Inside the Electric Daisy Carnival, June 21-23, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo by Jesse Solorio)
Is EDM here to stay? The explosive growth of the genre and the subsequent rush to cash in by national promoters, brands and marketers has left many wondering about the long-term fate of the genre.
"I think this is comparable to the generation shift of the '60s," said Rob Light, managing partner at agency CAA, during a keynote address at the second annual EDM\Biz Conference. Organized by Insomniac Events and its president Pasquale Rotella, the annual meeting is a precursor to the Electric Daisy Carnival, a massive outdoor EDM concert at the Las Vegas Speedway, held this year June 21-23.
"In the '50s there was rock'n'roll and it was cool and it was somewhat underground. Then, in 1964, television [was] just coming into its own — but nobody understood the power of it until The Beatles walked on Ed Sullivan,” he said. “It started a counter culture, a generation shift and a youth movement... you are now in that same moment.”
Are box offices across the globe ready for this movement? How is ticketing for EDM events different than ticketing a concert, or a Broadway musical? Below we examine some of the unique buying patterns of EDM fans and identify some tips to help box office professionals deal with this growing music genre.
Facebook and Twitter Rule Everything
Nearly six times as many EDM tickets are sold through Facebook and Twitter compared with all other live events, said Ticketfly President Andrew Dreskin.
Why? For one, many young fans are only able to afford purchasing one ticket at a time. By making a purchase and sharing it online with their friends, they’re able to spread awareness about an event without having to front the money for friends that might or might not go.
Diplo crowd surfs inside a zorb at EDC 2013. (Photo by Jesse Solorio)
Not only does Ticketfly encourage users to share their purchase with their Facebook following after every transaction, each user is also given a monetary value for their overall influence, including the number of tickets that have been sold from their posts.
According to Dreskin, the average ticket order for an EDM event is usually just one ticket, compared with the average two-ticket purchase for all other events. Dreskin said the single sale cycle is because of “the inherent communal qualities of a shared EDM experience,” which is more about “being part of community” and means ticketholders are less inclined to “pair up in advance of an event.”
“And you’re seeing more artists and promoters who solely direct all marketing and advertising to Facebook or Twitter,” he said, noting that superstar DJ David Guetta has nearly 5.9 million followers while dubstep pioneer Skrillex has 1.8 million followers and Tiesto has 1.3 million followers.
As social rises, search engine ticketing sales have waned — only 13 percent of EDM sales come from sites like Google and Bing, compared with 23 percent for all other events. Dreskin said it’s further evidence that “EDM fans learn more about events from friends and recommendations on their social graph” rather than reliance on search engines.
It’s meant a shift for some promoters like LED Presents in San Diego. In 2012 the company discovered that it sold 34 percent of its event tickets through Facebook, eight percent of which were driven through automated social marketing tools. The news has changed the way LED Presents markets its shows and shifted more of its advertising money toward social media assets.
Tip: Make sure fans have both the ability to quickly share their ticket purchases online, and more importantly, that you’re tracking which fans generate the most revenue for your venue.
Promoters Over Acts
According to a recent study commissioned by ticketing firm EventBrite, 38 percent of EDM fans said that the promoter was an extremely or very important part of their purchase decision. The May 2013 survey of 1,019 adults who identified as EDM fans (conducted by research firm Harris Interactive Service Bureau) found that only 10 percent of non-EDM fans cared about the identity of the promoter.
More than 120,000 people attended each day of this year's event. Here, visitors get footloose at the Neon Garden. (Photo by Jesse Solorio)
Also important — 80 percent of respondents said the location of the event was as important as the artists who were headlining it.
“It is the experience itself that helps shape EDM devotees’ likes and dislikes. The events are key drivers in getting people into electronic dance music, and for some the event itself is all that matters,” said Terra Carmichael, the company’s head of Global Communications.
In fact EDM fans might not actually be fans — over one-third said they had attended an EDM event before ever listening to the music and 28 percent said they didn’t regularly listen to EDM but just liked going to the events.
Tip: EDM is one of the few genres where the promoter, location and overall experience should be marketed and emphasized more than any one particular artist.
Upwardly Mobile
Facebook’s ability to tie in with a mobile-enabled sales engine has lead to an increase in mobile ticket sales — according to Ticketfly, an EDM buyer is three times as likely to purchase a ticket on a mobile device compared with participants to all other events.
“EDM fans often use their mobile device at events to post photos, share their status or link up with their friends, so it only makes sense that they would also use their devices to purchase tickets,” Dreskin said.
Tip: Talk to your ticketing provider about what inventory is offered online and how easy it is use. Does the main venue website allow mobile ticket sales? What about the site’s Facebook application? Conducting a mobile sales inventory will help you improve the overall mobile experience.
Find the Right Partners
The rise of EDM has created an explosion of musical styles and a new cache of co-promoters who have helped build a social following online.
“It’s very important for you to know that there are a lot of sub-genres for electronic dance music,” said Laura Maag, associate marketing manager at promoter C3 Presents, “and you should know if you’re working on the 20-something bottle service ordering crowd, or the ‘hippy, college student, broke person crowd,’” she said.
She recommends tapping into local sorority and fraternity scenes — especially Greek campus organizations — most already have experience organizing student events and many have large databases to pull from.
“If you throw them a couple VIP tickets in exchange for promoting the concert to their friends, they will go above and beyond for you,” she said. “They’ll let you come to their meetings, flier their houses and just be super helpful.”
Tip: When it comes to finding help with street teaming, college and university organizations make for some of the best partners.
Interviewed for this story: Andrew Dreskin, (877) 435-9849; Laura Maag, (512) 478-7211; Terra Carmichael, (415) 963-4465