Featuring tech leaders and platforms including Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, YouTube Music, Splice, SoundCloud, Deezer, Image-Line, and Believe, ADE Pro expands to set the agenda on the alignment between the music industry and tech.
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.
1996—2026: 30 Years of Driving Electronic Music Forward
Over the past three decades, ADE has grown to become the most influential breeding ground for electronic music; building the framework that helped a new genre to be recognised worldwide as an art form and a thriving business, into what is now an immense global industry. More specials, initiatives and events celebrating 30 Years of ADE will be unveiled throughout the coming months.
About the Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation
The Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to nurturing electronic music, its culture and its industry worldwide. The organisation devotes itself to stimulating development, innovation and talent, gathering the global industry and laying a foundation for future generations. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), an initiative of Buma, has grown into the world’s largest and most influential club-based festival and conference for electronic music. The event continues to grow and develop each year, featuring over 3,600 artists throughout 1,300+ events in over 300 venues. The five-day event features every conceivable aspect of electronic music culture, with dedicated conference programming, an extensive Arts & Culture programme, live music and DJ/artist performances, all spread across the city of Amsterdam. More information about ADE can be found here.
ADE – Electronic Music Gathers Here
The Amsterdam Dance Event is organised by The Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation.
Founding partner: BumaStemra | Main partner: Heineken
Contact
Nikki McNeill | Global Publicity
nikki@globalpublicity.co.uk