Tiesto is still one of the biggest marketing machines in EDM. Besides being a world class DJ, Tiesto has taken his success and expanded it 10 fold with his reinvestment in brands and businesses. Partnering with the likes of 7up, Audiofly and more, Tiesto has demonstrated that being one of the best and popular DJs in the world comes with the unique ability to bolster and expand talent, brands and companies.
This week Tiesto is at CES in Las Vegas promoting his latest partnership with Audiofly, a new headphone company that is looking to take on the industry heavyweights. While in Vegas, Billboard had the chance to sit down with Tiesto and ask him about his corporate expansions and his personal brand.
When asked how he chooses which brands to partner with, Tiesto explained that it’s a very intimate process and that he takes great care in picking which brands to promote: 
“I have to connect with the brand, and I have to stand by it. I have to be proud to be associated with it. I also like to work with people who are very passionate about what they do, because I am. I don’t really go out looking for a big brand, like Budweiser or something, some big deal, it’s not really about that. I like to work with things I use myself, you know, daily. Headphones made sense.”
The interview went on to ask him more about branding, but the real story is when Tiesto was asked about the next popular sub genre. As an industry leader for over 10 years, Tiesto has seen the rise and fall of a plethora of different electronic styles. When addressing the question, Tiesto stated:
“It’s hard to predict, and I try not to bother. What can you do? What do those genres even mean? EDM used to be a term for all of electronic dance music, but now it just means all the music that you’re not supposed to play. It became the new trance. It got popular, so now we’re all into deep house. And soon we’ll be over that. You can’t win. I wish we could have just stuck with EDM, honestly, because we finally had a term that captured everything in one big family, like jazz. But, no. We had to be hip.”
You can read the full interview over at Billboard.
