For the second year running, Moyee has hooked up with R/HOOD and Meet Me at the Hotel to fuel EDM influencers working hard behind the scenes during this week’s Amsterdam Dance Event. Our invite-only pop-up at Meet Me at the Hotel at the Atiana will help power 5,000 music industry professionals through the weekend. This collab is no accident; Moyee and R/HOOD share a passion for the underdogs. Ours for coffee-growing communities, R/HOOD for up-and-coming DJs and producers. On the eve of Amsterdam’s finest annual event, which starts tomorrow, we sat down with R/HOOD’s Johan Wender to talk sixteen-hour workdays, hangover-recovery lounges and the new app that’s like Tinder for DJs and brands. Makers fueling makers. We’ve come to the right place.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Okay, Johan. R/HOOD. Electronic music. Underrepresented DJ. Moyee Coffee. Give us the lowdown.
JOHAN: So R/HOOD is an opportunity platform for DJs and producers built around creating representation and opportunity for the next generation of talent. And we are one of the main partners of Meet Me at the Hotel, which is the largest gathering for music industry professionals taking place in Amsterdam during ADE.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Yeah. So we’re in the hotel right now where it’s all taking place. Amsterdam Dance Event, crazy event. You guys are an important, maybe the most important, gathering spot for the industry, right?
JOHAN: Yeah, I would say so. We have definitely established ourselves like that. It used to be only within the official Amsterdam Dance Event organization, and we decided to create a side event. Usually side events are the coolest ones, right? So we created our own event where we can do a little bit what we want and don’t have to ask for permission. This is our five-year anniversary and we go bigger than ever.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: I think people reading this might not know what the Amsterdam Dance Event is all about. I think if you live in Amsterdam, there’s no missing it. I think if you live in Holland, it’s largely unmissable. But describe it for us just so we know what we’re getting into.
JOHAN: Yeah. So, Amsterdam Dance Event is one of the most fun weeks in the Netherlands. It’s where over six, I don’t know, seven hundred thousand people come to Amsterdam for their love of electronic dance music. It’s a lot of industry professionals, a lot of the big labels, festivals and artists. They come to Amsterdam for networking and general business. And then every night, every club in Amsterdam is throwing a party with some of the biggest DJs in the world. And you can basically throw a rock and hit a party wherever you go. It’s a very nice mix of business to business and business to consumer. And everybody is here for the love of electronic dance music.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: FairChain Coffee as industry fuel, kind of behind the scenes. We have a pop-up here and everybody’s kind of drinking coffee all day long. It’s all part of the Meet Me at the Hotel ecosystem. Everyone here has made a conscious choice to come to this event.
JOHAN: It’s an invite-only event. You get invited or you apply for an entrance pass. And while applying for an entrance pass, you have to fill in your position in the music industry. So you get vetted. And if you work in the industry, then you get accepted. So for us, it’s very important that this is a business-to-business event. This is not the Amsterdam Dance Event side fuelled by ‘Colombian marching powder’ but by Ethiopian coffee beans.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Very nice. You know, we walked through the hotel just now, lots of stages being set up, lots of production boxes and stuff. What’s the vibe here? Because it’s not all meetings.
JOHAN: It’s conferences, networking, a lot of labels and brands showcasing their talent. During daytime, it’s very business-oriented, dinners or lunches, panels and conference events. At six o’clock the hotel switches up and becomes just a massive festival within the hotel, four different stages, and a lot of different activations taking place within the hotel. We have a music studio together with DistroKid for jam sessions and production camps. We have a black box for DJ live streaming together with EDM.com. We have a recovery lounge with dry water, massage beds and red light therapy that we do together with JC Benelux.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: I tried to get in there last year but there was just no space. Jam-packed.
JOHAN: It’s way bigger this year. So last year we had one machine. This year we have five machines. It’s for those who went a little bit too hard the day before. They can go there, have electrolyte drinks, a protein bar, get a massage and then go on their merry way.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Basically keep people awake and relaxed for the entire duration of the festival.
JOHAN: Exactly. This year we’re also doing yoga sessions in the morning. We have partnerships with Lululemon and Recovery, the latter for recovery runs. People will still party hard, that’s for sure. But we really want to also focus on the health aspect of, like, okay, you can party hard, but if you take care of yourself, you can also kind of have a little bit of longevity during this event.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: How do you differentiate this event from mainstay ADE?
JOHAN: We are very clear that we are not ADE. I love ADE, it’s a great organization but we are separate. We are doing our own thing. But it definitely makes it easier for us when I can say that there are two thousand five hundred industry professionals coming through the hotel every day, and these are the movers and shakers in the music industry. So of course brands – like Moyee, Lululemon, etc. – want to be featured in that environment, in that context.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: With this event people can check in and they don’t technically have to leave.
JOHAN: It’s the real Hotel California.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: I actually grew up not far from the real Hotel California. It was a psychiatric institute. California. Shout out. So this is basically a B2B event; you just can’t walk in. So this is the closest anybody reading this is going to get inside. Walk us through a day. You wake up in the morning, people are making fourteen, sixteen, eighteen-hour days, I would assume, because it’s a big event, big investment, I would think, for a lot of people, because there are no free hotel rooms in the city during ADE. Walk us through the day.
JOHAN: We’ve also taken over the restaurant for the event’s five days and have developed our own menu. We’re working with Tough Events, who are a great partner and very, very good at creating high-end dinners and lunches. So you wake up, you have a great breakfast. You, of course, fuel yourself with some Moyee Coffee. Maybe you do a yoga session, then it’s off to the races. I would also, of course, recommend going and getting the massage to start off your day.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: What type of deals are being made during the event?
JOHAN: We have networking sessions where we invite a lot of the right people and put everybody in the same room. But everybody comes with a packed schedule, they have all their meetings lined up. We are just facilitating the space to have all these meetings. Normally you have to run around in the city and you have to go to all these different places. We basically want to create a one-stop shop where you come in here and you have everything that you need. You never have to leave. If you want to leave, we have two mobility partners. So we have Cowboy, who provides us with electric bikes, so all our guests can check out an electric bike and they can bike around the city, because that is the way to experience Amsterdam. We also have Cupra, who provides us with some cars. It’s our VIP shuttle to take the VIPs around the city. If they need to leave, we give them the best option to leave. But we see that everything that you want and everything that you need, you can find at the hotel.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: I’m always fascinated by these business models where you prepare all year for a festival or event. How difficult is that logistically? You’ve been living this for the last year, but how much time and energy goes into pulling it off? This is no business for the faint-hearted.
JOHAN: It takes a lot of work. You only have a finite amount of time and money and yet you have to make things work. But that’s something I really enjoy. I enjoy finding the best solutions. In the end, my only goal is that if you’re a guest coming to the hotel, you’re going to say, okay, this is the place to be, I don’t want to leave. And if I can deliver that for the guests, I also know that all my partners that I bring in will be happy. But yeah, it’s long, long workdays. We’re going to work sixteen hours every day. But it’s also very fun.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: It’s called Meet Me at the Hotel, but you have other venues in the city, right?
JOHAN: This hotel is the main attraction. We are doing an event at Melkweg. And then we also have the VIP deck at AMF, which is the big grand finale of Amsterdam Dance Event in the Johan Cruyff Arena, where I think they gather thirty thousand ravers for one final blowout, and then that’s the end of ADE.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: How many people fit on that VIP deck?
JOHAN: Not enough. I think a hundred. It’s first come, first served, a little bit like that.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Sold out?
JOHAN: Yeah, it’s going to be very exciting. We did it last year as well. It was so much fun. I brought the whole team there. And after five days of very hectic work, we could also just relax and celebrate that everything went so well.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: You talk about Meet Me at the Hotel differentiating itself from the ADE, being a separate entity, off-grid, so to say. But clearly there’s competition and you have to up your game every year, not only for the professionals, but just to sustain your spot as the premier place for the industry professionals. How tough is the competition?
JOHAN: To be honest, me personally, I never look at competition. I know what I want to do and I know our vision of what we can do with Meet Me at the Hotel. I think ADE is an amazing organization. ADE is the reason why so many people come to Amsterdam. So we have a lot to thank them for. But I don’t compete with them. We are doing our thing. And the nice thing with Meet Me at the Hotel and Bjorn and Stefan, who own the concept, is they have given me free rein for whatever creative ideas and whatever I want to do at the hotel. As long as I can fund it, we can do it. And that’s how this concept has been growing. So I’m more focused on my core mission of every guest that comes here wanting to come back. If I succeed with that, the event is going to be great. Everybody’s going to be happy. The partners are going to be happy. So that is my core mission, and I don’t focus so much on the, quote unquote, competition.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: What exactly is the relationship between R/HOOD and the Meet Me at the Hotel concept?
JOHAN: R/HOOD is one of the event’s main partners. Last year, we handled all the content operation, the full operation of everything that happened in the hotel, as well as partnerships. This year, we decided partnerships are enough. So that’s what we’re doing for Meet Me at the Hotel. We are very involved in the operation, but it’s not our responsibility. We are timing the launch of our new app around the event, in the lead-up to ADE. It’s basically Tinder for DJs and producers, where they can swipe for opportunities globally. So brands that have any need for anything that a DJ or producer can deliver, they upload their opportunity, if it’s a gig or if it’s a product review or music promotion, whatever they need. They set their terms, they set their deliverables, and then people swipe left or right if they’re interested in applying for it. And then the brand gets the best candidate. The match is made. They work with each other, they rate each other. And that’s how they grow on the platform.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: We’ve spoken about this a lot before, especially because we see it as a great opportunity for the DJs and producers we know and work with in East Africa, where access to the better-paying markets of Western Europe is limited. That’s the idea, right?
JOHAN: Definitely. The app is built on two principles: talent and meritocracy. So it doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like or whatever gender you identify as. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the talent you bring to the table. If you’re talented and you’re willing to work hard, you should be able to access opportunities. R/HOOD already has a very strong community, and that community is operating very much on the idea that the tide will rise all boats. We don’t compete with each other, we help each other. And if we all grow, then everybody’s going to be happy. Instead of this famine/scarcity mentality that has been plaguing the DJ industry, where there’s only a limited amount of gigs and we have to fight for it, there are enough opportunities. And that’s kind of what we want to bring with the platform. And then there’s the social media aspect of the app, where you can connect with like-minded people, like-minded DJs and producers. There’s no gatekeeping, because it used to be very much who do you know?
JOHN FROM MOYEE: That egalitarian meritocracy feels a bit Swedish, which is where you grew up. Now you’re a bit of a nomad, right? Born in Sweden, moved to Australia, now living in Indonesia, spending three or four months a year in Amsterdam.
JOHAN: Yeah, for sure. Khadija, who’s my co-founder, she also wants the same kind of lifestyle. And that was also a big reason why we started the app, because a lot of what we did before was agency work, where we work for a brand and we deliver what they wanted. So we build for somebody else the whole time, which is great, but you’re just selling your own time. And in the end, that doesn’t scale. And also it kind of locks you up in a specific location. And that was not the way we wanted to approach this. We want to be global. We want to have the freedom to go wherever we want, whenever we want. And the way to do that was to create a global platform that scales, independent of whether we are at a certain location.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Let’s end with some advice for an aspiring DJ or musician. How can they break into the industry? I’m sure you’re going to say use your new app; let’s think broader.
JOHAN: Be authentic, be yourself. Don’t do things because people tell you to do it. Don’t do things because TikTok says you should do it. You should be mindful of the trends. You should be mindful of what’s going on in the world, but focus on honing your craft, becoming really, really good at what you do, and find a way to showcase that. Because if nobody sees it and if nobody knows it... You are in the attention business. People need to pay attention to you, but do it in an authentic way.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Okay, that’s for the DJs. What about brands looking to break into the music scene? And I ask this as a coffee brand that’s pretty heavily involved in East Africa’s music scene with exciting partnerships with Kebele Radio in Ethiopia and The Living Rooms in Nairobi, among others. We too are looking for ways to showcase the amazing talent there during an event like ADE. So maybe this is advice to us as well.
JOHAN: I would say the same: authenticity. Authenticity is what people really respond to. Moyee Coffee has a very strong core mission that people respond to. Then it’s all about finding and working with people that are aligned with that, that can enhance that and communicate that in a way that really resonates with the broader audience. But I think being authentic, and always delivering high-quality products, because in the end, people buy and they keep buying what you’re selling because it’s great. It’s a great product. So I would focus on that. Of course, marketing is important. Everybody is fighting for attention.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Everyone’s hustling.
JOHAN: Exactly. But how to do that in an authentic way where you never sell out, that you can always sleep well at night, grow slow and steady? Being able to sleep well at night is more important than scaling super quick and fucking people over.
JOHN FROM MOYEE: Sounds like the perfect way to end. Thanks for your time.
JOHAN: Sounds good. See you around this week.