The goal of any business is to make a profit. Even in an industry like electronic music where community vibes are held to the utmost standard, the labels and artists you adore need to make money, whether they voice that fact or not. ID&T’s founder, Duncan Stutterheim, recently said at a the annual Noorderslag Seminar in Groningen (the annual ‘meet & greet’ of the Dutch music industry) that the top DJs are becoming too expensive for even the top festivals to stay profitable.
Because of the boom in electronic music in the U.S., clubs and festivals in Europe are having to raise their prices to keep up with the rising costs of booking the most popular DJs and producers. This creates an infinite loop where managers and artists charge more money for shows, shows charge more money for tickets, and because tickets are rising in price, artists and managers think they can charge more for shows. Don’t get me wrong, the very last thing we need is any sort of regulation, but the market will eventually correct itself and it will eventually reach a point where either the clubs/festivals won’t pay as much for the talent or the fans won’t be willing to pay as much for the tickets. Even the $500 ticket for Ultra last year was met with huge backlash and derision.
Though even Stutterheim makes an analogous comparison to the “1%” in America. 
“The most popular 10% receive 90% of the pie. Of course, they make music and do it well. But it must remain in balance, which is now gone. It now is about so much money, that everything has changed. It also comes at the expense of the festival experience. At those high wages remains less over for good sound, lighting and decoration. That makes festivals less attractive. “
Stutterheim points to ID&T’s parent company SFX for the exorbitant prices, citing festivals like Ultra and EDC for they large mass-appeal and large price tags. He says their own festivals like TomorrowWorld and Mysteryland don’t go for the absolute top-tier DJs and so are able to avoid those high prices.
*Raises glass*
The man has a point.
Oh boy greedy ass DJs asking for a bunch of money to play pre recorded sets to trust fund kids. The electronic music scene can thrive forever if people checked their egos and greed.
The blame falls more on the booking agency than the DJ. Trust that.
This is something I have been talking about for years
Festivals and raves need to be about the experience and the people, not the headliner. Back in the day when raves were underground, pretty much all the DJs were unknowns, there was maybe one popular DJ that played at the top of the flyer, but when all was said and done, they were about the shared experience and the music and hanging out. Headliners are ruining what it should be all about and making it less accessible for everyone. I sincerely hope the headliner bubble is the bubble that bursts in 2015. These DJs and promoters are way too greedy, full of themselves and all the music is becoming a homogenous pile of shit. No one is taking risks anymore, of course it’s going to burst because everyone is going to get sick of the same shit over and over. Listen to the EDM charts, all the toppers sound EXACTLY the same, its really sad, given how much you can do with it. I sincerely hope he’s right about the bubble bursting, because frankly the bubble sucks.
‘ the top DJs are becoming too expensive for even the top festivals to stay profitable. ‘
THEN STOP FUCKING PAYING THEM! Tell them to fuckoff and book one of the other 392482394239482394823490382942 djs/producers out there. its not that fucking hard unless youre completely business illiterate(which most of these companies are because they were founded by highschool/college dropouts that were exravers themselves just looking to make a buck) and dont know how to weight cost effectiveness vs budget.
Isn’t it funny how all these DJ’s that charge so much unnecessarily were at one point just happy to have a person listen to them? Money has ruined this world.
http://www.LaserLightShow.ORG
I used to go to ultra when it was 1 day and $55.
It means the fests will die and the events will go back underground for bout a year while the agents sort their crap out.
We’ve been saying this for the last two years.. wasn’t a problem for them when their profit margins were high. Welcome to what normal promoters have been talking about for years already.
wouldnt pay a dime to go see any of these dj mag top 100 acts except for a select few….absolutely none of those select few would happen to be in the top 10
Good, It’s due for a cleanse anyway
They should put more underground artist in the mainstage. I remember last year at Tomorrowland, I spent the 3 all day in small scene, was much more fun than listening all the same track every hours plays by Hardwell, Garrix, Guetta and others… The big stage was cool but only with guys like Netsky on it, bringing something different. Otherwise, it’s just shit (and I’m not against big room stuff, I like it, but not all the time). They pay expensive DJ’s who play all the same stuff. The more EDM is popular, the more the people will be sick of that, and the more main stage artist will need to be original to have a public. That’s how this “bubble” will burst. But the electronic music will always be there, and festival to. Hope Tomorrowland will be too, it was awesome (even just for the littles scene) 🙂