Austin Vegas Dot Com

It’s coming up! If you haven’t marked your calendars do so now, book those posh hotels and start hitting the gym hard! I reciently was reminded and thought I would put in my two cents to the background and scene happening down in Miami these days:

I sooo want to go but I’m sill feeling out commitments from the boss about taking the last week off of the quarter - I think it can work it but I’ll have to wait to commit…

Regarding Millennium Music Conference vs Winter Music Conference… (its long winded but I had to comment on this and on Louis Puig)

So there’s a post on MMC and what’s it for here:
http://www.rhythmism.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29428
Take a look at the post then move down here:

I heard that something like this was going to happen and although the reasons listed on that post are great, the underlining reason is something more - Money

There is another conference called the Miami Music and Multimedia conference (M3 Summit) which is typically the week before WMC. During that event a new “MEGA festival” started now called the Global Gathering Festival… The scheduling of more music events during M3 is driven to primarily for maximizing revenue for the clubs and hotels during this new and “third” conference call Miami Music Conference and this is also timed during the college spring break to take advantage of more participants - I don’t see this as relieving the congestion or the pricing for the weekend, just enhancing it.

But M3 is actually started explicitly focused on technology, products and its impact on music/multimedia not necessarily for the music itself or the events.

Here’s the gossip piece of this from what I can gather on the net. The promoter pushing the promotion of events around this years M3 conference is Louis Puig, the owner at Space Miami - he is also the founder of the Global Gathering festival which has been scheduled during the M3 event and is the weekend before the long running Ultra music festival which was started by ####################

Louis Puig adds a non-competitive clause for his talent djs and performers contracts. With in their contracts they are not allowed to play at Ultra if they are booked for any club or event party he hosts or runs. Last year Louis ran an event called “SpaceFest” which was in direct competition to Ultra and which ultimately failed to pull the record numbers that Ultra did last year. It seems he’s looking to a bigger initiative to maximize his profits the week before WMC…

More on that: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2004-11-11/bitch.html

Louis states that the reason for all these events the previous week is to extend the events surrounding WMC - because
1. Not everyone can attend the events scheduled during the week of WMC….
~ Contrary: WMC is the largest American music festival and rivals those festival events in Europe - if you are a DJ, artist, promoter etc., you will make arrangements to be there during that time… no question, just plan ahead.

2. There are too many events -
~ Contrary: its called supply and demand - if you can’t put together a quality event and pull the crowd, then don’t get in the game… besides we went to some small events and they were still packed with people that wanted to be there… It certainly takes some creative planning to attend all the type of events, music and DJs you want to hear, but spreading this conference over 2 weeks is not going to make it easier… I think Louis is just sour about the lack of attendance to his own club events and needs to make excuses for the fact that other promoters are actually putting together better shows and people prefer to attend them over his promotions.

3. There are too many DJs -
~ Seems to me that all the good DJs play Ultra and again Louis needs to make the case to hire talent for his clubs, and again the attendance thing … people who attend WMC will make arrangements to plan the week accordingly to hear the djs and talent they want… honestly who wants to, or can actually attend 2 weeks of parties - 1 week seems enough for me, and my body can’t take additional physical, chemical and emotional abuse - case in point last year!!!

4. WMC has gotten too expensive (The Expenses)
~ Does Louis actually think that adding another week of partying will alleviate door lines, hotel bookings or even mean that club promoters and hotel proprietors will magically drop their door charges or hotel stay charges? Absolutely not… the prices will stay the same and with longer event schedules, my costs will go up, not down…

5. The South Florida Locals - locals don’t attend the WMCs because of costs and crowding
~ same as 4… come on… every metro area has their events where they have to deal with crowds and costs. and if he thinks that locals don’t go to WMC club events because of costs, then maybe he should drop his own door charges from $50/$60 a night to $20/$30

6. Over crowding in the clubs…
~ I’ve been to South Beach on normal weekends… the clubs are still crowded… all-be-it not like WMC weekend but still you can’t get around this…

7. No time to stop and enjoy Miami…
~ Yeah, I’m too busy doin blo and going to clubs to actually enjoy the beach… or a beer on the patio and people watch some hot a$$ … or a little shopping time … or have a Cuban sandwich….or wait what else does Miami actually have to offer? I think there’s more to WMCs than the clubs, get over yo’self Louis…

With all that said… I am all for promoters of clubs making money… if they didn’t then they would close their doors and we wouldn’t have anywhere to have a good time or listen to top notch talent and music. I think part of the reason club culture has declined in America is not because of the quality of music but because club promoters have not thought enough about their customer - the club goer. They don’t understand that times have changed, hip hop is the most popular music in America (not house) and having a house music centric club in America is not the most profitable venue venture to get into (unless you’re in Las Vegas, or New York).

If you’re going to offer house music, the experience for the crowd has to be a good one - the DJ must be good (and I mean more than just a beat matching, bobbing head standing behind 2 decks - mix the damn records well damnit!!! ), big names help but sometimes the cost of DJ BIGHEAD-EGOIST out ways the gains, the club must be clean and have an enjoyable environment (we all know what happened to 1015 - even new paint couldn’t bring SFers back - nice job with Angles though, Trang *wink* - too bad I haven’t been able to go), bottle service and VIP are a must to cater to those egos, wallets and see-n-be-scene people (hey who don’t like being on that side of the velvet rope), on the flip side of VIP - give the folks in VIP a reason to go to the main room though and don’t put your full focus on the VIP; they aren’t the reason the masses return to your club, respect your customer (asshole doormen, rude hosts and attitude in the club will eventually turn away your most devoted star-gazers), bartenders should be able to pour a good drink! (I can deal with a costly drink, if the pour is good, served with a smile and there are options besides the $14 cosmo) and most important about music, is change up the talent - meaning throwing some live acts, vocalist or MCs, 2×4 vs. dj groups, artists, fashion shows, and hire outside of your local DJ gene pool (I love local dj support, but sometimes people want to hear someone new). The latest welcomed addition to clubs is the lounge (whether that’s a smoking, vip, bar, couch in the hallway etc., just some place to go that’s chill and you can talk up with a hottie). Whew… um yeah getting down off the box now…

I could add more but I think my diatribe is over for now…. see you in Miami!! just not at Space. Cheers!