Red Bull Music Academy is set to close down for good after this year’s edition in October it has been revealed.
RBMA has been running for 20 years but the Academy and its associated radio station will cease operations later this year.
Yadastar, a German company who oversaw the Academy operation with Red Bull says the two parties “have mutually agreed to part ways at the end of October 2019.”
— Yadastar (@yadastar) April 3, 2019
Red Bull meanwhile issued a statement to RA:
After 20 years of supporting artists worldwide with its music program in a rapidly changing world, Red Bull will maintain its purpose of providing a global platform to promote creativity—but it is changing the means of delivery. Red Bull will be moving away from a strongly centralized approach, will gradually phase out the existing structure and will implement a new setup which empowers existing Red Bull country teams and utilizes local expertise. Red Bull will continue to explore new ways to support promising and cutting-edge artists wherever they may be.
The Academy which in our estimation and experience is the single most successful brand operation in music of the last 20 years (we attended mostly recently in Berlin last year and New York before that) for what it does in bringing emerging musicians from all over the world together in a camp along with some of their heroes has been influential in the careers of artists like Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus, Krystal Klear, Marie Davidson, Dorian Concept and many more attendees.
Check out our recent podcast report from Berlin RBMA about the utopian musician’s paradise it offered.
The sheer attention to detail, personnel, creativity and yes, money was something to behold every year. The high standard of music and presentation was unparalleled in the music and brand space, as was the archive of interviews from the likes of Brian Eno right down to an illuminating talk with a mastering engineer you maybe never heard of. RBMA will be missed.
Red Bull say they will continue to be involved in music so it looks like the localised parties like Free Gaff is where they will focus their efforts going forward.
