Another round of electronic features have captured our imaginations, and seem fairly topical given the passing of the highly anticipated Electric Circus Festival last weekend.
The first article comes from the UK’s Music Week which was published ahead of the annual International Music Summit in Ibiza. The summit drills down specifically into the electronic music industry (if that wasn’t immediately obvious from the location). IMS co-founder Ben Turner talked on 2014’s theme ‘Filtering The Future’, stating that the intention this year was to look at the increasingly important role of filtration and curation within this swelling corner of the music industry, bolstered of course by the enabling benefits of cheap technology. Speaking to Music Week, he acknowledged:
…anyone can do it in their bedroom – all of these values are amazing until you suddenly get that thrown back at you. And it’s not just music, it’s just too much of everything.”
Beats Music is arguably one of the highest-profile attempts of late to fulfil the new need that information overload has presented. One of the initial questions third-party curation raises in our minds is who (or what in the case of algorithms) is doing the curation, and to what end? Impartiality breeds trust – if the curator has an agenda besides relevancy to the individual user (say, traditional radio curating hits to maintain listener numbers so advertisers garner more ears), then the model is arguably not so compelling. In the case of Beats Music they’ve opened up the platform to numerous trusted third parties, which overcomes this initial barrier. This is at the heart of Apple’s recent acquisition of the business.
“This year’s theme is symbolic of change and the importance of curators again – somebody’s got to do the filtering for you.”
Shifting his focus, Turner comments on an issue we are well aware of here in the Middle Kingdom. Whilst it’s unclear if he is referring to the cost of music conferences in this case, or generally commenting on the industry, he raises the fact that we are in danger of over-paying for ‘things’ due to the un-abating inflation seen through all facets of the live music industry. Quoting from Music Week’s interview, Turner states:
“It’s time to reassess what it is that you’re doing. We’re in a great position, but majors and promoters are in danger of over-paying for things and if people aren’t careful we could walk into a similar scenario that we had around the millennium when things kind of imploded. Part of our job is to curate the summit in a way that people walk away thinking about the way they do their business, and about being measured about what they’re doing. You’ve got to protect the ecosystem and the independents.”
As a matter of fact, Consequence of Sound recently published a comprehensive list of artist booking fees – with Creed of all bands pegged at $100k we can begin to get a better picture of how this looks in practice.
We’d like to vamp off all of this very sensible debate, by considering the nature of the growth in electronic music. And to do this, we look to Seth Troxler, who got pretty real with Thump regarding the degrading quality of dance festivals. If now more than ever we are in need of better quality curation, what is it we’re currently delivering to electronic music fans?
[The aforementioned linked article contains some pretty full-on imagery]
Troxler slams the boom in boutique electronic festivals, drawing comparisons between the sensory overloading hyper-realities we are currently faced with versus the original club culture of the 90s:
“At these festivals, you get it all on a platter up-front. Lasers! LED screens! Pyrotechnics! DROPS! CAKE IN YOUR F*****G FACE! – wait, nah man. That’s not clubbing, that’s a concert of c***s. Just, go out for a night in a dark room. Be cool.“
While Turner argues that prices are getting out of hand, Troxler believes that the new festival culture driving EDM’s growth doesn’t “give anything back” to fans, instead arguing that “EDM plays host to a profound delusion about what electronic music and dance culture are. It’s ridiculous music, made by ridiculous, un-credible people.” He believes there is a fundamental lack of values nowadays: respect, being positive, and communal unity are being overridden by baser instincts and self-indulgence.
It’s certainly an opinionated thought piece, to the point of being somewhat snobbish. But in the end Troxler believes earnest fans will get bored with the usual formula of ready-meal experiences, and begin seeking for a deeper connection to the music, using their own “intellects”. Here is where that all important curation solution fits in. There’s fun to be had in the recesses of our digital music services, and platforms like Beats Music may provide that much-needed guiding light toward more profound listening experiences, and ultimately live experiences. We hope.