Actually the numbers are way higher.
That was one of the reasons I thought Danley should attack the EDM scene; these guys have money to burn and they need lots and lots of subwoofers.
To put this in perspective, here are the earnings from various acts in 2013:
Bon Jovi : $146,000,000
Bruce Springsten : $109,000,000
The Rolling Stones : $87,700,000
Calvin Harris made forty six million dollars last year by hitting 'play' on a laptop.
What's interesting about EDM is that you'd think that it would be taking a back seat to pop music when it comes to making money. But it's not. Calvin Harris made more than Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ke$ha, etc. EDM is huge business, literally billions of dollars in touring revenue. (And, obviously, nobody makes any money selling CDs anymore, which is why bone-crushing bass and big visuals can spell the difference between a superstar DJ and a has-been. It's all about the live show.)
EDM isn't as big as rock and roll (yet.) But it is growing faster, and for a company like Danley it's just a complete no-brainer. I find it odd that there is only a single brand in the world that is associated with EDM, and it's a tiny little outfit out of Canada. (PK Sound.)
If we gauge the popularity of a brand based on Facebook 'likes', PK Sound is 6X as popular as Danley. (17,720 likes versus 3019 likes.) And PK is basically built on one little niche of the EDM world, a flavor of music called 'dubstep.'
Come to think of it, all the EDM guys really care about is how much bass can be generated by a small cabinet. So your acoustic lever technology might be a big hit.
Here's some better numbers:
One of the last shows I went to was at Club XS.
It has a capacity of 5000 people.
It sold out*.
That's $250,000 in ticket revenue, at $50 a ticket.
Drinks are about $15, and I'd estimate that the average person has two.
That's another $150,000 in revenue.
You have to get bottle service to get a table, which is about $1000. About 40 tables in the venue. From what I could see, most tables were burning through 4-6 bottles. If we call it five bottles, that's another $200,000 in bottle service.
At this point, that's six hundred thousand dollars in revenue for a 90 minute show.
Even if the headliner DJ gets $100K and the opener gets $40K, that still leaves almost a half million dollars for the club.
If the DJ plays once a week that gets them up to five million dollars in income pretty quick.
That's the economics of EDM, and it's probably a big part of the reason that places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas are dominated by EDM shows, and not rock & roll shows. In a rock and roll show it's a lot harder to make the numbers work, because rock and roll shows tend to have the following:
1) much lower ticket prices. I can't see a DJ for less than $50, and I generally have to pay $50-$100. I can see a rock band for $10-$30.
2) In an EDM show, there are two big expenses. The DJ and the opener. In a rock show there are typically eight to ten players split between the bands, so everyone is getting paid less.
3) No rock band with any kind of self-respect would tell it's fans that they have to pay $1000 for a bottle of vodka to get a table to sit at. Bottle Service is A Thing in the EDM world.
The big problem with EDM shows is consistency. That's where guys like Danley could make a killing. 90% of the music venues in the world are set up for rock bands, but EDM is a lot more demanding on venues because the bass is lower and louder. Plus, visuals are a big part of EDM shows, even small ones, because there's only so much that one dude can do to get a crowd pumped while standing behind a laptop computer.
* this is another weird thing about EDM shows. They sell out nearly 100% of the time. The demand for live shows is so out-of-whack with the supply of DJs, many shows are sold out before they even announce who is playing. I know this sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever, but it is true. A lot of the big shows nowadays don't even bother to announce who is playing when they go on sale. "Ultra Fest" in Miami is on sale right now, and the presale tickets sold out at $275 a pop. No lineup has been announced. The show does not happen for six months. (You can still get tickets for $400 each.)
http://www.ultramusicfestival.com/tickets
As you can imagine, being able to sell tickets six months in advance without even announcing an act sure makes it easier to make a profit. If ticket sales are slow, you just curb the budget for the DJs. If ticket sales go nuts, you add some nights, and hire better known DJs. The economics for EDM shows are way better than they are for rock shows, which is probably why the Coachella Festival has nearly gone bankrupt half-a-dozen times.
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Basically that's about the same as a top name show. I saw Sarah Brightman the other day and the average ticket was $100. Diana Krall was about the same.
Shows in Vegas, Cirque and the like are $100-$200 per seat. So I guess that it's all on par. Makes sense. I just didn't realize that the clubs could hold 5000 people - that's NOT a small club!
That's why nobody buys speakers - they spend all their money on live entertainment!
Me, I hardly ever go out. The shows are usually better on my home theater, I have not been to a movie in several years (yet I have seen everything and then some.) My theater has easily paid for itself several times over in what I don't spend doing something else. But then I'm not young, single or attracted to the "wild life". If you want that, then move to Bangkok, Thailand! It's out of control there and it's cheap!!
Shows in Vegas, Cirque and the like are $100-$200 per seat. So I guess that it's all on par. Makes sense. I just didn't realize that the clubs could hold 5000 people - that's NOT a small club!
That's why nobody buys speakers - they spend all their money on live entertainment!
Me, I hardly ever go out. The shows are usually better on my home theater, I have not been to a movie in several years (yet I have seen everything and then some.) My theater has easily paid for itself several times over in what I don't spend doing something else. But then I'm not young, single or attracted to the "wild life". If you want that, then move to Bangkok, Thailand! It's out of control there and it's cheap!!
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Yep. It's a crazy crazy lucrative market for whatever prosound company decides to go after it.
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Electric Daisy Carnival sold 345,000 tickets over three nights.
To put that in perspective, the top grossing act in the entire world was Bon Jovi. They sold 1,486,726 tickets over a sixty show tour, for an average of 24,778 tickets per night, or 21.5% of what EDC did in one day.
It's particularly attractive for a prosound company because it's a fairly new segment, and the players are young too. Most of the millionaire DJs on that list are in their 20s, and have decades of touring ahead of them. Bon Jovi, by comparisons sake, is a band that's been touring for over thirty years and probably has the touring thing figured out.
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These EDM guys are so new/inexperienced, they've had to cancel shows because their laptop died. If you don't know enough about tech to backup your laptop, imagine trying to figure out how to do a proper live show.
OK I'll get off my "I wish some of you guys would start selling prosound equipment to the EDM market" soapbox
It's a mixed bag. About 50% of the shows are "one-offs", and in events like this, the entire event is trucked in. Examples of this would be events like Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra, Nocturnal Wonderland, Together as One, etc. These are events that happen once a year, year after year.
Another 25% of the shows are basically situations where a DJ hops on a plane, shows up with a laptop, and plays a gig. In situations like this, there isn't much opportunity for an eager prosound company to profit, since the DJ will likely use the club's gear.
If I were in the prosound biz, I'd target that last 25%, which is DJs that tour on the road. "Datsik" is an excellent example of the type of artist that could be courted by a prosound company. Datsik put out his first release at the age of 21, and at the age of 25 he's doing multi-city tours sponsored by Rock Star energy drinks. He's not flying into the venues, they're just touring across the country in a bus, similar to the way the rock and roll guys do it. It's guys at this stage of their careers, trying to crack into the big leagues, that can use a great prosound company as a partner. Basically a company that can lease a guy like Datsik a bunch of gear so that he can put on a show that's superior to what you'd hear from someone that showed up with a laptop computer.
PK seems to 'get it' and has been getting it's name on the flyers, which helps promote the notion that PK is the "go-to" brand for EDM
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I've never seen a rock band advertise who did their sound, but it's becoming fairly routine to see sound systems advertised on EDM flyers.
play a record player? I'm amazed that people still say that electronica and DJ's just press the button play or the computer make their music.
Oh definitely. Deadmau5 has literally said that he shows up with a laptop and hits "play"*, and I've been to shows where the setlist was exactly the same from night to night to night. It's a safe bet that 75% of the shows are pre-recorded (if not more.)
I'm 42 and have been doing this since I was a teenager. And I definitely remember DJs showing up with crates of wax. But I haven't seen that happen in a looooong time. I don't think I've seen a record in a club in a decade. I see a lot of guys on the internet complaining about the lack of vinyl, but I get the distinct feeling that 90% of those people aren't bothering to go to shows.
Does anyone else find it odd that people will pay $100 to go to a venue and watch someone play music on their iPad? (Not making this up - go look on Youtube, there are professional touring DJs that use an iPad or iPod.)
It doesn't bother me personally, to me it's no different than going to a movie theater to see a movie. I'll shell out $50 to see "Gravity" in 3D because the theater experience is superior to my home theater. Right now the problem with the sound at EDM shows is that 80% of the time my home stereo sounds better.
* Deadmau5 controversy: "All we do is press 'play'." - Los Angeles Times
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While EDM has some interesting associations that are used by detractors to degrade it (and some of the drug culture involved is genuinely problematic, as with many musical genres), EDM fans are amongst the most dedicated, and interested in their music. Emotional involvement? Sounds like what music's about, to me.
I have a good friend who goes apey when he comes to my house- because he's an EDM fan and my rig can do "club" sound if it needs to. Speakers that "rock" are not the norm in homes, little wimpy standmounts are, so perhaps a speaker optimized for "club" personality (with accuracy MOSTLY intact) would be a good option for selling to these fans. It'd need to do BIG bass though. BIG.
I have a good friend who goes apey when he comes to my house- because he's an EDM fan and my rig can do "club" sound if it needs to. Speakers that "rock" are not the norm in homes, little wimpy standmounts are, so perhaps a speaker optimized for "club" personality (with accuracy MOSTLY intact) would be a good option for selling to these fans. It'd need to do BIG bass though. BIG.
It's still happening, just doesn't compare to the size of the scene you've been talking about. The DMC world competition still exists, for example, and I imagine all those DJs are doing something the rest of the year (but I don't know what, not really on the radar of stuff I go to). I also see normal, non-turntablist DJs with crates of vinyl doing their thing at rock shows while people wait for the opening band all the time, and similarly, themed DJ nights at small rock clubs. Not the same thing at all, of course, but it IS still crates of wax in clubs
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all that South Fla., Texas, and So. Cal. drug money has to get laundered somehow....
Back in the late 90s I was at an EDM thing at the San Bernardino Orange Show, stone cold sober.
Because I was sober, I noticed a lot of things that all the kiddies didn't.
One of the most surreal things that I saw that night was when someone brought in a tupperware container full of E. I'm not talking a handful of pills - I'm talking sixty nine liters. At a street price of $20, that $13,800,00 in one tupperware container, about 690,000 units.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but no one else seemed to notice, because everyone was completely trashed.
This was a long time ago though.
From what I could tell, anyone could rent out a booth at the venues and sell trinkets to the kiddies. (Beads, glowsticks, pacifiers, tshirts, stickers.)
But these booths also gave the vendors and excuse to come and go into the venue without going through security, which is pretty handy if you're up to no good
Needless to say, you don't see this anymore
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yeah, definitely some dj's press play, but deadmo5 is not quality stuff, hes really a bad musician. The good dj's and producers arent just playing play, but of course they dont build a track live!
It's hard to understand if you are only familiar with music creation on classical/rock instruments. Building a composition via electronics is perfectly valid if it meets the musical goal, but it's hard to understand from a classical musician perspective. "Just press play" is not okay for me, but mixing a track live is silly and wouldn't work well for the genre either. Very little music is 100% improvised and electronica must fall in the same category of "written in advance but performed live", to my standards.
Others may vary and I won't question them for it. If the composition and event is what you're into, maybe "just hit play" works for you. True live performance adds a dimension for me, and others want it highly improvisational on top of that. Any one of them can be done excellently.
I think audience participation plays a big role.
For instance, a few years back I saw Van Halen live. The band was ON FIRE; possibly one of the most talented and enthusiastic bands I've ever seen. But the audience looked like it was on the verge of falling asleep. It looked like a bunch of middle aged people going to the opera. It was such a strange dichotomy to see Van Halen tearing it up on stage while the audience seemed to be on the verge of nodding off.
On the other hand, I've seen some truly terrible musicians that had an audience that was the complete opposite. An audience that was losing it's marbles, no matter how terrible the music was. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've seen Katy Perry three times now, and I'm not even a fan! (She happened to be playing at festivals I've gone to.)
It's not Ecstacy (MDMA) today but put better, Moly (Cyrus) which is far more concentrated. A (21 year old) kid I've known for about 6 years now is doing the stuff. Any future he could have had is now gone. He's a true junky with a baby now, another life that will be tossed to the curb. This all has happened over the last two years. I give him another year before he's either in prison or dead. If you knew his parents you would realize he never had much of a chance with them as role models. Sad, truly sad.
Patrick, those are sort of horror stories you tell about the EDM business in the USA... especially when I compare that to the situation we had (and still have) here in Berlin. I'dont go to clubs much these days, prefer to see rock shows, but in both cases the total expense is typically well below $100 total, even for major acts. Like tonight, going to see three bands for $15, +$10 for three or four beers or so...
It's not Ecstacy (MDMA) today but put better, Moly (Cyrus) which is far more concentrated. A (21 year old) kid I've known for about 6 years now is doing the stuff. Any future he could have had is now gone. He's a true junky with a baby now, another life that will be tossed to the curb. This all has happened over the last two years. I give him another year before he's either in prison or dead. If you knew his parents you would realize he never had much of a chance with them as role models. Sad, truly sad.
Ironically, it is the exact opposite!
I wouldn't have believed it to be true myself, but I used to volunteer for an organization that ran tests, and saw it with my own two eyes. A decade ago, about 75% of what was out there was 100% pure.
One thing changed all that: China and the internet.
In the last ten years it has become trivially easy for 'regular folks' to import analogs from China, and the ubiquity of information on the internet has emboldened entrepreneurs to try and make a buck this way. And I'm not talking about some weird backwater website; people are literally buying powder in bulk off of Amazon.com and Ebay*. Here's a better description than I can do:
"The real-world equivalent of Breaking Bad's crystal-meth cook, Walter White, is not a disaffected former school science teacher but a Chinese chemistry graduate in his mid-30s. He sits in his Shanghai lab beneath shelves of liquor and cigars, wears designer clothes, and drives a shiny American SUV. You can email him the chemical formula for a new drug, and his assistants will synthesise it and post it to you. **" How odd is it that China hasn't just revolutionized the manufacture of loudspeakers, but also the manufacture of schedule one substances?
Fun fact : the largest seizure in world history didn't involve cocaine, ecstasy, or marijuana... It was for plain ol' pseudoephedrine. The same stuff that's in cough medicine. And it was a Chinese businessman, who was importing it from China.
Breaking Bad was a fun show, but in the real world, this is what a drug kingpin looks like:
Zhenli Ye Gon Causes Trouble For Las Vegas Sands - Business Insider
* this is probably the best article on this, the trend of companies importing analogs from China and then passing them off as 'street' drugs: http://www.mixmag.net/words/features/drug-molly-everything-but-the-girl
** quote from here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/02/drugs-web-revolution-changing-world-high
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