Tiesto Inks With Red Light Management January 02, 2013

Tiësto has joined Red Light Management under its influential founder Coran Capshaw, Billboard.biz has learned.

The move makes the Dutch DJ/producer the first major electronic dance artist to link up with a major manager from outside the genre. It also ends his long-time relationship with Complete Control, the Brooklyn-based company that helped build him into a social media and touring powerhouse, and the most sponsored artist in dance music.

Over the last five years, Tiësto accrued nearly 13.5 million Facebook fans and 1.5 million Twitter followers; became the first solo DJ to sell out an arena (Carson, Calif.’s Home Depot Center), and the second to land on the cover of Billboard (after David Guetta); and inked lucrative deals with cross-category brands, including HP, Heineken, Unilever, AKG, and even competing clothiers GUESS and Armani Exchange.

It was uncertain at press time whether Tiësto will stay with AM Only, the booking agency associated with Complete Control (his former manager Michael Cohen works for both), of which he is an anchor client.

Capshaw, No. 2 on Billboard’s 2012 Power 100 list, personally looks after artists including Dave Matthews Band, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Phish, with a policy of “freedom and flexibility.” His direct-to-fan marketing expertise (he founded MusicToday, and sold it to Live Nation in 2007) will inevitably help Tiësto leverage his massive social footprint, and maximize his own merchandising efforts, including his Club Life clothing line.