If you thought that what the world of electronic dance music really needed was more pomp, circumstance, and self-congratulation, well, you’re in luck. At Las Vegas’ EDMbiz conference , Insomniac, the promoter behind the Electric Daisy Carnival, announced a partnership with Dick Clark Productions, which produces events like the American Music Awards and the Golden Globe Awards, to produce a dance-music awards show to coincide with the 2014 edition of the festival.
This isn’t entirely surprising news; Billboard reports that DCP had previously expressed interest in launching a dance-music awards show. Given the amount of cash being pumped into the EDM marketplace — and the absence of any major, mainstream awards ceremonies in the sector — it was a vacuum just waiting to be filled. Nevertheless, the move is a head-scratcher on numerous levels, beginning with Insomniac’s partner in the venture.
“Creating an award show focused on all the creative components that contribute to the success of dance music (music, art, production and lighting) has been a dream of mine for years,” says Pasquale Rotella, founder and CEO of Insomniac.
In a world of DVR and Pirate Bay, live programming, like awards shows and sporting events, have become more lucrative investments for advertisers, especially with their flourishing viewership. DCP’s CEO, Allen Shapiro claims, “[Advertisers] want to be associated with live events, with a young audience and that interests us as well.” With EDM quickly becoming the influential Generation Y’s zeitgeist, a DJ-centric awards show would be a big brand marketer’s dream. I wouldn’t get apprehensive just yet; DCP will need to get the right people involved to win the favor of a scrupulous dance music industry.
However, the electronic dance music is too fragmented to be represented by any one awards show, especially when the trophy is being presented by an organization with a financial stake in the results. What might be useful would be an annual accounting based on sales data and DJ charts across the board, but no organization exists at the moment to collect all that data. Between, say, Billboard‘s club-play charts and the Resident Advisor DJ charts, a huge gulf exists. Nielsen SoundScan can’t account for vinyl-only sales at mom-and-pop shops, and you won’t learn about what’s happening overseas via the RIAA. From a geek’s point of view, it would be nice to have a single repository of club-music data from around the world. Imagine if there were a system in place that logged the setlists of all DJs playing digitally (which is, now, the vast majority of them)
So if DCP plays their hand right, an internationally televised EDM awards show would thrust our thriving culture further into the limelight – forcing mass media to take notice. I don’t know about you ‘EDM Bubble’ enthusiasts but this news gives credence to an industry that shows no signs of slowing down.