Marc Geiger (WME) - IMS 2013 - Keynote Address

IMS had the pleasure of inviting Marc Geiger head of William Morris Endeavor's music division with a client roster that boasts 1,000 + acts booked by 98 music agents in Beverly Hills, California, Nashville, New York, Miami, and London to give a Keynote Address on the state of electronic music. A career so respected and pioneering saw him voted 9th in the Billboard "Power 100" in 2012. Key topics addressed: • The Industry mustn't fall victim like so many others and wait till it's too late to adapt to a changing environment. "EDM is big money, and with big money comes the responsibility to grow up," • Speaking to the worldwide popularity of dance music culture and the Underground- "The era of the underground is kind of over," he said. "It's become too popular and when everybody knows about it, it isn't underground anymore." These words brought many surprised looks to the faces of attendees and sparked a heated discussion on Twitter. • Speaking to the growth of worldwide festivals, "You're seeing the cultural plotting of electronic music all over the world now. The 'boom boom' is just the beginning." • Frustration at the lack of organization and curation in the genre "This is a conformist discussion. As an industry, we need to clean up our metadata and package things in ways that are digestible," he said. "We need more filters - there's too much of a mess out there." Referring to Beatport and Pete Tong being good filters and giving a direction for the punter to select their music • Djs needing to be the full package ""DJs started out as the everyman, but they're not anymore - they're stars. We need more stars; interest goes up as a result."