Amsterdam Dance Event has expanded the ADE Pro Conference lineup for its 30th anniversary, adding another group of artists, label founders, cultural organizers, and music-industry figures to the program on top of the stacked announcement they made back in April.
The latest confirmations include Mochakk, Josh Baker, SPFDJ, Solarce Brothers, Pegassi, Mathame, and Paul Hartnoll of Orbital. They join business and cultural leaders including Ed Banger Records founder Pedro Winter, Because Records co-founder Emmanuel de Buretel, music lawyer Sarah Williams, Block9 co-founder Gideon Berger, and Ninja Tune co-founder Matt Black.
That mix gives a clearer picture of where ADE wants the Pro program to sit this year.
The conference is pulling together people who build careers from the booth and studio alongside those working on labels, contracts, independent infrastructure, events, and long-term artist development. The announced conversations will move through artist entrepreneurship, AI, activism, independent music culture, and the future of creative work.
Artists Are Taking A Larger Role In The Business Conversation
Mochakk, Josh Baker, SPFDJ, and the other artist additions bring more current touring and creative experience into the conference.
That matters because conversations about the music business can become detached from what artists are dealing with every week. Touring costs, content demands, changing audience habits, crowded release schedules, and the pressure to build a recognizable identity all affect how a modern artist develops.
Mochakk is a useful addition to conversations around artist entrepreneurship because his growth has involved music, performance, branding, and a highly visible relationship with his audience. SPFDJ brings a different perspective shaped by underground club culture and the harder end of contemporary techno, while Josh Baker and Solarce Brothers can speak to the relationship between DJ careers, releases, and the communities built around their scenes.
Paul Hartnoll also adds the experience of someone whose work with Orbital has moved through several generations of electronic music and live performance. That longer view should give the program some needed perspective on which industry changes are genuinely new and which are old pressures appearing in a new form.
Independent Music Culture Gets A Seat At The Table
The latest speaker group also includes people who have helped build some of electronic music’s most recognizable independent institutions.
Pedro Winter founded Ed Banger Records and helped create a label identity that became inseparable from the artists, artwork, videos, parties, and wider culture around it. Emmanuel de Buretel brings experience from Because Records, while Matt Black represents the long-running independent thinking behind Ninja Tune.
These speakers can offer something different from a standard major-label conference panel. Independent music culture depends on creative choices and business structures working together. A label needs enough identity to mean something to listeners, and it still needs systems that allow its artists and staff to keep going.
Gideon Berger’s work with Block9 brings physical spaces and event culture into that conversation. Clubs, festival installations, and temporary venues shape how electronic music is experienced, and they also give communities somewhere to exist away from digital platforms.
AI, Activism, And Creativity Reflect The Pressure Artists Are Feeling
ADE has confirmed that the program will address AI and the future of creativity, topics that have become difficult for artists and labels to avoid.
The useful conversations here will need to move past broad claims about whether AI is good or bad. Artists are already dealing with practical questions around training data, copyright, synthetic vocals, automated content, discovery systems, and whether creative work can retain value as generated material becomes easier to produce.
Activism and independent culture add another layer. Electronic music has always relied on communities creating their own spaces, especially when mainstream institutions offered little support. Current pressures around venue closures, cultural funding, political division, and the rising cost of touring make those conversations particularly relevant.
Sarah Williams brings a legal perspective that should help ground some of these topics in the realities of rights, agreements, and career protection. That kind of practical detail is often where a conference session becomes genuinely useful rather than simply interesting.
What Comes With An ADE Pro Pass?
The ADE Pro Pass includes access to the full conference program, with masterclasses, keynotes, and industry sessions running throughout the event.
Pass holders also receive access to ADE Festival events, which will feature over 3,000 artists and DJs across venues throughout Amsterdam. Networking sessions, industry drinks, matchmaking events, the official ADE bag, and year-round access to ADE’s Pro business platform are included as well.
The combination gives attendees a way to move between formal conference programming and the wider festival. That overlap has always been one of ADE’s main advantages. A discussion about labels or touring can continue at a showcase later that night, while a connection made at a panel can become a meeting during the week.
Current ADE Pro Pass rates will increase in one week. With the 30th anniversary program continuing to grow, the early pricing window gives anyone already planning to attend a reason to secure access before the next increase.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
