With electronic dance music’s surging popularity attracting the attention of investors, Madonna trying to stay on top with an album titled MDNA and references to Molly (MDMA) and EMI launching a Global Dance Network to connect international business activities, it’s a good time to gain some historical perspective.

I’m no EDM historian but I did read Keyboard Presents the Evolution of Electronic Dance Music. More importantly, I recognize great resources when I see them so I’ve gathered a few historical items for those business people who want to go deeper than a latest trend mentality and for those artists who recognize that the future emerges from the past.

I was saving this roundup for a bit later but when both the Real Bob Lefsetz and Fake Bob Lefsetz weigh in, it’s time to make your moves before the wave crests.

Scrillex’ Grammy nominations followed by multiple wins, an achievement that surprised all sorts of people, may have been the first sign that the music business establishment was about to embrace electronic dance music. But certainly EMI launching its Dance Network and investor interest from both music industry insiders and outsiders indicates a new phase of respectability for what was once a renegade subculture.

DJ Pete Tong is concerned by such developments but telling musicians to just say no to corporate funding isn’t really the answer. Neither are references to golden eras and paradises lost but perhaps considering the past will be of use to both those wishing to exploit and those seeking to avoid exploitation.

Reel-to-Reel Beat Matching Virtuosa

Network Awesome has a treasure trove of video resources gathered for Electronic Music Week that look at electronic music more generally. From composers exploring the magnetic tape on reel to reel, which is making a comeback among young composers, to the work of Robert Moog to the subculture of raves, Network Awesome presents an introduction to the history that encompasses EDM.

Focusing on more recent times, FACT magazine offers a collection of 10 electronic music docs they claim you need to see. With sometimes lengthy excerpts, FACT gives you a juicy look at such phenomenon as house music, drum ‘n bass, techno and related movements in cultural perspective.

Though Robert Moog tends to be a looming presence, the recent passing of Jack Tramiel, creator of the Commodore 64 and the Atari ST, inspired Peter Kirn to gather quite a bit of material to represent his legacy.

And if all those videos make you want to take a break and do a little reading, you can check out scans of Synapse, an electronic music magazine from the late 70s, then head back towards the future with a double dose of Michaelangelo Matos:

• How The Major Labels Sold ‘Electronica’ To America
• How The Internet Transformed The American Rave Scene

Please add your favorite historical, aesthetic and/or business resources related to electronic music and the emergence of electronic dance music in the comments.

More: The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music [Book Review]

Hypebot Features Writer Clyde Smith blogs about business at Flux Research: Business & Revenue Models and about dance at All World Dance: News. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

Dave Cool has already talked about preparation and promotion as part of his Four P’s of Playing Live Shows series. In his most recent post on Music Think Tank, Dave posts about a crucial element in any live show: the performance. He came up with three universal characteristics of a great live performance. Are you including these elements in your shows?

“Are you delivering something with enough authenticity and passion that people demand you do it again for their friends?”

- Seth Godin (Read On)

Spotify is promising some major announcements at a press conference later today that most believe will be centered around apps. At Wednesday morning’s Ad Age conference, our man on the ground David Chaitt (@chaitters)tells us that CEO Daniel Ek alluded to Coke being a major part of today’s press conference.

Other reports confirm that Spotify is adding branded apps from AT&T and others to it’s growing approved app offering.

The music streamer released one new app on Tuesday with just a tweet. Ulysses’ Classical pulls contents and playlists from spotifyclassical.com and plays them within Spotify.

We’ll have updates via @hypebot and in a post-press conference post.

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

Soundrop, the Spotify app that lets you join virtual rooms to listen to music along with friends and like-minded strangers, released a new version on Monday morning with several improvements designed to make it easier to find your Facebook friends on the service as well as rooms playing music you might like, plus fun new options for creating your own room.

[Graphic: Spotify users can join rooms like this Dubstep one, or create their own, then chat with other listeners as the music plays to everyone at the same time.]

For starters, if you sign in with Facebook within the app — something that you have to do in addition to using Facebook to sign in to Spotify — the rooms where your friends are will shoot to the top of the room list. If you join a room where one of your Facebook friends is already hanging out, you’ll see their names and thumbnails at the top of the screen.

This is a nice improvement — not only because your friends might be into good music, but because the whole concept of “Tunes with Friends” or whatever you want to call it makes more sense when you’re listening with actual friends.

Soundrop also made it easier to search for rooms by name; for instance, if you’re looking for dubstep today, you could search for that to turn up two user-generated rooms in addition to the official Dubstep room. This is also helpful, although it would be much nice to be able to search rooms by the bands in their song queue as well.

The company, which is currently seeking Series A funding, also added granularity to the room creation options. You can now specify a picture to describe the room in the main view; add a description; indicate whether the room is open for requests or curated by you alone; add a location, so that a future feature will allow people to find rooms based on where they originated on the planet; and decide whether people other than your friends can find the room (great for private listening parties).

[Graphic: You can create a room out of any of your playlists and then invite friends and/or strangers to suggest songs and vote on the queue.]

In addition, all of that stuff can be edited now, so you can change your mind if, say, you decide you want strangers to stop finding the room where you’re hanging out with close friends.

Finally, it is now possible to bookmark rooms in order to find them more easily the next time you use Soundrop. This can be handy, because at one point this morning, 5,387 people were listening to music in 280 rooms.

To use Soundrop, you can run it within Spotify (after installing it from the App Finder in the left column) or, if you subscribe to Spotify on your iOS device, using a standalone app.

See also our interview with Soundrop CEO Inge Andre Sandvik and more articles about Spotify apps.

The European Commission is expected to rule this Thursday on Sony’s proposed $2.2 billion purchase of EMI Music Publishing.  It’s far from certain that EU or US regulators will just approve the deal without caveats, but documents leaked to the press offer a look inside the deal and point to massive layoffs.

A 74-page prospectus for a $1.1 billion bond offering prepared by UBS for Sony and leaked to the New York Times, states that the combined company plans to lay off about 63% of EMI’s current work force of 515 within two years as part of an effort to achieve $70 million in savings.

It’s also likely that several catalogs, including the European rights to EMI’s Virgin and Sony/ATV’s Famous Music catalogs, will be sold to both satisfy regulators and generate cash to help finance the takeover. Even after the sale of several catalogs, the combined publishing company if expected to be the world’s largest with a 30% global marketshare.

Charts for week ending 4/16.

Top Songs
1. “Somebody That I Used to Know,” Gotye
2. “We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe),” Fun.
3. “What Makes You Beautiful,” One Direction
4. “Boyfriend,” Justin Bieber
5. “Call Me Maybe,” Carly Rae Jepsen

MORE:

6. “Starships,” Nicki Minaj
7. “Wild Ones (feat. Sia),” Flo Rida
8. “Glad You Came,” The Wanted
9.  “Mercy (feat. Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz)
10. “Somebody That I Used to Know (Glee Cast Version),” Glee Cast

Top Albums
1. “Tuskegee,” Lionel Richie
2. “Up All Night,” One Direction
3. “Making Mirrors,” Gotye
4. “All American,” Hoodie Allen
5. “Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded,” Nicki Minaj
6. “21,” ADELE
7. “Slipstream,” Bonnie Raitt
8. “My Head Is an Animal,” Of Monsters and Men
9. “Boys & Girls,” Alabama Shakes
10.”The Good Life,” Trip Lee

APP STORE

Top Paid iPhone Apps
1. Draw Something by OMGPOP, OMGPOP
2. Angry Birds Space, Rovio Mobile Ltd.
3. Clear Vision (17+), FDG Entertainment
4. Flick Home Run !, infinity pocket
5. Voice Assistant – Just use your voice, QuanticApps
6. Fruit Ninja, Halfbrick Studios
7. Lock My Screen™, Triple A Apps
8. “Free Music Download Pro” – Downloader and Player, BSOSoft
9. Skylanders Cloud Patrol, Activision Publishing, Inc.
10. WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Inc.

Top Free iPhone Apps
1. Kick the Boss, Game Hive Corp.
2. Instagram, Burbn, Inc.
3. Draw Something Free, OMGPOP
4. Slide to Unlock ►, The Falco Initiative
5. Oldify, Apptly LLC
6. Viddy, Viddy, Inc.
7. Flick Home Run ! New Free, infinity pocket
8. Bike Race Free – by Top Free Games, Top Free Games
9. Battle Duty: Modern Field 3, Imba Entertainment
10. Ringtone Maker – Make free ringtones from your music!, Zentertain Ltd.

Spotfy CEO Daniel Ek is holding a press conference at Noon today in NYC.  Daniel Chaitt  (@chaitters) will be there for Hypebot. More about what to expect here.

• New “Listen” Button On Facebook Musician Pages Instantly Plays Their Songs In Your Favorite Streaming App (Music Ally)
• Turntable Rival Soundrop Says 35M Tracks Went Through Its Spotify App In March; Funding Coming In Weeks (Techcrunch)

MORE:

• Is music a new niche for Netflix? This week thequietly added just shy of 100 concert films and music documentaries featuring rock and pop legends to their streaming options. (GigaOm)
• SAG-AFTRA and the American Federation of Musicians have sent letters supporting the EMI Universal deal if mechanisms are added to ensure that Universal maintains a commitment to re-invest in artist development.

After 14 years, Dave Kusek is stepping down as VP at Berklee College Of Music to pursue business consulting and angel investing in digital music and media. Kusek, who co-authored the iconic “Future Of Music – A Manifesto For The Digital Music Revolution”, founded and led Berklee’s hugely successful Berkleemusic online school.

In 2012, Berkleemusic will serve 12,000 students from 170 countries taking more than 200 courses online. “When I arrived at Berklee in 1997, it was already the best music college around,” says Kusek. “I began to work on expanding the Berklee brand and increasing our influence and reach around the world.”

Even before founding Berkleemusic or co-writing “Future Of Music”, Kusek was digital music pioneer; helping to develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), co-inventing of the first electronic drums “Synare”, and co-founding Passport Designs, the first music software company.

Consulting & A New Angel Fund

Now, Kusek is shifting gears again to capitalize on what he sees as a new flow of ideas and money in digital music and media.  “There is a fantastic opportunity in online entertainment, education and digital media,” says Kusek. “I have been watching the trends for years and the signs are incredibly positive.”  At the center of his new efforts is a re-invigoration of his consulting business Digital Cowboys and launching a new angel fund, Cowboy Ventures.

Digital Cowboys provides business development, digital marketing and product development services to online businesses in digital media, music, education and entertainment. He has a long list of clients that he has already worked with at digitalcowboys.com.  His Cowboy Ventures fund has already made its first investment and is actively looking for more startups to back.

First Investment: Tastemate

Cowboy Ventures is an early investor in Tastemate, a startup developing geo-social mobile platforms for live events.  Kusek’s been advising the company since its’ inception and recently helped secure seed capital. The company is now in the early stages of product development and field testing its product.

STAY TUNED:  We’ll have an exclusive interview with Dave Kusek later this week.

After 14 years, Dave Kusek is stepping down as VP at Berklee College Of Music to pursue business consulting and angel investing in digital music and media. Kusek, who co-authored the iconic “Future Of Music – A Manifesto For The Digital Music Revolution”, founded and led Berklee’s hugely successful Berkleemusic online school.

In 2012, Berkleemusic will serve 12,000 students from 170 countries taking more than 200 courses online. “When I arrived at Berklee in 1997, it was already the best music college around,” says Kusek. “I began to work on expanding the Berklee brand and increasing our influence and reach around the world.”

Even before founding Berkleemusic or co-writing “Future Of Music”, Kusek was digital music pioneer; helping to develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), co-inventing of the first electronic drums “Synare”, and co-founding Passport Designs, the first music software company.

Consulting & A New Angel Fund

Now, Kusek is shifting gears again to capitalize on what he sees as a new flow of ideas and money in digital music and media.  “There is a fantastic opportunity in online entertainment, education and digital media,” says Kusek. “I have been watching the trends for years and the signs are incredibly positive.”  At the center of his new efforts is a re-invigoration of his consulting business Digital Cowboys and launching a new angel fund, Cowboy Ventures.

Digital Cowboys provides business development, digital marketing and product development services to online businesses in digital media, music, education and entertainment. He has a long list of clients that he has already worked with at digitalcowboys.com.  His Cowboy Ventures fund has already made its first investment and is actively looking for more startups to back.

First Investment: Tastemate

Cowboy Ventures is an early investor in Tastemate, a startup developing geo-social mobile platforms for live events.  Kusek’s been advising the company since its’ inception and recently helped secure seed capital. The company is now in the early stages of product development and field testing its product.

STAY TUNED:  We’ll have an exclusive interview with Dave Kusek later this week.

Facebook’s ‘Adds Listen’ Button That Plays Artists on Spotify, Mog, Rdio and More (Evolver.fm)

• Slacker announced integration with Microsoft’s Bing Bar making it the only music service now easily accessible to the millions of Bing Bar users.
• Philippine based Twitmusic has joined 500 startups and is moving to the U.S. to build its Twitter based social music service. (TechCrunch)
• Tupac “Hologram” Wasn’t a Hologram at All (Forbes)

MORE:

• Google’s New Tune: Building a Music Hub With a Social Media Beat (The Wrap)
• Splash.FM, a Klout for music discovery, opens up beta (GigaOm)
• What Happened to the RIAA’s Missing 3.5 Million? (Mark Mulligan) The RIAA has highlighted research showing its closure of Limewire has significantly reduced P2P levels in the US.  Unfortunately the evidence is not as clear cut as it may first appear.
• Court tosses Howard Stern’s $300 million claim against Sirius XM (paidContent)
• In honor of tax day in the U.S., Google Music has top and classic 33 albums on sale for 2.99.
• WMG Holdings Corp. and WMG Acquisition Corp. Announce Extension of Exchange Offers to April 19, 2012 (Marketwire)
• Why Tax Day Is Even Worse For Musicians (NPR)
•  Weekly UK album sales plummet to all time low, Adele back at No.1 (MusicWeek)