EDMbiz Conference & Expo Wraps with Expanded Producton

The EDMbiz Conference & Expo was the epicenter of industry and innovation for the EDM community. Artists, promoters, agents, bloggers, investors, media experts and more from around the country and all over the globe gathered to share their knowledge, experience and overall thoughts on the state of the industry’s past, present and future. To quote one of the keynote speakers, Bob Lefsetz, in his widely recognized trade newsletter, “Everybody here is young and involved and they want in, or further in… It’s like either you’re on the EDM path, or you’re headed down the road to extinction.”

The conference kicked off on June 17 with a nighttime club event at Drai’s Beach Club with industry pioneers The Crystal Method, who launched their career in Las Vegas over 20 years ago “before there was EDM,” per the duo’s Ken Jordan.  The following day, nearly a thousand delegates filed into the expanded halls of The Cosmopolitan for two days of back-to-back panels, presentations and keynote speeches, hosted by Jason Bentley of KCRW.

Sean Christie, Managing Partner of Surrender and Encore Beach Club, stepped in and formally opened the round of panels. Other highlights from the conference included the “#20Something” panel, curated by manager Jake Udell of Th3rd Brain Management (Krewella, Zhu), that focused on the brightest up-and-coming executives in the genre.

Tatiana Oliveira Simonian debuted segments of the study “Engaging The Electronic Music Listener,” an in-depth look at the electronic music consumer. “Data is power,” said Simonian, as she discussed various graphs and charts which revealed a fascinating macro look at the state of the music industry. According to Nielsen, the typical EDM fan is a millennial and more likely to have a multi-cultural ethnicity. The genre’s fan base is 55% male and 45% female, with diversity all around.

That Thursday, attendees returned for a more-artist-driven day of programming, with keynotes from Above & Beyond and Hardwell.  Both artists were joined by their management and agents. Paavo Siljamaki and Tony McGuinness dove deep into their massive success in touring and innovation as an act, recently performing two benchmark acoustic shows for fans while Hardwell and his team discussed his meteoric rise.

There was also the third artist panel, featuring a lively conversation between Steve Angello, Borgore, Carl Cox, Arty, Destructo, Carnage and Posso.