Photo by George Martinez/gmartnx.com

South Floridians owe beat freaks and frat boys a drink.

Fueled almost entirely by Red Bull, Molly, and (presumably) a little bit of cocaine, sunburned college students from the Midwest, foreign ravers, and Ultra Music Festival organizers rallied to resurrect South Florida's economy in March.

See also:
-Ten Richest DJs: From Pauly D to Swedish House Mafia and Tiesto
-Association for Electronic Music Founded "to Advocate on Behalf of EDM"
-Ultra Fest Generates $79 Million Annually for Miami Economy: Can EDM Save the Country?

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Photo by Jacob Katel

While the bass shook the pool water at the Raleigh Hotel, booties in short shorts bounced up and down. And so did Steve Aoki, who looked like a little kid at Christmas behind the decks. His Dim Mak label's Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week day party brought out not only those on his label, but OGs like Benny Benassi and Afrojack who made cameos during Aoki's set.

Amid the EDM mayhem, we sat down with Dim Mak's hot Canadian foursome Azari & III for a seriously goofy talk. Right after Azari's Alixander III showed us how GHB-enhanced dancing looks, Aoki crashed the interview. We discussed opening a cake company, Diplo in a hamster ball, and someone showed us some Speedo ass.

See also:
-Winter Music Conference 2013: The Complete Coverage
-Miami Music Week 2013: The Complete Coverage
-Ultra Music Festival 2013: The Complete Coverage

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Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez

After going all country music on Ultra 2013 this weekend, Avicii's taking vacay for a day. (At least until it's time to return to UMF tonight and "come, rave, love" one last time with his countrymen in SHM.) And it's totally obvious where the Swede is sleeping and showering ...

His own Avicii Hotel, the most luxurious EDM crash pad ever contrived for Ultra Music Festival, Winter Music Conference, and Miami Music Week.

See also:
-Avicii Opening Pop-Up Hotel for Ten Days During Ultra 2013
-Avicii Hotel's "Bromance" Package a Bargain at $7,300
-Avicii Does Country Music and Eric Prydz Proclaims "Love You" UMF!

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One of the great but frustrating things about Ultra Music Festival is it continually books interesting rising acts for its live stage while scheduling them in its earliest slots. This meant that yesterday, the second day of the second weekend, one-man electro-pop band Robert Delong and house revivalists Azari & III played to fairly tepid crowds.

It seemed the same fate might befall Disclosure, a London-based brother act that's reigniting a handful of recent bass-y subgenres for a new audience. But despite the act's very English lack of bravado, members Guy and Howard Lawrence managed to amass a decent crowd through the ear-soothing powers of its bubbling low-end and a heavy helping of R&B.

See also:
-Swedish House Mafia Kicks Off Ultra 2013, "F#$%s Miami in the Pussy"
-Ultra 2013: Snoop Dogg Goes Rasta to Gangsta to Raver, Debuts "No Guns Allowed"
-Kaskade and Tiesto Kick Off UMF's Weekend Two, Reach Epic Pop Peaks
-Avicii Does Country Music and Eric Prydz Proclaims "Love You" UMF!
-Ultra 2013: Slash Does Surprise Guitar Solo, "Pretty Awesome Gig"
-Ultra 2013: Deadmau5 Proves He's a Real Person, Rejects the Easy Headliner Gimmicks

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Photo by S. Pajot

There are robot masks in Miami's streets.

What are the odds of electro-mechanical machines (manufactured in France) descending upon Ultra Music Festival 2013 to enslave the EDM generation?

We'd say the chances of a sudden and unsuspected robot invasion at UMF probably hover around 13 percent.

Oh ... You mean the likelihood of notoriously secretive and borderline reclusive French dance music duo Daft Punk playing the Ultra main stage at some point in the next 31 hours?

Probably nil. But there have been at least five signs the robots might be coming to UMF!

See also:
-"Daft Punk at Ultra Music Festival!" Top Ten Fan Guesses for UMF's "Big Announcement"
-Ultra 2013: Slash Does Surprise Guitar Solo, Crashes Chuckie's Set, "Pretty Awesome Gig"
-Daft Punk Billboard Spotted in Downtown Miami: Secret Ultra 2013 Gig?

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Photo by Ian Witlen

A really great party is like science. If things go well, you've got to repeat the experiment.

Hard's Gary Richards (AKA Destructo) knows this to be true. So he's brought three editions of his HARD Miami shindigs for Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week 2013.

And last night, Destructo switched up the variables, replacing the bass and moombahton of Wednesday with disco, house, dark techno, and booty tech, plus a few amazing surprises.

See also:
-Flume on Death, Hard Miami, Getting High
-Destructo on EDM Trends: "People Want to Hear New Shit; They're Just Not Getting It"
-Hard's Gary Richards (AKA Destructo) on How to Throw the Perfect Party
-Hard Miami 2013 Day Two at Grand Central: The 34-Photo Slideshow
-Review: Hard Miami 2013's Rump Shaker With A-Trak, Borgore, RL Grime, Flume
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AP Photo/Greg Campbell

Robert F. X. Sillerman in front of Graceland.

In Miami to announce SFX Entertainment's near $100 million acquisition of the producer of TomorrowLand and Sensation White, ID&T Worldwide, Robert F.X. Sillerman held court Thursday afternoon in the shade of a cabana at the Delano Hotel.

So we here at Crossfade sat down with Sillerman to discuss what drives him in this latest endeavor, which has been categorized as a monopolization of EDM, what killed the Opium Group deal, and what comes next.

See Also:
-Why the Corporate Takeover of EDM Was Inevitable: The Straight Bros are On Board
-Forbes Millionaire Robert F.X. Sillerman Invests in Mansion, Set, LIV, and More
-Robert Sillerman's SFX Entertainment and Opium Group: "The Deal Is Off"
-TomorrowLand EDM Festival Location Revealed: Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia

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Photo by Ian Whitlen

Last night, all of Miami went hard as fuck.

But only Grand Central was goin' Hard Miami, shakin' our rumps till early morning. And the beat freaks at this bass-filled, trap-moombah-dub night didn't give a damn if the floor was dirty, they were gonna make their asses touch the ground.

We loved cake, we ran the trap, and all the hoes had something vibrating in their coochie. But we did have to work our way up to it.

See also:
-Flume on Death, Hard Miami, Getting High
-Destructo on EDM Trends: "People Want to Hear New Shit; They're Just Not Getting It"
-Hard's Gary Richards (AKA Destructo) on How to Throw the Perfect Party
-Hard Miami 2013 Day One at Grand Central: The 34-Photo Slideshow

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Where is TomorrowWorld?

Last night at the Mondrian South Beach, European electronic dance music promotions power ID&T answered that riddle, revealing that the inaugural American edition of Belgium's TomorrowLand will be held in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia.

See Also:
-Why the Corporate Takeover of EDM Was Inevitable: The Straight Bros are On Board
-Forbes Millionaire Robert F.X. Sillerman Invests in Mansion, Set, LIV, and More
-Robert Sillerman's SFX Entertainment and Opium Group: "The Deal Is Off"
-Robert F.X. Sillerman on Why He "Loves to Dance" and Only Cares About Fans

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BBC Radio 1 DJ and chief global EDM tastemaker Pete Tong's All Gone: Miami compilation series has become a definite staple of WMC and Miami Music Week. The double-disc mix album, with a disc each mixed by Tong and a guest artist, serves as a yearly snapshot of the international EDM Zeitgeist.

The series tends to focus on house and techno, though, which is why there were a few raised eyebrows when Tong bestowed co-mixing duties for All Gone: Miami 2013 on U.K. dubstep pioneer Skream, AKA Oliver Jones.

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