SoundCloud celebrated what’s next in electronic music at ADE 2018

Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the leading conference / festival that celebrates electronic music and its spectrum of sub-genres. Comprised of a week-long mix of educational sessions and music sets, ADE 2018 made for the perfect opportunity for us share exciting, real-time updates with the global DJ community and then celebrate a genre that is core to our ecosystem.

We kicked things off on Thursday with The Future of Music panel, where founder and Chief Product Officer, Eric Wahlforss, joined other industry experts to discuss the pitfalls and possibilities in electronic music production today – touching on everything from gear to project workflow and third party integrations. The panel was a perfect segue to SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor’s keynote announcement of our forthcoming integrations with six leading DJ applications that will allow creators to instantly and easily super-size their sets with SoundCloud’s catalog of 190 million tracks.

On Friday, we announced our partnership with Dubset that will work to test and develop next-generation approaches to reduce clearance complexities for remixes and mixes, and ensure rights holders are identified and paid. That morning, Eric was part of another panel, this time moderating the conversation while electronic artists Matthew Dear and mobilegirl, and music management exec Budi Voogt discussed the theme, “first mix to first main stage.”

And that night, the theme was manifested IRL as Mount Kimbie, Matthew Dear & mobilegirl took the stage at the SoundCloud Showcase at Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. More than 1500 DJs and industry tastemakers filled the space; rainbow-bright lights bounced off enormous bronze chandeliers and artists mixed house beats backed by a wall of organ pipes – proving a 15th-century church was the perfect venue to celebrate a multi-dimensional genre that cohesively combines unexpected elements. The showcase was like a tension-releasing drop after the steady build-up of momentum during the week, and successfully embodied what’s new, now and next in music.

Interested in future events or want details on our upcoming partnerships? Check back here regularly for more info on all of the things. And if you weren’t at ADE, feel like you were by checking out the photos below.