Investors Starting to Take the Electronic Dance Scene Seriously Now
Friday, April 6, 2012 at 9:15AM
If you're into the scene, you don't need me to tell you how huge things are. But because most electronic music isn't the kind of stuff that gets played on the radio or the video channels, people on the outside have no clue as to what's going on.
But they're slowly catching on. And investors, tipped off about the big money involved, are taking notice. From the New York Times:
“If you’re 15 to 25 years old now, this is your rock ‘n’ roll,” said Michael Rapino, the chief executive of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest concert promoter.
Two weeks ago, 165,000 fans went to the Ultra Music Festival in Miami to revel in the pulsating bass and wave glow sticks in the dark. Similar numbers have turned out for events in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas. With the boom, artist fees have exploded. Top D.J.’s like Deadmau5, Tiësto and Afrojack can earn well over $1 million for a festival appearance and $10 million for a Las Vegas nightclub residency, talent agents say.
Reader Comments (2)
For someone whose been into electronica since hearing Kraftwerk back in the mid 70's, & who started going to raves in the early 2000's, it's all a kind of vindication. On the other hand, it's also a "been there, done that" kind of thing too. It's great that this genre is getting the attention it deserves, but there's been SO many years of REALLY amazing music that has come & gone, up til now. The people who are loving it today really missed out on the formative years of this music.
Haven't we learned by now that if you want to devalue the quality of something...just over-inject it with tons of money....such as sports, finance, politics or botox to name a few. Much like when you were a kid and thought by adding LOTS of sugar to it, kool-aid would taste better - it just became a shellacked and sticky mess with few remnants of it's original flavour.
BIG money = small music
We all know what's become of today's corporate radio play. Besides, I've known many musicians who can push out the limits and produce quality music from a Radio Shack sampler than a corporate 'poster child' backed with tour bus, media exposure, marketed gimmicks etc.
Keep the underground under ground.