Richie Hawtin on Income Equality in Dance Music: “We’re Trying to Fix a Problem That We’ve Lost Control of”

Fabled techno producer and music entrepreneur Richie Hawtin recently opened up about the lack of income equality between DJs and producers in dance music. 

In a new interview with Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst for their “Interdependence” podcast, Hawtin delved into a number of timely issues in EDM, including crucial changes to the economic infrastructure of live DJ sets.

“The driving force of this economic community is DJs. They are the ones making the money. They are the ones predominantly playing other people’s music,” Hawtin said. “We know that it’s not always going to the right people, and we know that now, after 30 years, there’s some other things that need to be put in place to assist this community from the past—where things weren’t done correctly—to the present and how we set up the future to never have those things happen again.”