Amsterdam Dance Event, part I

Bit of a belated first blog from the Amsterdam Dance Event, where I participated in a panel last Friday.  I love ADE for many reasons. Partly it's the buzz and friendliness that's so great. A lot of the companies in the electronic music industry are quite small and there are masses of business discussions going on in a way rarely seen in the mobile business I used to work in. 

Another plus point is the location - the conference part of ADE is held in the lovely Felix Meritis building, with creaky wooden floors over several levels (no faceless conference hotels here!!).  Not to mention that ADE is accompanied by a huge club festival, with some serious DJ talent in clubs across Amsterdam. What's not to like??

Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of passionate people working in this field - to a great extent, they're in it to a because they live and breathe the music. 

That can be both a blessing and a curse.

On the potentially negative side, it can be tricky to get enough input from the world at large, with new impetus, to get to really new ideas, concepts or solutions if your life is completely meshed with your work. You might need to consciously go do something completely different now and then just to see your own world from a different perspective. 

There was also some interesting discussion on my panel (which was all about problem solving) about how many smaller labels getting their music onto the important download sites (Beatport being key for this market) but then not doing much further to market it. But for all its emotional appeal, even music doesn't speak for itself - you've got to get out there, understand the market and make your potential customers aware of what you've got. Really key (again) not to assume your customers are just like you. 

Few more things to say from ADE; stay tuned...