This year at the Amsterdam Dance Event 2023, the most important event for DJs and industry professionals in Europe I was expecting dedicated events and some news from Denon DJ instead, excluding the set of the “usual” DJ Oliver Heldens nothing…
Pioneer DJ, Xone, Reloop (with Denon DJ ex-ambassador Laidback Luke), etc. are present.
If inMusic does not push its professional hardware into clubs and festivals by taking advantage of these events, it will remain relegated to mobile DJ events only, and that is a shame in my opinion.
I visite ADE almost every year, there are a lot of great DJ’s and the vibe is always awesome.
There hasn’t been a night were I was looking at the gear a DJ plays on.
ADE is not for showing gear, it’s loads nights dancing and no carring. There isn’t a single visitor who cares about Denon or Pioneer.
Although Denon DJ is not presenting new hardware, in my opinion, it should have been at the ADE to show that it is close to the world of professional DJs.
It’s Amsterdam …. Is anyone going to be sober enough or clear headed enough to actually take anything important in? Maybe that’s -why- it’s not an important software/hardware push site.
No they won’t, and why should they?
I don’t think it’s because it is Amsterdam but because of the house scene, the 90’s was like the 60’e all over again, different music tough.
The scene hasn’t changed much, at least for my generation. But is that because it’s Amsterdam? How is the house/techno scene in the rest of the world?
trade fairs are a thing of the past anyway. Our company participated in them for years in another industry (construction), just to see the visitor count, and useful leads, drop year after year, with the rise of the internet. a good 10 years ago we were one of the first big names in our industry that dropped out of trade fairs, in favor of internet marketing, just to see the competition follow year after year. Today trade fairs are going bankrupt one by one, and the big ones that are still holding on are trying to find their merrits in streaming or other forms of internet marketing. But they’re still too expensive given the return in leads/sales.
I’m sure construction is not the only industry who show this shift in it’s marketing strategies. I see a lot of other big trade fairs in other industries (like cars, etc) lose their apeal too. I’m sure it’s no different in the professional audio and music market. participating in NAMM or ADE probably costs you 100.000’s of dollars (Batibouw did for us!), money that is way better spent in digital ad campaigns and other forms of digital marketing…
It’s all logical: in the 90’s internet was in it’s infancy, and trade fairs were the best way to get a good look at different products, al in one day. by 2010, the internet made this more than possible. So why still go to a trade fair?
Johan is very right here.
Just look at ProLight and Sound - some time ago it was the biggest fair in the world, spreading over whole 15 massive halls of Frankfurt Messe complex. Now the whole fair is max 2 halls, and shrinks down every year.
Oh, and regarding pushing it to festivals or clubs. I think there are 2 issues here:
Rental companies don’t dare to invest in other gear than Pioneer because of rider acceptance. Try to put SC6000’s on your rider (I did for a couple of times): the rental company will 100% call you back stating that they don’t know were to rent it. I know Pioneer had the same issue when taking over from Denon twin CD players, but they sponsored clubs and rental companies to use or cary in their catalog their gear.
And there is the compatibility with Rekordbox. Sure, it’s compatible, but it must be converted. When a DJ with a small library arrives, this shouldn’t be any problem, and that DJ could very well play his set on Denon gear instead of Pioneer. The rental company or club must only push him with stating “that’s all we’ve got for you”. But if a DJ with a bigger collection arrives unprepared, one of the SC6000 decks will be unavailable for a long time. Cut down this time to a few seconds, or run the full converting process in the background, or you won’t be able to push Pioneer DJ’s into Denon gear at all.
You can do all the marketing you want, but as long as rental companies and clubs don’t cary/push it, and as long as the conversion process is the slow thing it is today, Denon won’t be accepted on riders.
The mediaplayer market is in a weird spot currently. In the US, both flagship players are unavailable. At this point I’m holding to buy anything as both are 3+ years old.
ADE is all about the music, nothing more, nothing less, not sure how many here have actually been to ADE but it’s not one big club doing this, almost every bar and club is involved and hardware is what is usual at these venues, however the smaller ones, the DJs actually bring their own gear, many a prime 4 and prime go can be spotted.
Most of these conferences are not direct to consumer focused. InMusic has always been a brand that focuses on selling to the consumer and not to rental houses, clubs, and event production companies.
An exhibitor might have been happy staffing and turning 10 pairs of flagships into B-grade demo models in one big venue - but not 100 pairs of flagships into 100 places needing 100 members of staff to demo the kit.
NAMM, Winter NAMM, BPM, PLASA they’re all set in massive exhibition halls with 20 or 30 staff all trained up on every feature of the hardware.
Both types of event (hardware shows for NAMM, BPM etc, or music promoting like ADE) have their place in industry or society, and it’s a case of investing the right euro in the right slot
I’m trying all my best to promote you guys but you aren’t even there where it matters.