06 Jan 2013
Posted by Ki 
The Vegas DJ wars are seriously heating up. As many know, the Steve Wynn nightlife empire (XS, Encore Beach Club, Surrender and Tryst) fired the first shot across the bow last spring when they signed just about every big name DJ (Tiesto, Calvin Harris, DeadMau5, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, David Guetta) to exclusive deals to play at their venues (Avicii and Kaskade were the only mega-DJ hold outs as they wanted the option to play at non-Wynn affiliated Marquee). In all, 34 DJs signed with Wynn. These were 1-year deals totaling around $25 million with Tiesto leading the pack at $2 million.
The maneuver caught the nightlife industry in Vegas by surprise. Big name establishments like Marquee, 1Oak and Tao had to scramble to find talent that could compete. The Wynn/Encore clubs became the go-to venues last summer.
Encore Beach Club was the center of action during the Summer of 2012 in Las Vegas
Rumor is these four venues generated $20 million in profit this past summer alone. To their credit, the folks at Marquee, 1Oak and Tao figured it out and were able to put together competitive lineups. In fact, this helped catapult the careers of certain DJs that might not otherwise have had the chance to headline places like Marquee giving them instant headliner credibility.
Evidently, the stockpiling of top-tier talent at Wynn sometimes became an issue due to how they scheduled each individual venue when several of the contracted DJs were in town. Certain DJs found themselves relegated to playing Tryst while another big name DJ played XS. Tryst is considered a lesser Electronic Dance Music venue than XS with a fan-base that is more Top-40 and hip-hop oriented.
This was made evident last summer when Sebastian Ingrosso of Swedish House Mafia booked XS on the same night that Calvin Harris booked Tryst. Harris walked away from the DJ booth after refusing playing to play crowd request Carly Rae Jepsen (who can blame him).
No offence intended to Tryst, great club + staff but i don’t know why i was invited there…! The people hated me!
— Calvin Harris (@CalvinHarris) June 10, 2012
The biggest downside of Wynn’s strategy is that they may have started an arms race type battle for talent that may destroy their profit margins. Despite clubs attempting to get $100,000 for tables, prices for bottles can only get so high. This story by Robin Leach (yes that Robin Leach) details the next battle in this war: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec/24/megabucks-djs-news-billionaire-spurned-vegas-backs/
Hakkasan is likely to change the landscape of Las Vegas this summer. It will have a restaurant, club and pool.
MGM and Angel Management Group have teamed up to launch a Tao-like mega restaurant/club called Hakkasan in the MGM Grand (the same Hakkasan as those in London, Miami and New York). It’s set to launch this spring and it has already announced a few exclusive deals of its own. Four mega-DJs (including Tiesto and Deadmau5) have signed on for an astronomical $65 million two year engagement.
An aside: one fascinating tidbit regarding Hakkasan is the rumor that the source of capital for this DJ deal is a Middle-East based billionaire who was treated poorly at one of the Wynn establishments last year. Apparently he wanted a specific table and couldn’t get it and vowed to teach them a lesson – talk about an expensive grudge!
Steve Wynn is not someone anyone should ever underestimate. It will be interesting to see what his next move is. Let the Vegas DJ Wars begin!
