UTA Signs Deadmau5

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Deadmau5 performs at ACL Live in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2019.

UTA announced the signing of EDM star Deadmau5 for worldwide representation in all areas on Thursday.

The musician, whose given name is Joel Zimmerman, will be represented by the agency’s Cheryl Paglierani and co-heads of electronic music Kevin Gimble and Steve Gordon.

An established festival headliner and one of his genre’s most bankable stars, Deadmau5 remains a force in the live sphere. His recent “Cubev3 Tour” sold more than 150,000 tickets across 39 shows in 17 cities and was highlighted by two-night stands at Colorado’s Red Rocks, where he sold 17,619 tickets and grossed $1.06 million Nov. 1-2, 2019, and San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where he moved 14,244 tickets and grossed $918,410. The tour concluded with four nights at Brooklyn’s massive Avant Gardner in early February.

In May, Deadmau5 released “Pomegranate,” a collaboration with vaunted production duo The Neptunes.

Deadmau5’s portfolio is extensive. In 2018, he recorded his first orchestral album, where’s the drop?, and in 2019, he made his film composing debut with his work for Netflix’s Polar. He has also become a fixture in the gaming world, both as a performer and a gamer himself, and has gigged with artists like Richie Hawtin under his Testpilot alias, which UTA will also represent.

UTA acquired Gimble and Gordon’s electronic-focused Circle Talent Agency in April 2018, and Deadmau5 is just the latest artist to have bolstered UTA’s electronic bona fides.

Shortly before the acquisition, Circle had signed Kaskade – who performed on the Grand Canyon West’s Skywalk in May – and under Gimble and Gordon’s leadership, UTA added Carnage and Cheat Codes in 2019.

Late last year, Gimble observed the continued crossover of electronic acts into the music industry at large, something which Deadmau5, who became the first electronic artist to headline Lollapalooza’s main stage in 2011, has been at the forefront of.

“We are seeing more and more electronic acts on top lines of major crossover festivals than ever before,” Gimble told Pollstar. “Electronic music culture is finally being considered as an essential part of the music industry, and not as an underground offshoot.”

In an October 2019 interview, UTA Global Head of Music David Zedeck described partnering with Circle Talent as one of the hallmarks of his tenure.

“We really hit if off talking about artists, philosophy, goals and made a deal to acquire their company,” he told Pollstar. “They are fiercely independent and entrepreneurial. Who they have, who they’ve signed, the work they’re doing for their clients is just spectacular.”

Paglierani, meanwhile, was named to Pollstar‘s Women of Live list in March and has overseen the meteoric rise of Post Malone, who won Best Hip-Hop Tour at the Pollstar Awards earlier this year. Paglierani was also nominated for the Bobby Brooks Award for Agent of the Year at the 2019 and 2020 Pollstar Awards.