More than 50 people attended a talk given by Billboard Dance founder Matt Medved in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University on Wednesday.

The DJ, producer, curator and Rochester native discussed the “long and winding road” that led him to where he is now: heading Billboard’s dance/electronic music department, which he started in May 2015. He also shared thoughts on building cross-platform brands and the future of dance music, which he said other parts of the world have already made a cultural constant.

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Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Program for Music Business and the Entertainment Industries at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, led the discussion, which lasted about an hour and a half. He started by asking Medved about his career path.

Medved wrote about music for his high school paper, then attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He intended to pursue a career in music journalism and started DJing during his senior year, he said.

While studying for his undergraduate degree, he spent time on a journalism residency in South Africa. He said the experience gave him a “strong desire to create a social good.” It was also where he first got into house music.

Medved has traveled to Australia, Nigeria, Milan and Berlin and said he has developed an appreciation for different types of music around the world. Medved was a consultant for a conflict resolution organization called Search for Common Ground in Nigeria, where he also reached more than 6 million listeners as a resident DJ at Africa’s largest radio station.

At one point in his career, Medved was attending law school by day and producing music by night. He said he kept writing “out of pure passion” for music blogs. He took a job as a freelance writer for Billboard, where he wrote stories on artists he said he believed in, such as Martin Garrix, Tiesto and Galantis.

“I started to realize everyone wanted to be associated with Billboard’s brand,” he said.

He said Billboard drove him to create a space for up-and-coming electronic and dance artists to get the “meaningful stamp of approval” they need to gain traction in the industry. Now, he said, dance is one of the fastest growing vertical markets at Billboard.

Dance music will continue to rise in popularity in domestic markets, he said.

“It’s the music that is most closely tied to technology, and technology is always driving music forward,” Medved said.

Medved said new artists often clamor for Billboard’s attention, but part of his strategy is to have Billboard partner with the artists at the most impactful point in their career trajectory. That means having them build a fan base in blogs first and align with Billboard after, he said.

Medved described dance music as being ahead of the curve in cross-platform promotion.

When fans hear a group such as The Chainsmokers with a female artist featured, they assume the band consists of just the female artist, Medved said. The Chainsmokers have used marketing strategies to show the personalities of the band members and to attract a fan base with video on social media platforms, he said.

In the streaming era, he added, passive listening has become common. Listeners don’t know anything about the artist they’re hearing, but editorial content can help elevate an artist’s story.

The modern-day Billboard brand is about much more than the magazine presence, Medved said. Video, digital content and social media presence are all just as important.

“In order to survive and adapt in this climate, you have to wear multiple hats,” he said.

Published on September 5, 2018 at 10:58 pm

Contact Colleen: cefergus@syr.edu | @ColleenEFergus2