Hey Everyone! It’s Jorge Brea, Founder & CEO of Symphonic. We’ve just wrapped up another great Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) and I thought we’d give you a quick update on how the conference went. Here’s our ADE 2017 recap!
ADE continues to be one of our definite “go to” events. The conference appeared to grow this year with more events and individuals partaking in festivities, networking, panels, etc. Most folks look at ADE as an opportunity to check out a lot of shows and DJs and frankly, it is a heck of a hub for that but, I consider it to be a great place to conduct business, get knowledge, and progress a business thus, this review speaks more so towards the actual conference rather than the festival and individual events.
So with that said, here’s my quick recap being written on a very long flight home from Amsterdam to our HQ in Tampa, Florida.
Our team from Symphonic consisted of four of us heading to the wonderful city that is Amsterdam, all with a goal of continuing to progress the business but more importantly, strike relationships that we feel will be important for the growth and success of every record label and artist we distribute. For the first time ever in our 3 years attending ADE, we also participated in a trade mission by A2IM, an incredible organization that every established musician, brand, and/or record label should check out.
A2IM & our US Delegates had a very fruitful discussion on the status of the U.S. and Dutch music market places, updates on DSM and T-TIP and trends in digital business and cross border trade. Thank you for having us, U.S. Consulate in Amsterdam!
Before the scheduled meetings took place, we looked into our ADE bags and found our unique insert included as well as an official ad in the ADE issue of Mix Mag Magazine. Seeing that physically of course makes me proud of our team but also all of the great clients we represent.
As day 1 approached, we had quite a busy week ahead of us. Our schedules consisted of our team doing meetings every 30 minutes or so. We are coming back very energized, excited, and inspired to see the initiatives that we wish to accomplish by the end of the year come to light.
In addition to our meetings, I was able to partake in a great panel discussion on format known as STEMS by Native Instruments. I was joined by Ronny Krieger of Native Instruments who hosted the panel, Rena Bak (Tronic), Ina Kirilova (m-nus), Andrew Salsano (Nervous Records), Tobias Schmid (Kontor New Media), and Brian Tappert (Traxsource).
The discussion was quite positive on the format and my piece particularly was to state what our efforts have been centered around. Education, Dubseed.com, and of course, being fully supportive of the format. We also discussed Streaming and if people think it is detrimental to their business or not and so on. I personally felt quite optimistic about the music industry due to the discussion but also the panelists as well. A lot of discussion often is centered around how streaming is being detrimental to downloads however, Traxsource even stated growth if their download business and the focus of STEMS additionally adds to further optimism over the growth of the download service.
Aside of the panel, we hosted our first ever “ADE Reception” at the Felix Meritis which is one of the main venues. The staff of ADE was 100% on point and we were thrilled with the turnout as well as the music provided by distributed label Loot Recordings. Our reception enabled us to connect with distributed labels Unborn Records (Paris, France), TILES (Sao Paolo, Brazil), and other friends and colleagues that we’ve worked with in the past.
Last but not least, we have to also give props to our brand Noiseporn which hosted official Snapchat interviews with Spinnin’ Records artists as well as Snapchat takeovers with Mix Mash Records (Laidback Luke’s label).
All in all, a great and eventful ADE and we’re very excited about the potential partnerships and initiatives we’re about to get into over the next few months.