This 31-minute documentary explores the $11.2 billion EDM industry, how artists aren’t getting paid, and what they are doing to fight back. We followed James ‘Detox’ Dietrichson as he performed at the annual Afterfly Festival in Dover, DE where we experienced a community unlike most. While EDM is a deeply misunderstood genre, its artists are held to stereotypes even more so than the music. We got to learn the meaning of EDM from a community perspective and shed light on the sketchy business side of this industry.
The main takeaways are:
STRUGGLES MUSICIANS FACE
EDM COMMUNITY
PLAN TO COMBAT COPYWRITING
LESSON 1 – STRUGGLES MUSICIANS FACE
Between copywriting, streaming service’s terrible pay, competition between musicians, and difficulty throwing shows, the EDM industry seems chaotic.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- EDM is the fourth most played genre in music
- EDM is expected to reach a valuation of $20.9B by 2033
- Music events are expected to reach $30.14B in 2023 w/ EDM festivals being the most popular event type
- Artists and musicians still cannot make a living off their music without streaming success
LESSON 2 – EDM COMMUNITY
“I’ve seen a lot of passion, I’ve seen a lot of love… but at the same time, I’ve seen the opposite side…”
Gatsby, the owner, and organizer of the event says that EDM is the sound that can connect people. The diversity you see at these events is unlike many groups. People come together to accomplish multiple things – a major opponent being loneliness. It’s not often that we find ourselves around large groups with the same desires, unified and happy, but when people gather for a cause as innocent as combating loneliness then happiness is an unavoidable outcome.
The EDM community is widely considered one people should be reluctant to join, but have those people ever been to a grassroots EDM festival, likely not.
Much of this community is about creating a community itself and many of the musicians are just as concerned about that as they are about making the money they need to survive. With so much opportunity to do good in the world and almost no funding, musicians are looking for ways to fight back.
LESSON 3 – PLAN TO COMBAT COPYWRITING
Streaming is an issue that has corrupted music in just as many ways as it has helped it. So how can people fight back?
Technology that can pay artists without using streaming services or unknowingly giving to distributors is becoming prevalent in start-ups around the music industry. Since podcasting and live streaming have gained so much steam in the past decade, copywriting has been a bumpy ride. For example, in 2016 I began streaming video games on Twitch and YouTube without knowledge of copywriting laws, playing copyrighted music while I was streaming. Within three months the YouTube channel was terminated by YouTube and Twitch muted every part of the archived videos that had a copyrighted song in it.
That is control.
So, ideas like James’ which allows musicians to join their platform where they can put their music, showcase a podcast featuring the music included on the platform, and send/receive money directly, avoiding streaming music on streaming services during the podcast and not allowing the live streaming platforms to take a cut of the money musicians receive.
