In case you lived under a rock, the Grammys just happened this Sunday, February 11. The good news? Former Eurodance member and current music industry scammer Al Walser didn’t win – although he did draw attention by showing up in a space suit. The (sort of) bad news? Skrillex won in every electronic music-related category: Best Dance Recording and Best Electronic Album for Bangarang and Best Remixed Recording. I suppose if Walser can get a Grammy nomination, an EP can be an album.
Readers, who would you have liked to win? Did Skrillex really deserve the award over The Chemicals Brothers for Best Electronic Album? Did Avicii (or even Calvin Harris or Swedish House Mafia) deserve the Best Dance Recording more?
Award shows aside, this week featured multiple announcements for festival lineups. Closest to today is the LED anniversary at Valley View Casino Center in the San Diego area on February 18. Headlining are Alesso, Otto Knows, and Morgan Page. Proceeds help trained service dogs work with wounded veterans.
Going on sale today are tickets for the Wavefront Beachfront Music Festival, a three-day EDM event on Chicago’s Montrose Beach from July 5 through 7. This is the festival’s second year, and the lineup has yet to be announced.
Ultra Music Festival – now expanded to two weekends – just added more performers to the Phase 3 of its lineup. See the full list of artists here.
Coinciding with Ultra is Juicy Beach, a Miami Music Week/Winter Music Conference event. Also this week, the festival helmed by Robbie Rivera announced the second phase of its lineup. The March 21 party at Nikki Beach now includes Mord Fustang, Alex Gaudino, MYNC, and Sandro Silva.
Although releases were scant this week, most are somewhat notable. U.S.-based trance group Tritonal announced a three-track EP titled Metamorphic I, which is the initial installment of a three-part series to be released throughout 2013.
Post-dubstep artist James Blake put out “Retrograde,” the first single from his upcoming album, Overgrown. The song debuted on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 program, and the album is scheduled for April 8 on Republic.
To show that DJs can still DJ, Mat Zo debuted his Essential Mix on Radio 1 this past week. The 70-track mix features Zo’s collaboration with Porter Robinson, titled “Easy,” and is currently on Soundcloud.
This week additionally introduced two trends that could change how electronic music is marketed. One was the Pollstar Live event, which touched on how internet users find EDM. Essentially, a social platform is twice as likely as search to be used for information. The event, as well, addressed the U.S. as an untapped market for EDM.
PRS for Music, second, debuted a new initiative for the dance music community. According to official statements, EDM producers and composers are less connected to rights bodies for royalties, and PRS’ measure, Amplify, strives to inform performers and their managers about this issue. In the feature, Amplify could involve, or at least start, automated setlist submissions from festivals.
