Massive Music Festival Distribution Deals

Distribution deals take many forms in today’s world of new media and diverse content. Brands are seeking out new creative content to reach their audiences in every way possible. The music festival industry specifically is taking new leaps with how they deliver their various streams of creative content. Ultra Music, the top electronic music label and Machinima, the dominant video entertainment network, have announced their new exciting partnership this year. Machinima is the number one global video entertainment network for young males ages 13-34 years old, specializing in gameplay videos, scripted animated series featuring video game characters, and official game trailers according to Billboard Biz. In this new deal, Machinima will exclusively manage ad sales for Ultra’s YouTube content and share in the ad revenue. The partnership also requires that the companies collaborate to match up Ultra artists with Machinima’s videographers, to produce original content that will be distributed within Machinima’s network of over 6,000 channel partners with over 262 million viewers a month globally.

“As YouTube is now one of the most powerful platforms being used to distribute digital media, this partnership with Machinima is a great step forward for our artists and our music,” said Patrick Moxey, President of Ultra Music. “Music today is increasingly an audio-visual experience.” Ultra now produces approximately 100 new music videos per year and numerous full-length concert experiences (Machinima, 2013). These numbers are amazing given that music festivals can capitalize on all the fans that cannot physically attend the festivals. With the wave of distribution deals hitting viral channels like it is, newer and broader audience reach can be achieved. Currently, Ultra Music is the number one viewed YouTube channel for electronic music resulting in over 1 million subscribers with over 2 billion views. Electronic music is still a fresh face amongst the other music genre veterans, to have a fan base as large as this is astronomical. Ultra Music has several projects currently in the works including over 70 videos in production and a video specific A&R representative.