​​Pasquale Rotella Net Worth

Net Worth	$ 60,000,000
Real name	Pasquale Rotella
Source of Wealth	Electronic music events and film production
Profession	Founder and CEO, event and film producer
Spouse/Partner	Previously married to former Playboy Playmate Holly Madison
Date of Birth	Aug 8, 1974
Zodiac	Leo
Age	48
Gender	Male
Height	168 cm / 5 ft 6 inch
Nationality	American

Biography

Pasquale Rotella is the Founder and CEO of Insomniac (previously known as Insomniac Events), one of the most popular and successful electronic music event promotion and distributor companies in the world.^[1]

Pasquale is considered one of the key trailblazers of the EDM (electronic dance music) rise, having produced some of the biggest and most influential events in the dance music scene. Rolling Stone Magazine ranks Rotella second in the 50 Most Important People in EDM.^[2]

His event production company organizes some of the world's most popular dance electronic music festivals, including their flagship Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), taking place in various locations in the world Las Vegas, Mexico, Orlando, Portugal, China, UK, India, Puerto Rico, and South Korea, and attracting more than 400,000 attendees in 2021.

Thanks to his ultra-successful portfolio of EDM events, Pasquale boasts an impressive net worth of a whopping $60 million.

EDM events career beginnings

Today, Rotella is known as the father of the world’s largest dance music and experience company. He has more than 20 years of experience creating the most phenomenal live music experience events in the world.^[3]

However, Pasquale's beginnings weren’t so impressive. He got into EDM events production as early as the 90s. Back then, EDM parties were known as rave parties and were part of the short-lived underground dance music scene in Los Angeles. ^[4]

The rave parties were illegally thrown in abandoned warehouses and frequently got busted. But, Rotella fell in love with the positive vibe and experience he got from the parties, he stated for USA Today.

As more popular these underground rave parties got, word got around, and the more they got busted. The situation escalated with the L.A. riots, which resulted in a 10 p.m. curfew and the end of the underground rave scene.

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But Rotella wasn’t going to let the restrictions rob him and his friends of the dance music experience, so he took matters into his own hands.

“The death of the underground scene and my love for it is why I started Insomniac and why Insomniac exists today," he stated in the interview for Forbes.^[5]

Pasquale took to finding the venues, and interior details, scouting the talent and promoting the events. Nevertheless, he soon discovered he got his work cut out for him.

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He learned it’s a lot of work putting together a rave party. “Turns out that it's actually a lot of work. I did weekly parties for a year, but it was really tiring to find a new location every week. Getting a legit location was hard because I was just this kid in baggy clothes, and no one took me seriously," Rotella explained for USA Today. ^[4]

The first official Insomniac event took place in 1993 during a Halloween weekend and hosted 300 partygoers.

Today Insomniac events attract more than 1 million guests. The company organizes some of the most recognized and beloved EDM events, including their international flagship Electric Daisy Carnival, Audiotistic Music Festival, Beyond Wonderland, Electric Forest, Nocturnal Wonderland, Hard Summer Music Festival, Holy Ship!, Escape Halloween, and others.

The EDC also won the Festival of the Year award at the Electronic Music Awards in 2017.

Creation of a global EDM scene

What started as warehouse parties grew into global EDM events held at football stadiums, and Rotella was the pioneer that made it happen. He was the one who brought electronic dance music from the underground to the mainstream.

Insomniac events are pretty much like Woodstock, where EDM is part of the identity of young people, part of their culture and language, explained Doug Elfman, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter for USA Today, talking about Pasquale and his dance music event company. ^[4]

Although the term “rave” was substituted for “EDM” in an effort to break away from the negative reputation from the past, the notoriety still persists even today. The electronic dance scene is, unfortunately, associated with drug culture.

When asked on this subject, Pasquale responds that the solution is time. He explains that the EDM scene goes through the same phase as rock’n’roll music did in the past century, where it was identified as devil-worship music and associated with drug abuse.

As time passed and rock’n’roll became more mainstream, the negative reputation disappeared. He expects the same thing to happen with the dance scene because although technically it’s been around more than 20 years, it’s actually five years commercially.

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As the music scene matures, so does his business. In 2014, Insomniac launched a co-branded EDM record label, Insomniac Records, in partnership with Interscope Geffen A&M.

In 2018, they announced the creation of the powerhouse Insomniac Music Group, a function that provides A&R and distribution services related to talent scouting and overseeing artistic development.

Apart from event production, Rotella is also involved in producing documentaries that tell the story of his dance music events, most notably his flagship event Electric Daisy Carnival.^[6]Some of the documentaries Rotella has produced are:

• EDC Las Vegas 2021: Celebrating 25 Years Under the Electric Sky
• EDC Las Vegas' Virtual Rave-A-Thon - Discovery Project - Figment's Set
• Beyond Wonderland Southern California 2016 Official Trailer
• EDC 2013: Under the Electric Sky

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Awards and recognitions

Rotella peaked at no. 2 in Rolling Stone Magazine Most Important People in EDM list. Additionally, inthemix voted him the #1 Most Powerful Person in EDM. Pasquel was placed on Vegas Inc.’s “Top 40 Under 40” and has been labeled Billboard’s top “EDM Power Player.”

Insomniac Events found its place on the Fast Company’s Top Ten list of the music industry’s Most Innovative Companies, together with Spotify and Vevo.

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Controversies

Being one of the biggest names in EDM doesn’t come without controversies, and Pasquale has had a fair share of them.

In 2010, the Insomniac brand came under harsh backlash after a 15-year-old girl overdosed and died at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles.

This tragic case opened even deeper scrutiny into his dance music production business. In 2012, Pasquale was charged with bribery and embezzlement and was accused of bribing Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum officials to let him organize rave parties in the venue, which led to the untimely death of the underage girl who overdosed.

The 4-year trial ended in 2016 on the grounds of prosecution misconduct and resulted in Rotella avoiding 13 years and eight months of prison if he had been convicted.^[7]

Personal life

Rotella was married to the former Playboy Playmate and “The Girls Next Door” star Holly Madison. The couple got married in 2013 and divorced in 2019. They have two children, a son Forest Leonardo Antonio Rotella, and a daughter Rainbow Aurora Rotella.

In a post on Instagram, Pasquale said that he and Holly decided to split amicably; they remain best friends and are devoted to co-parenting their children in an environment filled with love and positivity.^[8]

Conclusion

Pasquale Rotella is the Founder and CEO of Insomniac, an electronic music event promoter, and music distributor company. Pasquale is considered the pioneer of EDM music and is credited for bringing it to the mainstream.

Rotella’s flagship and the most famous event is the electronic music festival Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), which attracted more than 400,000 people and won the 2017 Festival of the Year award at the Electronic Music Awards.

Pasquale Rotella’s net worth is estimated at $60 million.

References