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Management collective The Circuit Group has launched Circuit Capital, a platform to acquire and scale music assets and cultural IP. Circuit Capital is being backed by Create Music Group, which is providing Circuit Capital with access to more than $500 million with which to execute its mission.
The fund will invest in catalogs, record labels, publishers and other music-driven ventures with a mission to build long-term sustainable value. Circuit Capital will provide capital to back upcoming projects by artists being managed by The Circuit Group, an initiative that involves back catalog investments and futures funding deals and providing artists with the resources to invest in their own music and careers.
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The Circuit Group launched in October of 2023, bringing together management companies Ayita and Seven20, whose combined rosters include electronic artists Fisher, Chris Lake, deadmau5, Cloonee, Aluna, Ninajirachi and many more. The company launched with the mission to acquire 50% ownership in artists’ IP portfolios and partner with them to build opportunities across verticals, while also offering traditional artist management.
The business was launched by dance industry executive and deadmau5’s longtime manager Dean Wilson and his wife/business partner Jessica Wilson, along with Brett Fischer, David Gray and Harvey Tadman. The Circuit Group team expanded in the summer of 2024 upon announcing seven new hires.
Now, Circuit Capital’s goal is to create a community atmosphere and serve as a home for artists, entrepreneurs and rights-holders who will work with a group of longtime professionals with a deep understanding of and footing in the electronic music industry.
“Our mission is to put culture at the center of everything we do,” The Circuit Group co-founder Harvey Tadman says in a statement. “Too often, the people buying into music don’t understand the world it comes from. We’ve built our careers inside this culture. Circuit Capital is our way of ensuring that when artists decide to sell or scale, they can do it with people who speak the same language and share the same values. We couldn’t imagine a better partner than Create Music Group.”
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Earlier this year, Create Music Group announced that it acquired the deadmau5 catalog, along with the catalog of the electronic producer’s longstanding label, mau5trap.
“We’re excited to announce this unique partnership with Circuit,” says Create Music Group CFO William Smith. “We have been impressed by their relentless focus as managers on partnering with their clients to build assets with substantial, enduring value, as exemplified by the recent deadmau5 transaction. Moving forward, we’re pleased to be backing Circuit’s strategy of investing into the same music catalogs and businesses that they’re helping to grow – in other words, ‘putting their money where their mouths are’ – by providing them with this fund.”
“Our partnership with The Circuit Group represents Create’s continued mission in building the leading technology, infrastructure, and capital platform for artists and entrepreneurs,” says Create Music Group co-founder and CEO Jonathan Strauss. “Circuit has evolved into one of the most respected and trusted management teams in the dance space, with a deep understanding of what artists need to grow, innovate, and create long-term value. Together with Circuit, we’re aligning resources, expertise, and vision to empower music entrepreneurs to build enduring, global businesses.”
This week in dance music: Salt-N-Pepa’s DJ Spinderalla became the first female DJ ever inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony in Los Angeles last weekend. Fred again.. took a well-earned week off from his 10 shows/10 songs/10 weeks tour behind his USB002 album and Alison Wonderland welcomed her […]
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Ultra Music Festival today (Nov. 12) added more than 70 news acts for the 2025 edition with the announcement of its phase two lineup.
Joining the bill are Martin Garrix and Alesso, who will play b2b in a headlining slot, the first ever headlining performance from Argy b2b Mind Against and Ray Volpe b2b Sullivan King. DJ Snake will perform the U.S. debut of his Outlaw alias in a b2b with TYRM and Joris Voorn and Kololova will also perform b2b for the first time in the States.
Additionally, Ultra will host stage takeovers from legendary Ibiza club Amnesia, The Martinez Brothers’ Cuttin’ Headz, Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance, Steve Aoki’s 30 years of Dim Mak, Coone’s Dirty Workz, Sara Landry’s Hekate and Germany’s Live From Earth collective.
These additions expands the previously announced phase one lineup that includes Afrojack, Amelie Lens b2b Sara Landry, Armin van Buuren, DJ Snake, Eric Prydz, Illenium, John Summit, Hardwell, Major Lazer, Steve Aoki, Sebastian Ingrosso b2b Steve Angello, Miss Monique, Excision, ISOxo, Boys Noize, OF the Trees, Madeon and many more. See the complete lineup below.
Ultra Music Festival 2026 happens March 27-29 at its longtime home at Miami’s Bayfront Park.
The festival annually closed out Miami Music Week a week-long run of parties, showcases, meetings, mixers and more that draws many in the global electronic music industry to the city. Winter Music Conference returned to Miami Music Week in 2025 after a hiatus, with organizers announcing earlier this week that it will be back in 2026 and happen in a new location at the Kimpton EPIC Hotel in Downtown Miami from March 24–26.
2026 will mark the 36th year of the conference. The next edition is set to feature a programming track tailored for dance industry professionals and a second track for DJs, producers and content creators.
Ultra Music Festival 2025
Alive Coverage
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In the wake of Calvin Harris’ bombshell fraud claims against business manager Thomas St. John, fellow star DJ Eric Prydz has brought a lawsuit alleging the financial adviser stole $269,000 from his accounts.
St. John, the head of beleaguered entertainment industry accounting firm Thomas St. John Group, was accused in arbitration this summer of secretly funneling $22 million from Harris’ accounts into a real estate side venture. St. John denies the claims, maintaining that the Scottish DJ was an informed and willing investor in the project.
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Now, Prydz — another titan of the EDM industry — says St. John exploited his account access to steal money. The Swedish DJ, who has been a client of St. John’s since 2012, claims in an Oct. 28 breach of contract and fraud lawsuit that St. John paid himself $269,000 in commissions for services Prydz says he never asked for or authorized.
“Thomas St. John is a professional financial advisor who is supposed to be trustworthy and reliable, and who should be acting in the best interests of his client,” wrote Prydz’s attorney, Carla Wirtschafter of Reed Smith. “TSJ, however, proved to be none of those things. Instead, he is a fraud who not only abuses the trust of his clients, he takes money from them without their knowledge or authorization for his personal use and benefit.”
The lawsuit claims Prydz decided to fire St. John in September after discovering that the manager had taken $219,000 in unearned commissions on top of his regular 5% fee. St. John allegedly agreed to stay on through the end of October to finish a tax return for Prydz, though this process quickly turned contentious.
Prydz claims St. John tried to “extort” an additional $150,000 out of him and refused to complete the tax return otherwise, which Prydz says he refused. But according to the lawsuit, St. John unilaterally took another $50,000 out of Prydz’s accounts to cover part of this improper fee.
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The legal complaint alleges that after all this, St. John never filed the tax return as promised — and that he’s now refusing to turn over the necessary documentation to Prydz’s new financial advisers.
“As a direct result of TSJ’s malicious conduct to hold Prydz’s financial documents hostage, Prydz has been unable to complete and file the now past due tax forms,” the lawsuit reads.
Prydz is seeking a court order for St. John to release his financial records and return the allegedly stolen commissions. The DJ also wants additional monetary damages recouping St. John’s 5% fee, claiming the adviser did “little or no work” to earn those payments.
Reps for St. John did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (Nov. 12).
Prydz’s lawsuit is just the latest legal woe for St. John, whose U.S. business arm has been in bankruptcy since March. The manager’s real estate project, a Hollywood development called CMNTY Culture Campus, is the subject of claims from both Harris and songwriter Philip Lawrence.
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A deep dive by Billboard last month reported that CMNTY Culture — originally envisioned as a recording studio and creative office complex — was born out of the St. John-advised, $90 million sale in 2020 of Lawrence’s catalog of Bruno Mars writing credits.
Following that deal, Lawrence opted to park some of the proceeds in a real estate venture to lessen his taxes on the sale and brought on St. John as a partner. But Lawrence’s finances soon dried up, and St. John ended up buying out the songwriter and helming the project himself.
It was at this point that St. John took on outside investors, including Harris. But while St. John claims Harris wanted in on CMNTY Culture, Harris alleges in his arbitration that the manager fooled him into signing investment documents without knowing what they were.
Harris now claims that his money has disappeared and that CMNTY Culture is a “complete boondoggle.” Indeed, St. John is no longer developing a recording studio and has yet to break ground on any construction, though he maintains that the project is still on track for success under reworked plans for a residential apartment complex.
The Harris action is still pending before a private arbitrator. Meanwhile, Lawrence has declared bankruptcy, while his estate trustee recently accused St. John in court papers of violating their fiduciary relationship during the CMNTY Culture partnership.
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Damian Lazarus’ longstanding Day Zero party will debut in Bali in 2026. The Indonesian island’s first edition of the event is set to happy April 17, with the lineup to be announced in the coming months.
The expansion makes an already major year for Day Zero even bigger, as in June Lazarus announced that Day Zero’s first Brazil edition will also happen on Jan. 3 in São Miguel dos Milagres, Brazil, located on the country’s northern coast in the state of Alagoas. Day Zero also returns to its original location in Tulum, Mexico on Jan. 10, 2026 with a lineup featuring Mau P, Seth Troxler, Nicola Cruz, Lazarus himself and many others. The event has happened annually in this location since 2012, taking off in 2018 and 2021.
“There was never a concrete plan for Day Zero beyond our spiritual home in Tulum,” Lazarus tells Billboard of Day Zero’s new editions. “Over the years, however, my team and I have traveled to many far-flung places, exploring new opportunities—often at the invitation of established event producers and promoters. We’ve been deliberate in our expansion, never wanting to rush into anything that didn’t feel completely right for all of us.”
Day Zero Bali will be produced in partnership with the Savaya Group, a production team that puts on dance-focused events in Bali, Jakarta and beyond, and with whom Lazarus crossed paths with during his travels to the island.
“Some years ago, I also began exploring Bali as a potential destination to weave our magic,” he continues. “As I spent more time there, immersing myself in its rich culture, traditions, and cosmic energy, I fell deeply in love with the island. That connection led me to begin a dialogue with the Savaya Group, whom I immediately recognized as the perfect partners to help bring to life the vision I had been nurturing—a spectacular festival set in a truly extraordinary place I discovered.
Lazarus continues that the reason for the two new editions of Day Zero in 2026 is that it “just feels like the correct time to expand, in my soul. The Day Zero team comprises of incredibly talented people who connect in a very special way once a year in Mexico to create an other-worldly experience. We discussed the idea of bringing our love and honorable intentions to other special places and agreed that we were capable of building on what we have created so far; we all heard the call to make this kind of magic in a handful of other places.”
He adds that each site helps inspire the artist he books to play the event, saying that “every location speaks to me in different ways. I have to look at the location and try to imagine what would and would not work in each. I try to create a list of artists whilst walking the site, imagining how we will transform the site and what kind of sound and which kind of artist and personality will shine there.”
He also advises that these will be the only three editions of Day Zero to happen in 2026, given the demands of producing these shows. “We never want to water down our ethics, our care and attention to detail, our sustainability activations, or our performance led, heartfelt connections to mystical indigenous people and traditions.”
Trending on Billboard Electronic music producer Gryffin has returned to WME seven months after making a jump to Wasserman. WME agents Kyle Bandler and Brett Schaffer will represent him in all global territories. A longtime figure in the dance/electronic scene, Gryffin is managed by Myles Shear and Parker Aimers at Palm Tree Management. Shear and […]
Trending on Billboard Robyn has released her first new single in seven years. Out Wednesday (Nov. 12) via Jamie xx’s Young label, “Dopamine” is a soaring, sparkling and characteristically sophisticated dancefloor anthem. Made with longtime collaborator Klas Åhlund, the track comes with a striking video directed by London-based photographer Marili Andre. Watch and listen below. […]
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Lightning in a Bottle dropped their 2026 lineup early this year, with the event’s organizers presenting a major bill for the fest this May.
Leading the lineup are art electronic legends Empire of the Sun, Dutch phenom Mau P (whose August track “Tesla” is currently at No. 1 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay), hard techno arbiter Sara Landry, bass OGs Zeds Dead, UK D&B legends Chase & Status, R&B queen Tinashe, UK fav Barry Can’t Swim and Brazilian whirlwind Mochakk.
Beyond that, the bill features Of the Trees, Billboard’s September Dance Rookie of the Month Jigitz, Overmono, Daily Bread, Lee Burrdige, Hot Since 92, Nia Archives, Dimension, Alleycvt, Jayda G, and many more. See the complete lineup below, with this lineup poster’s design nodding to the festival’s longstanding Mixtape stage, where DJs play classic cuts on cassette all weekend long.
Additionally, after first collabing with legendary L.A. club night A Club Called Rhonda last year, the party will be back for another takeover at the Crossroads Stage, with the longstanding D&B party Respect DnB, the party Baile World and afrobeat/amapiano/dancehall party FMLY BZNS all also hosting nights at Crossroads. LiB will also, as always, host myriad talks, workshops and yoga sessions over the weekend.
Lightning in a Bottle 2026 will mark the 23rd edition of the independent festival. It happens over Memorial Day weekend, May 20-24, 2026 at Buena Vista Lake near Bakersfield, Calif.
Tickets for for the fest go on sale on Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. PT.
Lightning in a Bottle 2026
Courtesy Lightning in a Bottle
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Entertainment management company Milk & Honey Music + Sports has acquired U.K.-based firm Bigfoot Music Management, Milk & Honey tells Billboard.
Under the terms of the deal, Bigfoot is being absorbed by Milk & Honey, meaning the firm will exist entirely under the Milk & Honey banner. As a result, Bigfoot’s current staff will now be part of the Milk & Honey team, and its entire client roster, which includes pioneering electronic producers Adam Beyer and Joris Voorn, will become Milk & Honey management clients. Beyer’s longtime manager, Jeremy Ford, will be senior vp of electronic for Milk & Honey globally and be based in the company’s London offices.
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The move further expands the dance/electronic footprint at Milk & Honey, as the company hired longtime music manager Andrew Goldstone as head of electronic music this past March. Goldstone brought manager Taren Smith into the company, along with clients including the dance/electronic artists Kream and Sullivan King.
“As diverse as the Milk & Honey brand is in mainstream music genres, we are equally invested in underground music,” Milk & Honey founder and CEO Lucas Keller tells Billboard. “The company looks after unique talent across all facets of the music business, and this deal with Bigfoot to join Milk & Honey represents a further investment into techno and electronic music which is a top priority for the company. We are very excited to have Jeremy and his team in our UK office and joining the global M&H outfit.”
Over the years, Ford and his team have helped guide and grow international dance brands, including Beyer’s Drumcode label and Voorne’s Netherlands-based house and techno label, Spectrum. Other artists on the Bigfoot roster who will now be represented by Milk & Honey include Juliet Fox, Sarah Story, Sam Wolfe, Simon Patterson and Will Atkinson.
“Over the past three decades, Jeremy Ford and Bigfoot Management have built one of the most respected operations in electronic music,” adds Milk & Honey head of artist management & sports Dave Frank. “From Adam Beyer and Joris Voorn to the iconic Drumcode brand that encompasses record label, events, fashion and globally syndicated radio, their team has played a big role in shaping modern techno and house. We’re thrilled to welcome the Bigfoot team into the Milk & Honey family as we combine our networks, relationships and resources in representing and growing world-class talent who are and will be the global stars that drive our scene into the future.”
“Since its inception, Bigfoot has always championed talented artists who possess authenticity and ambition as well as brands, labels and events that also share a purposeful, global vision,” says Ford. “We’ve always strived to embrace, nurture and develop visionary leaders within the scene. Joining Milk & Honey represents an incredible opportunity for us to expand our reach and strengthen our ability to serve artists in a wider capacity. We share the same values, drive, work ethic and belief in building long-term careers so with this partnership and the fusion of two such talented teams we look forward to an exciting future that will no doubt shine a brighter spotlight on those we represent.”
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Alison Wonderland has delivered her latest production: a baby boy.
On Monday (Nov. 10), the electronic producer announced that she’s given birth to her second son, writing “Welcome to earth, Ash West. Baby bro is very chill & loves listening to anything electronic at 140bpm (almost a week old & kid already has taste). s/o to the drs, nurses and the NICU for being awesome.”
The Australia-born, Los Angeles-based producer also shared several photos of herself and her new baby. See the post here. Wonderland and her husband, the filmmaker Ti West, also have another son, Max, who was born in the summer of 2023.
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The post’s comments section is naturally a celebratory space, with fellow electronic artists including Anna Lunoe, TroyBoi, Slander, DJ Dave, Diplo, Mary Droppinz and many more expressing their congrats.
Baby Ash is the first of two very big projects Wonderland is dropping in this time period, as the producer’s fourth studio album, Ghost World, is coming Dec. 5. (While it was originally scheduled for an October release, production delay issues pushed the project to December.)
“I am in a completely different part of my life now,” the artist born Alex Sholler told Billboard when announcing the album in August. “I met and married the love of my life and created another life, aka my baby Max. … I really felt free sonically when making [the 2023 albums Genesis made under the Whyte Fang alias.] I realized going back to my roots musically is the only way for this next Alison Wonderland album to feel genuine. I got rid of all the outside voices; I felt like I was letting people dictate my art and my voice.”
Thus far four singles from Ghost World hve been released, “Again? F–k,” “XTC,” “Psycho,” “Get Started” and “iwannaliveinadream.”
