Amsterdam Dance Event Positions Music Tech as Strategic Core of ADE Pro conference

As the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) prepares to celebrate three decades as the world’s leading gathering for electronic music and its business, its ADE Pro conference is cementing music tech as a strategic future pillar. ADE Pro’s evolution towards industry alignment between music business and technology companies at the highest level has become increasingly apparent over the past years, and its 2026 edition will serve as the global negotiating table where artist, music professionals, tech leaders, platform executives, and venture capital establish how infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and digital ownership are built and financed.

Setting the Terms: Tech giants and major platforms in one room
At the center of ADE Pro’s technology track is a series of roundtables, with “AI Platforms Roundtable: Setting the Terms” addressing the operational contracts governing the ecosystem. The session convenes Kakul Srivastava (CEO, Splice), Bina ‘B’ Mistry (VP Music & Commercial, SoundCloud), Shari Reich (Global Head of Audio & Music Developer Relations, NVIDIA), Alexis Lanternier (CEO, Deezer), Romain Becker (COO, Believe), and Constantin Koehncke (CEO, Image-Line / FL Studio) to debate licensing models, attribution, model training, and where platform incentives collide.

Complementing this platform dialogue, Jeff Chang, Director of Product Management at Google DeepMind, will present “Models and Agents: The Future of Music Production in the AI Era,” offering a product-led perspective on agentic workflows in generative environments.

The Artist’s Perspective: Seizing leverage to build it yourself
ADE Pro puts creator-technologists directly in command of the agenda:

• Artists on AI: A No-BS Roundtable: Electronic music pioneers including BT (Brian Transeau), multimedia artist Portrait XO, and Italian duo Mathame (more to be announced), address how AI impacts authorship, studio workflows, and income distribution.
• The Artist Founder – Building, Shipping, Touring: Demonstrating how artists are seizing leverage, Matt Black (Mix Medium / Boot Up The Network), Josh Baker (Syntho / You&Me), and Nathan Duvall (SYNC IT) explore an overarching question: if you could build the industry you actually want, what would you build, and what’s stopping you doing it now?
• The Future of DIY Is Shaping Your Own Label with AI: Tomas Luyke (Director of Marketing Technology & Innovation, Nettwerk Music Group) walks attendees through the exact open-source workflows and data integrations required to make LLMs actionable on live streaming and release data.

Beyond Algorithms: Human curation and reclaiming infrastructure
Addressing algorithm fatigue and creator burnout, ADE Pro also investigates the infrastructure being engineered to challenge discovery monopolies:

• If You Don’t Like It, You Build It: Founders Matt Waters (Unchained Music), Austin Robey (Subvert), Sofia Anglada (Pipeline / Jamen), and Suzy Ryoo unpack alternative, decentralized, and artist-owned distribution models that counter industry consolidation.
• Beyond the Feed – Taste, Trust, and Curated Communities: Bessie-Mae (SECTION.), Michail Stangl, and Quentin ‘TinTin’ Chambers (OpenLab) examine whether human curation, independent radio, and niche community tools can establish a financially viable counter-infrastructure against automated feeds.
• Rethinking Our Relationship with Social Media: Fast-rising selector Marrøn, ANNĒ (BLIND HARMONIES), Anastasios Diolatzis (Reworks), and Emma Chambers (Acrylic Artists) tackle digital burnout, questioning whether endless content creation is sustainable for a long-term artist career.

Funding the Ecosystem: ADE Startups & The Chorus Class of ’26
Reinforcing ADE’s commitment to funding future technical infrastructure, the Pro conference’s investment tracks focus on venture capital, alternative financing, and startup acceleration. Discussions including Who Funds The Future: Capital On Different Terms (featuring Rich Britton of Rare Ventures, Ben Wynter, and William Morgan of Restless Egg) and Music Industry As Investor with artist/entrepreneurs Tinie Tempah and Sam Feldt unpack how capital is entering the next wave of music tech.

Culminating the ADE Startups program, The Chorus will showcase the ADE Startups Class of ’26. Selected from hundreds of global candidates, eight seed- and early-stage companies: nowon AG, Exibeat, zig~zag, EventSynth, Groovian Ltd., AIDAR GmbH, Sonura, and Smash will debut their technologies to investors, partners, and international press following an exclusive 12-week mentorship program.

The full program can be found on ADE’s website. The ADE Pro Pass is available here.