Editor’s Word: EDM.com proudly publishes 4 installments of annual year-end protection: Business Leaders, Performances & DJ Units, Music Producers and Songs.
Most of the time, year-end protection revealed by the music trade’s huge pool of media retailers is proscribed to its artists and performers.
To honor the extraordinary work of the trade’s unsung folks and types, EDM.com yearly acknowledges a bunch of leaders whose contributions redefined dancefloors and helped form the way forward for digital dance music.
Report Label: Specialists Solely
Cast within the crucible of a late-2023 rebrand, John Summit’s Specialists Solely imprint emerged with a readability of imaginative and prescient that few might match this yr.
From releases like Max Styler’s “Lights Out” and Chris Avantgarde and Kevin de Vries’ “Killa,” the label was a major driver of the dialog in regards to the ever-evolving boundaries of tech home music. Summit’s personal debut album, Consolation In Chaos, arrived mid-year as a tour de pressure of emotion and experimentation, bolstered by standout remixes like Cassian’s beautiful tackle “Shiver” and YDG’s transformative remix of “Go Back.”
The label’s ambitions additionally prolonged far past its music, with the Specialists Solely Ski Weekender in Vail curating a groundbreaking fusion of slope-side adventures and dancefloors. Impressed by Summit’s personal ardour for snowboarding, the occasion introduced the label’s ethos to life: daring, unflinching and deeply linked to its viewers.
In a single brief yr, Specialists Solely emerged as a artistic pressure that respects the roots of home music whereas fearlessly carving out its personal future, setting a excessive bar for what it means to guide with imaginative and prescient and function.
Phrases by Cameron Sunkel.
Honorable Mentions: Reminiscence Palace | HypnoVizion | Defected Data
Specialists Solely
Membership: Membership Area
A cornerstone of world membership tradition, Miami’s Membership Area is not an unusual venue—it is a ceremony of passage.
In 2024, the venue’s ethos of “the party never ends” was examined and confirmed when it closed for 3 months of structural renovations. Even in its absence, the Area legacy loomed massive as Manufacturing unit City held down the scene whereas followers restlessly waited. When the autumn lastly arrived, Area’s reopening occasion, headlined by Peggy Gou, reminded us why this 2,000-capacity spot holds an outsized affect within the dance music group.
From a marathon 36-hour Miami Music Week closing occasion that includes Carlita, Marco Carola and extra to a 24-hour Artwork Basel closing occasion with 23 DJs from 13 international locations, Area was a seedbed of membership tradition. The venue is not nearly main pageant weekends—it snaps into motion for cultural occasions like Components One Race Week, when Black Espresso and MEDUZA dazzled behind the decks. Now, Tiësto is primed for a uncommon “Sunrise” set in January 2025.
Membership Area’s significance transcends its measurement, incomes its place as a vacation spot the place DJs from across the globe collect to create one thing extraordinary. And in 2024, its organizers continued to reside as much as their prevailing tenet: whether or not it is 3am, dawn or mid-morning, they have your again.
Phrases by Cameron Sunkel.
Honorable Mentions: Cloud 9 Fiji | Ushuaïa Ibiza | Drumsheds
Music Firm: Vita Motus
For the idealistic minds behind the producers of music festivals, one query typically gnaws like a spider within the mind: can a stage be greater than only a platform? For Vita Motus, the design studio behind Coachella’s groundbreaking Quasar stage, it is a resounding “yes.”
Led by its bold founder and CEO, Heather Shaw, Vita Motus has executed phantasmagoric phases for EDC, Electrical Forest and Lightning in a Bottle, amongst different main festivals. However she discovered herself in a three-month stress cooker forward of Coachella, the place the studio was tasked with constructing a universe unto itself.
The stage’s monolithic LED partitions, Shaw instructed EDM.com again in April, had been designed “to push the boundaries of what’s possible at music festivals.” Her staff in the end delivered, establishing a bastion of iconoclastic pageant design inside Coachella’s hallowed desert metropolis.
The stage turned the epicenter of EDM on the nation’s most iconic music pageant, which in 2024 teemed with unforgettable rave moments. Followers willingly plunged into the rabbit holes of revolutionary three-hour DJ units by RÜFÜS DU SOL and a cancer-free Michael Bibi, amongst different influential digital acts. Eric Prydz and Anyma, two of the trade’s most subversive creators of visible shows, additionally carried out collectively for the primary time because the solar set.
To that finish, Quasar dissolved the boundaries between digital music and performative spectacle, reimagining the inert live performance stage as a residing, respiration organism.
Phrases by Jason Heffler.
Honorable Mentions: Finish Overdose | Playtime Engineering | WavMaker
Music Government: Cindy Charles
Cindy Charles didn’t simply change how we hear digital dance music this yr. She modified how we really feel it—each collectively and aside.
Charles tragically died in October following a visitors accident in the course of the Amsterdam Dance Occasion, the world’s main digital music summit. However earlier than we misplaced Twitch’s trailblazing Head of Music, she led the event of the platform’s pioneering DJ class, a breakthrough that established it as the primary to offer a long-term dwelling for DJs to legally livestream.
Charles, a visionary agent of change within the intersection of music and expertise, redefined how artists and creators interact with audiences on-line. She stays revered for main Twitch’s label relations and music licensing operations, fostering an ecosystem that allows DJs to construct fanbases and obtain monetary freedom on the platform.
Along with fiercely championing rave tradition, Charles was additionally an unshakeable advocate for girls within the music trade. She co-founded the San Francisco chapter of She Is The Music in addition to Girls In Digital, a group of over 1,500 members with a mission “to help women define a limitless future for all by shining a light on careers in digital and technology.”
Phrases by Jason Heffler.
Honorable Mentions: Christine Thomas (Dolby) | Adam Russakoff (Extremely Worldwide) | Jeff Abel (Excision Presents)
Twitch
Occasion Organizer: Breakaway Music Pageant
Breakaway did not simply host music festivals in 2024—it created locations at scale.
Breakaway lived as much as its identify in 2024, leaving opponents in its mud because it turned the nation’s preeminent touring EDM pageant. The occasion’s organizers are actually poised to develop to a bevy of latest markets in 2025, swelling to a staggering 12 cities.
That type of development was a white whale for unbiased festivals in 2024, a time when inflationary pressures hiked working prices to prohibitive ranges. Nonetheless, Breakaway managed to develop into the fastest-growing music pageant model within the nation, due partially to their knack for mixing high-profile headliners with undiscovered expertise in lineups that felt each elite and accessible, a uncommon feat in a crowded market.
Breakaway’s affect, nevertheless, is larger than the sum of its dozen elements. The model supercharged its sustainability efforts by partnering with Zero Waste Occasion Productions, a number one supplier of recycling, composting and waste administration providers, to divert from landfills over 25,000 kilos of recyclable supplies, together with dangerous plastics.
Breakaway’s proprietors additionally just lately introduced that each one of their 2025 festivals will settle for cryptocurrency as fee, mirroring its ethos of progress and inclusivity to foster a brand new type of freedom on and off the dancefloor. “As the music industry continues to evolve, we’re committed to adapting to the needs of our fans and staying ahead of the curve,” stated co-founder and CEO Adam Lynn.
Phrases by Jason Heffler.
Honorable Mentions: DEF | Home Calls | FIVE Music
Visible Artist: Tobias Gremmler
Tobias Gremmler’s larger-than-life artistry was unattainable to disregard in 2024, imbued with an nearly intangible high quality that linked deeply with Afterlife’s broadening international viewers.
His work with Anyma on the famous person DJ’s tour and sophomore album, Genesys II, remodeled towering LED screens into portals, immersing followers in haunting areas the place the boundaries between performer and participant disintegrated. Mixing Afterlife’s iconic twin themes of robotics and nature, Gremmler’s awe-inspiring visible ideas captivated audiences in high-profile venues from Los Angeles to Miami to Amsterdam, threading an ineffable emotional connection amidst the grandeur of stadium-scale productions.
Anticipation is now constructing for Anyma’s historic Las Vegas Sphere New Yr’s Eve present and residency, “The End of Genesys,” which can see Gremmler’s transhumanist visible designs envelop the record-breaking venue for its first-ever digital music exhibits. His artistic path is bold by all accounts, and it is reshaping how we expertise and have interaction with EDM’s most transcendent performances.
Phrases by Cameron Sunkel.
Honorable Mentions: DR01D VISUALS | Wesley So | Neurite
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YouTube Channel: Book Club Radio
What do butterfly houses, Y2K vampires, frat parties, robot uprisings, Florida men, murder mysteries and 2010s EDM all have in common? They’re all themes for Book Club Radio’s epic parties—err, “conferences”—in 2024.
Each theme is truly immersive: the DJs curate mixes to fit each, the crowds dress up for the part and the backdrops are filled with madcap props often hand-built by the Book Club Radio crew. The feverish fandom around their YouTube channel is a testament to the fresh perspective that the Brooklyn-based collective, founded by the inimitable Jojo Lorenzo, is bringing to dancefloors.
Words by Saad Masood.
Honorable Mentions: Flavour Journey | Tracklib | putyouon. by Steve Cardigan
Audio Engineer: A. G. Cook
When Charli xcx recorded her global hit “360” and said, “You gon’ soar if A. G. made it,” she was sending a message.
One of hyperpop’s most influential producers, A. G. Cook has made a name for himself crafting music for international superstars like Beyoncé, Hikaru Utada and Caroline Polachek. While that pedigree is impressive in its own right, his brilliant work on Charli’s viral sensation, Brat, may go down as his finest.
Serving as an executive producer of Brat and vocal engineer of most of its tracks, Cook propelled his longtime collaborator’s latest album not only to the top of the charts, but also to the lime green-colored pinnacle of pop culture. There would be no “brat summer time” without him.
Cook’s work on Brat led the album to a staggering seven Grammy nominations, including Album Of The Year, Best Dance/Electronic Album, Record Of The Year (“360”) and Best Pop Solo Performance (“Apple”).
Words by Nick Yopko.
Honorable Mentions: Cassian Stewart-Kasimba | Emily Lazar | Sonny Moore
c/o Press
Artist Administration: Metatone
In a formidable seven-year interval, Metatone founders Holt Harmon and Parker Cohen have constructed an unbiased administration powerhouse. And in 2024, the agency set new requirements for driving success in the home music world.
Their secret? A results-driven, holistic method and wealth of assets that assist DJs attain new audiences. Since bringing John Summit aboard in the course of the firm’s adolescence, Metatone has cultivated a formidable roster of producers that features Max Styler, Ranger Trucco, Deeper Function and Layton Giordani.
Its dedication to fostering each the wellness and artistic freedom of its roster stays on the coronary heart of its philosophy. By the growth of Metatone Media, the corporate offered its artists with tailor-made help in branding, touring logistics and content material creation, empowering them to give attention to crafting groundbreaking home music.
And that they did. From Summit’s stratospheric debut album Consolation in Chaos to Giordani’s uncommon official remix of deadmau5’s “Strobe” to Max Styler’s prolific run of tech home hits, Metatone broke out this yr. Its proprietors additionally labored diligently to place their artists on the cutting-edge, like when Summit offered out Madison Sq. Backyard.
Phrases by Mikala Lugen and Rachel Freeman.
Honorable Mentions: 2+2 Administration | Membership Class | Kompass Music Group
Music PR: Falcon Publicity
In simply 5 years, Falcon Publicity has managed to develop into one of many main forces in media relations throughout the mercurial world of digital dance music. It is the brainchild of PR vet Alexandra Greenberg, whose many years of experience have led her to amass a exceptional roster of artists, manufacturers and occasions in that brief time.
Influential digital artists like deadmau5, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre and Subtronics all name Falcon dwelling. The agency had its talons on the heart beat of dance music in 2024, executing a slew of revolutionary, high-profile campaigns that propelled it to the trade’s corps d’elite.
One was HAYLA, whose stentorian vocals dominated playlists and music festivals all yr. After collaborating with John Summit, Kx5, Kygo and MEDUZA, the surging singer-songwriter broke out as a solo artist with the assistance of Greenberg, who ran press for her scintillating debut album, DUSK.
After which there’s techno famous person Anyma, who in 2024 introduced he’d be the primary digital music artist to carry out contained in the record-breaking Las Vegas Sphere. What began out as a single New Yr’s Eve efficiency shortly snowballed right into a historic DJ residency with sufficient audiovisual specs to alter the material of Sin Metropolis raving—and Falcon is shaping the narrative.
Phrases by Ulises Vargas.
Honorable Mentions: Bampire | MP3 PR | JSloane Artistic
