Here we have the final part of our awesome interview with Carlos Correal (Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 are here). In this part of the interview, Carlos shares some great insights about the importance of supporting an artist’s long term career and making an investment in their success. He also gives us insights into the major shift happening in the EDM industry where true professionalism is becoming a norm. Carlos then finishes the interview by treating us to which country to keep an eye on as the EDM capital of the world. Read on to find out.
INVESTING IN THE ARTIST
Carlos: Now we work hand in hand with the management and they need to approve it. And sometimes we’d have arguments, I mean, they are positive arguments because at the end all we care is to have the artists profile grow in our market. And all the agents know that. We are seeing the results in the last 2 and a half years since I have been doing it here. I was doing this in Canada and now I am doing the shit here.
We believe in the artist, we believe he can be successful in our market so good, let’s move on. Let’s make a plan, let’s make sure it works. And obviously I am dependent on the artist because I need the artist to keep producing amazing tracks in the studio. If the artist sits on his ass and he just did that one track, I am going to be in trouble. And the agents and managers will be in trouble. Ultimately, we depend on the artist to make kick ass music.
Baris: I think your approach can be best summed as you’re investing in the artist in the long run.
Carlos: We are
Baris: And take a stake in his/her development as an artist, right?
Carlos: Totally
Baris: Do you think your approach is unique? Do others approach it this way.
Carlos: No, most of them don’t approach it that way. They approach stupidly.
Baris: It’s more transactional I guess?
Carlos: They just want to make a quick buck. Sometimes the club owners are wrong club owners because some of them are into organized crime. They are drug dealers and such so a lot of them don’t even have an idea about what is going on. They just want to make big bucks so they don’t care AT ALL about an artist’s profile.
Of course, some clubs, and I am going to give you some names, like Avalon in LA, they understand what is going on. They do a good job. There are certain promoters like Insomniac in LA – Pasquale that does Electric Daisy – I mean they are fucking amazing promoters. But let’s not kid ourselves. Most of the club owners are like crap. But, but…but… it is not like 15 years ago. Club owners are not that fucked up anymore. Now the club owners are legit businessmen – more than ever. And things are getting a lot more professional. And I think it’s the whole DJ shows force club owners and promoters to become a lot more professional to be on the game.
THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE TRUE PROFESSIONALS
I think everyone is taking this business a lot more seriously but not everyone is like us. The agents would tell you that they wish all promoters were like us, like the guys in Avalon and some others. We are some of the few that take it very, very seriously.
My investment on an artist that I believe in is: Let’s say, this artist is huge in Europe but nobody knows in America. The more I invest in him, the bigger he will get. And the bigger he gets, the more money we will both make. At the end it becomes a partnership. We become partners to make it big.
Baris: You are raising the bar for everyone. As you raise the bar and achieve success and longevity – which I understand the Opium group is looking for, it is going to be a prime, a world-class example for everybody else to follow. You guys are the industry leaders, right?
Carlos: Oh yeah, totally.
Baris: ..and people with short-term perspective will soon fall behind and get replaced by people who take this very seriously.
Carlos: It is very simple. Look at some of the clubs like The Guvernment in Toronto, Pacha in NY, Avalon in LA….Look at the myspace pages of most of the big DJs touring the US. You will see that they always play in the same fucking clubs. Now for the agents the decision is very easy. The hardest thing for an agent is to deal with a new promoter or club owner, who does not pay on time, who does not sign the contract. It becomes a big hassle. That is the reason why when they develop a good relationship with a club owner who always pays on time, signs the contracts, people that are disciplined and professional, they keep working with him. That’s why these DJs are always playing in the same places.
Baris: It’s a no-brainer, right?
Carlos: Yeah, in every city, there is that one club that understands the business and they do it right.
Now in North America, I think we have people who get it. In Latin America, even though the scene is amazing, it is a complete fuck-up down there.
Baris: Do you guys have any plans to expand to South America?
Carlos: No, no, no. We got enough on our plate with Miami and Las Vegas. But I keep an eye on South America because the scene is huge down there. Colombia, Chile, Argentina, the electronic music scene is unbelievably huge. It is humongous.
Baris: You said back in Montreal, NY was your Northern Star.
Carlos: Well, 15 years ago NY was the clubbing center of the world. We all know that. Then Giulliani became the mayor and cleaned up the whole city.
Baris: So which city do you visit now to see how the scene is shaping up?
Carlos: I don’t have to do that anymore. With the Internet, we get emails from all the managers, from all the producers, we look at what they are playing at Essential Mix BBC Radio 1. I get DJ Mag every week. I get Mix Mag every week. We read and we look at who is playing at those festivals. We check MySpace of each of these artists. We really really go and do a lot of research. We have someone who works full time doing that.
Baris: Is there one place in the world where you see the hottest stuff coming out of?
Carlos: It is Holland. (laughs). It is simple; it’s Holland. Obviously Germany is insane as well. Sweden, of course there are not too many artists but there is Swedish House Mafia, John Dahlback, and musically, Sweden is amazing but really, the main market is Holland. It is unbelievable what is coming out of there. Germany has always been a darker, minimal sound. For America, we really, really keep a close eye on Holland. And of course, we also have some diamonds coming out of Canada and US every once in a while.
Baris: One last question. You moved from Montreal to Miami – two extremes in terms of weather. How do you the weather impacting the success of your events?
Carlos: It doesn’t. Unless there is a big snow storm or hurricane, I’d say no impact. People still go out when it is raining or it is -20C. Very strangely here, when it rains, people don’t go out as much. But what is great about Miami is we’ve been able to educate people in pre-purchasing their tickets. Like a concert. You buy your ticket before you go. You know, when you went to a club 10 years ago, not even that – 6 years ago, you would have never thought that you needed to buy your ticket before going to the club. Now we made it like concerts. Go buy your ticket before you go to the show.
Baris: Well, thanks Carlos. It’s been an outstanding interview. Now I am scratching my head wondering how we can put all of this in a blog [laughs..]
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Tags: Carlos Correal, Electric Daisy, electronic dance music, Opium Group, Promoting & Producing Events