genre dance
Kaytranada isn’t the biggest fan of how audiences choose to enjoy live shows in the age of smartphones and social media. Over the weekend, the Montreal-based producer responded to a fan on X who apologized on behalf of “real fans” who dance at his shows as opposed to “standing still” in order to capture content […]
It was a match made in brat heaven when Charli xcx met some 15,000 Minnesotan fans at Minneapolis’ Target Center on Saturday (April 26) night for the 17th stop on her brat tour. Her co-headlining Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan last year didn’t include a stop in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but if you […]
It’s a warm Tuesday afternoon in the deep San Fernando Valley, and the only day of the week Claude VonStroke is currently taking meetings.
The producer takes me through the cozy kitchen of his sprawling home, then across the verdant backyard, to a guest house that’s been converted into an office space. Here, his wife Aundy works in a room just behind the gleaming grand piano that dominates the primary space. Upstairs, where he works, the little attic is hot with many humming music machines.
He’s been up here most days lately, getting into creative flows that didn’t come as easily when he and Aundy were running Dirtybird — the label, events company, merch brand and long-running cultural hub that was synonymous with Claude VonStroke, the artist born with the all-time cool name Barclay Crenshaw.
VonStroke sold Dirtybird to EMPIRE in 2022, leaving the company he’d created alongside his wife, and which was home to a sprawling community of artists and signature sound that helped shift house music culture in the United States over the last ten-plus years. As fun as the Dirtybird Campouts, other brand parties and music all had been, running a company whose success was predicated on streams, relentless touring and ticket sales was also acutely stressful.
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Now that he’s no longer spending his days fretting about P&L, VonStroke spends most of his time making music — except for this day of the week, when he sends emails, takes meetings, schedules social gatherings and generally tends to business. This new phase of his life is something that his publicist enthusiastically describes as “a full-on reintroduction to the world of Claude VonStroke, complete with a new creative direction and sound.”
The reinvention that VonStroke has been privately working on for years publicly starts today (April 25), with the release of a two-track EP, I Was the Wolf, which contains the title track and its cinematic B-side “Move With the Pack.” The project is the first release of a load of new music created in a time where much of the week just consists of being up in the little room, unbothered and happily toiling away.
At the family picnic table, Claude VonStroke sits down to talk about selling Dirtybird, the soul searching that followed and why now, he just wants to be like Bill Murray.
The way that this project has been framed is Claude VonStroke 2.0, a complete new era.
I mean, kind of.
Unpack that for me.
I started Dirtybird Records after a bunch of us started these free park parties, and I did it for 20 years. By the end, it was not a record label — it was a festival company, a clothing company, a record label and a pipeline for every new tech house artist ever. Like, every name came through there.
So I was listening to 600 demos a week, putting on a festival ourselves with no additional money, building cities in the middle of nowhere, freaking out about tickets every single day of the year. Doing 10 BBQ [parties], another circuit of parties. I got to a point where I was like, “This is so awesome. I got way further than I could have ever imagined. I did 10 festivals at least, and it was fantastic.” I knew during the last festival that it was [done]. I always told myself that when it stops being fun, I should just get out before it becomes un-fun. So I found someone who wanted to keep it going at EMPIRE, and that all worked out really well. So it was just a win-win scenario where they took it over, and I’m able to do whatever I want, and it’s fantastic.
So how is your life different today than it was before you sold the label?
The label sale happened at the end of 2022, and we just sold them the events company. They didn’t buy them together, which is why all of these [new Dirtybird] events just popped up… We tried to sell it all the first time. They didn’t want everything at first, and then they realized what we told them, that you actually need it. The label and the events go together. They’re symbiotic. Which is kind of what I’m doing again, but the new idea is the opposite of that idea, where now I’m kind of in my Moodymann phase where it’s like — I did everything that was hard, and now I only want to go to the rooms that are fun and interesting and it doesn’t matter what the money is. I just want to make tracks I think are interesting. And it’s more about space in my head and the love of music.
Versus relentless pushing every day?
Versus just keep going up the ladder, and “We need to do this to get this.”
I imagine there was a decompression phase?
I was probably the most annoying person to my wife for the six months after the sale. I got all in a funk and was like, “What am I doing?” I read about when other people sold their companies, and it was very similar. Like, you did something forever and you’re not doing it.
“What’s my identity, now that I’m not that guy?”
I actually went and figured it out. I went and did my bass project for 18 months. That was super fun, and then at the end of that, I was like, “Well, I’ll keep doing that, but I still like house music, but I’m glad I had a break. And now I can come back to it with a different perspective.”
How has the perspective changed?
It’s like what I was saying before. I’m just doing it for fun, only. I’m just doing it for me, I guess.
At what point did Dirtybird stop being fun?
Well it was always fun, but it was hard. It was maybe the last two or three years that I felt the sound had been kind of boxed in. As the tech house bro sound emerged, we got blamed for it, and then it went that way.
Do you take any of that blame?
Oh yeah. We brought Fisher through, John Summit, Shiba San. Even if we had their first record, they all came through our shop. So yes, of course. I wasn’t going in that direction anymore, so for me to be like “Okay, somebody wants this, because it’s freaking going crazy,” that was a good point to leave.
The two new tracks that are out sound pretty different than your previous stuff. How do define what you’re doing now, and what phase would you say you’re in?
It is kind of pulling back to 2005, 2006 German stuff that I was really into. My favorite label is Playhouse, which doesn’t even exist anymore, and artists like Roman Flügel and Isolée and these kind of guys. I was always obsessed with that stuff, and it’s kind of like that stuff, but also none of that stuff holds up sonically anymore. They’re still unbelievable tracks, but over the last 18 months producing bass music I’ve learned a lot of great production stuff. Honestly I’m probably a three times better DJ, because bass is all fast cuts and chops and moving around, and house music seems like it’s DJ-ing for dummies at this point.
That might have to be a pull quote.
I just got way better and way more skilled doing bass music, because it’s all sound design, and highly intensive and figuring out that I’m going to use five sounds, and they’re the best possible sounds, versus using 14 and just layering them up until they work. It’s a different philosophy of working.
One of the biggest things that I can’t even really explain is that for seven years that I worked here [at the house], I spent all this money on the downstairs room to try to fix a room that was never going to be fixed. The bass and everything is just f—ed in that room. My wife told me to move upstairs five years ago, and I didn’t listen to her. Then as soon as I moved upstairs, it’s the perfect shape and all my stuff just went [he makes a motion like his mind is being blown]. You make a song and it actually sounds the same in the club. All my rooms were bad until this year or last year. My entire career! I would have to go play like, 30 gigs before I could finish a track.
That’s bananas.
It’s a lot of getting depressed at the show, like, “This song sucks.”
Does that now give you a new level of confidence that you can go out and know things are right from the jump?
Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s a life-changing moment, actually, that the room actually works.
What is the music sounding like, beyond the two tracks that are out now?
It’s interesting the way this is all shaping up. You know how people say that you just say something, and it starts coming true? It’s rolling out like that, which is always fascinating. It does happen. I found a beat that I liked, and was trying to hammer it out, then I accidentally moved some of the sounds around and it became a completely different thing, and I finished the whole thing in one day, which I the best possible scenario. Every time that happens, it’s very good. [He talks about a collaboration he made a few days ago with Reggie Watts, who came over to the house to record vocals.] I’m probably not even supposed to be talking about it, but who cares, because no one’s in charge of me! There’s no record label telling me that I can’t talk about releases coming up, there’s no one telling me I can’t talk about who I’m working with.
In terms of a label, who’s releasing this music?
I’m just doing it DIY. No label. Just distribution.
Do you have an idea of what success for the music will look like for you?
No. I don’t know. [laughs] I think as long as I like them a lot. I guess that’s really Rick Rubin to say, but that’s all it is. I can’t control it, really. I hope certain tracks find their way to the people that they’re meant for. But I’m not trying to get the biggest tech house artist to play “I Was the Wolf.” That’s not a track for them. I just hope they make it into their niches.
Where does this new music bring you in terms of touring?
I really just want to go to the rooms that I either know that I already love, or that I want to try out. But that’s one thing you can get wrapped up in, that I was definitely wrapped up in. Like, “Oh, we better play this, so this guy will let us play this, so we can over here and play this show so we can be in this.” Politics. I’m not doing any of that.
What rooms do you love?
I love this room in Dallas called It’ll Do. Perfect house club, perfect layout. I like Coda in Toronto. I like Walter Wherehouse [in Phoenix]. I’m trusting my agent, and he says Knockdown Center is the coolest and most fun place in New York, so I’m going to check it out.
You’ve been doing this for a long time. Do you have any particular feelings about being a veteran in the scene?
There were people that I looked at like, “That looks like absolute best life.” It was people like DJ Harvey and Moodymann and people who are just living on their own timeline and their own sphere of influence and not really caring if they miss five phone calls or answer everyone’s emails. I remember towards the last few years, being like “these guys are f—ing geniuses.” DJ Koze too. This little enclave of guys where you can’t really contact them. Nobody knows what they’re doing.
They’re playing a flute in a cave on a mountain.
That’s kind of where I’m headed, if I can. It’s like the Shangri-La of DJ-ing. I’ll be with the goats on the mountain and people will be like “fly in the helicopter! He’s got to take this phone call!” Like the Bill Murray of DJ-ing.
How do you think Dirtybird shifted dance music culture?
Dirtybird made this shift in American house music, because in 2015 I said, “Okay my kids are at this age, I can’t go to Europe every other week anymore, so let’s literally be the best house music label in America and only crush America.” Then it was, “Let’s do festivals, crazy merch, hammering it through this US based producer pool.”
That changed what people thought of house music. There were these original Detroit and Chicago labels, but they weren’t bridging this gap to 18-year-olds, so we were like, “Here we are.” I always say we were like a gateway drug between Damian Lazarus and commercial dance. You start here and then you come to us and then you end up in a K-hole. I’m kidding! But you know what I mean.
So to what extent does this shift you’re in now have to do with your kids being older and you being able to go back out to Europe?
Everything. All the pieces make sense. Now my son’s in college, my daughter is applying to college. Everything is just making it easy to be like this. I’m not killing myself because this is due and this is due. It’s just a totally different thing.
Veteran record label executive Gina Tucci has launched a new independent dance label, 146 Records. Today’s launch happens in conjunction with the label’s first release, “Sunrise,” by rising Swedish producer Discrete.
146 Records is based in New York City and currently has a team of four. Distribution is being handled by Virgin Music Group, where, Tucci says, “we benefit from their extensive industry expertise, global reach and robust distribution capabilities to effectively launch and scale our artists’ music.”
“For years, I’ve envisioned an electronic dance music label that nurtures artists with a song-first approach, prioritizing the music above all else,” she continues. “At 146, we provide artists the necessary time, resources and attention to produce their best work. My goal is to discover and develop the next generation of dance music talent, crafting the kind of hits that become classics, hits that resonate decades from now. I want 146 to feel like a creative home — a place artists can experiment, collaborate closely with me and our team, and leverage cutting-edge technology. The goal is to build enduring music catalogs that sustain lifelong careers.”
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Prior to founding 146, Tucci was the longtime head of Atlantic Records’ dance imprint Big Beat Records, the label founded by Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman in 1986. Here, Tucci helped lead the label’s 2010 relaunch and over the next 14 years broke acts including Skrillex, Clean Bandit, Icona Pop and Joel Corry, bringing dance music to new levels of visibility in tandem with the genre’s early 2010’s explosion in America. In the role she also led A&R creative for Galantis, Martin Solveig, Cash Cash, The Knocks, 100 gecs, Tiësto and more. Tucci has appeared on myriad Billboard Dance Power lists through the years.
“I bring to 146 the rigorous standards and global perspective I developed running Big Beat at Atlantic Records under Craig Kallman for over a decade,” Tucci says. “At Big Beat, I learned firsthand the intricacies of successfully launching and breaking dance records globally, recognizing that each rollout requires a uniquely tailored strategy. Dance music has always thrived on global connectivity, and I’m adept at leveraging data-driven insights to map out precise, effective release strategies that connect deeply with audiences worldwide.”
Today’s release from Discrete begins a weekly release schedule where, says Tucci, “we’re diving headfirst into exploring the new sound designs and grooves, but the art of great melodies will always remain paramount.” Discrete’s upcoming tour dates include May shows at Elsewhere in New York City and EDC Las Vegas.
“A lot of today’s tracks flash moments of brilliance but don’t fully ignite,” Tucci continues. “At 146, we’re closing that gap. We’re committed to sweating every detail, inspiring our artists to leave no creative stone unturned. It’s about elevating dance music from disposable moments into timeless anthems.”
PinkPantheress was born in Bath, England, and raised in Kent, but on Friday (April 25), she came “Stateside” for her latest single. “Stateside” arrives three weeks after “Tonight,” the lead single from her upcoming mixtape, Fancy That, which is out May 9 via Parlophone and Warner Records. The club anthem, which samples Panic! At the […]
The Chainsmokers dropped a remix of Chappell Roan‘s “Pink Pony Club” on Thursday (April 24), with the duo shaving down the original from four-plus minutes to a tight two-minute and 11-second edit. The remix bounces along on a dark house beat before taking a turn into brighter and quintessentially Chainsmokers sonic terrain around the one-minute […]
Vybz Kartel has returned to the U.S. for the first time after 20 years in prison to perform two sold-out shows in Brooklyn, N.Y. We go behind the scenes with the King of Dancehall to see how he feels about being back on tour, his show essentials and more!
Did you see Vybz Kartel live? Let us know in the comments below!
Vybz Kartel:Hi, my name is blank. Wagwan. My name is Vybz Kartel, and I’m here in Brooklyn with Billboard. Where are you?
Interviewer:All right, World Boss, how does it feel to be back in New York?
It feels blessed, you know, because, remember, it’s been 20 years, so for me to be here now, it’s just a feeling of jubilation. It’s a triumphant feeling.
Team Member:This is for you. Congratulations, two sold-out shows, where you need to be love, where the people are.
I’m here with my family, not just my family, family. I’m here with CJ, the promoter, she’s family as well. TJ, Scatter, the whole crew. It feels amazing, and I feel blessed.
What do you remember about the last time you performed in New York?
Sir, I do not remember anything. But in my defense, it’s been 20 years. But if you’re talking about, like, being in the streets mingling with the people from Bronx to Brooklyn to Queens, Flatbush, I’m in White Plains, so it’s giving nostalgia.
What are your dressing room essentials?
My dressing room essentials are beautiful women, expensive clothes and God around us.
What does your preshow routine look like?
Drinking with beautiful women, expensive clothes and God around us.
What song are you most excited to perform?
Oh, “Brooklyn Anthem.” Come on, this is BK.
Keep watching for more!
Miami’s long-running festival III Points has announced the phase one lineup for its 2025 edition.
The two-day fest will feature sets from artists including 2Hollis, Michael Bibi, Peggy Gou, Darkside, Barry Can’t Swim, Indira Paganotto, Nina Kraviz, Sean Paul, Anotr, Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso, Denzel Curry, L’Imperatrice, Mk.Gee and Turnstile.
III Points 2025 will happen Oct. 17-18 at its longtime site at Miami’s Mana Wynwood. Tickets go on sale Thursday (April 24), with lineup additions to be announced in the coming months.
2025 will mark the festival’s 11th edition since it launched in 2013. The festival was founded by a trio of Miami natives, and over the last decade, has become a standout event on the U.S. electronic festival circuit, while also helping elevate Miami as one of the crown jewels cities in the country’s electronic scene.
The festival, which partnered with Insomniac Events in 2019, has a strong focus on local culture, typically booking many acts from the Miami scene and bringing in food and craft vendors who reflect the city’s thriving local culture.
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“I think it’s just very authentically Miami, and a real time capsule of Miami sonically and visually right now,” III Points co-founder David Sinopoli told Billboard in 2023. “I think people feel that when they come.”
“We’re thrilled to be bringing III Points back to Miami for its 11th installment”, Sinopoli adds in a statement. “It is not easy navigating a forward-thinking, multigenre festival in the North American music landscape nowadays 一 but I believe our commitment to our Miami music community has been the guiding force for us.”
See the III Points phase one lineup below:
III Points 2025
Courtesy Photo
IBIZA, Spain — The annual dance industry conference IMS Ibiza began today (April 23) on its namesake island, with hundreds of people from around the sector gathering for three days of discussions, presentations, panels, music and more looking at the global electronic music scene and industry from all angles.
As is tradition, the Summit began with the presentation of the annual IMS Business Report, which tracks the key trends from the global business over the last 12 months. Marking its 11th edition this year, the report was authored by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan and is available here.
Mulligan also presented the report to a packed room on Wednesday afternoon, giving context to the data and illustrating that while revenues may be lagging in clubs and festivals, electronic music culture is booming both on and offline. These are 11 key findings from the 2025 report.
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1) Streaming Is Way Up in the Global South
The report finds that while streaming revenue growth slowed to 6% in 2024, subscriber growth saw huge gains, with the overall streaming sector seeing a 12% growth in its subscriber base.
Incredibly, nearly four fifths of this growth came from Global South markets, an area the UN Trade and Development organization defines as comprised of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania. Mulligan noted that Global South statistic is especially crucial given that user growth will eventually give way to global cultural growth “as these users drive the rise of large local music scenes that will increasingly export their sounds to the West.”
The reports also found that Spotify stayed in the lead in terms of DSPs, maintaining its 32% market share and registering more than a quarter of a billion subscribers globally. The report notes that “YouTube Music was the only other global DSP to also enjoy strong growth in 2024, gaining to a 10% market share.
2) Electronic Music Is a Market Leader
The report notes that electronic music has the top or second highest count of Spotify followers in nine of the genre’s top 13 markets, compared to hip-hop, Latin and rock. And while Latin and hip-hop growth may be statistically stronger, the reach of these audiences, especially Latin, varies strongly by region, versus electronic music’s more global growth.
Additionally, the world’s top four electronic music markets — Germany, Australia, the U.S. and U.K. — all gained significant listener counts in 2024, although Mexico, the U.K. and Germany saw the highest growth, respectively. (Incredibly, electronic music was up 60% in Mexico.)
Meanwhile, electronic music consumption is considered endemic in The Netherlands and Australia, where the report found that the number of monthly electronic music listeners on Spotify is higher than the total population. (This is possible because individuals can consume more than one style of electronic music on the platform.)
3) Electronic Music Fans Over-Index For Time & Money Spent
Mulligan repeatedly emphasized the crucial nature and influence of IRL scenes, which dance music excels in cultivating and which many younger people are prioritizing over online existence.
“This idea of scenes is going to become more and more important,” he said, “because superstars are getting smaller and everything is fragmenting. It’s time to look simply beyond the stream counts, beyond the social numbers to measure the cultural impact, even though that’s nearly impossible to do. But that’s probably a good thing. If it’s not measurable, it’s harder for people to go and overtly commercialize it.”
He referred to culture as “the fuel in the engine,” saying that things like revenue, stream counts and social and followings “will come as a result of the culture. So the fact that the cultural indicators are beginning to really light up in 2024 points to a really strong few years coming up.”
4) Revenues in Ibiza Were Up, But Ticket Sales Were Slightly Down
The report notes that the average number of events per venue on the island “is on a steady, albeit modest decline and ticket volumes were down in 2024, with higher average ticket prices thereason that revenues were up once again. “You keep charging people more until they can’t afford it anymore” said Mulligan, “and there will come a point when people say ‘I literally can’t afford any more for this at the moment.’” This is especially true now, he noted, in a period of global economic uncertainty.
5) Afro House Continues to Rise
Mulligan reported that Afro-house “has absolutely rocketed” in the last year, while drum & bass is also in a “real era of resurgence.” A survey of the digital sample library Loopcloud indicates a large rise in samples of African music genres, suggesting the genre will continue growing.
6) Hard World = Hard Music
The Loopcloud survey also found a rise in harder electronic genres like hardcore and hard dance, while “softer” genres like ambient and chill out are going down and losing share. This is, Mulligan posted, is “because culture reflects the world around us. It’s a crappy world out there at the moment. There’s wars and famine and inequality, and I think that’s beginning to really come through in the music that people are making and the music that people are listening to.”
7) There’s Been a 45% Growth of Electronic Music Hashtags on TikTok
Amapiano and trance saw especially big growth on the platform. “Again,” Mulligan said, “there are all of these cultural indicators that are growing more strongly than the revenue indicators are.”
8) SoundCloud Also Remains a Strong Cultural Indicator
The platform saw 100% growth in uploads of UKG (UK garage) with jungle uploads also up 45%.”These tend to the genres that tend to be owned by Gen Z and even Gen Alpha,” said Mulligan. “SoundCloud has so many of these bootleg remakes … of course [the people who make them] can never get the rights cleared and put them onto Spotify, but a lot of this culture is happening online on places like SoundCloud.”
9) Music Catalog Investors Have a Growing Interest in Dance
“Mainly what happens is old white males invest in old white males, so you still see the Bob Dylans [of the world getting invested in], but we are beginning to see more and more of other genres,” Mulligan said of investor acquisitions of artist catalogs. The report states that the share of catalog deals for electronic artists doubled between 2020 and 2024, with recent notable examples including Kevin Saunderson, Tiga and deadmau5.
10) Dance Music’s Gender Divide Persists
In terms of the number of people producing music and playing events, Mulligan reported that “this is still a heavily male world,” although there’s also been a slight increase in the representation of female artists. This determination is based on a survey of data from AlphaTheta, where the registered userbase, the report says “points to the steady rise of female DJs, many of whom will be inspired by the growing share of top DJs that are now female.”
“We are beginning to see change,” Mulligan added in his presentation. “It’s not dramatic, but it’s good and steady progress.”
11) The Global Electronic Music Industry Was Valued at $12.9 Billion in 2024
This number includes live, merchandising, sponsorships, recorded music, publishing, music hardware and software, clubs, festivals and more. The number represents a 6% growth over 2024, which Mulligan noted “might not sound huge, but remember live music revenues — festivals and clubs — which is a really big part of the revenue mix, is beginning to slow, so that sort of drags down the overall numbers. But most importantly, the culture is absolutely booming. With 0.6 billion new social followers of electronic music followers in 2024 they’re the foundation for what’s set to be a really vibrant few years.”
It’s an overcast Saturday afternoon in Miami, and Axel Hedfors seems in his natural habitat while eating sushi on the patio restaurant of a luxe beachside hotel. Hours from now, the producer — known to most as Axwell — will play the main stage at Ultra Music Festival, a show he’s been prepping for in his hotel room since arriving in Florida.
This set will contain classics from Axwell’s solo catalog, along with his work with Swedish House Mafia and the catalog of his namesake label, Axtone. It will also be the first time he’s played Ultra as a solo artist and his first Ultra set since selling the Axtone catalog to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment in January.
This sale included approximately 200 songs spanning the last 20 years, including hits by Supermode, Steve Angello, Laidback Luke, Don Diablo, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, CamelPhat, Kölsch and big room-classics like Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl’s “In My Mind” and Axwell’s era-defining remix of this same song. Pophouse, which also acquired Swedish House Mafia’s master recordings and publishing catalog in 2022, has acquired both Axtone’s back catalog and the label itself, with Axwell staying on permanently as its founding partner and creative advisor.
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While Axwell and his team decline to disclose the sale price, the congratulatory handshakes he gets from acquaintances at the restaurant indicate the deal was a good one.
Axwell says the cash infusion from Pophouse has enabled him and his team to operate with “more muscle.” He cites the Axtone & Friends pool party that happened a few nights prior down the street in South Beach as something Pophouse helped pay for, allowing for a splashier event than they might have otherwise been able to afford.
“I know before that we would have been a bit more on a budget,” he says, “and now we were less on a budget, which is nice. There’s opportunity [with Pophouse]. If we have ideas and want to do something differently, we can with their help.”
The sale also made sense given Axwell’s longstanding relationship with Per Sundin, the CEO of Pophouse and former president of Universal Music Nordics. “It’s not some anonymous fund,” Axwell says. “This is somebody we know, and that made me feel like this was worth exploring. Per appreciates music, so he’s not just going to destroy it. He’s going to be respectful about it.”
The sale happened at a good time for Axwell, who acknowledges that he and the team were “kind of maybe stuck in the old routine” of signing records. Given that generating hits has become harder for labels of all genres in the streaming and TikTok eras, Axtone had, like so many other labels, become more focused on volume than Axwell might have liked.
“It’s a small company on a budget trying to make every release recoup and work out financially,” he says. “Then we picked up the pace a little bit, and obviously not all records get noticed in today’s climate. A lot of records don’t do anything, because it’s so much harder these days to get them noticed. Then a lot of records become a project you just do for love, rather than earning. You have one record that pays for 20 other records.”
This strategy had evolved significantly since Axwell launched Axtone in 2005 as a way to untether himself from other peoples’ timelines. “I was tired of dealing with other labels,” he says. “Back then you had to send the CD, and they were like, ‘Maybe we can release it in three months.’ I was fed up with not releasing ourselves, so starting the label was an amazing move.”
This move proved especially prescient as Axtone clocked hits that distinguished Axwell’s taste as a curator and skills as a solo artist as he rose in tandem with the Swedish House Mafia rocket. He says many classics from the Axtone catalog, like Supermode’s “Tell Me Why” (which samples Bronski Beat’s “Small Town Boy”), still generate roughly 100,000 streams a day, partially because they’re featured on big Spotify and Apple Music playlists — placement that almost assures they’ll never fall below a certain daily stream rate.
This, no doubt, made the Axtone catalog especially attractive to Pophouse, a company focused on using acquired music in new IP and brand development. The company’s success stories include the long-running ABBA Voyage show in London, which is set to the music of the famous Swedish disco pop quartet, who appear during the performance in hologram form. ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus is also a co-founder of Pophouse, which announced in March that it raised a total of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to invest in catalog acquisitions and create entertainment experiences around those music rights.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t mind them doing an ABBA kind of thing with dance music,” says Axwell. “A show [that features] not only my music would be great, because obviously Pophouse also has Avicii’s music, Swedish House Mafia’s music. It could be something interesting.” (Pophouse acquired a 75% stake in Avicii’s recordings and publishing catalog in 2022.)
Axwell is consulting with Pophouse on any projects Axtone music might be involved in, with the business partners currently planning a box set to commemorate the label’s 20th anniversary this year. The package feels particularly well-timed given that, as Axwell says, “what we’re noticing is that a lot of the old catalog means a lot to the new generation.”
“When you put on ‘Calling’ or ‘Reload’ or my ‘In My Mind’ remix, they just go,” he says, referencing EDM era hits he was involved with and adjacent to. “Some old records don’t continue to work; they kind of fade out. But these still pack a punch. It’s amazing that we managed to do something that lasts.”
This point is proven extremely true a few hours later, when thousands of people stand in front of a fire-spitting Ultra main stage and sing along to classics including Axwell’s edit of Swedish House Mafia’s 2011 hit “Save The World,” the 2017 Axwell / Ingrosso smash “More than You Know” and inevitably and blissfully, the trio’s all time classic “Don’t You Worry Child,” which he follows with their 2022 hit “When Heaven Takes You Home” and 2010’s “One (Your Name).” “That was fun,” he tells the audience while standing on the decks at the end of the set, “and you are beautiful.”
This is Axwell’s first time playing the festival’s biggest stage as a solo act, though he has a long history at this site through his work with Swedish House Mafia. The group’s Ultra mythology includes ending their massive farewell tour here in 2013, then reuniting at the festival five years later. When asked if he feels any kind of way about playing Ultra Miami on his own, Axwell says he feels “like Seb and Steve are always with me, because of the songs.”
Beyond this psychospiritual connection, Axwell spent time in the studio with Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello fairly recently as the trio continues hashing out new Swedish House Mafia music. Last November, Angello told Billboard that the trio scrapped the second album they’d been working on as a follow-up to their 2022 LP Paradise Again.
Axwell confirms that while he’s “super proud” of Paradise Again — the first Swedish House Mafia album after an earlier run of monster singles — the guys aren’t currently working on an LP “because that’s a heavy process. I think it was something we wanted to do to have that in our lives. But now I think we want to go back to the spontaneousness of just doing one song and getting it out [when we want to], not in 12 months when the album is ready.” (He notes that Paradise Again was not included in Pophouse’s acquisition of the Swedish House Mafia masters, given that the 2022 deal was retroactive.) He also says that the trio will eventually “probably come back” to play Ultra Miami again, as the urge to do so “tickles after a while, you know?”
Axwell is also currently tinkering with his own forthcoming solo work. Famously meticulous — he’s been known to spend months on a single high hat sound and calls himself “the slowest person on earth” when it comes to making music — he says a lot of what he’s working on is roughly 80% finished. The final 20% of each song will take some time, he says, although he’s not sure how long. (One new song samples SNAP’s “The Power,” although he’s thus far had a difficult time clearing one of the samples used in the 1990 club anthem. He assures, however, that “I’m not giving up.”) When his music is finally complete, he foresees releasing it as a series of singles.
In the meantime, Axwell’s life will remain, as he tells it, “a s—storm” of logistics that involve his own touring, flying around Europe with his wife for their kids’ competitive car races (one son is 11 and races go carts, while his 16-year-old competes in F4), and prepping for Tomorrowland 2025 dates with Swedish House Mafia and as a solo act. All in, life will continue on the same dance world megastar trajectory as it did before the Axtone sale, but now with a bit more financial padding and space to focus.
“The good thing for me is that I still make music,” he says, “so even though we sold the label, it’s not like this is a goodbye to my whole life.”