After 21 years in service, Red Bull's Music Academy and Radio residency are shutting down for good, the company announced in a statement to the press (April 3rd). The brand, best known for the ginseng-based product line it boasts, opened an artistic patronage program no one saw coming in 1998.
Within a few years, Red Bull's Music Academy, in particular, became a nurturing environment for many niche artists who relied upon their funding and production equipment. Conversely, it was Red Bull's radio program that shone the spotlight back on DJs the world over, offering the best of the bunch the opportunity to develop their unify within particular sound systems. Red Bull's official statement reads.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1113394592609652736
"After 20 years of supporting artists worldwide with its music program in a rapidly changing world, Red Bull will maintain its purpose of providing a global platform to promote creativity—but it is changing the means of delivery. Red Bull will be moving away from a strongly centralized approach, will gradually phase out the existing structure and will implement a new setup which empowers existing Red Bull country teams and utilizes local expertise. Red Bull will continue to explore new ways to support promising and cutting-edge artists wherever they may be." - Red Bull's Media Relations Dept.
Yadastar, the marketing agency that partnered with the company every step of the way, echoed those sentiments with a similarly veined Twitter posting. The foreclosure of the RBMA and Red Bull Radio programs spells the end of their longstanding partnership.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1113574008287584256
