Inside Prime Culture, the Dance Music Management Company Turning Underground Talent Into Global Headliners
Categoria: Musica
Alberto Brigado built Prime Culture to focus on culture over commerce, with the company now offering event production, A&R and agency services for a roster including Michael Bibi, PAWSA and ANOTR.
Por Billboard | 19/10/2026
On a humid summer night at DC10 in Ibiza, the vibe inside the club is “controlled chaos.” But one person in particular maintains a serene presence amid the party’s banging kickdrum. Understated in jeans and a t-shirt on the club’s sprawling backstage patio, Alberto Brigado is the founder of Prime Culture, the management company that works with PAWSA, the DJ in the booth tonight. The company also represents DJ/producers including English phenom Michael Bibi , Dutch duo ANOTR and other electronic acts carving out a distinct, and increasingly large, presence in dance music. With PAWSA and Bibi among his first management clients, Prime Culture is also strongly associated with Solid Grooves, the label co-founded by the English producers, which is also the name of the party happening here tonight. Related Anotr Was ‘Afraid of Getting Judged’ for Its New Sound — But Fans Embraced It Diddy Moved From New Jersey Prison to Similar Facility in Pennsylvania Weezer to Receive Legend of Live Award at 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit The dancefloor is sardine-level packed, but it’s tame compared to the scenes that defined Brigado and Prime Culture’s earlier days on the island. After he started working with Bibi and PAWSA in 2014, they booked a Solid Grooves residency at the former Ibiza club, Privilege. Trying to save money during the season, the guys stayed together in a nearby villa, where they started hosting afterparties. “At the beginning it was just us,” says Brigado. “Then some friends start coming, and then fans were arriving to the villa, and it became an actual afterparty.” When videos of this party went viral in 2018, “that created a name for us in Ibiza,” Brigado says. “We were these new kids that do the residency and have the villa party every Sunday.” They knew they were onto something when, Brigado continues, “strangers were coming into the villa and telling us they were friends with the Solid Grooves guys.” Soon, other DJs were asking if they could come play, and aspiring attendees were jumping the fence to gain entry. Named for the kind of culture it works to nurture and promote, Prime now employs nine managers who look after 33 artists including Carlita, Ben Sterling and Beltran. All in, the roster reads like the cool kids’ table at house and techno high school. Last year, Brigado and Prime Culture manager Michael Discenza expanded the business by creating Select Culture, a booking agency for rising management clients. Prime Culture now also has in-house event production and A&R departments to support its roster. The hybrid structure is working: Bibi and PAWSA are both hard ticket and festival draws in the U.S. and Europe, where a 2024 headlining show by Bibi in London’s Finsbury Park drew 45,000 attendees and a 2025 show by PAWSA at the city’s Gunnersbury Park brought a crowd of 25,000. Meanwhile, ANOTR’s “Talk to You” (featuring 54 Ultra), debuted at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic songs chart