“While “success” in electronic music can mean everything from simply paying your rent to headlining Tomorrowland, fame has just as many faces in the industry today. To some, it looks like billboards of Peggy Gou or the 115 million Spotify streams on Bicep’s track, “Glue.” It also manifests as the buzz behind FJAAK’s label Spandau20, or as thousands of likes on a video of Kobosil dressed in his own fashion label. Fame can also look like Niina on the cover of Spotify’s Altar playlist or a feed filled with pictures of Courtesy and VTSS on magazine covers and in fashion editorials.
It’s the (potentially multi) million-dollar question on everyone’s minds: How can an artist “make it” nowadays? While the quest for widespread recognition and acclaim feels part and parcel of pursuing a career in pop or hip-hop, electronic music’s relationship with fame and success is more fraught and opaque. This is the case not only because commercialisation has long been declared the enemy of the underground, but also because the roadmaps to success that have been brooded over in the boardrooms of major labels don’t necessarily apply to DJs and producers in the current landscape.”
Click here to read the full feature for Resident Advisor.
