Date: Thursday 18 October 2018
Time: 12:00-17:00
Place: De Balie (B3 Lecture Room) | Kleine–Gartmanplantsoen 10, Amsterdam
Program: Catching The Korean Wave: The Insider's Guide To Korea
Presented by: BEPC Tangent Creative (Seoul, S-Korea)
Organized by: AMSbookings.ASIA & MPLUS82
LIVE streamed by: Mixmag Korea


ADE Guest House put focus on South Korea during their mid-day program from 12 PM until 5 PM. BEPC Tangent Creative, Korea's leading music festival and events company, hosted the program and invited many key players from all corners of the industry to introduce the Korean market and the key to its success in the business.

South Korea has been the official focus country on Amsterdam Dance Event in 2018 because it is one of the most dynamic, technically advanced and productive music markets in the world right now. Global sales of the genre known as K-pop made South Korea the 8th largest music market in the world by revenue (bigger than India and China), generating $4.7 billion in global sales last year.

But more relevant to ADE delegates is the fact that, alongside the synchronised dance music and pop melodies that typify K-pop, the country is also home to a thriving and highly productive underground and crossover electronic scene.

Catching The Korean Wave: The Insider's Guide To Korea" took place at Thursday 18th October in De Balie (Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, a 5 minutes walk from the main conference at De La Mar Theatre) and is presented by BEPC Tangent Creative and organised by AMSbookings.ASIA and MPLUS82. The full program day will be streamed on Mixmag Korea's Instagram page.

More info: https://www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/spaces/catching-the-korean-wave/12908285/

Panel #1 - Country Focus on South Korea

In this key note speech Quincy Kim and Mark Yoo will reveal everything you need to do to have a chance of selling your music or breaking an artist in South Korea, who to talk to in order to book shows and tours, how local musical tastes are evolving and how best to interact with Korea's entertainment market leaders.

Quincy Kim (Mixmag Korea / BNL, KR) // Promoter, Artist Booker
Mark Yoo (MPLUS82, KR) // Promoter, Consultant

Panel #2: The Sole Survivor - The Original Team Behind Major Korean Festivals

CEO of BEPC, Eunsun Kim, will be explaining the past, present, and future of the Korean dance music scene and his team's success as the original Korean brand in the market.

Eunsung Kim (BEPC, KR) // CEO
Moderator: Rakesh Sharma (Anna Agency, NL) // Business Development Manager

Panel #3: Building The Perfect Partnership.

The story behind the underlying concept and execution of various musical activities with Heineken.

Chadi Abdo (Heineken Korea, KR) // Marketing Director
Hyesun Lim (BEPC, KR) // Manager
Moderator: Erix Santman (MusicAllStars Management, NL) // Head Of Artist Management

Panel #4: Planting The Seed - Musical Diversity in the Korean dance music scene

Seoul is definitely on the global music map. Boiler Room went there for the first time some years ago, Resident Advisor had a residency and MixMag Korea opened a new office and launched a dedicated Korean version of their website, and most of the European and American DJs that are touring Asia are now stopping in Seoul for shows. All that started in Hongdae area of Seoul 15 years ago, but in the last few years most of the new clubs are located in a neighborhood named Itaewon, next to the main US army base.

Mystik was one of the first to be internationally known, soon followed by Cakeshop, Contra and Pistil and more recently Faust, SOAP, Volnost, and Beton Brut to mention a few. S Factory is a cultural centre bringing in names like Charlotte de Witte. Faust hosted Sven Vath and Len Faki last month. SOAP hosts weekly internationals (Kitsune, Claptone, San Holo) introducing many new up and coming artist to the Korean underground scene and Club Living Room has opened with really good house vibes. These underground clubs are all pretty small compared to the huge night complexes you find in the famous Gangnam area, like Octagon, Burning Sun and Arena, where many artists from the DJ Top100 have played in the last decade. But what's next for Seoul's nightlife?

Marcus L (Faust, KR) // Founder, Label Director, Resident DJ, Producer
Mark Yoo (MPLUS82, KR) // Promoter, Consultant
Quincy Kim (Mixmag Korea / BNL, KR) // Promoter, Artist Booker
Yann Cavaille (Club Soap, FR) // Co-Founder, DJ, Producer, Designer
Moderator: Marc Lankreijer (AMSbookings.ASIA, NL) // Managing Director, Owner

Panel #5: K-pop from S-Korea

SM Entertainment is one of South Korean's largest music label and entertainment companies, representing K-pop and currently working with several talented international songwriters and (electronic) music composers including Maarten ten Hove who co-wrote under the nom de plume "The Future Presidents" the Electric Shock EP for South Korean act f(x), the EP had over 115 million Youtube views. Bobby Sukhraj teamed up with SM Entertainment when they presented themselves at ADE in 2017 and dived into the K-pop scene scoring major successes for his writers incl Dutch composer and songwriter Jihad Rahmouni who wrote several K-pop hits for TV XQ, Girl's Generation and now for NTC. Erik Abores, signed to Spinnin' and previously very successful in the EDM scene, has concrete plans to move to Seoul and already started learning Korean. Dguru is a member of electronic band Idiotape who have been successful not only in Korea but also worldwide through their international tours and appearance in festivals. Greig Watts is Head of Publishing at Dwb Music in the UK and has written and produced many songs for artists that have sold over 10 million units. He is widely recognised as an expert in the Asian and Eurovision markets, running song camps for his writers focused on K-pop music.

Bobby Sukhraj (Houston Comma, NL) // A&R
Maarten ten Hove (NL) // Songwriter, Music Composer
Erik Arbores (NL) // DJ, Producer
Dguru (Idiotape, KR) // Artist
Moderator: Greig Watts (DWB Music, GB) // Head of Publishing