Annual winter conference miami email from Club Space Miami owner Louis Puig

“FUTURE OF EDM.

I am hoping that the future of Electronic Dance Music will be the complete opposite of the commercial Mash Up sound you hear at VIP clubs today. This sound is monotonous, tiring and not even the DJs that play it like it. In fact, they actually hate it but they sold out to it and are now stuck playing it. The sound reminds me of the Walt Disney Electric Parade.

Some people call it Swedish House Music but I call it VIP Confetti Music but no matter what you call it, it is complete rubbish and what is worse is that it generates the complete opposite energy and effect of what dance music was designed to do, which is for people to dance. Believe it or not, the plan was never for you to show up, stand on a dance floor ignoring your date our friends and look at some clown jumping up and down waving his finger in the air while playing prerecorded laptop sets. Fortunately EDM fans are very intelligent and educated and they are finally catching on to these theatrics. These DJ finger waving performing clowns have numbered days. Techno, Tech, Deep House and other underground EDM genres will prevail. In case you do not understand what I mean by VIP Confetti Music, just visit the top 100 in the “progressive” category on my fav music dance music website and Robert Sillerman’s latest acquisition, Beatport.com. I remember when the Beatport progressive dance music chart was actually progressive.

Robert Sillerman / SFX. If you have not heard by now Robert Sillerman AKA SFX is spending a billion dollars to buy and control the EDM Industry. Some people are labeling Sillerman “Big Brother” and think he will be the end of EDM as we know and love it. I have been around long enough to know better. I lived the end of Disco, Rap, Hip Hop, Mash Up and hopefully soon Confetti Music. EDM is not going anywhere.

I respect and admire Sillerman but sometimes he gets himself into businesses that he has no business being in such as the real estate deal he did in Anguilla. I have no idea who is advising him on EDM but they are completely steering him the wrong way. You don’t buy the milk, then the cow, and then the ranch, you buy the ranch with the cows first. He should have spent his money in buying the biggest DJ agency first and not the trendy clubs and festivals that DJs play at. Or at least started his own DJ booking and management agency by stealing the top agents from the existent agencies. They would have brought their DJ clients with them and signed them on to multiyear contracts. This would have been a fraction of the cost and a lot more manageable. As is, he is the owner of a bunch of clubs and festivals that are going or will be going out of style before his EDM Company goes public. What is worse is that he has no one to control or oversee all the club and festival owners and operators he left in charge. Think of it as being the owner of a fleet of pirate ships and thinking that all your ship pirate captains will stay honest and true. How many club or festival owners or operators would you trust with the keys to your house and the combination to your safe? Robert, do yourself a favor and find someone who understands EDM and what is at stake, clubs and festivals are not radio or TV stations. As they say, “hire the best to watch the rest.”

But, the biggest thing that Sillerman seems to be missing is the spirit of EDM and House music. Sure, it’s easy to look at the scene now and see it as being ripe for commercial takeover but the truth is that this scene has always resisted and rejected that path and will again unless they see it as authentic. I know that, once EDM fans get a whiff of the corporate control, they will rebel and run back to the sounds, artists and venues that they see as authentic. Unfortunately, the SFX pirate captain brigade doesn’t get this. They’ll learn, as many before them have, that this is a different scene and that our fans are not so easily fooled.

SALE OF SPACE. It is true; I sold Club Space and this will be my last Space MMC. I’m very proud of what we created in Downtown Miami and have been privileged to work with some amazing and talented people. 13 years is a very long time for any club to be around and I couldn’t have done it without all the people who supported Space in so many ways. Its 130 years if you want to compare it to human years. It was time for me to move on and let someone else carry the Space torch.

Space was ahead of its time; it was the antiestablishment to the South Beach commercial VIP clubs with the French velvet-rope attitude that unfortunately still prevails today. Space was underground and so separated from the norm that few gave it or me a chance of success. The only person who actually saw my vision and believed in me was Ricardo, the owner of Pacha Ibiza. We were at a dinner party in Ibiza back in 1999 and I pulled out a set of Space blue prints and showed them to Roberto. He looked at the plans and looked into my eyes and said, “esto va tio.” If I had to pick a club mentor, he would be the one. The rest is club history. Now it is time for history to repeat itself. It is time for a new space which will set the bar for the next decade.

Space was a vision I carried with me for almost 20 years since my first visit to Ibiza in 1981. The concept that I am working on now is a product of a vision I have been formulating in my head since Space opened with Danny Tenaglia in 2000. This new space will hopefully have the same effect on our industry as the first Space. It will be bigger and better since I now possess a more thorough and extensive knowledge of the qualities and details that make a club a legend. In other words, I know now what I wish I had known then and plan to use that knowledge to create something truly unique. This space will be the antiestablishment of this new era and once again the antithesis of the South Beach / Las Vegas commercial VIP confetti clubs.

HIERBAS IBICENCAS. Aaah Hierbas! Why can’t all alcoholic beverages and spirits taste like this? I fell in love with this heavenly nectar the first time I went to Ibiza back in 1981. It is the favorite drink of Ibiza and my DJ friends and it is finally available in the States. In fact, it will be making its debut at this year’s Music Conference so ask for “Hierbas” at your favorite club, restaurant or pool party. Shots or “chupitos” as they call them in Spain or on the rocks, Hierbas is delicious any way you drink it. Go towww.hierbasusa.comfor the complete Hierbas story and enjoy the sights and sounds of Miami Music Conference with Hierbas Ibicencas by Mari Mayans. It is 100% Ibiza.

Enjoy the conference, drink responsively and don’t forget to tip,

LP”