More Vegas/EDMBiz
THE POOL
So I’m accosted by this woman who works for Jason Flom who’s bitching that Republic won’t let her put her artists on channels other than Vevo. Huh?
So she introduces me to this English cat, who controls twelve YouTube channels with eight figure revenue. Each one has a million subscribers. They find acts on SoundCloud, then put them up on the tastemakers’ channels, and then they blow up! They even sell compilations on iTunes. And since Radio 1 looks at YouTube views…
It was like I descended on another planet.
Everybody here is so young and so innovative, it would spin the heads of the old farts who believe they control this business.
Oh, one more thing, these channels only post a new clip once every two or three days. They’re not overloading their subscribers. How can these nobodies get it so right and Beats and Songza get it so wrong?
THE ELEVATOR
“Are you here for EDC?”
YUP!
From D.C. The Electric Daisy Carnival is a destination unto itself. And when someone travels across the country, it’s a commitment.
THE FOUNTAIN
I’m right by the Bellagio, whose fountains blow up on a regular basis. I Shazamed the song that accompanied the explosions. It was Faith Hill’s “This Kiss.” Who knew?
IMPLANTS
Are rampant. Along with tattoos. Everybody’s trying to advertise their desirability, at various class levels. The ultra-rich employ their private jets. The upper class wears designer items. The lower classes are all about their bodies, their looks. And if you grew up on the east coast and believe it’s all about your mind, you’ve got no place in Vegas, maybe not America.
THE WYNN
It’s like the classes are self-separating. The lower go to Planet Hollywood, which was packed. The Wynn was completely empty. Especially the high end shops, from Vertu (who’d want one?) to Louis Vuitton.
GAMBLING
The tables were next to empty. Once upon a time the rooms were cheap and it was about getting people gaming. Now the rooms are expensive, as are the experiences. I’m not sure of Vegas economics, but if your impression is one big smoky gambling floor, you’re wrong. At the Cosmopolitan, gaming is almost a sideshow.
ABSINTHE
The producer tracked me down to go. I’ll say that the roller skating act was positively scary. Wherein they spin on a five foot diameter platform and if someone lets go whole swaths of the audience will be wiped out.
ROSE. RABBIT. LIE.
The same Australians who produce “Absinthe” produce this. A cornucopia of vaudeville acts and personal experiences. These are independents, they’re doing it for themselves, they’re the team that toured “Puppetry of the Penis.”
What was fascinating was the ticketing. Only twenty percent of tickets are sold in advance in Vegas (not including Celine, Britney, et al, the destination performers…the head of Caesars’ gave me a primer, turns out Caesars is owned by Harrahs and this guy oversees double digit venues). It’s about relationships with concierges and resellers and if you’re coming to Vegas and want to see a show, you’ll do best if you do your web research.
CLOTHING
Believing it’s all in the mind, I’m happy to dress down. But walking the Strip made me want to upgrade my wardrobe, to separate myself from everybody else.
SCALE
Come to Vegas to get an idea of how many people there are in the world. How much money you can make with a good idea. This is not L.A., the people don’t look like it, what I like most are the hanging bellies over the Daisy Dukes, do they not know or where they come from does no one care? It’s hard to fathom 300 million people. But they’re out there. And that’s the power of art. Steve Wynn may be a hospitality genius, but one hit track will reach many more people.
7UP
Watch this video:
They showed the long iteration yesterday, wherein Valparaiso, Chile is turned into…well, just watch it.
This deal was hatched at EDMBiz last year. 7Up saw its market shrinking. They were gonna focus on Latinos, who are heavy drinkers. But they learned that EDM skewed millennial, and they decided to invest in EDM instead. Their whole site is now EDM-centric:
Tatiana from Nielsen said sponsorship should not be overdone. What I mean is, the length of time the product is exposed in the clip doesn’t matter. An instant of organic presence far exceeds extended airtime that is unnatural.
This deal is paying off for 7Up financially.
7Up was there early, others will soon follow.
JAKE UDELL
He’s all anybody would talk about, the manager of Krewella who spoke the first day, when I was still on Southwest.
I caught up with him yesterday.
He graduated from the entrepreneurship program at Indiana. He made a million before school hawking autographs on eBay. He quit his candy job because the big shots couldn’t understand his plan to make millions. He broke Krewella by piggybacking on a Skrillex track that was released without vocals or dubstep elements.
Jake is a new Shep Gordon, maybe a new Irving or Geffen. Because suddenly, kids are interested in the music business because they see money. And they don’t fit into the corporate world. And they’re innovative and limit-testing just like the titans of yore.
PASQUALE ROTELLA
He did the layout. In the big time music business, everybody’s too far removed, they’re not hands-on. It didn’t even occur to me that the number one guy at Insomniac would be in charge of designing the stage placement, etc.
10 PM
That’s when we’re leaving for the gig.
The traditional festivals begin early and end at midnight. Just like in Ibiza, it doesn’t really start happening here until the early morning. And if that’s too late for you, it proves the point, this music, this scene, is not for you. And the adherents, the fans, DON’T CARE!
THE HELICOPTER
That’s how we’re getting to the gig tonight. Yes, I’m afraid. Wish me luck!
