Re-Ultra Music Festival

hi, interesting article on ultra.

in addition to them selling 170,000 tix there was also another dance event on the saturday that sold 25,000 tix.

a few years ago i dj’ed electric daisy in l.a.

80,000 people, and it was amazing.

the biggest festival in the states.

the next day i was at a bbq with record company people and some music journalists and not a single one of them had heard of the biggest festival in the states that had happened a few miles from where they lived.

the other thing about the dance festivals: the crowd is young, average age 21.

i hope you’re well.

moby

Hello Bob,

Longtime lurker, first time poster.

Yeah, read this story yesterday and nearly plotzed. The entirety of this scene is fascinating and Tiesto pulling in 20M a year is staggering.

Interesting to note that with one exception, the entire headline roster for Ultra is considerably older than 30 yrs. old. In fact most are well into their 40s and 50s – Deadmaus, at 30, is the baby of the bunch. Presumably, it takes years for these DJs/acts to build the sort of skillset and rep that allows them to sell out stadiums around the world (I remember some of these names from over 20 years ago!). This path seems inversely proportional to the pop fame game where, with rare exception, your sticker price starts depreciating as soon as you’re driven off the You Tube lot.

Mixmag, "the world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine," covers this scene exhaustively. They recently profiled the "Top 10 Greatest DJs Of All Time" and Tiesto came in at #1.

http://www.mixmag.net/2011/01/19/the-greatest-dj-result/

Hope your tooth is better.

Monica Lynch

Bob,

Electronic is not the future. It’s now. I’m 22 years old, living in Miami. I manage AMTRAC. (amtracmusic.com) Take it from me – Ultra wasn’t the only electronic cash cow of the weekend in Miami. Swedish House Mafia sold out 10,000 tickets independent of Ultra, at their own competing event on Miami Beach. Tickets weren’t cheap – minimum $75 for one night of dance music. And it doesn’t stop there. The festival is over at midnight. The kids don’t go to sleep. By the thousands they rush into Miami Beach’s nightclubs, spending anywhere from $50 to $250 cover charge (see: LIV at Fontainebleau) to see some of their favorite festival DJs play until sunrise. And don’t even get me started on how much the "VIPs" will spend for bottle service on the night Kaskade or Avicci is gracing the dj booth of their favorite ultra-lounge or mega-club. (try a 10k table minimum on for size)

Forget the money. How about the cool factor? In your day, the kids formed garage bands and dreamed of being rockstars. DJs are it now. Forget High School, go to your local middle school in any upper-middle class suburb. A show of hands please. How many of you 14 year olds have your own set of turntables? Or a Mac with Ableton or Logic software? At least a handful. The revolution isn’t coming. It’s well on it’s way.

Derek Walin

Sent from my iPhone