amsterdam dance event
EMPIRE president Tina Davis took part in a keynote conversation during ADE 2024, speaking before a crowded audience at the annual dance music industry conference in Amsterdam.
The Saturday (Oct. 19 )talk spanned many facets of Davis’ career, starting when she was a 25-year-old running the A&R department at Def Jam and taking the bus to work.
“I didn’t have a car. I was sitting in a bus going to work every day, running Def Jam on the West Coast, making pennies,” Davis said while talking about pursuing her career despite feelings of self-doubt. “I think it’s just all about how much you want it, how much drive [you have] and how much you believe in yourself. Even though you might doubt yourself, just try anyway.”
The conversation, moderated by journalist Pay Komüs, focused largely on Davis’ work as president of EMPIRE, a position she ascended to in the summer of 2023 after five years at the independent Bay Area-based label, publisher and distributor. The executive spoke about working on EMPIRE’S global business, the importance of authenticity for artists and how such authenticity helped Shaboozey become one of the breakout artists of 2024. The hip-hop/country artist signed to EMPIRE IN 2021, and three years later his hit single, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” made him famous. The song is currently in its 15th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100.
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Davis was one of the thousands of industry executives who traveled to Amsterdam for ADE, which has already announced dates for next year’s event: Oct. 22-26, 2025. These are five key takeaways from her keynote.
Working Globally Means Working Collaboratively
With teams in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Davis stressed that it’s crucial that each territory takes the lead in its own decision-making. “We’re not in San Francisco telling the people in Africa, ‘This is how you need to do it,’ or telling [our team] here in Amsterdam, ‘You need to do it this way,’” she said. “We can’t tell you how it needs to be done. We have a structure in mind. We know how we like it. We know it’s about authenticity. We know it’s about being culturally significant. But for the most part, we make sure we work with the people we have in our company and take their advice, listen to them; they listen to us, and we work together as a strategy in everything that we do.”
Every Artist Is a Partner
“We don’t sign artists, we sign partners,” Davis said of bringing new acts onto the roster. “We look at them as partners. We look at their business and figure out how we can help them scale up, just as we’re doing for ourselves.” For this type of structure to work, Davis stressed that trust is essential to “make sure that relationship is strong. We want to make sure that our artists feel our presence, and they understand how much we care about their future.”
Artist Authenticity Is Crucial
EMPIRE, Davis said, “is a company that leans heavily on authenticity and culture. If you’re not true to yourself, you can’t be true to us, and you can’t be true to your consumer.” The company “isn’t against” artists who consistently change styles, she continued, “but at the same time, it’s sort of like, ‘Okay, is that really who you are?’ Let’s figure out how we can get a middle ground, or figure out how you can present yourself in a different way, but still not lose the fan base you have.’”
On The Success of Shaboozey — And the Patience Required to Get Him to This Point
Expanding on her thoughts on authenticity, Davis said that EMPIRE is “intricate when it comes to making sure the direction fits the talent.” She recalled that when Shaboozey was presented to the company, “he had wicks in his head, he’s a tall African American, and he came in doing country and hip-hop. Nothing really was working at that time. It had happened before, but nothing at that time was really at the top of the charts that sounded like him.”
But Davis says that when the team met him, they felt his authenticity. “So you can’t tell somebody that looks like that, ‘Hey, you’re not country. You can’t do country,’” she said. During the three years Shaboozey was signed to EMPIRE before blowing up, “we honed in and allowed him to just continue on his journey and keep growing. He was putting out music, and the first records and project did okay, but it took a minute for it to get to this point, and we had the patience for that.”
Artists Don’t Need a Major Label to Succeed
Davis questioned the need for artists to be on a major label to be successful, suggesting they shift their mindset about major label deals being essential — particularly when it comes to artists maintaining control of their masters by staying independent. “I cannot tell you why someone like Justin Timberlake still has a record deal at a major,” Davis observed. “It makes no sense. Mind you, his deal probably is a little bit better than most of the newer artists that are coming up, but it still makes no sense; he should be distributing himself. He could go on TuneCore and make a lot more money than he’d make with that major from that big check that they give him.
She continued that changing artists’ mentality around major label deals has been “a process. It’s been an old rule for years that only majors can break you, but Shaboozey shows you right now that you really don’t need a major.”
Not Paying Attention To What Other People Are Doing Can Be a Key to Success
Davis observed that you’ve “got to kind of have blinders on when you’re working on your own thing, when you’re focused on your own vision, when you’re trying to accomplish something. You can’t look to the side, because you’re going to lose a race. You have to stay focused and look at what you’re working on because you have to figure out how you make your lane in the highway where everybody is still driving in the same direction.”
She also emphasized EMPIRE’S position as an innovator and leader, continuing that other companies “look at us. They follow us. They’re all turning toward where we have always been. When they started hiring DEI departments, we didn’t need it. We were already diverse. When they were like, ‘We need more women.’ We were 51% women. We were like, ‘We don’t need to worry about that.’ We’re purveyors of taste. We’re leaders; we don’t like to follow.”
If you work in dance music, there’s a good chance you’re currently on a plane or train or are otherwise somehow en route to Amsterdam.
Per mid-October dance music tradition, the Amsterdam Dance Music Event, or ADE, is happening this week in the Dutch capital, with thousands of dance industry execs, artists and fans taking part in a dizzyingly robust program that caters to professionals, people trying to get into the industry and people who just like the music. Programming includes representatives from companies including SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Tresor, Tunecore, Empire, Spotify and more.
While ADE always reliably draws industry types from around Europe, the event is also “seeing a notable increase in attendees from the U.S., Africa, and Asia this year,” says ADE’s managing director Jan-Willem van de Ven, “so it’s a good mix of electronic music industries and cultures and global territories that see ADE as a gateway to Europe in a number of different ways.”
With the thriving electronic music scene in Africa gaining more attention and global influence, ADE 2024 is also hosting representatives from the Nigerian festival Homecoming for a special five-panel series on the dance scene in the country and across the continent.
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“The roots of electronic music are deeply tied to African music and culture, so this focus felt timely and essential,” says van de Ven. “The culture across many African territories offers so much we can learn from, particularly in terms of creativity and community, and in return, we can hopefully contribute some knowledge of industry infrastructure, things like that. Our collaboration with Homecoming is designed as a mutual exchange, where both sides — artists, audiences, professionals and ourselves — can inspire and grow from each other’s experiences.”
In total, ADE programming is famous for offering more panels, networking events, performances and mixers than a single person could possibly attend, so van de Ven advises that those going create a schedule based on what they personally want to get out of the conference. He also recommends “making full use of networking sessions and our new matchmaking formats, which are great for connecting with the right people.”
Jan-Willem van de Ven
Sarah Wijzenbeek
This year, ADE has also launched a new ADE App that will help attendees navigate the program while keeping their personal agendas on hand, for maximum productivity and likely a fair amount of fun. As always, ADE 2024 is split between PRO programming for industry professionals, Lab programming for those coming into the scene, festival programming for fans, and arts and culture programming for everyone.
Even van de Ven himself acknowledges that it’s difficult to fit everything in over the conference, with his assistant helping ensure he gets everywhere he needs to be. “I’m also just a big fan of everything we do,” he adds, “so I really try my best to experience as much as possible.”
Below are van de Ven’s top ADE 2024 schedule picks across all categories. (All times are CEST.)
ADE Pro
20 Years of Tomorrowland: How to Rise and Stay on Top – Wednesday, Oct.16, 2:15 p.m.
In this talk, Tomorrowland founder Michiel Beers will discuss the 20 year anniversary of the annual Belgian dance mega-festival, offering insights on the strategies that have made it the world’s biggest dance festival.
SoundCloud – Essential Insider Knowledge – Thursday, Oct. 17, 12:30 p.m.
Representatives from SoundCloud will take part in a conversation with Dutch producer Mau P, focusing on how the platform supports independent artists and offering insights on how artists can find success on digital platforms.
From Detroit to Durban: The Learnings of 30 Years of Dance Music – Thursday, Oct. 17, 1:30 p.m.
Artists including Detroit legend Carl Craig and South African producers Major League DJz will take part in a panel exploring the origins and influence of the techno and amapiano genres. The conversation will focus on growing these genres while preserving their cultural heritage and ensuring creators retain ownership.
Amelie Lens x Charlotte de Witte – Friday, Oct. 18, 4:30 p.m.
The techno titans will take part in a panel focused on their individual careers and newfound partnership.
ADE LAB
BIIANCO: How I Play Live hosted by DJ Mag – Thursday, Oct. 17, 5:15 p.m.
Multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ, BIIANCO — whose 2023 viral hit “Against The Wall” aggregated 35 million streams — will give a talk on live performance technology for creators looking to build a live show and integrate live elements into hybrid DJ sets.
DJ Babatr: The Story of Raptor House – Saturday, Oct. 19, 2:45 p.m.
Venezuelan DJ Babatr, a pioneer of the Raptor House genre, will discuss his role in creating a sound that encapsulates the energy of Caracas.
CLUB Lab – Live Showcases (in association with DJMag) – Saturday, Oct. 19, 8:30 p.m.
The nightclub element of ADE’s Lab programming will feature live music, A/V shows and dancing, offering a place for ADE Lab attendees to celebrate at the end of the event.
ADE Arts & Culture
ADE Opening Concert: 50 Years of J Dilla – Wednesday, Oct. 16, 11:00 a.m.
Speakers including Carl Craig and Miguel Atwood Ferguson will celebrate the legacy of game-changing producer J Dilla in the year that artist would have been 50 years old. Atwood-Ferguson & Metropole Orchestra will perform the longstanding Dilla tribute project Suite for Ma Dukes before the ‘Dilla 50’-talk.
ADE Opening Concert: COCON II – Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7:00 p.m.
Designed especially for ADE, the audiovisual live performance by Cello Octet Amsterdam and Nick Verstand will feature a combination of live playing and robotics.
ADE Opening Concert: 24classics presents Philip Glass by Lavinia Meijer & Nikki Hock – Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m.
Harpist Lavinia Meijer and multidisciplinary artist Nikki Hock will present an interpretation of Phillip’s Glass music, with Meijer getting special permission for Glass himself to transcribe his music for harp. Hock, meanwhile, will create visuals in the room.
Festival
Tomorrowland Presents Afterlife – Wednesday, Oct. 16 and Thursday, Oct. 17, 10:00 p.m.
Tale of Us and a collection of other artists will play the city’s famed Ziggo Dome venue for two nights of music.
Barry Can’t Swim – Thursday, Oct. 17, 8:30 p.m.
The rising, award-nominated Scottish producer will perform a show incorporating his signature synthesis of piano playing and electronic productions.
Awakenings Upclose ADE presents Four Tet, Friday, Oct. 18, 3:00 p.m.
The U.K. producer will play an extended six-and-a-half-hour set at Amsterdam venue Gashouder, a former industrial gasworks complex.
Jeff Mills presents: Tomorrow Comes The Harvest – Friday, Oct., 8:00 p.m.
The collaborative project Tomorrow Comes The Harvest was initiated by Nigerian afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and Detroit techno icon Jeff Mills. Together with keyboardist Jean Phi Dary, the trio toured the globe until Allen’s death in 2020. Now playing with tabla virtuoso Prabha Edouard, Tomorrow Comes The Harvest will present a new chapter of genre-spanning sounds and rhythms.
AMF 2024 – Saturday, Oct. 19, 9:00 p.m.
The night-long festival will feature a host of producers including Maddix, Martin Garrix, Tiësto, Timmy Trumpet and more.
Four months out from its October conference in Amsterdam, ADE is adding a new batch of names to the program.
Today (June 27), ADE announced the addition of Empire president Tina Davis, who will give a keynote question and answer session about her role in expanding the influence of Empire, with a focus on the independent label’s expansion into Afrobeats and Latin.
Amid the explosion of music from the region, Spotify’s head of music for Sub-Saharan Africa Phiona Okumu will talk about elevating African artists and Spotify’s initiatives to support emerging and female artists. Grimes’ manager Daouda Leonard will give a talk looking at the intersection of music, AI and technology, along with artist management and ways to give artists control over their careers and businesses.
Believe’s global head of music Romain Vivien and TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson will give a joint keynote address as part of ADE’s Insider Knowledge series that will focus on how artists can navigate the evolving music landscape. Additionally, as part of a new partnership between SoundCloud and ADE, leaders from the platform will present a session on how independent artists can make the most of it.
Along with these execs, electronic artists including Palestinian techno producer Sama’ Abdulhadi, Ukrainian artist Miss Monique and Dutch producer Chris Stussy all join the program. Previously announced speakers include Timbaland, Martin Garrix, Laurent Garnier, music executive Grace Ladoja and representatives from fabric London, Armada Music, WME and UTA, with more names to be announced in the coming months.
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ADE 2024 is taking place Oct. 16-20 at locations throughout Amsterdam. The conference will again be divided into Lab and Pro programming, with Lab content tailored for people trying to get into or just starting out in the industry and Pro programming designed for established managers, label execs, artists, streamers, marketers, promoters and more.
The conference also offers consumer-facing events, with last year’s musical offerings happening in more than 200 venues around the city.
AMSTERDAM — While dance music makes up a relatively slim portion of the global music industry — earning a $6 billion valuation in 2021 — the genre felt like the center of the universe last week in the Netherlands.
Or at least the center of Amsterdam’s fairytale Centrum district, with dance/electronic music taking over this canal-lined neighborhood and points beyond for the 26th edition of the Amsterdam Dance Event, or ADE, the world’s largest gathering of the global electronic industry.
Launched in 1996 and returning for its first full-fledged edition since 2019 — with 2020 and 2021 moved online and trimmed down dramatically due to the pandemic — the four-day conference drew an estimated 10,000 agents, managers, label owners, product developers, publicists, execs, data analysts, journalists, veteran and emerging artists, event producers and all other varieties of dance scene professionals from across global markets, with a heavy influx of European and U.S. attendees.
Think of it like the global electronic industry going on a field trip to the Dutch capital together, with one-on-one discussions, panels, product demonstrations, mixers, many stroopwafels and a lot of dancing all on the packed itinerary of the four-day ADE, which spanned Oct. 18-22.
ADE 2022 also featured more than 1,000 club and festival shows, which were geared towards both delegates and the roughly 450,000 fans who took part in the bacchanal.
A Pro portion of the conference — designed for established professionals, with scene newcomers taking part in ADE’s parallel Lab programming — featured more than 130 discussions in 10 meeting spaces located across two stately historic buildings over four days. They addressed a dizzying range of topics, with a few key themes emerging.
One was how a sound fostered by technology is itself keeping up with emerging tech. While other music industry conferences have made Web3 a focal point following the explosion of the sector, ADE programming didn’t linger on the topic, with just a handful of discussions on the metaverse, AI and NFTs. Even without the official spotlight, however, Web3 was a hot topic on the ground, with one representative from an electronic-forward NFT company noting that while non-fungible tokens may not be something every artist is especially passionate about, their company is seeing real evidence of NFT sales allowing for emerging and middle-tier artists to earn a living wage. For them, this revolution in earnings potential adds a very human, and thus widely compelling, dynamic to the sector. (And to a field, they also noted, which could use a diversity influx, given its current domination by “cis, white crypto bros.”)
Others observed that it will take Web3 coalescing into an umbrella company like Google or Apple for the possibilities that the technology presents to be adopted by the wider population. One person involved in signing up attendees of a major U.S. music festival with crypto wallets as part of the event, noted that months later, only a small fraction of the crowd is still using this tool.
Amsterdam Dance Event 2022
Kapa Photgraphy
On a more holistic level, several panel conversations touched on the FOMO-fueled rat race many artists and others in the scene are experiencing as a function of social media. “Perception is the new reality,” noted Jori Lowery of management agency Conflux during a Wednesday afternoon panel discussion, observing that many artists in the scene struggle when comparing their careers with other acts who appear to be busier.
During a Friday afternoon conversation between veteran producer Seth Troxler and journalist Joe Muggs, Troxler observed how the internet has fueled the dance scene’s growth during the last decade, but not always necessarily in a good way. “That switch from the club culture and the localization of culture to these really large events and this kind of FOMO culture, where it’s like, ‘I want to go to a big-ticket event, see everyone, get the picture,’” Troxler said.
“Maybe the party’s not even good,” the DJ continued, “but there’s loads of people there and no dancing, whereas you go to a small party with 100 people and it’s a great vibe, and that’s cool too. It doesn’t have to be this mega thing all the time, even though the mega thing is cool, or it’s accessible, at some point it grows our culture, but also kills our culture.”
A Wednesday afternoon conversation with Ultra Records founder Patrick Moxey — at ADE to speak on the launch of his new label Helix — emphasized that the real necessity for artists to be online, and particularly on TikTok and Instagram, is because both platforms can be powerful tools for fanbase development, even as these platforms present new challenges. One member in the audience observed that while many artists are reluctant to put themselves online, thinking that a heavy digital presence is uncool, it’s necessary for acts to “get over their egos” to gain real traction. The observation drew applause from the crowd.
The audience was quieter during a Thursday afternoon panel on doing business in conflict areas — both in the U.S. and around the world. Panelists discussed if and how artists and brands should work in U.S. states that have banned abortion and in regions with a records of human rights violations like Saudi Arabia. (Members of the team from MDLBEAST, the Riyadh electronic festival launched in 2019, were on the ground at ADE, with many delegates pondering if and how to do business with the fest, with some keen to participate and others remaining more reticent.) While some on the panel and in the audience expressed reasonable ethical qualms about hosting events and sending artists to play in such controversial regions, others argued that it’s unfair to advise on best practices in any area that one hasn’t personally traveled to.
If there was a consensus from this conversation, it was that it’s vital for each sector of the scene to first acknowledge and work on its own issues before engaging in finger-pointing, particularly with respect to the scene’s consistent allegations of sexual misconduct amongst DJs and others involved in nightlife culture and a pervasive lack of diversity. (“It’s still a systemic issue of most agents and managers being white men,” observed one delegate who spoke to Billboard on the condition of anonymity, in regards to why inclusivity isn’t happening more quickly.)
But while ADE demonstrated the scene’s varying challenges, it also highlighted the many people working to solve them. A variety of panels focused on fostering greater diversity in the scene and featured leaders in the dance music space, including Black Artist Database (B.A.D.) co-founder NIKS and BEAUTIFUL label founder SHERELLE, who spoke to how B.A.D., a crowd-sourced list of Black artists, producers and creators, is helping Black artists form community outside of traditional power structures. There was also a full day of ADE Lab programming designed by She.Said.So, an organization that works to connect and empower underrepresented communities in electronic music and beyond.
At a Friday night mixer hosted by Spotify – which ended with a drone show soundtracked by Tiësto — one longstanding ADE attendee noted that in terms of inclusivity, ADE 2022 felt like a legitimate shift. This attendee noted more diversity among attendees and lineups and how delegates also generally seemed more open and interested in chatting. “There’s been a temperate change in the event overall,” they said.
Amsterdam Dance Event 2022
Tom Doms
Meanwhile, a full day’s worth of programming about sustainability initiatives in the scene offered glimmers of hope in the face of climate change. One longstanding attendee noted that in this part of October the canals of Amsterdam used to be frozen over, while last week it was often possible to walk around without a jacket. (A weekend festival by Dutch festival producer DGTL, which has a strong sustainability program, demonstrated that even large-scale events can operate with reusable cups and meat-free food vendors.)
And of course, several conversations turned to Berlin’s iconic techno club Berghain, which has been rumored to be shuttering soon after the closure of both its in-house label and management agency. One source well-connected in the Berlin scene noted that the venue may be converted into residential lofts, and that given the potential revenue of this project, the building’s current owners “are struggling to reject the deal.”
Elsewhere during the week: Tomorrowland premiered its 25-minute after-movie of its 2022 festival at the elegant art deco Royal Theater Tuschinski. (The film’s lessons about the power of community and catharsis in the dance world elicited a few actual tears.) Eric Prydz blew peoples’ minds while performing his much-lauded HOLO shows — a few delegates called the performance the best they’d ever seen. Honey Dijon headlined a buzzy Back to Black showcase with a lineup including Kerri Chandler and TSHA. Claude VonStroke announced that EMPIRE had acquired his previously independent and much-beloved Dirtybird label and Diplo gave a keynote address about his career trajectory, noting that his musical history in Jamaica began when he was booked to play the seafaring Jam Cruise festival and just got off the boat on the island nation because he wasn’t enjoying himself onboard.
Delegates also buzzed about Pioneer DJ’s acquisition of DJ Monitor — the software that tracks what songs artists play during their sets will soon be integrated directly into Pioneer hardware, which many feel will be a big step forward for royalty collection. (ADE is itself sponsored by Dutch collection agency BUMA.)
Ultimately, after a long absence of togetherness, ADE 2022 functioned as an industry show and tell, a four-day reunion and the dance scene’s prevailing place to dissect, solve and celebrate the incredible number of issues, sounds and scenes that exist within it.
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