Recent Rise to Mainstream Christina Amato

“You have a new generation every eight to 10 years that finds its own music, its own sound, and for this generation, dance music is the biggest new thing,” says Dutch DJ Afrojack, aka Nick van de Wall, one of the headliners at the Spring Awakening Festival of electronic dance music June 16-17 at Soldier Field. “Dance music has always been around, but now you see major pop artists like J.Lo (Jennifer Lopez) and will.i.am working with dance producers, and it’s becoming part of the culture.” The sound is ubiquitous on commercial radio.

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Sales for mostly instrumental electron ic-music albums aren’t in the same league as Beyonce or Katy Perry, usually topping out at about 300,000 copies. But countless hip-hop and pop artists in recent years, from Lady Gaga to Nicki Minaj, are collaborating with DJs and electronic-music producers for hits. The Grammy Awards last February acknowledged the impact by giving nationally televised exposure to electronic dance-music superstars such as Skrillex, David Guetta and Deadmau5, who was seen “jamming” with rockers Foo Fighters.

Nationwide, electronic dance music has become a major draw on the festival circuit: The Electric Daisy Carnival drew more than 200,000 in Las Vegas last year, and 165,000 attended the Ultra Music Festival a few weeks ago in Miami, totals comparable to the huge audiences commanded by raves in Europe. In addition, dance music has become a major component of more mainstream rock festivals such as Coachella April in California and Lollapalooza in Grant Park, which sold out 270,000 tickets in advance with dance artists Avicii and Justice among the headliners Aug. 3-5. When it opened in Grant Park in 2005, Lollapalooza could easily contain the hard-core dance crowd in a small grove dubbed “Perry’s Place” (in homage to festival co-founder and Jane’s Addictionsinger Perry Farrell).

But the audience steadily grew, so last year Texas-based C3 Presents commissioned a huge tent for the Perry’s stage that could hold 15,000 people. It still wasn’t big enough. When Skrillex performed, the crowd not only stuffed the tent, it spilled outside, creating a mob scene with revelers shimmying atop generators and climbing trees. This year the festival will again expand the dance element, and have two electronic performers on the main stages for the first time. “The energy being created from dance and electronic music is as powerful asrock ‘n’ roll,” Farrell says. “It’s getting stronger and stronger.You want to see people flip out like they did in the mosh pit at a rock show? They’re doing it in dance music. It’s scary, dangerous, exciting, likerock ‘n’ rollused to be.” EDM Magazine

Of course, rock has been shoved aside in popularity by electronic music several times before. Disco represented dance music’s first commercial wave in the ‘70s, and then raves swept Europe in the late ‘80s, building off the innovations of Chicago house and Detroit techno, and turning electronic artists and DJs such as Paul Oakenfold, Moby, the Orb and Aphex Twin into stars. In the late ‘90s, another techno wave struck, with U.K. acts such as the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim scoring major hits. But the scene was undercut by unscrupulous promoters and an outlaw vibe associated with drug use.

down on parties associated with drug use, and authorized funds to educate parents and kids on the dangers of Ecstasy, a drug associated with the dance scene. The rave community hasn’t entirely shaken its illicit reputation. A teenage girl died of a drug overdose at a rave in Los Angeles two years ago, and last year a 19-year-old man died at a Dallas dance event. In recent weeks, a major dance promoter, Pasquale Rotella of Insomniac, was indicted with five others on embezzlement charges related to events at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.Yet the dance scene continues to expand into the mainstream, attracting corporate investors.

In 2000, the City of Chicago became notorious in the worldwide dance community for passing what became known as the “anti-rave” ordinance. It made property owners, promoters and DJs subject to $10,000 fines for being involved in an unlicensed dance party, and effectively sent the city’s rave scene scurrying deep underground again. In 2003, Congress passed the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, which cracked

Spring Awakening lists 27 sponsors, including major beer companies and hotel chains.

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One of the “Electronoic dance music attractions of electron- has its spring awakening.” ic music is its immediacy and accessibility. An artist can create tracks in his or her bedroom with less than $1,000 worth of gear — a laptop, sampler,

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