Educating the next generation of producers with Denon DJ

WHAT IS DENON DJ?

Denon DJ is a leading manufacturer of equipment for professional and mobile DJs. Since the introduction of their first dual-rackmount CD player in 1992, Denon DJ has provided premium, innovative solutions for world-class performances night after night. Denon DJ is a member of the premier family of brands known as inMusic. During Amsterdam Dance Event, Denon DJ partnered up with Spinnin’ Records for various activities during the Spinnin’ Academy.

GOAL

Educate the next generation of Dance music artists with masterclasses and workshops about everything music related together with Denon DJ. Furthermore, give visitors the chance to try out the latest Denon DJ equipment and attend their special seminars.

SUMMARY

Spinnin’ Academy is the name we use for our events we organize to educate the next generation of producers, something we find very important as the biggest Dance music label in the world. During ADE, we hosted Spinnin’ Academy in the Air Amsterdam and attracted over 350 visitors. Together with official partner of the event Denon DJ we hosted a lot of masterclasses, seminars and Q&A sessions lined up, spread over two areas. In the third area we hosted our well-known Demo Drops, where upcoming producers can get feedback on their tracks by the Spinnin’ A&R team.

For the masterclasses we had artists Mesto, Mike Williams, Jay Hardway and Afro Bros join us, to educate the visitors about all kinds of music related topics. From how to start your track, to the success of getting millions of streams on your music. At the same time Denon DJ hosted seminars about the Prime Basics, Stagelinq & Soundswitch, Stagelinq & Resolume and Prime Advanced. With the whole campaign online to promote Spinnin’ Academy we reached 730.000 people across all social media and with our live report we reached 15.469 people.

IDEA

As the biggest Dance music label in the world, we find it very important to stay in touch with the community and to educate the upcoming generation of producers as much as we can. Since Amsterdam Dance Event is the biggest global gathering of Dance music professionals and fans, with nearly 400.000 yearly visitors from all over the world, this was the perfect time for us to host another edition of Spinnin’ Academy.

Spinnin’ Academy is a day-time event where upcoming producers can come for free to learn all about every aspect of being an artist, from production masterclasses to feedback on their demos. During ADE, we turned the AIR Amsterdam into a true producer paradise with three areas, the Main Area where the Spinnin’ Masterclasses were hosted, the Demo Drop Area where upcoming producers could get their demos listened to by the Spinnin’ A&R team and the Spinnin’ Tech Lounge where Denon DJ hosted their area.

For this edition of Spinnin’ Academy we had a stacked line for our Main Area. We kicked off with a Q&A session with Mesto, proceeded with a masterclass by Alpharock and Dennis Braunsdorf on the new BASE by Spinnin’ Records plugin. We continued with a masterclass by Jay Hardway on how to make your productions sound better and a demonstration of the new Akai Professional Fire Controller for FL Studio. And we wrapped the day up with a masterclass by Mike Williams on how he made his track ‘Lullaby’ and a Q&A with streaming magnets Afro Bros.

As the official partner of the Spinnin’ Academy, Denon DJ hosted their own area with various seminars and Denon equipment fans could try out. There were Denon representatives walking around who helped the visitors out with their questions about the equipment.

In their own area Denon DJ hosted four seminars and one in the main area. The seminars in the Denon DJ area were to show people the Denon DJ Prime Series:

• Prime Basics: where visitors discovered Prime basics and how this can revolutionize your DJ performance.

• Stagelinq and Soundswitch: which was all about how Denon DJ’s proprietary StageLinq communication protocol offers unequalled, complete control over DJs lighting and video effects with Soundswitch.

• Stagelinq and Resolume: where was explained how Denon DJ’s proprietary StageLinq communication protocol offers unequalled, complete control over DJs lighting and video effects with Resolume.

• Prime Advanced: where people got to know all the tips and tricks facilitated by Denon DJ’s prime series with an advanced seminar that delves into the diverse performance capability of Denon DJ’s flagship product roster.

The Denon DJ seminar in the main area was a tutorial on the new Akai Fire Professional where certified FL Power User Michal Wynne outlined why the latest controller from Akai Professional will forever the way you work with FL Studio.

As the official partner Denon DJ got a lot of exposure within the target group they wanted to reach. First off because the Denon DJ logo was integrated into all the online promotion, from artwork to announcement videos. Second because on all the signs and even the big screen in the main area the Denon DJ logo was also shown during Spinnin’ Academy. Next to exposure Denon DJ also got the opportunity to get in contact with their target group by speaking with them while demonstrating their products or answering questions during the seminars. In short, we helped Denon DJ reach the target group in an organic way during ADE.

During all this, we hosted two Demo Drops where our Spinnin’ A&R team listened to the demos all the upcoming producers brought with them. Both demo drops were a huge success with seemingly endless lines and a lot of happy producers who got very valuable feedback on their tracks.

Spinnin’ Academy also saw the launch of the first ever producer plugin by Spinnin’ Records, made together with Prolody: BASE. BASE helps producers get the kick and the bass absolutely perfect in their tracks. Award winning composer Dennis Braunsdorf and DJ/Producer Alpharock were at the Academy to explain all about the BASE plugin and every visitor got a special discount voucher for the plugin for attending the masterclass.

We had a brilliant day teaching and entertaining hundreds of young producers and can’t wait for the next edition of Spinnin’ Academy!

RESULTS

During the day we had over 350 visitors at the Spinnin’ Academy. All posts across all social channels of Spinnin’ Records about Spinnin’ Academy got an accumulated reach of 730.000. With our live report during Spinnin’ Academy on Instagram Stories we reached 15.469 people, over half of the total amount of followers on the Talent Pool Instagram.