Amsterdam Dance Event, The Electronic Music Platform was an enormous success. From 15th to 19th of October the city of Amsterdam attracted more than 350.000 visitors who were connected one way or another with electronic music. From ordinary devoted fans to record label executives and festival promoters from all over the world ADE was marked as the place to be if Electronic Music is your passion and part of your DNA.
Amsterdam Conference program included a wide variety of panels and discussions that mainly were centred around Felix Meritis, The Dylan, Da Balie, Melkweg, De Brakke Grond and Parkhuis de Zwijger. This year at Felix Meritis ADE offered extensive spaces including restaurant for networking, meeting, discussing and talking about deals and finding new strategic partners for music productions, compilations material, licensing matters and anything else that you can think of such as security services to clubs and events or sponsoring and advertising.
One of the buzz word even "in the world of doing everything yourself" is distribution. Who will take care of your great shinny music and will bring it right at the doorstep of the music consumers is something that many artists and labels pass alot of time researching in order to come up with the best contract with the distributor that they believe is more efficient, reliable and be always by their side to solve any problems. Black Hole recordings, the top label from Breda, The Netherlands launched officially in May 2014 its distribution partner Black Hole Distribution. At ADE we met with Bas Kruijssen, New Media Manager at Black Hole Distribution and we did an interview that is definitely recommended to watch particularly if you are an artist or label that want to focus in his/her productions and let all the distribution matters to the reliable hands of a company that understands artists concerns and has the knowledge and the right connections to finish your wishes efficiently, responsively and most important responsibly.
In the very informative interview that you can enjoy right here we ask Bas why they took the decision to set up at Black Hole their distribution company. What services they can offer to their clients and what they can do different and better than other similar companies by developing their own online distribution system. He tell us about the wide variety of record labels and music styles that cater for at Black Hole distribution including hip hop and classical music. He express his gratitude about the positive reactions he receives so far for the new system and he explains why Black Hole distribution has contracts with many new online retailers and download stores. In my question about his satisfaction with their contracts with the main players like YouTube and spotify he answers that Merlin who represents the independent record labels and negotiates with those giants manage to secure good contracts. He explains what an artist or record label should do in order to become part of the distribution system. He reaffirms his belief that record labels are still relevant and important for artists if they wish to amplify the volume of their productions and presence in the digital world. At the moment Black Hole distribution is focusing on its ADE Challenge by searching for the best producers and record labels that want to join the Black Hole Distribution family. Until 3rd of November interested parties had to submit their music and at 10th of November the winner will be announced that will get:
a) a one year contract for Black Hole Distribution
b)free mastering for the first 10 tracks that will be released
c) a scan of your social media endeavours
d)a Black Hole goodiebag filled with nice Black Hole items
Lastly I ask his opinion about Amsterdam Dance Event and he tell us that he notices the event growing larger every year with extensive coverage from the national media in the Netherlands.
Thanks so much to Bas Kruijssen, New Media Manager, Black Hole Distribution for his time to answer this interview.
Thanks to ADE and Claire Dover at Global Pr for press accreditation.
Additional info;