EMC Day two: the golden age of Australian Electronic Music is here

Day two for me began at midday at EMC and was a day focused on the Australian industry. The first panel I went to was named ‘The Golden Age Of Australian Electronic Music Is Here’, with panel members like John Hanlon of Konkrete Agency, Chad Gillard of Future Classic, Emoh Instead of What So Not, Vic Edirisinghe from Astral People and a host of other artists, the discussion brought up some interesting points, like this year 13 Australians had #1s on the ARIA charts: the largest number in quite some time.

Non-pop stars are also being recognised in the ARIA’s this year – with Flume obviously being the biggest winner – Jagwar Ma, Tame Impala and the like were also recognised throughout the year, thanks to the tireless work of their teams and Australian radio. It’s easy to forget also that non-Triple J friendly artists are also making it big overseas, with the likes of Astral’s Dro Carey making waves internationally.

As for the ‘Australian Sound’, which is so often raved about, it’s more of a pigeonhole overseas than a movement. Unfortunately what the industry is seeing now is a bunch of people who sound like Flume trying to be the next Flume, which is entirely the wrong way to go about getting noticed, and is creatively stagnating .

Our success internationally was attributed by Ben Marshall, head of contemporary music at the Sydney Opera House, to our inexperience internationally: because we assume everyone internationally is so much better than us, we strive to be the very best. It’s not the case however, as generally once we get over there we realise that the people making these huge hits are just like us, just with a bigger platform.

A quote from Motez adequately sums up the discussion, “Australian Sound is a phenomenon, not a certain style per se”.

Then came time to talk about labels. Dan Rosen of ARIA, Sander Bouma of Armada Music, Matt Nugent of Onelove, Jeff Drake of Ministry of Sound, Adriana Sein of Ultra Records in the US, and Jamie Raeburn from Sweat It Out headed the panel of discussion through thing like, whether or not they ever service tracks they don’t personally like (Consensus, no), whether or not to double up on sounds (again no), and while Australian labels are focused on being authentic and true to their fans, Ultra is more focused on getting Sync’s and branding and video games for their money.

Dan Rosen weighted in on the importance of small acts and labels being signed up for services like Spotify, PPCA etc. as major revenue streams in the near future. This was cited as the reason that Future Classic don’t need a major label and while labels aren’t so much defined by their geography anymore, its still important to have partner labels overseas.

The people behind the artists were the last thing to be discussed of the day, the panel included managers of global artists like Bauer, Skrillex, Armin Van Buuren, Dash Berlin, as well as Pete Tong, Riva Starr and many more.  The main point of the discussion: it’s getting harder to get noticed, things being looked for aren’t only a hit song, but the cultural significance of said song. Managers, acts and booking agents shouldn’t get too close, and if you’re no longer selling tickets, all bets are off.

In all, EMC was a hive of activity and showcased the positivity around the dance music scene, A bit shout out to Neil Ackland and the team at Sound Alliance for putting it together, and making it a tremendously successful event. We look forward to seeing the growth of the event next year.