Special Report from #ADE13 Part II - The Future is Here Already - Fabulous Music Tech from @spdijkstra & @SydLawrence

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.

Stats and some of the images from ADE - http://www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/live/ other images copywrighted to Love Live Music 2013.