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The Winter Music Conference (WMC) is a week-long
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
conference, held every March in
Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...
,
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since 1985. It is also known as the premiere platform for electronic dance music. The conference brings together professionals such as artists, DJs, record label representatives (A&R), producers, promoters,
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
and the
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for seminars and panel discussions. Thousands of attendees attend the WMC each year from around the world.


History and background

The Winter Music Conference was founded in 1985 by Louis Possenti and Bill Kelly. Held annually in Miami Beach, Florida. the Winter Music Conference, has hosted up to an estimated 100,000 people. The first Winter Music Conference took place at the
Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
Marriott Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hote ...
during 19–21 February 1986. There were approximately 80 dance music industry insiders in attendance. Since its inception in 1986, the event festivities have moved down south, across
Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
and
Downtown Miami Downtown Miami is the urban city center of Miami, Florida. The city's greater downtown region consists of the Central Business District, Brickell, the Historic District, Government Center, the Arts & Entertainment District, and Park West. It ...
. The event commands a major international draw with around 38 percent of attendees coming from outside the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The conference serves as a platform for many underground and indie artists from over 70 different countries who spend the conference at events and panels; it is also a medium used by several
entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
s and consumer electronic companies to present their businesses and technological developments. The WMC &
The Recording Academy The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy A ...
began in 1996 - a partnership presenting The Producers Forum, a gathering of legendary artists. In 1999, ''Ultra Beach Music Festival'', now known as
Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, ...
, became an event as part of Winter Music Conference, taking place on 13 March 1999. Waxpoetics Magazine, JBL, and Stanton sponsored the first International Record Collectors Show in 2007. The WMC 2009 introduced the first annual WMC VJ Challenge at The Miami Beach Resort & Spa with celebrity hosts, judges, and VJs from various parts of the world hosted by VJ Psyberpixie and Felix Sama. This inaugural year of the competition resulted in Sergey Lobodln (Moscow, Russia), walking away with the top winner prize. Since 2008, the conference has received increasing competition from the International Music Summit taking place in
Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
in May. In 2010, the VJ Challenge was expanded into two areas of competition; Video Mixing and Audio/Visual Mixing. The 2010 VJ Challenge winners were AeonChild (Boulder, Colorado) in the video category and
Eclectic Method Eclectic Method is the name of an audio-visual remix act, originally formed in London in 2001 by Jonny Wilson. Geoff Gamlen and Ian Edgar. Wilson is the sole remaining member. History Inspired almost entirely by Jonny's early experiences with ...
(London/NYC) in the Audio/Visual category. The Miami Beach Resort also received the performance of the RoboMusic Demo in which Funkstar De Luxe and RoboProfessor (Henrik Hautop Lund) create live interactive compositions of RoboMusic. In 2011, for the first time, WMC and
Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, ...
split and took place during two completely separate weekends in March. This was "a gross inconsideration by the WMC for event planners worldwide and artist scheduling." according to Windish Agency
booking agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sp ...
Steve Goodgold. 2014 was the last year that WMC lasted a total of ten days. In 2015, WMC took place across the span of five days. Following that, 2016 was the second time that Winter Music Conference took place apart from Ultra Music Festival, lasting only four days, 21–24 March. Since then, other music conferences have come about including
SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
in Austin,
Amsterdam Dance Event The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is a five-day electronic music conference and festival held annually in mid-October. The event, organised by The Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation, offers a full programme of daytime conferences at ADE Pro, ADE Tech ...
(ADE), and EDMbiz in
Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, which takes place during Electric Daisy Carnival yearly. On March 21, 2018, Ultra announced that it had acquired the WMC and the IDMAs. On March 9, 2020, it was announced that the 35th edition of the WMC, originally scheduled for March 16–19, would be rescheduled due to the Florida Governor's declaration of a public health emergency and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's Interim Guidance regarding the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.


Events

There are over 500 individual events during the week the conference takes place. In 2007, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' named it "one of the most anticipated clubbing events in the country." *WMC Seminars & Panels *The International Record Collectors Show *South Beach Sessions *The Producers Forum *WMC Demo Listening Workshops *WMC/DMC DJ Spin-off *WMC On-Site Featured Events *WMC Exhibits *WMC Official and Sanctioned Events *WMC Sample Sack *The Guide *The List *Exhibit Hall *WMC technology demonstrations *WMC VJ Challenge


International Dance Music Awards

A major event during Winter Music Conference is the International Dance Music Awards (IDMAs). The IDMAs are an integral part of WMC generating over two million votes from music enthusiasts in 209 countries and territories every year to recognize and honor exceptional achievements in 57 award categories. The IDMAs have been held annually since the founding of the WMC in 1985, except for 2017. In 2018 they were held once again but winners were chosen by the WMC without public voting. 2019, marked the first public vote for the IDMAs since the WMC was bought out by Miami Music Week - the organisers of
Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, ...
.


See also

*
List of electronic music festivals The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitar and keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electronic dance music (E ...


References


External links

*Official Site
Official Notice
*
Article about International Dance Music Awards in Music Tendencies
*
Article about Winter Music Conference in Music Tendencies
{{DJ Award-Special Award for Outstanding Contribution , state=collapsed 1985 establishments in Florida Music conferences Electronic music festivals in the United States Music festivals in Miami Music festivals established in 1985