Well, here's guessing at least one DJ/producer won't be invited back to play Miami's massive Ultra Music Festival, despite very prominent roster spots in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011: Canadian progressive house and headgear enthusiast Deadmau5 railed against the festival in a 12-minute UStream video posted to YouTube, with complaints ranging from price to contract exclusivity to, well, you name it.
"I don't know if I'm playing Ultra or not...because I don't really care," he began, apparently in response to a fan inquiry, before reading this year's list of acts ("Tiesto, Kraftwerk, Carl Cox...") and concluding, "I can almost pretty much guarantee you I'm not playing -- not because of the other acts, I just mean because these are all, like -- the promoter is probably bankrupt at this point."
Despite acknowledging the cost of headliners' contracts, he shortly railed against the price of tickets at this year's three-day Bayfront Park throwdown: "$595 for a ticket? Wow, someone's laughing to the bank."
"Ultra to me is like the definition of insanity," he complained. "It's doing the same f---ing thing ever year, expecting different results every time, you know? It's fun and it's cool and it's great and if you've never been, go, but if you're one of those dudes that go every year, it's like, why would you go again?...I hate these f---ing festival things...It's a bit much. I would rather spend like $100 or like $50 or whatever to see my favorite act as opposed to f---ing doshing out $600 to see all these f---ing people."
(Note: Tickets to see Deadmau5 spin New Year's Day at the Fontainebleau range from $125 to a whopping $15,000.)
Deadmau5 (real name: Joel Thomas Zimmerman) went on to tirade against Ultra's exclusive contracts, which prevent participants from "playing up to 8 gigs that week, easily", the number of major acts on the roster ("I don't even want to be a part of that pissing contest"), having a set cut short if the festival goes long, "competing" against festival programmers and other acts, and making promoters happy -- suggesting the organizers of Ultra are "kids" given "six million dollars."
"It's like, dude, am I here to have fun and play some music and make a lot of people happy, or...?," he asked, finishing the thought with an expression his mother probably regrets.
Here's guessing Deadmau5 is, in fact, out for the first option, but he'll be doing it somewhere else this March, and probably every March after -- just as, apparently, he likes it.