Sunday, 23 February 2014

Branding in Electronic Music

Brands exist everywhere, especially in the electronic dance music scene.  You can see branding everywhere from artists to weekly events at clubs.  DJs did not always have a brand attached to them.  The first DJ to give himself a brand was Tiesto where he got a logo for his DJ name.

(Tiesto)

After Tiesto made himself a brand, almost every DJ now has their own brand.  One of the most popular brands is Deadmau5 with his mouse helmets.  With brands come merchandise that have the brand plastered all over it.  Deadmau5 has merchandise from t-shirts all the way to mini speaker statues of the brand.

Artists are not the only ones to use brands, promotion companies use brands.  For example Ink Entertainment and EDMFiX hold a weekly show at the Guvernment Entertainment Complex on Saturday nights called Spin Saturdays, where they have their resident DJs play from the club opening to the closing.

Branding in electronic music can be a make or break factor as an artist.  Just like how a brand works for a product, it promotes the artist and it helps you recognize the artist .  With the explosion of the electronic dance music scene branding will always be part of the marketing strategy for record labels and promotion companies.

Tiesto. (N.A.) Logo Tiesto. Retrieved from http://www.tiesto.com/Tiesto-home

The Different Types of Electronic Music Performances

Artists in the electronic music scene all have their different styles of performances.  Fans love and hate different artists for their performance style no matter if the music that the artist produces is good or not.  Some of the different styles of acts are:

  • the DJ
  • the performer
  • the DJ who incorporates lots of production

The DJ is known for his or her skill in mixing as a DJ. These artists have perfected the art of DJing and are booked around the world to show off their skill. A prime example of this type of performer is Andy C.  Andy C is known as the king of drum and bass, a genre of electronic music, he uses four vinyl turntables, and is flawless with beat matching and mixing.
(Doniewski, 2013)

The performer does not have the same level of skill as the DJ.  The performer sometimes prerecords their sets so they are able to interact with the crowd.  An example of a performer is Steve Aoki.  Steve Aoki said that when you go to one of his shows it is like you are going to the circus.  He jumps on the crowd with a boat, sprays champagne into the crowd, and throws a cake into the crowd.

The DJ who incorporates production uses stages, LEDs, and lasers to enhance their performance.  Excision, a dubstep producer and DJ is known for having his stage called the Executioner.  This stage looks like a robot with the LED walls, it also incorporates lasers inside.  Excision is also know for how loud his sets are where he uses a 150 000 watt sound system.


(Excision, 2013)

All of the different styles of performers cater to a different audience.  Each put on an amazing show, although you may not get the same experience with each but all three types of shows are a must see if you are getting into the electronic music scene.

Doniewski, A. (2013, May 24).  Stamina with Andy C at Ritual. Retrieved from http://theknwldg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DSC_39671-610x390.jpg

Excision. (2013, January 15). Excision - The Executioner Tour 2013 (Official Tour Trailer). [Video File].  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tloy0ldDvVQ

Saturday, 22 February 2014

The Distribution of Electronic Music

The distribution of electronic music has gone through a substantial change over the years.  Vinyl originally dominated the market.  Vinyl would only be able to have a few tracks on each disk, due to the fact that most electronic music producers did not release full albums, only EPs.  Once cassettes became popular electronic music adopted the use of them.  Full albums were able to be put on the cassettes, even if they were two part albums because if you flipped the cassette over it would play the other part of the album.  After the CD was developed the cassette tape faded away.  The digital age of music began after the internet was used more often for shopping.

Apple launched their music player iTunes, which is a big hit in music distribution today.  With being able to download music online brought sharing websites where people post music that they bought to be able to share with their friends.  Sharing music with your friends has changed to sharing it with the world, and this has brought the problem of piracy to the music industry.  Many websites are very popular in the electronic music scene such as Beatport, Trackitdown, and Hardstyle.com.  Music is also being shared on a massive scale through the use of Soundcloud, YouTube, and social media. The way music will be distributed will always evolve and I am interested on how it continues to change in the future.

Marketing for a Major Music Festival

Major music festivals are money making machines, but to make these festivals as popular as they are, they need extensive amounts of marketing.  Marketing in music festivals is used everywhere from how much the ticket prices are going to be, all the way to choosing the artists to play at the festival.  Each festival has a budget, this is used for everything from artist salaries, to the production put into the stages.  The promotion company that is organizing the music festival needs to:
  • Find a suitable venue for the event
  • Figure out how much the tickets would cost for the event and when they will be released
  • Find potential vendors to be inside of the festival
  • Figure out how many stages and what artists they would like to have play
Once these are done the promotion company has to figure out how they are going to release the artist names.  There are a few options for releasing the artist names.  They can either release the artists daily, in phases, or all the artists in one announcement.  Each option has their advantages and disadvantages.  If all the marketing for the festival is done correctly it will make for a successful music festival.

Friday, 21 February 2014

Electronic Music in Pop Culture

There is no doubt that in the past five years electronic music has taken over pop music.  You can hear it in anywhere from rock music to rap.  Most pop songs now even have a drop, which is the climax an electronic music track.  You can see music videos from popular DJs and producers, which was not heard of five years ago, on MuchMusic.  

On the radio you can hear electronic music no matter what time of day it is.  You used to only be able to hear it after midnight. There are daily shows on the radio that have DJs mix electronic music for an hour without commercials.  For example, Z103.5 has The Drive at Five with their resident DJs: Dj Danny D and The Hammer.  Z103.5 also gets themselves involved with almost all the the music festivals in the Toronto area.  They always have their own tent where they sell shirts, play music, and host contests.  Now with this takeover how much longer do you think electronic music will be a part of pop culture?

Thursday, 20 February 2014

Electronic Music and Revenue

Concerts for all types of music happen everyday in Toronto.  These concerts provide jobs for the people who work at the venue, promotion companies, artists, etc.  Since electronic music is so big right now, concerts are able to bring in millions of dollars of revenue on the weekend through ticket, alcohol, and water sales.  For example, in one night you need to buy your ticket or pay the cover depending on the night.  This would usually cost between $15 to $40.  Then you decided to have a few drinks which could cost anywhere from $15 to $30, and you may need to hydrate during the night which a water bottle would cost anywhere from $5 to $10.  Most people do not drive to concerts so they would need to cab home, which could cost you $80 (although you usually share this cost with friends).  In total each person could spend an average of $100.  When there are 5000 people attending a concert, the club averages over $50000 per night, but at a festival where there are 50000 people attending, and the tickets costs $200 each, and people are buying hotel rooms for the nights, the revenue skyrocket.

Monday, 17 February 2014

Ticket Prices

Over that past few years the electronic music scene has exploded.  With this explosion ticket prices has skyrocketed.  Events that were held for $15 three years ago can cost up to $60 because the amount that the DJs are paid has substantially increased.  Even over the past year the festival prices have increased.  For example, last year's Digital Dreams tickets started out at $90 where this year the tickets started at $120.  The supply of the big name producers is considerably lower than the demand.  The increase of prices are also due to artists being able to sell out larger venues such as the Rogers Centre, which costs more to hold an event than a nightclub. As long as the scene keeps growing there is no doubt that ticket prices will continue to rise.  When the ticket prices rise more events will happen, which will mean more producers will come preform.  As long as electronic music fans have the chance to see their favourite artists they will pay almost any price to have the night of their lives.