Will.i.am is, perhaps, the most repugnant person in the modern EDM cannon – even more so than David Guetta, whom the Black Eyed Peas rapper introduced to this side of the Atlantic. Bad lyrics supported by clichéd house beats and an undeserved spot on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Songs Chart give EDM [...]
For all the hoopla around dance music’s second mainstream ascent in the U.S., there’s one aspect that hasn’t returned: the clubbing movie. Sure, filmgoers have sat through painful efforts like those Step Up movies, but the confluence of culture and sounds of late ‘90s/early ‘00s efforts Human Traffic, Party Monster, [...]
Back when we attended the 2013 Winter Music Conference, we spent some time during days one and two wandering through the opening exhibits – with the exception of Pioneer’s table, this aspect was the most underwhelming of the conference. However, even just browsing, one booth caught my attention – a [...]
Back when we attended the Winter Music Conference in March, workshop after workshop emphasized one point: artists have to put their music out for free to get noticed. Speakers at panel “Mad Men & Women: Marketing Campaigns” even pointed to Deadmau5’s early days at WMC, passing out his tunes to [...]
In the celebrity branding industry, ghosting is a given. Consumers don’t expect The Jersey Shore’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi to have written her novels (although it’s pretty clear her experiences influenced A Shore Thing), nor is it assumed Rihanna, in creating her poorly-reviewed-but-successful River Island collection, sat down to put together [...]
The Winter Music Conference is all about finding out the latest trends in the electronic music industry and, for artists, taking a career to the next level with workshops, advice, and networking. The other half of the week is the events. Even with the Ultra Music Festival bookending the festival, [...]
On day three, we attended panel “WMC & The Recording Academy Present – The Producers Forum,” which featured Laidback Luke, Sander Van Doorn, and Jimmy Douglass as speakers and Greg “Stryke” Chin moderating. All three began talking about their backgrounds in the industry: Van Doorn touched on his first Groovebox, [...]
The International Dance Music Awards, or IDMAs, have been around as long as the Winter Music Conference and now span roughly 50 categories ranging from music to artists to events to gear. Upon entering the Colony Theater in Miami Beach for the March 21 ceremony, we noticed Lee Dagger of [...]
The frenetic atmosphere of days one and two began to die down at WMC, but that’s not to say the panel content wasn’t important. In fact, the future of EDM was a significant focus of these two days. The Music Industry is About to Make a Comeback With a nod [...]
Although the state of the industry is the focus of the Winter Music Conference, gear plays a sizeable part, with brands showcasing their products at a two-day exhibit and doing demonstrations. Along with checking out the exhibits, we stopped by the Gibson Pro Audio (Stanton and KRK) and Pioneer demonstrations [...]