Winter Music Conference
Encyclopedia
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
conference, held every March since the mid-1980s in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Venues are hosted primarily in Downtown Miami
Downtown Miami
Downtown Miami is an urban residential neighborhood, and the central business district of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and South Florida in the United States...
and Miami's South Beach
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It is the area south of Indian Creek and encompasses roughly the southernmost 23 blocks of the main barrier island that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.This area was the first...
. It is aimed at professionals such as artists, DJs, record label representatives
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
(A&R), producers, promoter
Promoter (entertainment)
An entertainment promoter i.e. music, wrestling, boxing etc is a person or company in the business of marketing and promoting live events such as concerts/gigs, boxing matches, sports entertainment , festivals, raves, and nightclubs.- Business model :Promoters are typically hired as independent...
s, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and the media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
.
History and background
It was founded in 1985 by then DJs and Record Pool Directors Louis Possenti and Bill Kelly. Held annually in Miami, Florida, the Winter Music Conference, or "WMC" as followers of Electronic Dance MusicElectronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
call it, hosts around 300,000 people. The first Winter Music Conference took place at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott
Marriott International
Marriott International, Inc. is a worldwide operator and franchisor of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company is now led by son J.W. Marriott, Jr...
in February 1986 with approximately 80 dance music industry insiders in attendance. The event festivities are presented across Miami Beach and Downtown Miami
Downtown Miami
Downtown Miami is an urban residential neighborhood, and the central business district of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and South Florida in the United States...
. The major event is the International Dance Music Awards. The event commands a major international draw with around 38% of attendees coming from outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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 entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
s and consumer electronic
Consumer electronics
Consumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...
companies to present their businesses and technological developments.
The WMC & The Recording Academy began in 1996 - a partnership presenting The Producers Forum, a gathering of legendary artists. Waxpoetics Magazine, JBL, and Stanton sponsored the first International Record Collectors Show in 2007. In 2009, the WMC introduced the first annual WMC VJ
VJ (video performance artist)
VJing is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music...
Challenge at The Miami Beach Resort & Spa with celebrity hosts, judges, and VJs from various parts of the world hosted by VJ Psyberpxie and Felix Sama. This inaugural year of the competition resulted in Sergey Lobodln (Moscow, Russia), walking away with the top winner prize. 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.
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
International music summit
International Music Summit is a 3-day dance music conference that takes place in Ibiza. It is described by founder Pete Tong as "an intense networking environment with the glamour and glitz of my favorite party island of Ibiza, but with a Back to Business ethos and leading into the official Ibiza...
taking place in Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
in May.
Demographics
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
summing up to 62%, 23% came from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n community formed 4% of the delegates, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with 6% and 1% of Asia and other territories.
At the events and panels, 15% of the professionals in 2008 were record label representatives, publishers, and A&R. The press and media formed 13% close to the 12% of music production specialists, 10% were DJs, 8% being artists as well. Event and concert promoters, managers, agents, and consultants added up to 13% of the present. Radio, venue, club, an bar representatives each listed 5% of the visitors. More than 1.3 million people from 183 countries (out of 192 in the world) viewed the WMC website in 2008. 62,000 participants from 70 countries were present at Miami Beach to get involved in the WMC week.
Events
There are over 500 individual events during the week the conference takes place. Because of its large extent and popularity, The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
named it "one of the most anticipated clubbing events in the country".
- WMC Seminars & Panels
- Ultra Music FestivalUltra Music FestivalUltra Music Festival is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that occurs in March in the city of Miami usually during the annual Winter Music Conference. It is held in Downtown Miami in Bicentennial Park. It was a 1-day festival from 1999-2006, a 2-day festival from 2007-2010, and was a...
- The International Record Collectors Show (since 2007)
- South Beach Sessions (since 2008)
- International Dance Music Awards (IDMA)
- The Producers Forum (since 1996)
- WMC Demo Listening Workshops
- WMC/DMC DJ Spin-off
- WMC On-Site Featured Events
- WMC Exhibits
- WMC Official and Sanctioned Events
- WMC Sample Sack
- The Guide
- The List
- Exhibit Hall
- WMC technology demonstrations
- WMC VJ Challenge (since 2009)