Winter Music Conference

Winter Music Conference
Genre Electronic music
Dates March 21–26, 2017
March 20–25, 2018
Location(s) Miami, Florida, United States
Years active 1985–present
Website www.wintermusicconference.com

The Winter Music Conference (WMC) is a week-long electronic music conference, held every March in Miami Beach, Florida, United States[1] since 1985. It is also known as the premiere platform for electronic dance music. The conference brings together professionals such as artists, DJs, record label representatives (A&R), producers, promoters, radio and the media for seminars and panel discussions.[1] Thousands of attendees attend the WMC each year from around the world.[1]

History and background

The conference is spread across various locations in Miami.

It was founded in 1985 by Louis Possenti and Bill Kelly. Held annually in Miami Beach, Fla., the Winter Music Conference, or "WMC" as followers of electronic dance music call it, has hosted up to an estimated 100,000 people.[2] The first Winter Music Conference took place at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott during 19–21 Feb. 1986.[3] There were approximately 80 dance music industry insiders in attendance.[4] Since its inception in 1986, the event festivities have moved down south, across Miami Beach and Downtown Miami.

A major event during WMC is the International Dance Music Awards (IDMAs). The IDMAs are an integral part of WMC generating over two million votes from music enthusiasts in 209 countries and territories every year to recognize and honor exceptional achievements in 57 award categories.[5]

The event commands a major international draw with around 38 percent of attendees coming from outside the United States.[6] The conference serves as a platform for many underground and indie artists from over 70 different countries who spend the conference at events and panels; it is also a medium used by several entrepreneurs and consumer electronic companies to present their businesses and technological developments.[6]

The WMC & The Recording Academy began in 1996 - a partnership presenting The Producers Forum, a gathering of legendary artists.[7] In 1999, Ultra Beach Music Festival, now known as Ultra Music Festival, became an event as part of Winter Music Conference, taking place on 13 Mar. 1999.[8] Waxpoetics Magazine, JBL, and Stanton sponsored the first International Record Collectors Show in 2007.[6] The WMC 2009 introduced the first annual WMC VJ Challenge at The Miami Beach Resort & Spa with celebrity hosts, judges, and VJs from various parts of the world hosted by VJ Psyberpixie and Felix Sama.[7] This inaugural year of the competition resulted in Sergey Lobodln (Moscow, Russia), walking away with the top winner prize.[9] In 2010, the VJ Challenge was expanded into two areas of competition; Video Mixing and Audio/Visual Mixing. The 2010 VJ Challenge winners were AeonChild (Boulder, Colorado) in the video category and Eclectic Method (London/NYC) in the Audio/Visual category.[10] The Miami Beach Resort also received the performance of the RoboMusic Demo in which Funkstar De Luxe and RoboProfessor (Henrik Hautop Lund) create live interactive compositions of RoboMusic.

Since 2008, the conference has received increasing competition from the International Music Summit taking place in Ibiza in May.

In 2011, for the first time, WMC and Ultra Music Festival split and took place during two completely separate weekends in March. This was "a gross inconsideration by the WMC for event planners worldwide and artist scheduling." according to Windish Agency booking agent Steve Goodgold.[3] 2014 was the last year that WMC lasted a total of ten days.[11] In 2015, WMC took place across the span of five days.[12] Following that, 2016 was the second time that Winter Music Conference took place apart from Ultra Music Festival, lasting only four days, 21–24 March.[13] Since then, other music conferences have come about including SXSW in Austin, Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), and EDMbiz in Las Vegas, which takes place during Electric Daisy Carnival yearly.

On Mar. 21, 2018, Ultra announced that it had acquired the WMC and the IDMAs.[14]

Artists

Hundreds of industry professionals, producers, artists, promoters, record labels, and enthusiasts gather to network in various seminars, panels, workshops, parties, and DJ spinoff events. WMC is not only for the big artists, such as Tiesto and Steve Aoki but also for underground artists and DJ newbies. If you are a newbie and are asked to perform during WMC, you are being given the opportunity for thousands of attendees to listen to your music and to even possibly get scouted by a record label.

Events

There are over 500 individual events during the week the conference takes place. In 2007, The New York Times named it "one of the most anticipated clubbing events in the country."[15]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Duran, Jose D. (2013-03-14). "How Russell Faibisch Built Ultra Music Festival -- and Whom He's Battled Along the Way". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2015-01-31.
  2. ↑ Sager, Rebekah (2012-03-16). "Winter Music Conference Hits Miami Full Force". Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  3. 1 2 "Blood On the Dancefloor: Winter Music Conference Vs. Ultra Music Festival". Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  4. ↑ "The Winter Music Conference - Miami". www.roamingsolutions.com.au. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  5. ↑ "IDMA Archives - Winter Music Conference 2018". Winter Music Conference 2018. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  6. 1 2 3 "WMC: General Facts". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
  7. ↑ Ruhi, Noel Gonzalez and Adrian. "In the mix: The history of Ultra Music Festival in Miami". Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  8. ↑ "WMC: Events: VJ Challenge". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  9. ↑ "2010 WMC VJ Challenge". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  10. ↑ "Winter Music Conference Announces 2014 Dates - Winter Music Conference 2016 - WMC 2016". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  11. ↑ "2015 WMC Official Schedule - Winter Music Conference 2016 - WMC 2016". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  12. ↑ "THUMP's Official Guide to Miami Music Week 2016 | Thump". Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  13. ↑ "Ultra Music Festival Acquires Winter Music Conference, Announces Beijing Festival". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  14. ↑ Greenfield, Beth (2007-03-02). "Winter Music Conference". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
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