just how big is edm by staff

8/10/2019 Just How Big is EDM by Staff

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ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC

J U S T

H O W I G

um

DM fests regularly

draw hundreds of

thousands EDM

tracks top digital

downloads and a new

generation is using the

computer to make

music. What does it

mean for the music

industry?

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f you'r e under 30 years old, you grew up using

a personal computer and a mouse. If you're in

your teens, smart phones and tablets have

always been a part of your world. These

demographic groups that have been steeped in

digital technology from birth have embraced

the computer as a music making tool, making

electronic dance music, or EDM, the fastest growing

genre on the planet. EDM is a catch-all header that

encomp asses a vast array of electronic genres that revolve

around manipulating samples, loops, and beats including

techno, bass, electro, trance, house, dubstep, and numer-

ous others. But whatever you call it, EDM is big.

The splintering of commercial radio and the advent of

personalized download services has obscured the five-

year growth trajectory of EDM: If you're not seeking it

out, it's easy to overlook it. But, the numbers reflect a

musical style that has resonated w ith millions worldwide.

Attendance at the five largest EDM festivals in the U.S.

expanded by

4 1 %

between 2007 and 201 2, while the total

concert market for the same period edged up just 3 % . A

broad-based consumer survey conducted by EMI music

found that 29% ofU.S.respondents reported a passion

for ED M, implying a fan base of

74

million. And, accord-

ing to Neilsen, EDM had the highest growth rate of all

music genres, posting a 36% year-over-year increase in

digital downloads in 2012.

Electronic dance music has captured the imagination of

the millennia l generation, and nowhere is it more evi-

dent than at the Electric Daisy Carnival, a three-day elec-

tronic music extravaganza held each year in Las Vegas

that features top DJs performing on amazingly complex

sets. The fest, held earlier this year, drew a staggering

350,000 attendees, making it close in size to the mythic

Woodstock Festival of 1969. But unlike m ost of the hip-

pies who wandered onto Max Yasgur's farm to hear

Hendrix; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; and Sly and the Family

Stone, the attendees at Electric Daisy paid between $100

and 1,000 for a three-day ticket. And Electric Daisy is


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ELECTRONIC D NCE MUSIC

ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC BY THE NUMBERS.

DIG IT L

DOW NLO D

Attendance at the five

largest U.S. EDM festivals

surged

4 1 %

between

between 2007 and 2012.

During the same time

frame, total concert atten-

dance edged up just 3% .

EMI records reports that

29%

of the U.S. pop ula-

tion has a passion for

EDM, sugge sting a fan

base of 74 million. This

explains why downloads

of EDM tracks were up

36 % in 201 2.

Swedish DJ Avicii had a

number-one hit on the

illbo rd

charts with the

tune Wake Me Up. More

teiling,

the video scored a

staggering 130 miiiion

views on YouTube.

SFX Entertainment, which

biils itseif as the world's

largest promoter of EDM

festivals, recently had an

IPO that valued the com -

pany at $1.0 billion.

just one of many fests. Elaborate music events that draw

between 50,000 and 100,000 have sprung up in Detroit, New

York, Miami, Seattle, and across the continent in Europe.

The various genres of electronic dance music constitute an

increasing share of digital downloads. In 2012, EDM tracks

represented close to 30% of all music downloads and on

YouTube, EDM videos are now among the most popular.

Avicii's recent hit Wake Me Up has clocked an incredible

130 million views. Dave Guetta, the top French DJ, has sever-

al hits with views topping the 100 million mark. Contrast this

with the videos of top-tier rock bands like AC/DC and

Metallica, where the YouTube views are in the 10 million

range. The Grammy A wards last year acknowledged this grow-

ing impact by giving nationally televised exposure to electron-

ic dance-music superstars Skrillex, David Guetta and

Deadmau5, who jammed on stage with the Foo Fighters.

Billboardmagazine, for its part, has added several EDM cate-

gories to its closely watched charts.

Even Wall Street has a bullish take on EDM. SFX

Entertainment, a major producer of EDM fests, including the

Electric Zoo, went public last mon th, raising $260 million in an

oversubscribed IPO. The transaction values the entertainment

company at $1.0 billion. Robert Tullo, an analyst from Albert

Fried & Co., said of the transaction, This isn't Wall Street

speculating on demand. Bodies are showing up for these

events, and it shows no sign of abating.

In many respects, EDM parallels the early evolution of rock

'n' roll. It has the benefit of being incomprehensible to older

generations. It has an edgy outlaw quality, with its roots in

underground, barely legal clubs. The two genres even share a

tradition of liberal drug use. You have a new generation every

eight to 10 years that finds its own music, its own sound, and

for this generation, dance music is the biggest new thing,

explains Dutch D J Afrojaek, also known as Nick Van de Wall.

Perry Farrell, singer with Jane's Addiction adds, The energy

being created from dance and electronic music is as powerfril

as rock 'n' roll. It's getting stronger and stronger. You want to

see people fiip out like they did in the mosh pit at a rock show?

They're doing it in danee music. It's scary, dangerous, exciting,

like rock ' n' roll used to be.

nding a creative outlet using electronic tone genera-

tion to create music has captured the imagination of

millions, but what does it mean for the music prod-

ucts industry? On the positive side, EDM has dra-

matically lowered the hurdle for music participation by drasti-

cally reducing the hours needed to gain some proficiency.

Traditional instrument makers may scoff at EDM, but it has

succeeded in achieving the stated goal of virtually every indus-

try association, supplier, and retailer: namely to enable a much

larger slice ofthe population to participate in music making.

Jack O 'Donnell, CEO of inMusic brands, which has a leading

market position with its Akai, Alesis, M -Audio, Numark, and

Sonivox lines, explains how EDM is attracting an entirely new

customer. The creative freedom that EDM offers to potential

producers and performers, and the availability of high-quality,

low-cost music production and performance tools, is helping

people interested in the genre to become active producers and

performe rs, he says. In addition, the increasing popularity of

applications like Ableton Live and our own Ignite music pro-

duction software has lowered the barrier of entry for people

without formal music or music production training. You don't

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need to read music or understand how to operate a mixing con-

sole to make music with these sorts of tools.

Matt Derbyshire, a senior production manager at Novation, a

leading maker of controllers, offers a similar explanation for

the appeal of E D M It was rooted in creators engaged in naive

experimentation with drum machines and sequencers, but the

music they created went on to become a cultural soundtrack for

D O E S A L A R G E R P O T E N T IA L

U N I V E R S E O F M U S I C M A K E R S

T R A N S L A T E IN T O A L A R G E R M I

M A R K E T ? T H E J U R Y IS S T I L L O U T

hundreds of thousands of people. Now, with the access to

music-making devices and software becoming more accessible

and sophisticated, this nave exploration can happen on a far

broader scale, and so it makes sense that more people are

enjoying it.

EDM practitioners have also taken existing products and used

them in new and original ways. Roland's drum machines,

which have become a standard component in many EDM rigs,

are a case in point. Kim Nunney, president of Roland U.S.,

says that although the company's TR-808 and TR-909 drum

machines have helped define the genre, it wasn't part of the

corporate strategy. These musicians and producers used them

in ways we could barely imagine at the time. It's almost as if

the gear serves as the muse at time s, he explains. In the end,

musicians define the musicality of a product, and we have

many musicians to thank for the impressive legacy of these

instruments.

B

ut does a larger potential universe of music makers

translate into a larger m i market? T h e jury on that is

still out. EDM customers may be more numerous,

but they tend to spend a lot less on gear than the tra-

ditional instrumentalist, and much of their spending bypasses

the specialized retail distribution channel altogether. Apple's

GarageBand, bundled with all Mac laptops, and available as a

inexpensive iPad app, allows a large contingent to completely

satisfy their urge to create EDM, eliminating the need for any

subsequent purchases. The more serious enthusiast who takes

it a step further, may drop $400 to $1,000 at an m.i. store on a

control surface. But unlike the guitarist or drummer, he isn't as

likely to regularly spend on ancillary item s, like straps, strings,

sticks,effects, and hardware. What's more, the software at the

heart of these more sophisticated EDM set-ups such

a s

Ableton

Live and Logic is increasingly being sold manufacturer-direct

online, rather than through a retail setting. It's only when an

aspiring producer or DJ invests in a sound system that they

beeome a big-ticket customer for the m.i. retail channel.

Manufacturers like inMusic and Novation are working to

change that, however, introducing a torrent of unique new

products designed to expand the creative horizons of aspiring

DJs and producers. In addition to keyboard controllers and tra-

ditional DJ CD players, both companies have added control

surfaces that defy easy classification. Akai's APC controller,

which features rows of assignable buttons, has been designed

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expressly to work with Ableton Live software. Novation has

taken a similar approach with its line of Launchpad Con trollers.

A distinctive selling point of the Launchpad is the Automap

software, which makes it easy to assign switches to hardware.

Explaining the R&D process. Novation's Derbyshire says, Our

goal is making it as easy as possible to be creative and inspired.

The Launch series was inspired by customers who wanted to

move from being a DJ to actually cr.eating their own music.

There is some great software out there for producing m usic, and

LaunchPad makes it easier to access.

Market leader Guitar Center is taking the trend seriously, as

evidenced by its new store format. Although the retailer's roots

are in the guitar business, hi-tech electronic products are now

the first things customers see when they walk into the store.

The company management isn't abandoning fretted instru-

ments by any meansthey just assume that customers know

guitars are there because of the store namebut, they want to

become the preferred destination of EDM enthusiasts.

Some musical purists argue that EDM is sterile, ultimately

uninteresting, and another passing fad, soon to become a punch

line, like disco. While there are some stylistic similarities

between EDM and disc o, there is one significant difference.

EDM enables mass participation, which would suggest greater

longevity. O'Donn ell adds, What is now being called 'ED M '

has been around for a very long time. Styles like house, techno

and trance are all subgenres and have been around since as far

back as the '80 s. The music will continue to evolve, but I don't

see it going away any time soon. Derbyshire adds, Like other

forms of music, EDM has enough history now that each new

trend tends to draw on past infiuences. This tends to reinforce

it.

F

orecasting popular musical preferences is problemat-

ic, but here's one prediction that both seems likely

and offers the promise for friture sales growth in the

m.i. industry: the integration of traditional instru-

ments and elecfronic sound. Predicting this integration is hard-

ly going out on a limb, as it's already taking place to tremen-

dous listener acclaim. The French techno-band Daft Punk has

achieved extraordinary commercial success collaborating with

guitarist Nile Rodgers. And as mentioned earlier, Avicii's inte-

gration of traditional bluegrass and electronics has topped

every chart imaginable. Sales for mostly instrumental electron-

ic-music albums aren't in the same league as Beyonc or Katy

Perry, usually topping out at about 300,000 copies. But count-

less hip-hop and pop artists in recent years, from Lady Gaga to

Nicki Minaj, are collaborating with DJs and electronic-music

producers for hits.

O'Donnell has a simple piece of advice for retailers and sup-

pliers adapting to this evolving frend. Creative artists will

continue to do what they always do: Look for ways to create

new and exciting art, assimilating what's around them and

making it their ow n, he says. As an industry, the best thing

we can do to capitalize on that comes down to one word:

Listen.

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C o p y r i g h t o f M u s i c T r a d e s i s t h e p r o p e r t y o f M u s i c T r a d e s C o r p . a n d i t s c o n t e n t m a y n o t b e

c o p i e d o r e m a i l e d t o m u l t i p l e s i t e s o r p o s t e d t o a l i s t s e r v w i t h o u t t h e c o p y r i g h t h o l d e r ' s

e x p r e s s w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . H o w e v e r , u s e r s m a y p r i n t , d o w n l o a d , o r e m a i l a r t i c l e s f o r

i n d i v i d u a l u s e .

just how big is edm by staff

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