From the Underground to Global Domination: Dan Smith’s Insights On The Evolution Of Dance Music

Armada Music US General Manager Dan Smith stopped by to discuss the leading factors behind dance music’s rise to mainstream recognition.

Dan Smith, the general manager of Armada Music in the US, leads a prosperous career that dates back to the early 2000s. Having gained experience working in various fields within the music industry, he demonstrates a well-versed background that gives him a unique perspective on electronic dance music.

Over the years, the entertainment industry has bore witness to an exhilarating transformation in the realm of dance music. What was once a secretive, underground movement has erupted onto the global stage, reshaping the industry as a whole. To help us better understand dance music’s recent ascent, Dan provided well-informed insights on the matter. In our chat, we explored multiple topics that have propelled dance music into the international spotlight and reformed the sonic landscape of the music industry.

When Dan was first introduced to the scene in the early 2010s, New York City nightlife was thriving. “At that time it felt really healthy. There were records crossing over into pop radio; there were DJs actively coming here,” he said.

Then, the “velvet rope” era entered the chat. “There was a weird time in nightlife in New York where some of these clubs closed down,” he said. “A lot of the DJs in dance music started to get booked at bottle service-type clubs. It felt like it had died.” Fortunately, that phase didn’t last forever. Soon after, a resurgence in nightlife transpired.

Right now, it feels like people are excited to party again. When you have places like the Mirage or Knockdown Center where people are buying hard tickets to party and not buying a table to show off, then you have real fans of the music. That’s what it felt like when I first started back in the early 2010s.
Dan Smith

With years of experience under his belt, Dan was ready to take the next step in his career. This past February, he was officially hired by Armada Music to oversee its operations in the US. It didn’t happen overnight, however. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Dan told us, “My career really started in studios. I decided, ‘Hey, let me see if I can go work at a record label.’ I had a chat with Ultra [Records] and they thought it was cool that I had worked with David Guetta once. I was really lucky to have joined at a time where it was the start of streaming.”

“I was very junior at the label but I dug in and tried to figure out the whole streaming game, essentially making a name for myself as somebody that came up when streaming was coming up,” Dan went on. “It’s given me a lot of background to know where records can go, and I’m thankful that Armada trusts me to help them promo their records in the US.”

Armada Music Co-Founder Armin van Buuren performing at The Brooklyn Mirage | Photo Credit: Eric Cunningham

At a music label, Dan believes there are two types of general managers: those who are A&R focused, and others who are marketing-focused. He considers himself the “marketing and promo guy, and that comes from my background promo-ing records.” He added, “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to be early on digital trends…a lot of what I’m focused on is making sure that our artists are crossing over here properly, that the biggest artists get the biggest pushes, and that the developing artists get all of the opportunities they can.”

Working at the biggest independent dance music label in the world can certainly contribute to a deep understanding of the industry’s inner workings. With the worldwide recognition of dance music currently at its peak, we defer to Dan Smith’s judgement on why he thinks the genre continues to plant more of its seeds across the globe.

The reason it became such a global phenomenon is partly because of streaming. Early in streaming, you weren’t going to get a million streams unless you had multiple markets and multiple countries promoting your song. So it had to be global. And because dance music is more about the vibe and less about the lyrics, it spreads to countries where they don’t speak the language easier.
Dan Smith

A lot can be said about why dance music has captured the hearts of an internationally diverse audience, but the emphasis on its instrumental quality and less on lyrics is an intriguing factor. Dance music is a relatable musical language that can be understood by everyone. Now that it’s globally recognized, the industry’s opinion of dance music has changed as well.

For a while, the mainstream and the pop side of things looked at it as this niche movement and a sound they could incorporate into their productions. Then, there were a few key moments where big dance records became proper hits at that time, whether it was from Armin or Guetta or Garrix. There were real pop crossovers that signaled to the rest of the industry that this is a genre that’s here to stay and has a thriving community around it.
Dan Smith

Today, we see more crossovers and collaborations with A-list artists in dance-pop than ever before. One such milestone for the commercial success of dance music was Beyonce’s 2022 album Renaissance, on which Honey Dijon, Green Velvet, and other dance music producers were credited.

Speaking on his experience working in studios, Dan shared, “There was a time in studios where active writing sessions were happening, and pop songwriters would go in and say, ‘How can we add a dubstep drop to this?’ Or ‘I just heard this thing on UKF, can we flip it or do something?’ We still see that and still see dance records being sampled by rappers and vice versa.”

From his perspective as a GM for Armada, Dan also revealed how dance-pop has impacted the way the label operates.

For us on the dance-pop side, we’re always looking to have a mix of commercial crossover records and our underground records. We’re an independent label, so we are not focused on market share in the same way that a major label might be. We’re focused on creating a healthy business and making sure we stay credible. That means we have to put out underground records, too, and figure out a way to do that profitably.
Dan Smith

He then touched upon the challenges they face as a label on the promoting side. “We could have a song that is blowing up on the radio because the programmers there love the artist and they’re among the few people that will take a stab at something before it has the streams, and we’re thankful for that,” he explained. “But sometimes, the records we see that work on radio don’t always work on streaming and vice versa. It becomes a balancing act, and we’re always trying to find the one that fits both.”

Armada Music New York Office

Dan also discussed the significance of technological advancements and how their progression points back to the global nature of streaming. And whether we like it or not, AI technology will continue to develop and make its way into our everyday lives. Dan, who fully supports the use of AI, wrote a Music Ally guest column a few weeks ago about how AI can positively affect the dance music industry specifically.

I’m really excited about what AI can do on the production side of things and how it can help the creative process for our artists. There’s already a handful of our artists using different AI tools in productions…Sometimes the nuance that gets missed in some of the AI talk is that so much of the creative process is using the best of something, the best mixing board or the best plugin. AI doesn’t have a way to tap into that yet. It’s just spontaneously generating audio.
Dan Smith

There’s nonetheless a widespread fear that AI will take away the creativity and the heart of making music. Dan disagrees. “I don’t think a completely AI-generated song will ever be able to reach even the same sonic level,” he said. “Even if you take out the creativity part, it won’t reach the same sonic level unless it’s figuring out how to use the same tools that our musicians are using.“

Arguably the most integral aspect in the recent expansion and evolution of dance music is the power of social media.

We used to look at it as a promotional avenue. ‘My new song’s out. Go check it out.’ Then, when you start to get into the data, you realize that’s not the right message to be sending on these platforms. I don’t have broad numbers on this, but what I’ve seen as a benchmark on vertical videos, and that’s Reels, TikTok, YouTube shorts, generally 80% to 90% of the views are coming from non-followers, which means these are people that don’t follow you, they don’t care about you. So why would they care if your new single is out now…If you don’t have your TikTok and your Reels, then you’re not attracting new people. And these are people you can attract for free.
Dan Smith

With the expansion of dance music reaching new heights, Armada, who considers itself the home for all dance music, is seeing the impact firsthand. “The expansion of dance music, streaming in general, and how much it’s grown has attracted more different creative sources of funding for the music industry abroad,” Dan explained. “We see that result here with our Beat Music Fund, where we’re focused completely on investing and acquiring masters of classic dance catalogs.”

Dan encourages other industry leaders who are looking to positively embrace the evolution of dance music and take advantage of its staying power to be willing to take risks and try something new and creative.

The willingness to experiment and bring new ideas to your artists shows proactiveness that artists don’t always feel. It’s really important to bring opportunities to the table so that artists feel like they have a team behind them, because any of them could just go to DistroKid if they wanted to do it on their own.
Dan Smith

Pictured are Jop Bonnike, Dan Smith, and Maykel Piron

Our conversation with Dan Smith highlighted the resilience, adaptability, and transformative power of electronic dance music. His valuable expertise on its past, present, and future illuminates the genre’s progression from the underground to the mainstream. As we see it continue to evolve, the music industry must remain adaptable and forward thinking, just as Dan and Armada Music have done, to continue pushing the boundaries of what dance music can achieve.

Follow Armada Music:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | SoundCloud | YouTube | Twitch