‘Our job as agents now is to slow time down’
Accidentally falling into the agency world, Maria May has helped to define the parameters of dance music over the past 30 years.
In part two of our in-depth look at May’s 30 years as an agent, IQ looks at the highlights, lowlights, and future of the CAA agent. Find part one here.
Team Disco
While there were early suggestions that May’s department at CAA be named “EDM,” she insisted on the “Team Disco” moniker that she and assistant Gina Gorman had adopted at ITB. “In London, there are 11 of us, while in America, we’re up to around the same number including agents and assistants – it’s no longer a niche business; it’s huge! But there’s still lots of room for this business to grow. The scenes are constantly evolving with new talent and new genres coming through.”
Looking back to the original Team Disco at ITB, May was one of the pioneers in cementing Ibiza’s place at the centre of the electronic music business. “I was part of the first residencies in Ibiza, thanks to Danny Whittle who wanted to do a residency at Pacha with Paul [Oakenfold]. He told me that if it worked, he also wanted to do it with Death Mix – David Morales, Frankie, Satoshi Tomiie, and all of those guys, and obviously I repped all of those people. The Paul Oakenfold residency was massively successful, and the rest is history.
“Being part of that and setting the building blocks is something I’m pretty proud of, even though we were just doing stuff instinctively. We didn’t really know whether it was gonna work half the time, but it did, so well done us,” she laughs.
Again, she names Judy Weinstein as one of the architects behind the strategy that propelled dance music to a global phenomenon. “It’s a partnership, and the managers who understand that are the best people to work with,” states May. “But I also represent a lot of artists that don’t have managers, so I work with them directly.”
Drawing comparisons to the worlds of rock and pop, she notes, “A DJ schedule is 365 days a year if you want it to be. It’s not built on a model where an album comes out and you’re touring and then you have a year off. I do a lot of live acts as well – Black Eyed Peas has been a fantastic relationship for me, because their management, Polo Molina and Seth Friedman, always trusted me with access to their diaries. I never imagined that I could be their agent, but Rob Light signed them to CAA, and then phoned me to ask if I wanted to be the Black Eyed Peas agent. I just love things that end up being beautiful happy accidents.”
“Suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act”
Losing Talent
Of course, for every happy accident there’s a flip side, and May admits that losing clients can be tough. “I was sad to lose Soulwax and 2manydjs – that was probably the biggest loss of my career, and of course they went to David Levy. That was a wake-up call because I realised that while David is my friend, he’s also my rival. We got through it, but I didn’t handle it very well in the beginning. It happened as soon as I started at CAA, and I’ll always remember going to see Emma Banks, and she was really clear, telling me that CAA didn’t employ me for my acts; they employed me because they believed in me.”
Indeed, May highlights the support her bosses and colleagues provided during some of her darkest moments. “About six years ago, my dad got very ill, and the company allowed me to do whatever I needed to do, so I made the job work around being a single parent with two kids and a dying dad,” she recalls. “And then six months after Dad died, my mom was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and needed round-the-clock nursing. It was a horrible time, but Emma and Mike and everyone at CAA were amazing.”
Career Highlights
Thankfully, the good times vastly outnumber the bad, and May has had some spectacular highlights in her career to date.
“David Guetta at Masada in Israel – I was the first person to do it with a major artist,” she says of her most memorable shows. “I also did Paul Oakenfold on the Great Wall of China before anyone had ever done it. Róisín Murphy at sunset on West Holts at Glastonbury is always fucking amazing – Róisín is one of my favourite partnerships. I’ve loved every second of being her agent, and I genuinely can’t wait for her next record.”
May also cites X-Press 2 as a standout client. “My relationship with their manager, Chris Butler (currently the manager of Jalen Ngonda also repped by CAA), is fantastic. He gave me my first band, Red Snapper, and when I’d been their agent for about a year, we sold out the Astoria, and I just remember being so proud. So, when X-Press 2 blew up, it was just brilliant, as I’d known [DJ] Rocky from growing up, and suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act.”
“Being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy is just the cherry on the cake”
She also talks fondly of American talent David Morales and the late Frankie Knuckles. “They taught me all about the New York club scene, and I’d go there every other month. It’s the privilege of a lifetime to know those guys – the originators of house music – and bring them to Europe. Frankie was an enduring friendship that I really am very grateful for. He was an amazing man, and I loved him, so it was really hard when he died.”
May’s association with the godfather of house music continues to this day, through her work as a board member of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, and she recalls ways in which their relationship helped elevate one act to iconic status.
“I repped Hercules and Love Affair for a long time, and he brought this collection of music to me that included a track called Blind, and his biggest wish was for Frankie to work on remixes. So, I asked Frankie if he would do it, and he was a bit non-committal, so I kept nagging him, and in the end, he said he’d do it for me. And Frankie’s Blind remix is one of the club-defining tracks, even now. So being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy, is just the cherry on the cake.”
The Darling Buds of May
While May’s life ultimately revolves around her children, her devotion to her clients’ careers, and the growth of electronic music, means her workaholic approach is more of a vocation than a job. “I’m hugely proud of my two kids,” she states. “They are my greatest achievement.”
Within Team Disco, May works closely with colleague Jen Hammel in CAA’s London office. “We’re a bit of a dynamic duo,” she comments. “[Jen’s] proved to be a formidable agent. She’s just killing it, and I love working with her.”
The Future
With 30 years under her belt, May’s love for her craft shows no sign of waning, and she remains committed to helping guide the careers of a new generation of talent amidst an ever-accelerating pace of evolution in the dance sector.
“Due to TikTok and streaming, we’re starting to see genres changing really quickly,” she observes. “Being able to create longevity is definitely becoming more challenging, and it’s up to us agents to help our clients achieve prolonged careers, if that’s their goal.
“I prefer taking my time, underplaying, believing in the artist long-term, and building a fanbase that will stick by them”
“But at the moment, there seems to be a desire for people to just rinse the shit out of things. It’s almost like pop, and a lot of people are spending an awful lot of money on social media in order to maintain their careers, because there’s a lot of stuff that comes along that’s super hot, super firing, and doing massive numbers. But by the second summer, the kids have moved on.
“I also find that the leverage-on-leverage-on-leverage model, which was really strong in the dance music scene for many years, may be on the way out. For example, people who hit 25m streams would leverage that number, then they’d leverage on the leverage. I’ve never really bought into that. I prefer taking my time, underplaying, believing in the artist long-term, and building a fanbase that will stick by them. There’s definitely a style here within Team Disco (and at CAA in general), where we try our best to sign career artists, because we want to be part of that journey.”
Predicting both short-term and long-term growth for dance music, she tells IQ, “It’s interesting, China is definitely coming back strong again for electronic, and Southeast Asia seems to be really pumping again, post-Covid. Holland is doing extremely well in terms of certain sounds, certain scenes – and there are really strong ticket sales.”
“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care”
Breaking new markets is also on May’s radar – an ambition that she believes is easier given the genre her clients occupy. “If you are a DJ, and it’s just you and a tour manager when you start out, you can go anywhere. And you have no costs, really, because the promoter pays for your flights. You can go anywhere you want, and we send people into new territories all the time. And the artists that come to you saying, ‘I just want to tour these markets and build my career,’ they’re the keepers. They’re the ones that put the graft in.”
Naming new clients such as Marlon Hoffstadt, Malugi, Jammer with Más Tiempo (a label/events brand owned by Jammer and Skepta), and Arcadia (Glastonbury structure and field), May concludes that the electronic sector is facing a bright future as dance music has established itself as a mainstay across most major festivals with more and more headliners coming from Team Disco’s roster.
“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care, be totally confident in our artists, and help build long-term artist careers based on real ticket sales and exceptional experiences for the artist and the audiences,” she concludes.
“We need to achieve that in the most authentic and fan-led way possible – guardian angel-like – while having the experience, the knowledge, and the confidence in how to do that. I am lucky to be at CAA and to be surrounded by other people doing exactly that every single day.”
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Maria May’s 30 years as an agent
Accidentally falling into the agency world, Maria May has helped to define the parameters of dance music over the past 30 years, allowing such talent as David Guetta, Paul Oakenfold, Black Eyed Peas, The Chainsmokers, Róisín Murphy, Paul Kalkbrenner, Robin Schulz, Meduza, Hugel, Sara Landry, and Lee Burridge to achieve global fame and long-term careers.
While her academic abilities perhaps had her parents and teachers predicting a job in the city, Maria May’s evening routine introduced her to a world in which she would ultimately become one of the global powerbrokers.
Born in Bedfordshire, Maria Hutt, as she then was, grew up in west London where her parents ran a pet shop – sparking a lifelong love of animals. “My dad, John Hutt, was also a security guy and did loads of different jobs before ending up as head of security at Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium,” says May. “So I went to concerts from a very young age – my first gig was ABBA, when I was six or something, at Wembley Arena. It changed my life. That’s probably why I’m into disco.”
That serendipitous behind-the-scenes lifestyle became part and parcel of May’s daily ritual. “When I was 11, I got into a really good school – City of London School for Girls. At the end of each day, I’d catch the train to Wembley, watch a show, and then get a lift home with Dad. I’d often be doing my homework during sound check. And so I saw everything – Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, Dr Hook, you name it. And often I saw them on multiple nights.”
While she was still unsure about what to pursue as a career, a seed had been planted. “I was at the venue often till 10 or 11 o’clock, so I got used to being a night owl at an age where most people had never even been to a gig. Ultimately, after each show, I’d go backstage, and I really got into the atmosphere of all the hustle and bustle. Otherwise, I worked for my parents at the shop and did a load of part-time jobs to earn money. And then the rave scene hit and everything changed.”
“We pretty much were the architects of where the electronic scene sits right now”
While May seemed destined for higher education, acid house presented a different route entirely. “I just announced I didnt want to go to uni,” she recalls. “Mum and Dad’s reaction was that if I wasn’t going to university, I had to get myself a job. As a result, I found myself working at a recruitment firm, and within about three months, I was running the payroll across two agencies, because I just found the work really easy. And then I saw a job advert for an assistant at a private recording studio in West Hampstead, which was owned by Robert Howes, and at the time was rented to Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
“It was a great job – once a week, they’d give me the tapes, I’d drive down to Abbey Road to get them mastered, and I’d hang out with the studio manager there. My parents were quite impressed, because I was on a decent salary, so they sort of relaxed. And meanwhile, I was in this crazy world of latenight studio sessions, with different people like Squeeze, Aled Jones, and Gary Barlow popping in all the time. It was fun, but I didn’t really understand that I was in the music industry… I was just turning up every day to make sandwiches and coffee, do invoices, and run errands.”
Mixing with musicians and DJs soon led May to rave culture. “I started going out with this guy, Chris Binns, who was running the World Party illegal raves. We did quite a few massive events, and I got caught up in that whole scene. I basically wasn’t going to bed four days a week because I was dancing in fields. I was very tired, but I was having the time of my life while trying to hold down my day job.”
However, that was all set to change, thanks to Phil Nelson, manager of the Levellers. “He rented an office opposite the studio, and he’d come over to collect his post, and we’d always have a chat. Then, one day, he asked if I’d like to be his assistant. Being 18 years old and not even knowing who the Levellers were, I just went, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’”
Not everyone in the Hutt family was as enthusiastic. “I remember an item on the TV news about the Levellers as the whole counterculture thing was blowing up. They were sort of portrayed as the devil, and my parents were not impressed.”
But it was May’s work with the band that sparked her passion for activism and first got her noticed on a national scale.
“I was young and opinionated, but they put me in my place a lot and taught me loads about myself”
“The government had announced the Criminal Justice Bill and the Levellers decided they were going to fight it, so they got me to run their campaign. The challenge was to get the message out about all the rights the government was trying to take away from people. We didn’t have a budget, so we did all sorts of mad things: we blagged free adverts in the music press, we did billboards on Vauxhall Bridge, we organised marches, and it was so successful that I got profiled in The Times and The Big Issue which, for a teenager, was a bit mad.”
The campaign would also introduce her to David Guetta manager Caroline Prothero, who at the time was working at Ministry of Sound, and who, after meeting May, insisted that everyone entering the club needed to sign the petition against the Criminal Justice Bill.
In a stint that at one point saw May singing backing vocals for the band, she describes her time with the Levellers as an experience that shaped the rest of her adult life. “They were brilliant to work with,” she says. “I was young and opinionated, but they put me in my place a lot and taught me loads about myself. I learned about politics, and that’s something that has remained a big thing for me – being actively involved in trying to make people aware what the ramifications of new legislation might be on their lives. The Levellers were true human beings, who did the right thing, always, no matter what the consequences, and that really inspired me.”
The subsequent beneficiaries of May’s creative campaigning and strategic skills have included a number of music-related trade bodies and organisations. She is a founding board member of the Association For Electronic Music (AFEM) and also a former board member of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). Meanwhile, she sits on the boards of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation and Lady of the House and is also on the executive board of Beatport.
The Accidental Agent
While other friends had gone to university and even enjoyed the luxury of gap years, May had been working since she was 17 and, at 21, decided she needed some time out.
“I had a new DJ boyfriend who ran clubs like Indulge in Brixton. We’d go to Ministry of Sound to see [David] Morales and Knuckles and [Tony] Humphries, and otherwise, I decided I was just going to sit around for six months and have a nice time. But then the Levellers’ agent, Charlie Myatt, introduced me to David Levy who he worked with at ITB. David was in the dance music side of things, and when he asked me about my musical influences and I named Chaka Khan and Jazzy Jeff, he said he wanted to give me a job on the spot.”
“There were many situations where I had to deal with people who were not very nice because I was a woman”
As a result, in early 1995, May embarked on a new journey, alongside Levy. “I barely knew what an agent did, and on day one, David handed me a list of promoter contacts and got me to call them to ask if they wanted to book Paul Oakenfold. And shortly afterward, I met Paul himself. It was just before he started to really blow up. But basically, me, David, and Paul made it up as we went along, and we pretty much wrote the book, and I only now realise the importance of all the stuff we did in the 90s – Paul taking things dance music mainstream through supporting the likes of U2 and Madonna on tour, for instance.”
May also cites dance music matriarch Judy Weinstein as a big supporter. “If I’m in New York, I make sure I visit Judy. She has been a huge influence on me, and in those early days, she helped David and I build the business internationally.”
Lauding Levy as her mentor, May states, “We were an absolute dream team. He was fierce, and I learned so much from him. In fact, I introduced him to one of my best friends, Irina, and they got married. We remain close, and the lovely thing is that our kids are friends. I spend every summer with David and his family in Ibiza. I love him. He’s one of my dearest friends, and the 17 years that I worked with him were just the best, because in that time, we worked with everyone – we pretty much were the architects of where the electronic scene sits right now in terms of superstar DJs, headline billing, and residencies.”
She continues, “Before us, there were no dance agents. It was David, me, and a handful of others. And there were certainly no other women. As agents, we were treated like second-class citizens, because the larger live music business didn’t understand our world. But we were quietly making shit loads of money for our clients, so it was a fantastic time during which I learned how to be an agent.
“David never let me make a mistake; he’d always catch them before they went out, so he absolutely protected me. In saying that, there were many situations where I had to deal with people who were not very nice because I was a woman. But David defended me to the hilt. He was absolutely invested in my success.”
“I’ve grown with the client, and we’ve just been able to do the most amazing things all over the world”
That working relationship ended when Levy departed for William Morris in 2010. “I totally understood his decision,” says May. “He’d gone as far as he could go. And it allowed me, perception-wise, to come out of his shadow. He never treated me that way, but I know other people in the business saw it that way.”
Levy’s departure also helped solidify May’s own roster. “Of course, David took most of his artists with him, but a lot of acts who I had worked with day-to-day decided to stay with me – 2manydjs, Soulwax, Paul Oakenfold, David Guetta, and Róisín Murphy, for instance.”
While May remained at ITB for a couple more years, in 2012, she decided it was time for a change. “The likes of David Guetta, 2manydjs, and Soulwax were really big, and I ended up getting a few more assistants. At the same time, the industry was waking up to the power of electronic music and the money that can be made. As a result, a lot of the American agencies were trying to lure talent away, so maybe it was insecurity on my part, but I really felt I needed to be at a major agency so that I could better represent a client like David Guetta, for instance.
“I’ve been at CAA for nearly 13 years, and I made the decision to come here because Emma and Mike treated me so well. Back in 2012, CAA didn’t have an existing dance or electronic department, so one of the big attractions was coming in to set it up and do it globally.”
Recognising idiosyncrasies, she adds, “I don’t think I’m that easy to work with. I’m all over the place with my train of thought. But at CAA, there’s a genuine sense of looking after each other.”
Among the beneficiaries of May’s stewardship is Guetta, who has been at the top of the tree for decades. “It was just obvious he was gonna be a huge pop star even though he’s still a DJ,” says May. “Maintaining the DJ side of it has always been critical to his career path, and it’s something that we’ve pretty much pulled off in the sense that he makes commercial pop hits but does lots of underground stuff as well, so he’s now doing major festivals and stadiums as a headliner, like a pop artist with huge production. That’s been a brilliant relationship in the sense that I’ve grown with the client, and we’ve just been able to do the most amazing things all over the world.”
“Setting the building blocks is something I’m pretty proud of, even though we were just doing stuff instinctively”
Team Disco
While there were early suggestions that May’s department at CAA be named “EDM,” she insisted on the “Team Disco” moniker that she and assistant Gina Gorman had adopted at ITB. “In London, there are 11 of us, while in America, we’re up to around the same number including agents and assistants – it’s no longer a niche business; it’s huge! But there’s still lots of room for this business to grow. The scenes are constantly evolving with new talent and new genres coming through.”
Looking back to the original Team Disco at ITB, May was one of the pioneers in cementing Ibiza’s place at the centre of the electronic music business. “I was part of the first residencies in Ibiza, thanks to Danny Whittle who wanted to do a residency at Pacha with Paul [Oakenfold]. He told me that if it worked, he also wanted to do it with Death Mix – David Morales, Frankie, Satoshi Tomiie, and all of those guys, and obviously I repped all of those people. The Paul Oakenfold residency was massively successful, and the rest is history.
“Being part of that and setting the building blocks is something I’m pretty proud of, even though we were just doing stuff instinctively. We didn’t really know whether it was gonna work half the time, but it did, so well done us,” she laughs.
Again, she names Judy Weinstein as one of the architects behind the strategy that propelled dance music to a global phenomenon. “It’s a partnership, and the managers who understand that are the best people to work with,” states May. “But I also represent a lot of artists that don’t have managers, so I work with them directly.”
Drawing comparisons to the worlds of rock and pop, she notes, “A DJ schedule is 365 days a year if you want it to be. It’s not built on a model where an album comes out and you’re touring and then you have a year off. I do a lot of live acts as well – Black Eyed Peas has been a fantastic relationship for me, because their management, Polo Molina and Seth Friedman, always trusted me with access to their diaries. I never imagined that I could be their agent, but Rob Light signed them to CAA, and then phoned me to ask if I wanted to be the Black Eyed Peas agent. I just love things that end up being beautiful happy accidents.”
“Suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act”
Losing Talent
Of course, for every happy accident there’s a flip side, and May admits that losing clients can be tough. “I was sad to lose Soulwax and 2manydjs – that was probably the biggest loss of my career, and of course they went to David Levy. That was a wake-up call because I realised that while David is my friend, he’s also my rival. We got through it, but I didn’t handle it very well in the beginning. It happened as soon as I started at CAA, and I’ll always remember going to see Emma Banks, and she was really clear, telling me that CAA didn’t employ me for my acts; they employed me because they believed in me.”
Indeed, May highlights the support her bosses and colleagues provided during some of her darkest moments. “About six years ago, my dad got very ill, and the company allowed me to do whatever I needed to do, so I made the job work around being a single parent with two kids and a dying dad,” she recalls. “And then six months after Dad died, my mom was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and needed round-the-clock nursing. It was a horrible time, but Emma and Mike and everyone at CAA were amazing.”
Career Highlights
Thankfully, the good times vastly outnumber the bad, and May has had some spectacular highlights in her career to date.
“David Guetta at Masada in Israel – I was the first person to do it with a major artist,” she says of her most memorable shows. “I also did Paul Oakenfold on the Great Wall of China before anyone had ever done it. Róisín Murphy at sunset on West Holts at Glastonbury is always fucking amazing – Róisín is one of my favourite partnerships. I’ve loved every second of being her agent, and I genuinely can’t wait for her next record.”
May also cites X-Press 2 as a standout client. “My relationship with their manager, Chris Butler (currently the manager of Jalen Ngonda also repped by CAA), is fantastic. He gave me my first band, Red Snapper, and when I’d been their agent for about a year, we sold out the Astoria, and I just remember being so proud. So, when X-Press 2 blew up, it was just brilliant, as I’d known [DJ] Rocky from growing up, and suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act.”
“Being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy is just the cherry on the cake”
She also talks fondly of American talent David Morales and the late Frankie Knuckles. “They taught me all about the New York club scene, and I’d go there every other month. It’s the privilege of a lifetime to know those guys – the originators of house music – and bring them to Europe. Frankie was an enduring friendship that I really am very grateful for. He was an amazing man, and I loved him, so it was really hard when he died.”
May’s association with the godfather of house music continues to this day, through her work as a board member of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, and she recalls ways in which their relationship helped elevate one act to iconic status.
“I repped Hercules and Love Affair for a long time, and he brought this collection of music to me that included a track called Blind, and his biggest wish was for Frankie to work on remixes. So, I asked Frankie if he would do it, and he was a bit non-committal, so I kept nagging him, and in the end, he said he’d do it for me. And Frankie’s Blind remix is one of the club-defining tracks, even now. So being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy, is just the cherry on the cake.”
The Darling Buds of May
While May’s life ultimately revolves around her children, her devotion to her clients’ careers, and the growth of electronic music, means her workaholic approach is more of a vocation than a job. “I’m hugely proud of my two kids,” she states. “They are my greatest achievement.”
Within Team Disco, May works closely with colleague Jen Hammel in CAA’s London office. “We’re a bit of a dynamic duo,” she comments. “[Jen’s] proved to be a formidable agent. She’s just killing it, and I love working with her.”
The Future
With 30 years under her belt, May’s love for her craft shows no sign of waning, and she remains committed to helping guide the careers of a new generation of talent amidst an ever-accelerating pace of evolution in the dance sector.
“Due to TikTok and streaming, we’re starting to see genres changing really quickly,” she observes. “Being able to create longevity is definitely becoming more challenging, and it’s up to us agents to help our clients achieve prolonged careers, if that’s their goal.
“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care, be totally confident in our artists”
“But at the moment, there seems to be a desire for people to just rinse the shit out of things. It’s almost like pop, and a lot of people are spending an awful lot of money on social media in order to maintain their careers, because there’s a lot of stuff that comes along that’s super hot, super firing, and doing massive numbers. But by the second summer, the kids have moved on.
“I also find that the leverage-on-leverage-on-leverage model, which was really strong in the dance music scene for many years, may be on the way out. For example, people who hit 25m streams would leverage that number, then they’d leverage on the leverage. I’ve never really bought into that. I prefer taking my time, underplaying, believing in the artist long-term, and building a fanbase that will stick by them. There’s definitely a style here within Team Disco (and at CAA in general), where we try our best to sign career artists, because we want to be part of that journey.”
Predicting both short-term and long-term growth for dance music, she tells IQ, “It’s interesting, China is definitely coming back strong again for electronic, and Southeast Asia seems to be really pumping again, post-Covid. Holland is doing extremely well in terms of certain sounds, certain scenes – and there are really strong ticket sales.”
Breaking new markets is also on May’s radar – an ambition that she believes is easier given the genre her clients occupy. “If you are a DJ, and it’s just you and a tour manager when you start out, you can go anywhere. And you have no costs, really, because the promoter pays for your flights. You can go anywhere you want, and we send people into new territories all the time. And the artists that come to you saying, ‘I just want to tour these markets and build my career,’ they’re the keepers. They’re the ones that put the graft in.”
Naming new clients such as Marlon Hoffstadt, Malugi, Jammer with Más Tiempo (a label/events brand owned by Jammer and Skepta), and Arcadia (Glastonbury structure and field), May concludes that the electronic sector is facing a bright future as dance music has established itself as a mainstay across most major festivals with more and more headliners coming from Team Disco’s roster.
“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care, be totally confident in our artists, and help build long-term artist careers based on real ticket sales and exceptional experiences for the artist and the audiences,” she concludes.
“We need to achieve that in the most authentic and fan-led way possible – guardian angel-like – while having the experience, the knowledge, and the confidence in how to do that. I am lucky to be at CAA and to be surrounded by other people doing exactly that every single day.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.
DEAG forms partnership with Black Mamba
Deutsche Entertainment (DEAG) has formed a cooperation with Black Mamba Event & Marketing, organiser of longstanding electronic music festival Sputnik Spring Break.
The Pouch-based festival has been taking place since 2008 and is now one of the largest festivals in eastern Germany with around 30,000 visitors every year.
The 2024 edition of the festival was completely sold out, with headline performances from Cro, Scooter, Nina Chuba, Tream and Timmy Trumpet.
According to DEAG “comprehensive synergy effects with the Group, in terms of production and infrastructure as well as artist acquisition, will lead to continuous margin improvements”.
The firm claims to be the leading producer of EDM/Techno/Urban festivals in Germany, with a stable of events that includes Airbeat One, MAYDAY, NATURE ONE, Indian Spirit, Syndicate, Ruhr in Love, Toxicator and the Kessel Festival in Stuttgart. The new partnership sees DEAG accelerate its growth in this market.
“We have successfully and profitably implemented our growth strategy in the EDM festival segment since 2019”
The German domestic market leads the ranking of monthly Electronic Music listeners with 369 million, ahead of the United States. Electronic Music outperformed other genres such as Rock, Latin and Hip-Hop in terms of growth in online consumption and recorded the strongest growth worldwide in 2023, according to the IMS Business Report 2024.
“We have successfully and profitably implemented our growth strategy in the EDM festival segment since 2019,” says Detlef Kornett, Group CEO of DEAG. “The cooperation with Rico Tietze will enable us to leverage synergies throughout the Group and in various projects beyond Sputnik. This is the next big step for us at DEAG to strengthen our leading role in this segment.”
Rico Tietze, managing director of Black Mamba event & marketing, adds: “We are delighted to have found a strong cooperation partner in our segment in DEAG. Together, we will continuously improve our festival for our guests and use the network within the Group featuring other strong festivals and the experienced team for further expansion.”
DEAG organising more than 30 one-day and multi-day festival events of all music genres in its core markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Spain and Ireland, attracting over 800,000 visitors each year.
Last week, the Berlin-headquartered firm spun off its hip-hop booking division into a standalone brand called District Live.
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Ultra Miami’s first day cut short due to severe weather
Ultra Music Festival was forced to shut down early on Friday (22 March) due to severe weather in Miami.
The three-day EDM event, taking place at Miami’s Bayfront, opened on Friday despite warnings of thunderstorms, heavy rain and high winds in the South Florida region.
Ahead of the festival, punters were advised to bring ponchos, raincoats and boots. Ultra also encouraged festival goers to text ULTRA to 48477 to stay updated with real-time safety information.
Festivities went ahead as planned until around 21:00 EDT, when Ultra issued a statement: “For your safety, Ultra Friday is temporarily shutting down. Please calmly leave the park now.”
The three-day EDM event opened on Friday despite warnings of thunderstorms, heavy rain and high winds
Hardwell, a Dutch DJ and producer who was due to play the headline set on the festival’s main stage, shared a post on X, expressing his disappointment at having to cancel his performance. He wrote: “I’m crying right now, 3 months of work by the team and myself. Wow….”
At around 23:30 EDT, Ultra shared another statement, assuring fans that the festival would go ahead on Saturday despite ongoing inclement weather. It read: “Severe weather is still in the area. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!”
Ultra resumed on Saturday, with extended hours to make up for the lost time, and guests were advised to turn up with caution. Artists including Calvin Harris and Eric Prydz performed at the festival during the weekend.
Events around the globe that have been impacted by the elements over the past 12 months include Primavera Sound Madrid, Awakenings in the Netherlands, Slovenia’s MetalDays, the UK’s Kaleidoscope, shows by Louis Tomlinson show and Ed Sheeran in the US, Burning Man, Taylor Swift in Brazil, Elton John in New Zealand and Wacken Open Air in Germany.
Extreme weather and its impact on open-air events was a major topic of conversation during last month’s ILMC in London. Read more here.
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Alda expands to Croatia with new office and festival
Alda, the Amsterdam-based company behind leading EDM events including AMF, New Horizons and more, is expanding to Croatia.
The Dutch promoter, which is 50% owned by Live Nation-backed Insomniac, today announced it has opened an office in the capital, Zagreb.
In addition, Alda and Insomniac have also planned a new seven-day festival in the Croatian city of Pula, on the Adriatic coast.
The event, titled Secret Project Presents Pula Music Week, will take place in and around one of Europe’s oldest amphitheatres between 30 June to 6 July.
Peggy Gou, Solomon, Disclosure, Tale Of Us, Boris Brejcha, Charlotte de Witte and Black Coffee will each host their own evening. Support acts will be announced at a later date.
“Croatia will be the epic centre for the European dance industry for the foreseeable future”
Project Presents Pula Music Week is the second new festival Alda and Insomniac have launched together, after Saga festival in Bucharest, Romania.
Allan Hardenberg, director and co-founder of ALDA, says: “In the two years that the festival world has been on hiatus, we have of course not been idle. We’ve made plans for when it could all be done again… and that’s now! Earlier this month we officially opened our office in Zagreb, Croatia will be the epic centre for the European dance industry for the foreseeable future.
“There are so many options here, especially for destination festivals. With the Pula Music Week, music lovers can enjoy not just one evening, but a week of the very best DJs in a unique location, where they are provided with everything they need.”
Alda is behind events including A State of Trance in Utrecht, New Horizons in Germany (a JV with CTS Eventim) and Amsterdam Music Festival, the Netherlands’ largest indoor music festival.
Insomniac, meanwhile, has produced more than 2,000 events since 1993, including Electric Daisy Carnivals in North America, Japan, China and Mexico, and Nocturnal Wonderland, the US’s longest-running dance music event.
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French festival sues over ‘gutter punk’ comments
A French electronic music festival is suing two local politicians for defamation over derogatory remarks the pair allegedly posted on social media.
Les Dentelles Électroniques – which takes place on Sunday 7 August, with German techno DJ Thomas Schumacher headlining – is taking legal action against Corentin Triplet and Jocelyne Cieslak, both municipal councillors in Brebières in northern France, who are accused of writing libellous posts about the festival on Twitter and Facebook, respectively.
According to Les Dentelles Électroniques, Triplet posted on Twitter on 17 July to say he was “surprised” to see Brebières “associated with an event for punks à chiens”, the French term for gutter punks (literally “dog punks”), a subsection of the punk world characterised by homelessness, vagrancy and, sometimes, voluntary unemployment and antisocial behaviour.
“By this tweet, Mr Triplet clearly despises the organisers of Les Dentelles Électroniques, as well as its festivalgoers and all the members of the electronic music ecosystem, associating them with ‘gutter punks’,” reads a statement from the festival. “However, the festival is very far from the image to which Mr Triplet refers. Indeed, everyone involved with this event maintains very good relations with the security forces [and] municipal police […] in order to guarantee the best possible conditions for its operation.”
“Fhe festival is very far from the image to which Mr Triplet refers”
Cieslak, meanwhile, is accused of making, on 21 July, a public post on her Facebook account where she appears to “question the the charitable nature” of the 1,500-person festival, “undermining the honour” of the festival’s organiser, the foundation CGDPC (Chti G Découverte Passion et Culturelle).
“The festival organisers find it unfortunate to want to harm such an event in the current health context [the pandemic] and the resulting difficulties,” reads a statement from CGDPC.
“In light of the above, the festival organisers decided to file a complaint on Thursday 22 July 2021 against the two authors of these publications” under the Press Freedom Act of 29 July 1881, it adds.
The festival is supported in its lawsuit by electronic industry association Technopol, which says it stands with the “organisers and festivalgoers implicated by these illicit comments and assures them of its full confidence”.
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Dance music festivals and clubs lose 78% of value
Prevented from opening by Covid-19 restrictions, nightclubs and dance music festivals lost more than three quarters of their value in 2020, according to new data from the International Music Summit (IMS).
Using data from Viberate and Reisdent Advisor, the IMS Business Report 2021, a copy of which can be requested by clicking here, calculated that €3.4 billion, or 78%, was wiped off the value of venues and festivals last year, as more than 200 electronic music festivals were forced to cancel.
Compounding the damage was a late, scaled-back 2020 season in Ibiza, while searches for flights for 2021 have yet to take off amid ongoing uncertainty, according to the report. IMS’s own flagship event, IMS Ibiza, was among the summer 2020 casualties.
“A huge rebound can be expected as the live industry finds safe routes to reopening”
However, “a huge rebound can be expected as the live industry finds safe routes to reopening”, it continues, while the demand for live dance music events events is bigger than ever: the value of festival tickets sold in March 2021 was more than the whole of 2020 combined, an increase of 4,000% year on year.
The decline in the value mirrors that of the live music industry more broadly, which analysts have put at 75% (Goldman Sachs) and 64% (PwC).
In total (including recorded music and DJ software/hardware), the global electronic music market declined 54%, to $3.4bn, the IMS Business Report estimates.
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Slovenia hosts Europe’s biggest post-pandemic festival
Smile Nation Slovenia, the largest music festival in continental Europe since the coronavirus pandemic began, took place with 5,000 fans in Ljubljana on Thursday 24 June.
Held at the city’s Ilirija sports stadium, the festival, promoted by Celje-based Smile Festival, featured performances from popular international DJs, including Australia’s Nervo and Dutch producer Quintino, and local talent such as Minless and Tim Urbanya. The festival follows last year’s seated, socially distanced event with 500 people each night over three days.
A total of 5,000 people attended the one-day Smile Nation Slovenia 2021, which took place under so-called PCT conditions (pogojev PCT), referring to the Slovenian term for Covid-status certification. All attendees had to provide proof of either vaccination against Covid-19, immunity to the disease, or a negative Covid-19 test to gain entry.
Organisers advised non-vaccinated/immune guests to get tested the day beforehand in their hometowns, though a pre-event testing point was set up in Ljubljana’s Tivoli Park for those unable to.
Other hygiene measures in place at the festival included card-only payments and hand sanitising points, while face masks were recommended but not required.
“We are proud that in these unpredictable times, we managed to undertake an event of this magnitude”
According to local media, Smile Nation Slovenia is the largest festival of the Covid-19 era in the European Union. Recent events in the UK, including Sefton Park Pilot and Download Pilot, were the same size or bigger, although they were held under clinically controlled test-event conditions.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we thank visitors, performers, partners, sponsors and everyone else who contributed to this unique spectacle,” say organisers in a statement. “We are proud that in these unpredictable times, we managed to undertake an event of this magnitude and make history as one of the first major ’normal’ festivals of the past two years.
“An electric atmosphere, positive energy, lots of good fun and great music: this was Smile Nation Slovenia 2021.”
Other ‘normal’ festivals going ahead this summer include Exit Festival in Serbia, Pukkelpop in Belgium, Mysteryland in the Netherlands and a handful of UK events, pending the removal of restrictions on 19 July.
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United at Home: How David Guetta live streams raised millions
United at Home, David Guetta’s free-to-access lockdown livestream series, has raised more than US$2 million for charity to date – over half a million dollars per show – and is just getting started, according to co-organiser Michael Wiesenfeld.
Wiesenfeld, a French-born, Miami-based estate agent and friend of Guetta, was instrumental in setting up the first United at Home event in April 2020, which saw the DJ play a 100-minute set on the roof of an apartment block in Miami in aid of the World Health Organization (WHO), Feeding South Florida, Feeding America and France’s Fondation des Hôpitaux.
The show was seen by more than 12 million people – many of which also joined in on a Zoom link, while 7,000 residents of neighbouring blocks in the Icon Brickell complex watched from their balconies – and raised $700,000, with donations matched by Guetta himself, Wiesenfeld explains.
“For that first show, David paid for 100% of the production, as well as matching people’s donations, so 100% of that money went directly to charity,” he recalls.
Thinking back to the genesis of the show, Wiesenfeld tells IQ: “David wanted to do something to give back, but he didn’t really know what. I was the same – it was such a stressful time, and I couldn’t sleep thinking of all these people who were worse off than me. We could see people were struggling. There was no help at the time, as this was before any stimulus package.
“I used to live in the apartment block where we did the first show and I realised it would be perfect. I was looking for something that would be visually very nice [to watch from home] and also offer the possibility for David to interact with a live crowd. A friend and client of mine in the real-estate business, Jean-Charles Carre, is part of David’s management team, so I called them up and said, ‘Why don’t we do it here?’”
The United at Home team, which also included Jérémy Zeitoun, Guetta’s head of social media and digital marketing, and Pierre-Georges Kieffer from Warner Music France, pulled the Miami show together in under a week, working “18 hours a day for five days” to make it happen, Wiesenfeld continues.
In addition to providing some much-needed entertainment, the funds raised by United at Home Miami and follow-up event United at Home New York, on 30 May, enabled Feeding America to distribute over four million meals to people in need.
“We thought about selling tickets to raise more money, but it would limit the number of people who can see it”
“Everybody has same story about it giving a bit of happiness at time of such darkness,” Wiesenfeld says. “I dug out the clips recently and, even a year later, I had chills. It was like watching France win the world cup!”
“That night, I couldn’t sleep,” Wiesenfeld remembers. “David, the team and I were on the phone until 6.30 in the morning, we were so full of adrenaline. We all agreed that we had to do another one.”
The show that followed, which saw Guetta performing from the roof of New York’s Rockefeller Center, almost didn’t happen, with big-city bureaucracy, the worsening Covid-19 situation and the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd threatening to derail the concert before it got off the ground.
“The day of the event, there were 4,000 people on the streets of New York by our hotel,” Wiesenfeld explains. “We didn’t think we were going to make it to the Rockefeller Center in time. In the end, David arrived seven minutes before the show!”
Despite the chaotic circumstances, United at Home New York was another critical and financial success, securing the backing of a number of high-profile sponsors who were impressed by what the team had pulled off in Miami.
“In Miami, David paid for entire show, but in New York we had Major League Soccer, Heineken, Atari, all kinds of companies… In total, we had maybe 15 sponsors because they saw what we did in Miami and they were blown away,” says Wiesenfeld.
Similarly successful were United at Home Paris, held at the Louvre on New Year’s Eve 2020, and United at Home Dubai, which saw Guetta return to the rooftop (this time of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel) on 6 February. Both shows were engineered by Guetta’s long time tour manager, Jean-Guillaume Charvet, and visual artist Romain Pissenem of High Scream Production, and brought United at Home’s now-trademark mix of high-energy electronic music, spectacular visual effects and breathtaking locations to fans in new continents.
Bucking the trend towards ticketed live streams, Wiesenfeld says all future United at Home events will remain free to view to ensure they reach as many people as possible.
“The key with charity is that it’s all about the experience and the connection with people”
“We thought about it [selling tickets], to raise more money, but it would limit the number of people who can see it,” he explains. “David’s logic is that he’s been very successful, he’s received a lot from his fans, and now his duty is to give back. The charity angle is very important to him.”
At press time, the four shows had been collectively viewed by well over 100m people – and where in the beginning the team had to approach cities to host United at Home, now the cities are coming to them. “The shows have shown that these United at Home events are a great way of advertising their cities,” says Wiesenfeld, who with Carre now leads a specialist event consultancy, The Charity Guys. “After all, it’s a lot cheaper than hosting the Euros…”
The plan for 2021–22 is for another three or four over the next 12 months, he says. “Now United at Home has become a concept – we travel to a beautiful part of the world and play great music for charity – it’s going to continue.”
Post-coronavirus, Wiesenfeld adds, team Guetta – which also includes agent Maria May of CAA – are also hoping to do a “real show in a big stadium: a festival curated by David but featuring other artists. A Live Aid type of thing, once a year.”
On the live stream front, it’s likely the next United at Home show will be in Asia, but The Charity Guys is also looking at South America, the Middle East and other cities in Europe, according to Wiesenfeld. “What we’re trying to do is find new ways to raise money for those who need it,” he adds.
The Charity Guys is also hoping to work with other artists to replicate the success of the United at Home model, using it as their proof of concept.
“United at Home was the product of out-of-the-box thinking – it was livestreaming but in a completely different way. Now we want to do that with other artists and entertainers, leveraging their fame and brand to raise money.
“There are a lot of celebrities who have foundations but they don’t raise much money, and I think that’s because they don’t have the right team around them. The key with charity is that it’s all about the experience and the connection with people, and that’s why United at Home has been so successful.”
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Clubs come together for The Beat Goes Live
A 48-hour livestreaming event will unite many of the world’s leading electronic music venues in support of the industry later this month.
The Beat Goes Live, which takes place from 19 to 21 March, will raise money for Music Heroes, an initiative supporting venues, promoters, artists, music related charities and organisations. It will stream live on Paarti starting from 9pm GMT.
Participating venues include Ambassada Gavioli (Izola, Slovenia), Cava Paradiso (Mykonos, Greece), Club der Visionaere (Berlin, Germany), Egg (London, UK), D-Edge (Sao Paolo, Brazil), H0L0 (New York, USA), Noa Beach Club (Zrce, Croatia), Nordstern (Basel, Switzerland), Phonotheque (Montevideo, Uruguay), Super Dommune (Tokyo, Japan), Tenax (Firenze, Italy) and Versuz (Hasselt, Belgium).
A final secret venue, as well as the line-up, will be announced in the coming weeks.
“We are launching a new kind of platform kicking off with a historic event that brings together some of the biggest names in music”
Fans can support the cause by buying tickets and making donations in both their local currency and cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
Raluca Cherciu, CEO, Paarti says: “We are launching a new kind of platform kicking off with a historic event that brings together some of the biggest names in music, in support of music heroes.”
“What always drives us is the passion and love for music. For Noa, the beat never stops, it keeps playing just like our hearts that live for this industry,” says the club in a statement.
“That is why Noa Beach Club decided to join this initiative because it arose from a sincere desire to continue living, having fun and socialising from all over the world. Luckily, technology today allows us to do that, and this project is going to take it to another level.”
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