Swedish House Mafia sold out Madison Square Garden in less than 10 minutes. Ultra Music Festival sold out within 20 minutes of pre-ticket sales. It’s more than safe to say djs are this generation’s rock stars sending EDM barreling through this world in the same manner as a freight train lacking brakes- full steam ahead with no stopping in sight. In a recent interview, Diplo said “I know one thing — the major labels, the A&Rs, are very frightened now.” This info comes as no surprise since executives are the first to cry injustice, music and otherwise. Rather than create an imaginary war or take on the ever so popular victim role, music executives should think, “What can EDM do for me?”.
The monumental reach of djs is intimidating but intimidating is not always a negative. Considering fans of EDM are not required to listen to that genre exclusively, the reason why so many labels, managers, ect are rendering EDM fans (who have proven they spend money) unreachable is mind blowing. A-Track said it best when he stated, “There is a captive audience, and it’s hungry. It’s our time to be creative in how we feed it.” So why not bring your acts to the already “captive” audience? Ok A&R try to follow along now. Let’s do some simple math- if 1 unknown artist plus 1 dj plus one sold out arena equals no more anonymity for said artist. Wait- so the marking fees and huge ad buys are bypassed? Hmmmm now there’s an idea.
Change is something that people in the position of “power” commonly have a hard time acknowledging. Changing the songs they had a hand in creating is surely a blow to the ego. Enter the EDM remix. Remixes are very very popular. Now it shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that all parties involved benefit from a remix though most seem to overlook that little fact. For example, Ellie Goulding is huge with fans of house music as the result of her voice lending a beautiful harmony to the electronically chopped and wobble sounds. The end result is a singer who most wouldn’t have heard of without the remixes is now very well known by fans of house music.