EDM’s meteoric rise in popularity would prove a mixed blessing for other reasons as well. In 2012, the aforementioned Robert Sillerman arrived on the scene with full flamboyancy, declaring almost in the same breath the he knew nothing about dance music but ambitiously planned to invest $1 billion into the industry annually. In 2013 he made Rotella an offer to purchase Insomniac Events for an undisclosed amount – which Rotella turned down.
However, while Rotella may have declined to sell Insomniac in its entirety, he ended up selling a 50% stake in his company to Live Nation for reportedly $50 million – and those who follow the cash flows will recall that Live Nation was the original company named SFX Entertainment founded by Sillerman before it was purchased and rebranded by Clear Channel. Rotella hinted at a tell-all book about his dealings with Sillerman late last year, although he has yet to announce a release date or reveal any further details.
In what would feel like poetic justice if its implications weren’t so far reaching, it looks as though SFX will dissolve a mere two years after its conception. Perhaps the most resonant death knell of the corporation – which bought out companies like Beatport and Disco Donnie Presents since its 2013 IPO – was the indefinite cancellation of One Tribe Festival, which would have marked SFX subsidiary ID&T’s expansion into the SoCal market.
“The reason why is I think the audience has been educated over a long period of time and can see the difference between what’s authentic and what’s not,” Bentley speculates. “It gives me a good feeling to know that we have a discerning audience.”
As of this writing, though, the full impacts of Sillerman’s mismanagement are difficult to estimate. SFX aside other recorded trends indicate contractions in certain parts of the industry. While music purists celebrate that the implosion that may occur as a result of diminished investor confidence will drive the scene back underground where it started, what they may not appreciate is how many jobs in the music industry could be eliminated in the process.
In addition, Rotella’s own increasingly convoluted involvement with corporate financiers seems a far cry from his humble beginnings as an L.A. party kid. He maintains what many perceive as a stranglehold over the SoCal rave scene, and even some of his old friends have turned their noses to his success in recent years.
Former collaborators Stephen Enos and Gary Richards recently filed a petition for cancellation of the EDC brand, alleging that Rotella made an oral agreement to borrow the name for his party in ‘97 and then trademarked it without owning it outright in 2009. For reasons like these, some dance music fans might speculate that Rotella’s recent dealings are symptomatic of his surrender to contemporary EDM’s sellout culture.
