Future sounds: EMC’s most potent year yet
It took a new level of artist innovation and corporate involvement to give dance music its current stature in Australia. This year alone has seen six dance genre artists top the ARIA Singles and Albums charts, but it’s the cross-industry mindset of events like EMC that is navigating the industry beyond record sales.
Australia has become a ready honey pot for American labels and agencies, with talent buyers dipping in to ink deals with local acts. And as Australia’s only conference exclusively celebrating the dance music genre, Sydney’s Electronic Music Conference attracts talent buyers from both sides of the Atlantic looking to sign the next big thing.
The conference’s 2013 speaker lineup included the now platinum-selling, ARIA Top 5 duo Peking Duk, as well as Sydney songwriter Elizabeth Rose, who is now booked in the US and Canada through industry giant The Agency Group.
Neil Ackland, CEO at Junkee Media, is the founder of the now four-year-old EMC. Ackland has been working in dance music since he was a 22-year-old audiophile putting on events in the UK. Now 39 and based in Sydney, Ackland is one of Australia’s most fierce advocates for electronic music, curating an event that not only attracts the genre’s major players, but also acts as a springboard for the artists feature at its showcase element, EMC Play.
“Australian dance music and its position and status around the world is really on top of its game at the moment,” says Ackland.
Neil Ackland
The sentiment is undeniable; despite Australia’s geographic handicap, its artists are headlining some of the biggest clubs in Las Vegas (Helena, Havana Brown, Generik), writing for chart-toppers like David Guetta (Nervo) and selling out show dates across America (Flume). As Australia deepens its alignment with dance music on a global level, EMC and EMC Play act as a primer for international industry figures.
“[EMC Play] has been a good opportunity for international talent buyers who are coming to Sydney just to see the breadth of talent that we’ve had here, and to create those connections,” says Ackland.
Three years ago EMC Play alumni SAFIA, Kite String Tangle and KLP were doing showcase events and building a fanbase, now they’re selling out national tours, inking global management deals and gaining endorsements from some of the most over-particular publications in the US.
EMC Play 2014
Canberra trio SAFIA recently rounded out a sold-out 23-date national tour, which included an impressive four dates in Melbourne and three in Sydney. The outfit’s frontman BenWoolner says getting picked for a showcase at the 2013 EMC helped kick off SAFIA’s career.
“EMC helped broaden industry recognition for our music and was a great platform for getting international people in front of the band,” he says.
Woolner himself has had a banner 12 months; SAFIA’s track Counting Sheep hit #5 on the AIR chart and #55 on the ARIA chart, and his team-up with EMC Play alumni Peking Duk for the multi-Platinum Take Me Over and Say My Name saw him gain recognition in the US. Say My Name received a radio service in America and Woolner joined the duo onstage to perform the tracks at festival juggernauts Coachella and Lollapalooza.
“Australia has one of the best electronic music scenes in the world and EMC is helping to support that in a unique way,” says Woolner. “It’s a great thing for the bands and the industry.”
SAFIA
Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of how seriously dance music is being taken in this country, is the endorsement and sponsorship agreements EMC has with a global travel management company and a government-funded body.
Last year the Australia Council for the Arts assisted in funding 14 international talent buyers’ trips to Sydney for EMC. They’re on board again this year with meetings between talent buyers and local managers facilitated by Sounds Australia.
Following an initial partnership for last year’s EMC, the conference has teamed up with travel management company The Appointment Group(TAG) to offer delegates considerable discounts across travel and accommodation. According to TAG, around 75% of its global business is music touring, and as a name sponsor for next month’s conference, the company is offering delegates attending the EMC discounted rates on ground transport and accommodation.
“I think any systems you can provide to get as many people there as possible is good. I think the event is really designed to be not just a Sydney event but to attract people from interstate and also to attract people from overseas so we’re always trying to make it as attractive as possible to people for travel to Sydney for the event.”
As part of the deal, TAG is also giving away a “one-night stay” at a selected hotel in Sydney, along with a discount of 10% for rooms at a national hotel group which is valid for six months available to all EMC delegates via a “special code”.
Shane Barr, Managing Director at TAG Australia says supporting the industry events where its clients do business is part of its ethos.
“This strategy has always worked well for TAG as a platform to reciprocate the fantastic support we receive from our music and entertainment clients,” Barr says. “It also allows us to extend our support for the emerging acts from the grassroots level just starting out in the music industry, to let them know there is an affordable solution out there no matter what point they are at in their career.”
TAG’s partnership with EMC may be its first sponsorship alignment with dance music in Australia, but its operations in the US and UK have been knee-deep in the genre for years.TAG has worked with some of the biggest names in Electronic music both in Australia and internationally; Flight facilities, Peking Duk and EMC keynote speaker Carl Cox to name a few.
“TAG [Australia] launched a few years ago, similar to EMC which started in 2012 so I guess you could say there’s a great synergy in terms of both brands looking to grow further in the marketplace,” adds Barr.
As it did last year, the 2015 conference will champion the live music cause as the industry continues in their dissent of the controversial Sydney lockout laws. The 1:30am lockout laws were set into place in February 2013 following two alcohol-fuelleddeaths and several acts of violence in the Kings Cross area. Last year’s EMC hosted a panel featuring Kirsty Brown (Co Founder of Sydney Late Night Culture Alliance ’Keep Sydney Open’ and CEO of Music NSW), Alex Greenwich (Independent MP), Damian Cunningham (Director, National Live Music Office), Raul Gonzales (Licensee, The Backroom) Clint O’Hanlon (Licensee, World Bar), and Jackie Fitzgerald (Deputy Director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research).
The panel sparked national headlines for comments made by Gonzales who was forced to shut down his venue in October 2013 due to lost revenues and also for Greenwich’s two-cents, when he insinuated the Government would rather Sydney-siders spend their money on gambling rather than live music.
“My concern now is that it’s okay to go out and gamble your pay packet. But it’s not okay to go out and have a drink and see some live entertainment,” Greenwich said at the time.
“It’s unfortunate it’s put a lot of venues under pressure,” says Ackland. “And it’s had an impact on the industry more broadly: it can flow through to all areas of the industry including artists’ collections and performance fees.”
Building on EMC’s international standing as a forum for issues surrounding the scene, this year will feature the panel: ‘Lockouts And The Future Of Australian Nightlife Culture’. Featuring Simon Digby (Roar Projects/ Melbourne Licensee’s Forum Steering Committee), Nick Braban (Our Nightlife Queensland), Dean Ormston (APRA/ AMCOS), John Wardle (Live Music Office), and Tyson Koh, (Keep Sydney Open), the panel will be of national interest as ACT, QLD and Victoria will all be up for discussion.
Also on the cards is a keynote speech by dance music luminary Carl Cox, a delve into touring through Asia with Shepherd’s Amba, a panel titled ‘Making The Leap From Club Act To Headline Tourer’ and a discussion on Australian acts’ relocating to Berlin. Unfortunately, Australia is increasingly losing heavy hitters of the genre to overseas markets where the music is better nurtured. This brain drain of sorts has only been exemplified by the lockouts, with Ackland suggesting the industry focal point is now in the US.
“I think Australian music and dance music globally is the healthiest it’s ever been,” he says. “I don’t think this is the healthiest the Australian scene has ever been.
“If you really want to make waves [the US is] probably the place where you’d be thinking about going or locating to so you can be at the centre of things happening.”
Although things could be better, Australia can still maintain hubris for its fledgling dance scene; never before has it so masterfully aligned itself with the mainstream, or with consumers via cross-media partnerships and synchronisation deals. But before dance music was presented in the language of corporate Australia, and just as it was inching outside its defined boundaries, EMC was born to Captain it to new heights and to celebrate its apostles.
“I think the fact that we’ve been able to create this here is testament to the success of Australian dance music around the world,” says Ackland. “That’s one of the main reasons why we wanted to launch the event because we knew that it was a great moment for the industry here and for the artists here and we wanted to shine a light on that.”
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