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avatar for Sean Horton

Sean Horton

Decibel Festival
Founder, President and Director
Los Angeles, California
I grew up in the Detroit area and gained exposure to underground electronic music working at an import record store on Woodward Ave. In 1990, I discovered that the Motor City's post-industrial urban decay created an ideal environment for warehouse parties. I began deejaying and going to regular events in Detroit, most notably the initial Plus 8 parties, which helped catapult Detroit Techno globally in the early 90s.



I moved to Seattle in 1995 and ended up on a fishing boat heading to Dutch Harbor. I made enough money fishing in Alaska and Russia, that I was able to put myself through college. I studied audio engineering and marketing at Evergreen State in Olympia Washington (graduated from with a BA in 1999). Evergreen is where I first began creating music using a computer. It is also were I began producing and curating multimedia concerts.



In 2002 I took a job offer at the media/branding company PlayNetwork in Redmond Washington (10 miles from Seattle). Over the past decade I have been a catalyst for positive change at PlayNetwork, which has more than tripled in growth over that time. In addition to my roles as technology adviser and brand consultant, I've taken creative lead as music supervisor on dozens of key international clients, including Victoria's Secret, FedEx Office, Levis, Banana Republic, and Marc Jacobs. In 2012 I was promoted to the Director of Music Strategy and Development.



Simultaneously, I founded the Decibel International Festival of Electronic Music and Visual Art in 2003. Under my direction as CEO and curator, Decibel has become a unique platform for exposing attendees to leading-edge multimedia art. We celebrated our inaugural festival in 2004 and drew in a modest 2,500 attendance. Each year the Decibel has grown substantially and in 2012 the festival celebrated its most successful edition to date. Between the festival program and the conference, we brought in over 26,000 attendees over the five-day program (up 4,000 from 2011).