IMS Ibiza 2016: Spirit of Independents vs. Spirit of the Majors

good afternoon um first I would like to thank the international music Summet for letting me speak here and I want to congratulate the organization of IMS and the founders pong and Ben Turner with another great and successful event IMS has become the biggest music conference on the multiple locations in the world and it's a great place to meet everybody who's active in the electronic music industry that is for artists writers producers promoters Publishers managers event companies major record labels and independent record labels such as spinning records together with my partner Roger de we started spinning records in 99 The Horizon at that time of spinning was very limited signing cool tracks promoted to DJs and viny record shops and we sold 100,000 copies per year locally a few years later we changed the vision to sign more commercial tracks we had to promote it to the local retail stores and we sold CD singles a few years later we still signed more commercial tracks but then MTV and mtmf became popular in Holland and we had to promote video clips and the radio stations only played the releases when they had a video which was on rotation on the mu music TV channels a few years later the mark Market of CD sales reduced rapidly and internet became popular in the music industry including iTunes but but the total generated income on music reduced as well as record label had a tough time to make the turnaround including spinning the last four years the popularity of Music in general and electronic music specifically has grown big time and the use of music and the revenue stream started to increase again and new music platforms were introduced spinning records used the benefit of their genre dance music and created their own opportunity the combination of the right music at the right time direct worldwide digital distribution and the smart online marketing and promotion made spinning records the biggest dance label in the world for already a few years now the music Market of today is very excited for us for everybody involved in the music industry on all levels and certainly also for spinning records I will try to explain you briefly why where it used to be one music Trend there are now different music Trends going on at the same time in different continents in the world so there's a more variety for the music fans the music consumption has never been so easy for music fans as there's a variety on using music and paying for music listening through download or streams from music portals per track paid or listen for free through advertising income through streams from YouTube or SoundCloud for example music income from radio and TV is becoming more and more efficient because of digital fingerprint and similar software that leads to better funding for new talent and insight in what is used and popular andw the live market is growing because people go to more Festival and festivals are becoming more popular in upcoming territories in the world such as Asia and South America also the mobile and online Market is still growing and enables us to introduce and share music also in territories like South America and Asia and Asia including China with 1.6 billion people and hundreds of millions potential western music lovers there are lots of opportunities through social media and the online platforms for for labels but also for artists artists can build through social media their own fan base by showing them who they are by giving the fans an Insight on their lives and present their their with their new music and for labels internet can be in source of finding new Talent spinning records set up and introduced on the website the talent po platform where producers can upload and share their new tracks spinning uses the talent pool to get new music and sign new releases and new artists so it's the ultimate platform for both Dance artist and label labels can use social media to Market and promote their new releases locally or internationally and get and to get a direct response and reactions through social media to see in an early phase if the release is working or not not labels have to be creative and inventive to build their own fan base and very important to hold the fan base the bigger the fan base the better new music and new artists can be introduced and promoted however the Trends on social media are changing all the time and quickly the fs go from Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat so it's a challenge to keep track of the fan base and keep them happy we have a team of 16 people in the spinning office working on the social media and online Trends we have would have never thought about having 16 people in the office uh working on that uh when we started out in 9 artists these days can do a lot their themselves um so the labels uh have to be more competitive to show artists what makes the difference for them and the challenge for spinning records is to do what we are good in and try to make that difference for them that's the reason why we come to IMS the team of spinning records is here to speak with you about new music new marketing and promotion ideas new markets new online Trends to speak with you to learn from you to work with you to make the difference together thank you for now and speak to you later at IMs thank you hi uh so my name is Bart kls I am the EVP of Global Marketing and anr dance music for Warner music group and I've been doing this uh for the last what past two and a half years as such I oversee and I Steer Drive coordinate all that goes on in dance music within War Warner but let me start off by stating that although you can read in your program notes that what I present here is a state of the nation from the point of view of the Maes uh that's obviously not the case what you'll hear from me here today is the view of one of the Mages on where we are in our business everybody knows that we Mages we we really don't talk to each other so I can't really represent what the other Mages uh think in the same way that I'm assuming that elko's view or vision is the one that is spinnings view or vision and not all the other dance Independence in the room or here in ibida so let me reference the IMs business report that you've all been presented with for years now we've been looking at growth some years explosive other years a bit less so most of that explosive growth has been happening in the live Club Festival tickets side of the business recorded music albe it in my mind the engine and the fuel of this industry has been has been showing modest and in some years not no growth at all for years as well these um stories of growth have always been followed by the question is this a bubble is it a bubble that is about to burst in other words in other words how long can we keep the party going we seem to implicitly all already be admitting to ourselves that it has to end at some stage as if we somehow got lucky uh and our luck is going to run out so it's not for me to comment on the health of the live side of the dance industry OB obviously with the demise of sfx there's going to be a lot of reshuffling going on uh which will be widely debated in the next few days here in ibida and there might be some recalibrating but personally I haven't noticed that people are less interested in dance music or less interested in partying or less interested in going to festivals on the contrary contrary and I think it will stay that way but I do have a view of what is going on in the label on the label side of dance music last weekend I took an even closer than usual look at the top 20 and top 50 of the global streaming charts and it's not a secret of course but at least 30% of the Spotify Global charts is dance music and I'm being careful here I'm just counting the songs that are clearly DJ producer tracks which everyone even in this room would agree qualify as dance music if you add dance pop or pop dance or whatever we want to call it the fluidas or the Jason the rulers of this world we would get to more than 40% that is a higher share than we have ever had and this is not just in some Niche chart it is actually uh a n chart that we've invented to make ourselves feel good this is this is the main chart that everybody's looking at this this is the chart or the leading Global chart of a streaming sector that is the fastest GR growing partner our industry has and for Warner Music Group it represents our singular biggest income stream in our latest quarterly figures so it's pretty clear that together with Urban and for the time being we in this room represent the biggest chart share on what soon will be the music industry's biggest platforms this makes us a big and essential part of the music industry today and growing dance music is not just a hobby of a few people that can stay up late and act young for their age it is serious stuff but this also means we have to be taken seriously and take ourselves seriously uh acting as so to speak as responsible adults so to start with let's stop doing a few things let's stop the Us and Them between ourselves in this room dividing between major and Indie underground commercials sellout and credible a a grownup genre needs all sorts of artists and music appealing to all sorts of fans at various levels of development and success the underground feeds what's happening in the top 50 and in dance probably more than in any other genre out there let's stop ourselves let's stop comparing ourselves within the confines of the dance industry we are playing with the big boys in the big league not just in the dance chart or in the or in the future deep house no vocal with a hint of techno chart we are playing in the main chart at the moment and definitely and this is a message to all my friends let's just stop having to waste time justifying our existence within the music business and having to justify what we do and why we are always doing it in sunny places or in clubs or at festivals in some of the most beautiful beautiful places on Earth it's always been difficult to explain to people that working in the mus music industry is actually a job it's even harder if you work in dance so let's use all that time we gain when we stop doing these things to work hard because considering our weight in the charts I just mentioned I think there aren't enough of us out there and there is so much to do so I will take you through what I think we urgently need to start doing or doing more of first and foremost what we do is about artist and career development we need more stars from the whole spectrum of the dance genre we still have the big stars that have been successful for many years the likes of chesto and geta and Calvin Harris we also have some fresh faces who could or could not prove to be as successful when it comes to staying power the likes of the chain smokers DJ Snake Kao Robin Schulz but too often we deal with artists who have one hit and then are gone or even half a hit hit and then are gone so to to sustain that more than 30% charge share that we have at the moment we need more artists and we need to break more artists and this is even more the case when you consider how many artists have more than one track in the chart I was just mentioning the chain smokers geta Kao and major laser major laser all have two tracks in the Spotify Global top 50 it's great for them but it shows our base is way too narrow so on the label side this requires investment in anr we're all investing we can all see the numbers but I say we can do we can and will have to do more we need to be more on the longterm side of things we need to plan beyond the one headit we need to invest more in our people and in our teams the industry needs to stop talking about dance as if it's a niche genre which implies implies it's a sideline it's not it's Cent to stage at the moment and it can't just be worked by the Shady guys in the basement anymore we need to allow our teams to experiment and support with new ways of working whether that is in Deal making or in experimenting with new marketing we shouldn't only be in the front line of Music we should be in the front line of marketing and distribution as well and we need to change to a degree our view of what successful dance an anr is is it is not only about being first on a track or an artist and it is not only about the biggest advances it is about what you do with an artist once you've signed them such artist development at the moment is key if we don't want to sort of fizzle out and stay focused on the 10 15 20 artists that actually at the moment make up the biggest chunk of what what is happening in the front line of dance and from DJs and artists and managers it requires the ability to be self-critical it might come as a as a shock to some of you in this room but not everything you make is amazing it requires to not always chase the money that that's there today you need to take time out to make more music to better produce to promote even if it costs you gigs and money in the short term and it requires professional teams that can advise from a long-term perspective secondly and obviously linked to the the importance of an anr it's all about the song the track or the single is Senter stage again just as it was in the 60s before the albums took over and just for all of you in the room that I start to think was he was he no I wasn't there personally in the 60s a hit track now is generating income in so many ways through Straight Up sales and streams both audio and video through neighboring rights through sync deals and in many markets still as well through compilation so it's just so is this is this is it now just about the hit song or to ask the question differently do we still need albums dance albums I suppose if there are a collection of hits the answer probably yes if the artist has a clear message and a vision and a story to tell the answer is probably yes as well but if you have half a hit on your hands and you think you need an album because that's how it's always been done the answer is probably not where work on your songs first build your brand before you start talking about your album a career in dance music is more defined by a succession of hit songs that are yours or that you were involved with than by albums that in most cases nobody's interested in walk before you can run thirdly it is important to surround yourself both on the artist management side as on the label side with the right people the time for teams to only consist of dance music nuts might be over you need diversity in skills and vision as Mark guer already three years ago I think at IMs said it's time to bring in the non cool people and obviously Warner Music at the time listened it used to be said it takes a village of people to break a record that was a time when there was radio and not much else I would say now it takes a city of people to break a record and they need to be everywhere around the world and they need to be coord ated not just radio pluggers but people reaching out to blogs Club promo teams social media Specialists key account managers streaming Specialists syns and brand teams that is probably the most obvious difference still out there between Mages and Indies Majors have teams on the ground everywhere people overseeing them that can push the button when needed this ability to be Global fast is getting more and more crucial with the growth of streaming there is just no other way fourth as we are talking about global global hits it's important to know our geography as well streaming is opening up those markets which we have been mentioning since forever as having potential this time for recorded music and not just for festivals and shows and ticket sales we're talking about markets such as China India Latin America that could be as significant for our industry in the next 50 years as the us and Western Europe were to us in the last 50 years in fact this is already happening in the top 15 Spotify markets you will find Mexico the Philippines and Brazil our marketing teams in these territories they're receiving more calls than ever they have never been this popular and we haven't told them yet why but now that people in traditional key markets Reta uh realize that we need streams from those countries streams to take to take a track all the way to the top you can cannot just look at the US and the UK anymore it's not just streams from those markets it's also artists coming from those markets today a hit or an artist can come from anywhere and break everywhere especially in dance we've seen this for years with the likes of Kao out of Norway get out of France Schulz out of Germany Flume out of Australia tracks are not always starting in the US or the UK anymore in fact today many tracks hit those Market market last we are seeing more and more pockets of local success delivering potential stars for the future stars out of Germany Belgium Norway Australia and hopefully soon out of India China and Japan as well soon I have no doubt we will find and develop Talent from the likes of Brazil China and India and break their music into the bigger World there is so much more Talent waiting to be discovered and dance is one of of the most borderless genres I've ever worked in and definitely in today's streaming world that is more and more uh important so let me conclude by saying the view of this major is that the future of the dance Market has never looked better there is so much change going on and it's happening so fast but if we don't lose ourselves in looking inwards at ourselves and just people in this room or people that we've known for years and years if we keep our eye on the ball on talent and artists on songs on people and the teams we work with and on more territories than just the ones we've always watched and followed and there are a few amazing years to come my feeling is that all the change in the platforms that fans consume music on is to a degree peripheral as long as artists producers and songwriters are paid fairly for their music then it doesn't matter where it's being listened to on any format from Vinyl to streaming it all still boil down to the oldest school of the old school sayings as long as you have a hit you're fine but I would only change that to as long as you have a hit you're fine but multiple hits are much better thank you for listening