DJZ and the EDM Revolution

Technology. Music. Innovation.

Hypnotic beats, pulsating lights and throngs of exuberant listeners may be the emerging hallmarks of EDM, but what we think is most important about this movement is the intense, creative power of the DJ. Youthful, passionate, insanely talented, EDM DJs are redefining music and our culture by melding sound with technology.

Today, a major DJ can finish a remix of a song on the way to the show, play it at the concert, see it on YouTube later that evening, and then find it remixed by a dozen bedroom DJ’s within 24 hours—which is what happened when Skrillex, who won three Grammys in February, remixed Avicii’s song “Levels” earlier this year. Music creation and promotion no longer require the traditional model of A&R reps, record contracts and months spent mastering an album; now anyone can create, remix and experiment in real time.

The disruptive capacity of EDM lies in how artists are creating music, how fans are engaging with music, and how musicians and fans are engaging with each other. Over 300,000 fans attended this year’s three-day Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas (up from 65,000 in 2008); an EDM track can achieve over 50 million plays from fans sharing through multiple channels; and the annual earnings of top DJ’s can reach $22 million. The passion and fervor with which fans follow their favorite DJs rival that of any rock star, perhaps even more so because of the real time nature of their interactions.

DJs are reshaping the music industry as we know it.

But one piece of the pie that will solidify DJ culture’s total domination is still missing: a complete discovery, education and social experience for EDM fans and a streamlined way for DJ’s to interact with them. Enter DJZ, one of the newest members of the True portfolio, led by CEO Seth Goldstein, who helped launch turntable.fm. Seth and the DJZ team are creating a media company around the EDM movement to provide a complete online and mobile platform for DJ culture.

YouTube videos by top DJ’s like Deadmau5, Skrillix and Swedish House Mafia have 400 million YouTube hits, 10 million Twitter followers and 60 million Facebook likes—it is second nature for the EDM fan generation to connect online with the artists they love. DJZ will curate this content from around the web and feature DJ profiles, news, charts, downloadable mixes, user profiles and live streaming of shows, providing an all-encompassing online community for all things EDM.

EDM has forever changed the face of music, and DJZ embodies the energy, passion and raw power of this movement and its audience. True is thrilled to rally behind Seth’s extensive experience in music and social media and the DJZ team’s deep expertise in mobile and web design, and we are joined by our good friends at Index Ventures, KPCB and Google Ventures. DJZ is poised to make an explosive impact on the way DJs interact with their fans, and we couldn’t be more excited about the future of this brilliant company.

Seth and team DJZ, welcome to True!

Read today’s New York Times story about DJZ.