Spotify executives have reportedly cashed out over $1.1 billion in company stock in 2024, a figure that would take artists an astronomical 314 billion streams to match through royalties.

That’s according to Music Business Worldwide founder Tim Ingham, who on Wednesday bemoaned the disparity in a LinkedIn post.

A new report published by the outlet claims Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has sold 875,000 shares of Spotify for a total of $283 million this year. That figure pales in comparison to the cash amassed by Ek’s co-founder, Spotify ex-Chairman Martin Lorentzon, who has sold 1,488,364 shares for a staggering $556.77 million.

This eye-popping disparity underscores the ongoing tension between streaming platforms and musicians, who have long argued that today’s compensation structure is fundamentally broken. Streaming has transformed music consumption, but most artists—particularly independent musicians—struggle to earn a living wage from the royalties their songs generate.

A recent study suggested that independent artists need to accrue five million streams to earn the equivalent of the U.S. minimum wage. That was before Spotify’s controversial announcement that musicians and songwriters would need to meet a minimum streaming threshold before they’re eligible to accrue royalties.

The backlash recently came to a head after Ek myopically claimed that the cost of creating content is “close to zero” before attempting to walk back his comments, which he characterized as “clumsy.” Electronic music icon deadmau5 lambasted Ek at the time and threatened to remove his music catalog from Spotify.

Spotify stock has surged by 141% since the beginning of 2024, more than doubling in value, per Barron’s.

The hills of Red Rocks may not have eyes, but on this night, they had ears.

Of The Trees recently took over the iconic Colorado venue for a career-defining performance on November 16th, when we experienced the uncompromising energy of a generational artist coming into his own.

“I never imagined taking this project as far as I have,” said the DJ, whose real name is Tyler Coombs. “I have always had dreams of being a rock star—ever since I was a little boy, but I’m not sure I ever really grasped what that could mean.”

Coombs in 2021 founded Memory Palace, an innovative record label where artists are invited to push boundaries and create phantasmagoric beats that linger in our consciousness, like vivid dreams we can’t quite shake. There’s an underlying philosophy of music as a form of ecological dialogue, where the label’s sounds can communicate deeper truths about interconnectedness.

That’s exactly what happened to the sold-out Red Rocks crowd, a gleaming sea of puffer jackets and neon beanies who moved like they were bewitched as lasers sliced through breath visible in the icy mountain air. We weren’t just watching—we were being rewired.

Over 6,000 feet above sea level, the dreamlike concert bowl whispered its usual promises of grandeur. But this time, it wasn’t just its monoliths speaking—it was Of The Trees, whose sensory sorcery breathed life into the storied amphitheatre and wove its history through nature’s exhale.

Coombs, who doubled down with another performance the following night, debuted a stunning new stage production, DJing within an illusory cabin developed by Dark Moon Designs. The modular structure, the studio said, is an aluminum build with wood cladding, dense forest foliage and a rusted roof.

Channeling the surrealist whimsy of Where the Wild Things Are through a rave lens, the cabin turned into a bioluminescent beast before our eyes.

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Inside, an LED screen crackled with timeless woodland charm, often projecting visuals of an antique chair glowing in the amber light of a stone fireplace.

Outside, LED screens behind and beneath the cabin’s beams palpitated with primordial visuals of molten sunsets, shivering tree limbs and blooming ecosystems of fractal flora.

Designed by Alec Maassen, the stunning visuals sometimes veered into the dark as well. One moment you were cocooned in the arms of Mother Nature, the next you were wondering whether you’ve stumbled into a secret forest coven convening under a full moon.

If the cabin was Of The Trees’ sanctuary, the music he played was ours. Every snarl of distorted bass felt like the surrounding forest growling back, shaking its roots and dancing with us.

We heard a plethora of unreleased bangers, including a nasty trap track with the surging LYNY and a sublime song Coombs produced alongside the late CharlesTheFirst, who in 2021 tragically died at the age of 25.

Coombs also fluidly threaded his hip-hop influences throughout, creating moments of liquid grace amid the barrage of woozy trap and bass music. An undeniable highlight was when he played an unreleased collaboration with the Grammy-nominated EarthGang duo, whose signature blend of Southern grit and cosmic lyrical curiosity feels like it was written in the stars for Of The Trees’ sound.

that new @OfTheTrees X @EarthGang 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/5ZibtAgaXR

— liz🪼 (@lizzyseitzinger) November 17, 2024

Despite the spine-chilling complexion of his set, Coombs is a DJ with the soul of a wandering poet. It was clear why the EDM.com Class of 2024 breakout has emerged as one of the electronic music scene’s most gifted storytellers, a reputation he’s attained through hard-won authenticity cutting his teeth as a humble producer and visual artist in the frigid plains of Maine.

The most human part of the night, however, wasn’t the music or the visuals—it was the artist at the helm. Of The Trees, often silhouetted against his otherworldly cabin, paused frequently to take it all in. Each glance he cast across the amphitheater spoke volumes—disbelief, gratitude, pure unfiltered joy.

His grin, impossible to miss, said what trees never could: this was the dream.

“I looked up at the silhouettes of the famous rocks with my logos on them, at the several thousand faces staring back at me, at all of the stars twinkling in the chilly November sky—and it all hit me super hard,” Coombs gushed. “We are really doing this shit.”

Fans can now catch Of The Trees on his North American tour, “Moonglade.” Tickets are on sale here.

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The endless quest for IDs has propelled Shazam to an unfathomable milestone: over 100 billion searches.

Representatives of the Apple-owned platform put the number of searches into perspective in a celebratory blog post, noting that it would take 12 searches from every person on the planet to reach 100 billion. If a single user tried to reach that figure, they would need to Shazam a new song every second for 3,168 years.

The data illustrates the explosive growth garnered by Shazam since its debut back in 2002, to which Apple credits gradual advancements to the app. At first, users could only search using SMS, but now they can search on desktop, mobile and on devices like smartwatches.

Electronic dance music represents a significant portion of the top 100 songs searched on Shazam. That includes generational dance anthems like Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Martin Garrix’s “Animals and The Chainsmokers and Halsey’s “Closer,” among others. Meanwhile, synthwave icon Kavinsky recently achieved the most-Shazamed minute in the app’s history after he performed his iconic single “Nightcall” at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

You can listen to Shazam’s top 100 most searched songs on Apple Music below.

Four years ago today, the world lost i_o, the enigmatic techno visionary whose music felt like whispers from the future.

The last song he released before his tragic death was “Castles In The Sky,” a radiant reimagination of Ian Van Dahl’s trance classic of the same name. With its propulsive kick drums, cascading synths and poignant lyrics, the track encapsulates i_o’s rare ability to honor the past while pushing electronic music into bold, uncharted territory.

i_o’s rendition takes the shimmering, euphoric tone of the original and grounds it in his signature style: futuristic and deeply emotive. The lyrics, steeped in metaphor, evoke a longing for something untouchable, a dream seemingly just out of reach. 

Though “Castles In The Sky” is a cover, it’s anything but derivative. The late producer approached it with reverence for its trance roots while giving it a modern edge. And by transforming the turn-of the-century track, i_o bridged generational tastes in electronic music with striking finesse.

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Looking back, i_o’s broader work feels similarly prophetic. Melodic techno music now reigns supreme in the global dance market, and it’s easy to imagine i_o standing at the forefront of the movement.

Tracks like “Castles In The Sky” prove that he wasn’t just an artist of his time—he was an artist ahead of it, crafting music that resonates as deeply today as it did when it first graced our ears. Four years later, it still feels like a call to lose yourself in the moment and dream of worlds beyond the clouds.

Revisit the official music video for “Castles In The Sky” below and stream the track here.

In a recent joint interview at the Amsterdam Dance Event, techno superstars Amelie Lens and Charlotte de Witte urged fans to stop pitting female DJs against each other.

Before the pair’s first-ever collaborative performance, they sat down for an intimate interview in a panel at ADE, the world’s preeminent electronic music summit. Amidst lighthearted anecdotes and musings about the state of today’s music industry, Lens and de Witte opened up about the pitfalls of female DJs and asked fans not to compare them.

“It’s so emotionally, creatively draining,” Lens said before noting that male artists rarely face the same issue. “Honestly, no one is ever saying, ‘AIROD is better than Farrago. It’s typical for female DJs. So just stop it please.”

After expressing her agreement, de Witte chimed in with some words of encouragement for female DJs and producers facing the proverbial jury.

“We are not against each other—we are with each other,” she asserted. “We are the sisterhood. We support each other.”

You can watch clips from Lens’ and de Witte’s interview below.

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deadmau5 is redefining the boundaries of his creative empire by signing with CAA “for representation in all areas,” Billboard reports.

CAA, which was named 2021’s best talent agency in EDM.com‘s list of the year’s best industry leaders, will work closely with deadmau5 to amplify his global reach in various artistic ventures. Those include global touring and fostering his innovative work in the gaming and tech spaces.

The electronic music icon has launched an array of unique projects at the intersection of gaming and tech, like his recent simulator game inspired by his late cat Meowingtons. Back in 2021, he launched PIXELYNX, a groundbreaking metaverse music platform co-founded with Richie Hawtin and gaming industry luminaries Ben Turner, Dean Wilson and Inder Phull.

With such a diverse portfolio, it’s only natural for deadmau5 to seek out holistic representation to support his multitude of interests and goals.

“deadmau5 has redefined the intersection of music, art and technology, and we’re thrilled to be a part of his next chapter,” said Ferry Rais-Shaghaghi, deadmau5’s agent at CAA.

On the music front, deadmau5 has been quite busy in 2024. He recently breathed new life into his 17-year-old track “Jaded” and released a stunning remix of his generational dance anthem “Strobe” produced by Layton Giordani.

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3LAU is calling for a critical rethink of the music industry, one shaped by the promise of blockchain technology. 

The trailblazing music entrepreneur and DJ took to X to share his forward-looking view on cryptocurrency’s impact.

“There hasn’t been a better time than right now,” he wrote,” to demonstrate crypto’s transformative potential for the music industry… to benefit all who play a role in it, with artists at center stage!”

The conversation around crypto’s role in music arrives at a delicate juncture. Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are on a bull run, with Bitcoin recently crossing the $91,000 mark and altcoins like Ethereum and Solana posting similarly significant gains.

Speaking with EDM.com in July 2023, 3LAU explained that blockchain tech can address deep-rooted inefficiencies in the music industry. His focus is on fostering a system where artists can retain greater ownership and visibility into their earnings—a vision he has consistently pursued since launching Royal.io, a platform at the forefront of the tokenized music industry.

“The music business has tons of areas of information asymmetry across it,” he said. “It’s really impossible to think about solving that whole problem in one effort, but a starting point would be to show people one thing that’s going on in the background that they don’t know.”

Regardless of macro-economic conditions, 3LAU has remained steadfast in his support of cryptocurrency and his latest comments highlight his continued conviction in blockchain’s ability to bring more equity and transparency to music. 

There hasn’t been a better time than right now…

to demonstrate crypto’s transformative potential for the music industry…

to benefit all who play a role in it, with artists at center stage!

— BLAU (@3LAU) November 11, 2024

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Two of the UK’s premier nightclubs, London’s Drumsheds and Manchester’s Warehouse Project, are introducing onsite drug testing, BBC Newsbeat reports.

The clubs have partnered with the harm reduction charity The Loop, who will analyze confiscated or surrendered substances to identify dangerous and contaminated compounds.

“Back of house” drug testing will occur discreetly—away from public view—and if risks are detected, the organization will issue warnings to clubbers. According to The Loop, the term is used to distinguish their service from “front of house” publicly accessible drug testing, known internationally as “drug checking.”

The initiative, supported by the UK government, builds on The Loop’s decade-long presence at summer music festivals. The charity’s CEO, Katy Porter, emphasized that the service doesn’t condone drug use but aims to save lives by providing accurate, real-time information about substance trends.

This innovative step underscores a pragmatic approach to public safety in nightlife. Nightclubs remain high-risk environments for drug misuse, especially due to the combination of MDMA and stimulant use, heat and dehydration. These conditions can exacerbate the dangers of drug use, leading to overdose or other medical emergencies.

For more on the urgent need for harm reduction in the global electronic music community, read our in-depth feature.

YouTube is tapping into generative AI and prompt engineering to allow creators to effortlessly remix songs for their Shorts, The Verge reports.

While remixing typically requires a great deal of production finesse, the platform’s new AI feature, currently in beta, lets creators easily “restyle” licensed music into punchy 30-second clips. Testers chosen to participate can reportedly take their pick from a library of eligible tracks before forming a prompt, which reworks various elements of the music.

“These restyled soundtracks will have clear attribution to the original song through the Short itself and the Shorts audio pivot page, and will also clearly indicate that the track was restyled with AI,” according to YouTube.

The new feature is an expansion of YouTube’s AI-powered “Dream Track” experiment, which empowers creators to legally utilize the AI-generated voices of artists such as Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend and more. The specific songs available to beta testers have not yet been made clear, nor have the record labels with whom YouTube is partnering.

However, YouTube is engaging in discussions with the three major record labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group, to pay “lump sums of cash” in exchange for the rights to train their AI models on the companies’ music, according to a report by the Financial Times.

YouTube has not yet revealed plans to publicly roll out the new generative AI feature at the time of this writing.

The Media Nanny and Circulate, a pair of renowned creative agencies operating in the electronic music scene, today announced a strategic partnership to expand into the Middle East.

From the sandy shores of Egypt to the high-rise cityscapes of the UAE, the genre has been captivating audiences and fostering a vibrant cultural movement throughout the MENA region. The two companies are now capitalizing by opening a new office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to a press release issued by The Media Nanny.

“From the first time I set foot on the ground, I’ve felt extremely welcome and inspired by the Kingdom,” said José Woldring-Walker, the PR firm’s founder and CEO. “We have built a strong track record thanks to the trust from our clients and the successful global campaigns we’ve run with them over the last four years. It’s a priority for us to continue demonstrating our knowledge and expertise by supporting clients who are leading innovation across Saudi Arabia and the MENA region. I believe there is no better city than Riyadh to establish ourselves to service new and existing clients.”

Headquartered in Amsterdam, The Media Nanny executes press campaigns for a slew of high-profile DJs and dance music entities, including GORDO, Lilly Palmer, The Pacha Group and FIVE Music. Circulate, a digital agency with offices in Dublin, London, Lisbon and Amsterdam, represents Circoloco, Mochakk and Oliver Heldens, among others.

The companies have also played a pivotal role in the launch of MDLBEAST, a Saudi entertainment firm perhaps best known for its massive EDM festival, Soundstorm. The event annually attracts over 600,000 people to the Banban Desert on the outskirts of Riyadh.

A recent spate of high-profile acquisitions and venue openings has established Dubai not only as a lynchpin of MENA’s flourishing nightlife sector, but also a leading destination for EDM enthusiasts. The proprietors of the iconic Tomorrowland festival opened a palatial desert resort, Terra Solis, in 2022. A year later, the Dubai-based hospitality giant FIVE acquired Pacha Group, one of Ibiza’s most illustrious nightlife institutions, in a deal valued at $330 million.

Another fabled Ibiza club, Ushuaïa, expanded to the UAE capital in late-October by virtue of a dazzling concert headlined by Calvin Harris. The International Music Summit, one of the electronic music industry’s most influential conferences, is also expanding to Dubai. The gathering is annually in Ibiza but will now head to the W Hotel – Mina Seyahi in November.

This growth is being driven by a convergence of factors, primarily a young, tech-savvy population and increased government investment in the arts. To that end, Circulate plans to concertedly spotlight emerging talent in the region. 

“Our collaboration with The Media Nanny enables us to use our global music networks and experience to the benefit of our partners,” said the agency’s co-founder Marcus O’Sullivan. “Combined with that, our intention is to attract the very best regional talent to work alongside our existing teams, this will be an unparalleled creative launchpad in the Middle East.”

Circulate and The Media Nanny plan to open the new office sometime in 2025.