• SFX Announces Shake Up of Executive Staff

    Dance music conglomerate SFX Entertainment, which owns or have majority stake in companies globally like ID&T, Beatport and Made Event has announced a shake up at the top of the executive food chain. This was expected after a November 2014 investors call revealed that the company was going to do an internal evaluation to see where changes needed to be made and where any overlap lied. The major shakeup lays in the marketing and rewards platform Viggle and a move to consolidate positions with executives at both firms.

  • SFX to Launch Beatport Pro as Stream Service

    We have become accustomed to hearing about different business maneuvers coming from the SFX Entertainment camp over the past two years, primarily in the form of mergers and acquisitions as the company has looked to expand its global empire over a wide swath of the dance music industry. Robert Sillerman's SFX has slowed its frenetic buying spree in the latter half of 2014 as it looks to consolidate profits and generate more revenue, but the moves have not stopped. It has announced that one of its properties, the popular music-purchasing platform Beatport will now officially enter the streaming space with a relaunched version of its Beatport Pro, via "Dancing Astronaut." The new Beatport music service will offer free, ad-supported streaming to users, according to the "Wall Street Journal." This will give users the ability to listen to Beatport's catalog of music on demand. Beatport currently offers the ability to purchase mixes, which are comprised of Beatport's music library available for purchase via the platform. This will expand the capabilities of listeners and DJs alike to stream music before they purchase. One major hurdle will be to obtain licenses for songs, though focusing on electronic music will make it easier to stay clear of the Big 3. Many big electronic acts, like deadmau5, Krewella, Porter Robinson, Dirty South and Calvin Harris, have signed limited or exclusive with majors deals to take advantage of their large distribution networks. Another major hurdle for SFX will be to comply with copyright laws in different jurisdictions around the world, which is one reason why the global Spotify rollout has not been instantaneous.

  • SFX Purchases 50% Stake in Alda Events

    Dance music media and entertainment company SFX Entertainment has expanded its empire once again by purchasing a 50 percent stake in Dutch dance music event company Alda Events. Founded by David Lewis and Allan Hardenberg in 2007, Alda Events hosts events and tours like Armin Only, I AM Hardwell, Amsterdam Music Festival during Amsterdam Dance Event and A State of Trance. Alda Events brought 130 shows to 33 countries throughout 2013 and 2014, which includes multi-day festivals and one-night-only events. David Lewis is co-founder of Armin van Buuren's record label Armada Recordings. According to the press release, the Amsterdam-based company will continue to operate as an independent company under its current CEO Hardenberg. Hardenberg will become the managing director of SFX Global Touring.

  • SFX Entertainment Heading toward Major Restructuring Following Festival Season, According to Robert Sillerman

    Robert F.X. Sillerman told Billboard in an interview that his EDM-centric company SFX Entertainment would be going under some restructuring when the festival season concludes. We admit we have wondered in the past if there was any structure at all over at SFX or whether the company was just consuming any EDM-based products it could get its hands on, from festivals to the Beatport platform.

  • SFX Buys Listn (via Beatport) and Immediately Shuts It Down, Acquires Staff

    Beatport is the biggest outlet in the world for electronic music fans to buy their wares, as well as a go-to source for news on the EDM industry. Therefore it seemed somewhat strange that the company would buy Listn, a "social listening app," and immediately announce that it was shutting its new possession down later this year, according to Digital Music News.

  • SFX Entertainment Buys Half of Rock in Rio Festival Series

    Slow and surely wins the race. This isn't a mantra that Robert Sillerman and SFX Entertainment abide by. As Music Times has reported during previous weeks, the electronic music promoter has been making frequent purchases and adding to its budding empire, including Made Event (the organizer of New York's Electric Zoo Festival) and Germany's i-Motion last week. The biggest announcement came over the weekend when the company announced that it had purchased a 50 percent ownership stake in Rock in Rio, one of the world's largest music festivals.

  • EDM Promoter SFX Entertainment Purchases Germany's i-Motion

    SFX Entertainment has made another move in its growth as the world's largest promoter of EDM-based live music, and this time its looking abroad. The company formally announced Tuesday that it had purchased i-Motion GMBH, the largest electronic music promoter in Germany.
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