One of the highlights of ADE 2013 was meeting some of the world's best song writers, artists and DJ's. ADE ran a series of "Game Changers" keynote panels. These artists have used innovation, imagination, instinct and through shere hard work and application have created bodies of works that 30 years later still sound as fresh as when they were first written. Specifically inspiring to me were Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder. Here Nile and Giorgio share some of their stories. Giorgio has worked with everyone from Donna Summer to Phil Oakey and written epic film title music including Top Gun and Electric Dreams, but his biggest project of recent years has been Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories". A prolific studio producer, Giorgio never went to the clubs but spent hours creating these hits. Now a great lover of Digital, Giorgio has loved working with Daft Punk integrating old and new styles to create something new for the dance world.
Sally and Giorgio
Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder shared some of their stories about what they did it and what separates them from the rest of their peers. Nile has worked with the best from Diana Ross, Chic, Sister Sledge on to David Bowie with Let's Dance and Duran Duran's Notorious. "I could have retired financially after Good Times" says Niles, however his creativity has driven him to create a fresh body of work. In the past couple of years his huge hit "Get Lucky" with Daft Punk and his recent world wide number one with Avicii and new work with Disclosure have opened up a whole new audience to the talent that is Nile Rodgers. Nile commented "Despite my battle with cancer in the past, I have written more in the past two years than ever before,I am 61 and I am writing with Disclosure & Avicii. The truth is, I feel like I am 19. I haven't been this happy in a long time" Nile sees the need to be able to write hits and tells a story of his personal music hero - Miles Davis. "Even Miles, whose Jazz influence is far reaching needed a hit or as Miles put it to me - "Nile write me a f@cking hit like Good Times"....".
Here is Nile talking about Miles. It reminds me that all artists need a great hit, a number one hit, the holy grail, even Jazz legends.
"Write me a million seller Nile" said Miles, but Nile found it difficult to hear that from his Jazz hero. Nile reflects that Miles Davis wanted what we all want, to communictate to the masses and to do that, you need to learn how to think about the consumers and the fans and what they want. Nile Rodgers is on fire right now, he knows his audience and he is giving them what they want by the spade load. What a privilege to hear Nile's story and I can't help but feel the story has only just begun again.
A Special Report from Amsterdam Dance Event 2013 - Part II
Fabulous Music Technology Applications from @spdijkstra & @SydLawrence and Is Social Media Marketing overrated?
Outside Felix Meritis, Amsterdam October 2013
Sally J Freeman & Felicity Pilsworth at Felix
I always enjoy ADE for a chance to discover the best new electronic music, get up to date on the latest developments and trends in music technology and to be inspired by creative thinkers. This year at ADE didn't disappoint. I love the new tech that makes the global electronic music scene go around and this year the conference included many inspirational and influential speakers such as Nile Rodgers (USA), Duncan Stutterheim (ID&T, NL), Giorgio Moroder (USA), Bob Lefsetz (USA), Armin van Buuren (NL), Richie Hawtin (CA), Kyle Hopkins (Microsoft/Xbox, USA), Tiësto (NL), Nate Auerbach (Tumblr, USA) and a few techies that stood out from the crowd.
Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder and Tommy Sunshine
Those that inspired me most were Siebrand Dijsktra with his seminar on "Future trends" showcasing his new software+AppMachine,Syd Lawrence & team from "We make Awesome Sh.it", and the techies & digital managers from the panel "Is Social Media marketing overrated?" Here are a few of my observations and thoughts.
Siebrand Dijskra
1. The Future is Here - Developing your own Apps
Compared to even 5 years ago we truly live in a Star Trek world with multi platform communication devices. Siebrand and his team have developed what I think is one of the best easy to build D.I.Y DJ Apps with his software called AppMachine. You don't need any coding skills to create an App with AppMachine. You can get something that is all singing and dancing for under $1000 - a very competitive price in the market place. The ADE app was built with AppMachine and even Armin Van Buuren has used this technology for his million dollar music empire. I can see Indie Artists finding this very useful indeed. Siebrand's big take away is - "Don't sell your App - use it as a landing platform to direct people to itunes/amazon, merchandise pages and other product sales, people are not paying for Apps these days - so sell the content not the App". Wise words indeed Siebrand.
Syd Lawrence from Awesome Sh.It
2."The Future is Already Here" Syd Lawrence from "We make Awesome Sh.it" talks about developement for record labels and tech giants. Syd Lawrence's seminar reminded me of the basic truth that the most successful content is always playful, entertaining, fun and not always about the sell, sell, sell approach. Syd and his team at recently helped Calvin Harris develop his latest App. Syd said " We were asked to promote the upcoming Calvin Harris album "18 months" when over half the album had already been released as singles which many of his fans had already bought. We decided to give the album away for free, but with a twist. You had to be dancing to listen to the music. Using our Calvin powered “dance-o-meter”, as long as
you were moving the phone, the songs would keep playing. You could listen to any track from the new album for free and unlock extra content such as exclusive remixes if you went on to buy. And throughout, a clear call to action to buy the album from the app persuaded users to do just that". Syd reported that there was a 25% click through rate to buy the album which is unheard of from most apps. It was delight to listen to Syd's innovative creative thought on developement and his great sense of humour. With Swedish House Mafia, Deezer, Pro Green, JLS, Kylie, Ajuna Beats to mention a few, these guys have got it going on. I love their creative thought and their fun way of doing things.
"We do it because we enjoy it. Making clients look awesome makes us feel awesome" says Syd. Couldn't agree more Syd, a return to fun and laughter - I love what I saw of your work and can see why you are very successful, I will watch with a smile on my face to see what you develop next.
The Third Seminar "Social Media Marketing - is it overrated?" had a stellar panel. The Moderator was Nick DeCosemo (Mixmag, GB) the panel - Justin Golshir (Just Go Music, GB) Junior Goris (Team Pitbull, USA) Lawrence Lui (Astralwerks, USA), Liz Miller (Big Beat, USA), Eveline van der Steen (Armada Music, NL), New Media Manager/Head Of Social Media at Armada Music and Stephen Titmus (Shazam, GB)Music Manager at Shazam. The consensus was that Social Media Marketing was essential to all digital strategies for the Artists and Labels involved. It wasn't overrated and actually social media gives the fans what they want, most of the time. Eveline Van der Steen talked about her client Armin Van Buuren of Armada music and how Social Media has been an integral part of his strategy to get his music to his fans. A great user of twitter with 1 million followers but more interestingly Armin uses Google + to great effect. Armin has an incredible 2 million Google + fans on his page - Armin's Google + site . I am not sure how many other Artists use Google + to this great degree but it seems to work for Armin. Google + hang outs and fabulous on message content seems to keep fans very happy indeed. Armada Music's model is a successful one and I get the feeling they will emulate this success with other Artists on the label.
The overall theme saw Artists and labels giving no agendered, authentic communication, with little emphasis on sales but with a heavy entertainment emphasis, media rich with lots of direct to fan communication. The most successful Artists cited were the likes of Dead Mau5 and Pit Bull who go for the "stream of conciousness approach" on social media with Twitter as the prefered social media weapon of choice. The car ride with DeadMau5 and Pharrell going to get coffee illustrates the new way artists are sharing their lives with fans - nothing more intimate than being in a car with two mega superstar DJ's as they go and get a coffee and hearing their banter between each other.
In our virtual social media world, real time experiences/stunts are valued and seemed to work for artists e.g. meet and greets, stunts, special visits to fans in remote locations etc etc. Red Bull was mentioned as a brand who really know how to do the extreme real life experience. We won't easily forget that brand. We might not all have the Red Bull Budget but creative thought with new media will help us to connect with our fans. There is a lot of social noise right from many channels so the challenge to cut through that and think of original ways of communicating that meets the needs of the fan for music and product.
Red Bull and Stratos, a fabulous PR stunt that we will all remember
The panel also looked at what doesn't work in terms of social, Armada Music have found no value in Pinterest for example and don't use it in their digital strategy. Other thought included the ascendency and descendency of social media platforms, MySpace is over, potentially Facebook heading that way too so don't neglect your cash cow - look after your own website. Continue to collect data and emails, update it and imagine a world where social media platforms don't exist, you need your fans and you need to be able to contact them easily so take lots of care of them and give them what they need in a way that is pallatable.
Sally Jackson Freeman is MD of Love Live Music and specialies in Digital PR Strategies for Artists, loves EDM and cycling through the streets of Amsterdam. Come and say hello on Twitter at @LoveLiveMusicUK - Sally's prefered social media weapon of choice.
Amsterdam Dance Event - Part 1 - Lovely passionate dance music people
A special report from ADE 2013
My Ride for the week
So where was I last week? I spent a wonderful three days in Amsterdam at ADE 2013 – Amsterdam Dance Event.
ADE is a global gathering celebrating Electronic Dance Music over 3 platforms, Conference, Playground and Festival. The festival welcomes 300,000 visitors from 75 countries enjoying Electronic Dance Music (EDM) at 450 different events in 80 venues – phew! And if that’s not enough the Conference has 5,000 music industry professionals that come together listening to 317 speakers taking part in 176 panels at 7 locations throughout Amsterdam city centre with opportunities to learn, play, network and meet old and new friends from around the world.
Outisde Felix Meritis in Amsterdam
I know
I am sounding like an advert, but ADE is my favourite conference of the calendar and the opportunity to dump my car for a week, cycle the streets beside the canals in a sunny autumnal Amsterdam is just irresistible. So as I sit in a rainy London, what were my personal highlights?
First and foremost it has to be about the People who attend ADE. Specialising in digital it is always so nice to get away from the office, dump the laptop and meet people in the flesh!
If you stand outside Felix Meritis for
long enough you will pretty much meet anyone and everyone from the EDM scene. Here are the gang that I hung out with during ADE. They are passionate about Dance music and love what they do. They are some of the best in the industry and so it's great to see them all at ADE again. Always an honour and a privilege.
DJ Lee Dagger & DJ Marc JB from Bimbo Jones and Soul Delux
Ultra Nate, Lisa Moody, May Day, Bimbo Jones & Lenny Fontane
Felicity Pilsworth - David Guetta's Asst Tour Manager and Lainie Copicotto of Aurelia Management - Thank you ladies for everything.
Sally J Freeman and Victoria Aitken, Singer, Artist & Journalist - check out Victoria's Blog
The Legend who is Giorgio Moroder, hanging back stage with Giorgio and Nile Rodgers - such an honour to meet Giorgio.
The hugely talented Nile Rodgers speaking at the Game Changers seminar
Sally and Millie from Australia Sounds enjoying dinner together and the fact that we both have the same mutual friend -
Ariel Hyatt from @CyberPR NYC
DJ Amely from the Ukraine with Marc, Lee and Alister
Sally and DJ Ron of https://www.facebook.com/NotableDance
Sally and Polina. Polina had just been up all night recording with Afrojack and is looking forward to the release of her new tune with Eminem.
It was very satisfying to see many more women present at ADE this year. @LucyEBlair Digital Manager at Ajuna Beats and formerly of Ministry of Sound and I were the only two women in a social media seminar last year. Over the year we have talked about Digital, met up for drinks and tweeted new trends and This year Lucy, Caroline from Radar Videos and I sat in a social media seminar with Eveline van der Steen, Head Of Social Media for Armada Music talking about the amazing things she has achieved for DJ Armin Van Buuren and his digital team. Eve talked about how fans no longer want to be marketed to but want to be entertained, share real life experiences and be part of the artist's life. We are entering a new phase where fans want direct access 24-7 to their Artist and want real life experiences delivered with no agendas, no sell and to give the fans really what they want which in Armin's case is his music and life style. There are obvious challenges with this but with clever strategies, this can be managed to create a win for artist and fan. In Part 2 I will talk about some of the tech that I learnt about and what the new trends are in Social Media.
We look forward to seeing you at Mazzo's for Drinks at 18.30 and Dinner at 19.30.
Mazzo's have kindly prepared a special ADE Menu for us, please email Sally - info@lovelivemusic.co.uk if you would like to stay for dinner. Looking forward to being with you all at ADE, Marc JB and Sally JF
A great Ted Talk by Livity CEO Sam Conniff - marketing company of the year.
A little reminder to find your purpose and to not forget your creativity.
Sam and a young woman on his team developed the "Purpose Curve"
Purpose being far more motivational than just getting grades at school.
Enjoy and let it inspire, it inspired me.
