Beatport’s presence at ADE ranged from esteemed speaker positions on panel lineups to Beatport Streaming integration showcases and parties.
From October 18th – 21st, the annual Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) attracted over 500,000 global visitors to the Dutch capital for its 28th installment.
Helen Sartory (SVP, Creator Services) kicked off Beatport’s activities at ADE, sharing valuable insights into the curation process at Beatport during a panel dedicated to insider knowledge about the brand.
“It’s the distributors that send us their list of priorities every week and say, ‘Out of all of the tracks we’re sending this week, these are the ones that we really want your curation team to spend some time on,’ and we do listen to everything on that priority list,” she noted. She added that there are no requirements for artists in terms of social following or level of revenue to get placement on the platform.
In a conversation hosted by The Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), Chief Community Officer, Sofia Ilyas, explored the the barriers in education and recruitment that prevent underrepresented communities from getting involved in backstage roles.
Ilyas asserted that the root of the issue lies in messaging and unconscious bias.
“Why do we always say ‘lighting guy and sound guy?’ This use of language indicates to women that they’re somehow less able to perform jobs of a technical nature.”
On Friday morning, Verity Mayes, Director of Strategy, Music Services, lent her voice to a roundtable discussion about gender disparity in music, moderated by AFEM’s Rosaline Yuen.
The speakers generated an engaging conversation, during which Mayes announced that LabelRadar is now collecting gender pronoun data on artist profiles to help encourage more diversity (via discoverability) in the music industry at scale.
Beatport had a strong focus on showcasing the Beatport Streaming product integration in Pioneer’s CDJ-3000s throughout the week. Across two days, Beatport team members Steve Mill (Senior Manager, Artist Marketing) and Matthew Friedman (Senior Manager, Marketing) demonstrated the new launch onsite at the ‘Drumcode Centraal’ pop-up store, offering attendees the chance to trial the service.
As the lights faded on Friday night, excitement began to climb for the exclusive Mochakk X Beatport Amsterdam House Party. Ten lucky competition winners joined Mochakk at a secret penthouse location where they were treated to an intimate performance by the recent Beatport #1 overall artist.
Also in attendance connecting with Beatport’s label and artist communities were CEO Robb McDaniels, Alex Branson (SVP, Music Services), Marina Palacios (Head of Label Relations UK), Travis Kirschbaum (Head of Label Relations US), Will Gulseven (Manager, Label Relations), Ed Hill (SVP Media Group), Raphael Pujol (VP, Curation), Chris Brackley (Manager, Media Content) and Ed Brew (Director of Business Development, Music Services).
Beatport’s widespread presence at ADE 2023 reinforced its position not only as a leading music platform, but a pioneer of community building.
Through conversation, connection, debate and dancing, Beatport marked its ongoing commitment to the global electronic music scene.
