WMC 09

Here's your essential guide to the Winter Music Conference so you have more time to enjoy the beats.

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By Michael Hamersly

Less than a week after the NCAA basketball tournament kicks off at AmericanAirlines Arena, dance-music lovers from all over the globe will flock to Miami for another kind of March Madness.

Since 1985, the Winter Music Conference has attracted the world's best DJs, producers and beat-makers to sunny South Florida for a week of unmatched musical chaos. It's electronic music's biggest yearly event, bar none. From March 24 through March 29, hundreds of thousands of revelers will fill our nightclubs and streets searching for the best parties and most infectious grooves.

It's also a chance for top DJs - Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Danny Tenaglia, Carl Cox, to name a few - to showcase new material, and lend an ear to their peers' latest work. Since it's impossible to experience more than a fraction of it all, here's a guide to some of the more compelling artists and events.