OxyKon

Imagine this scenario: You walk into a club, swiping your phone at the door to check-in and update the promoters on your listening tastes. After a few drinks – an amazing new song comes on and the crowd rushes to the floor – sensors pick up the shift in energy and a similar track is seamlessly mixed in. Somehow, seemingly improbably – many of your favorite tracks keep dropping, each one better than the last – blended together perfectly in time with the lighting and visuals. The amazing part? There was not a DJ in sight. Everything that happened on my future dance floor was thanks to highly intelligent sensors, automated mixing technology, and smart social integration. None of this is terribly far-fetched, and many of the requirements are already in the market. The only thing holding us back from Mix Master Cloud is a company that brings them together in a cohesive way. My prediction? If this happens successfully, your average local club may never hire a regular DJ again. Now, before you head straight to the comments and give us a piece of your mind, let me go into a little more detail about each area of technology and what would be required: 1) Check-Ins At The Door – Tracking Personal Tastes As more payment systems go mobile, giving you all the access of a bank account from a tap of your phone, paying for your drinks without talking to the bartender or getting privileged access to the VIP room doors is becoming a reality. Mobile payments are already here in the form of Near Field Communications (NFC) cell phone detection – and will start to become more prominent as major mobile phone payment company ISIS (backed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizion) is launching across the US in late 2013. In a similar vein, Square Wallet is a great example of proximity detecting and personal payments. If you presently walk into a Square enabled shop and have their app installed, making a payment is nearly instantaneous and requires no plastic or paper of any kind. Euclid is one interesting example that tracks any mobile device in a business and provides information (without requiring permission) about: * How often do people come back? * How long do they stay in one area? * Where are people congregating? 2) Sensors That Know What’s Up In The Club – Learning Energy Changes Facial recognition sensors are already here and in regular use. As costs come down and privacy concerns lessen – it’s plausible that business may be able to afford them. Combine “who is on the dance floor?” with “what do they like to listen to?” and you now have more info than any DJ ever did. A company called Uniqul is already associating payment information with facial recognition – allowing a customer to nod to a camera and authorize a charge to your credit card. If paying-by-face becomes accepted, surely musical taste would be even easier to associate with their face than their savings accounts? Smart software connected to in-room sensors could easily determine what songs are making the crowd go off and which ones are cooling it down. Many DJs barely look up from their computer screen while peforming, let alone objectively analyze what songs are working well on the floor, so a computer could easily come in ahead on this one. One great example of using sensor technology to derive detailed information from a person are the new wave of iPhone sleep apps. These clever engineers have used your phone’s microphone to track breathing patterns amplified by the common mattress. This allows the app to determine and report on reasonable sleep cycles including REM state and wake times. It’s not that far fetched to imagine seeing similar motion sensors employed on the dance floor to track the “cohesion” to the playing song. This SHOJI Japanese concept gadget already tracks a room’s light levels, temperature, humidity, and even the movement of the people inside of it. 3) Auto-Mixing Technology – Understanding The Music This is one area where we need to see a lot of development, but the main problem here is focus, not know-how. DJ software today has relatively decent auto-mixing but we are still a long way off from replacing a real live DJ. Why? The existing companies don’t exactly want to replace their core user base with great automation that is sold to a much smaller market. Supposing someone wanted to really nail automating DJing – how hard would it actually be? The easy part: * Using analysis to determine the most “mixable” parts of songs * Setting more reliable beatgrids and BPMs * Knowing key clashes and good beat matches in advance * Understanding what songs “go better together” The really hard part: * Mixing different tempos well * Using song analysis to determine the chorus, verse, and overall song structure. * Tracking dance floor energy levels to figure out when to get out of song quickly * Writing good algorithms that can accurately understand and respond to what is possibly one of the more chaotic and random behavioral sets on the planet: people’s taste. Some powerful existing tech: * Pioneer, the established paradigm for in-club installs already built their advanced MIXTRAX automix technology into an iPhone application and a car receiver - why not just replace the DJ in the club next? * Pandora and Echonest both track “musical DNA”, massive metadata repositories with detailed characteristics of most songs. 4) Music Services For Clubs: Reliably Streaming The Right Songs These already exist to some degree, and they deal with the licensing issues, but they would need to be re-calibrated to work with the auto mix software. With all of the major players now set on making music in the cloud a viable business model for artists and consumers, it’s safe to say that we will have a fully cloud-based music system that our hypothetical “Mix Master Cloud” will draw from. For just $25 a month, businesses right now can install a box that plays off of Pandora’s massive musical cloud, and includes all of the proper licencing needed to play in a business setting. THE BIG FACE-OFF Ok, so technically it’s not too far-fetched, but what about the DJ? Doesn’t he/she provide something special, intangible and unique that a computer cannot? DJ Advantages: * Understands the subtle nuances of what’s hot and what’s not; what should be played and when. These are a lot of complex concepts which would be really hard to program a computer with. * The human DJ can respond rapidly to changes in the environment and adapt quickly, while computers are much slower at learning. * Your local DJ is an artist and it would break my heart to see them replaced with a computer. DJ Disadvantages: * DJs sometimes have their own agendas, while many club owners just want to make fans happy. * The average DJ, while paid too little and generally treated poorly, are very expensive compared to a premium streaming service. * Humans are unreliable. We get drunk, show up late and sometimes go home with the bartenders. If computers ever do this you should all be really scared. SMALL REALITY CHECK Did you know that our brain still trumps any computer by a significant magnitude? The fact is that countless years of development has resulted in a information processing machine that is exceptional in its ability to make complex decisions. Here is how the latest super computers face up to our old grey matter: It took the Fujitsu-built K about 40 minutes to complete a simulation of one second of neuronal network activity in real time, according to Japanese research institute RIKEN, which runs the machine. The simulation harnessed the power of 82,944 processors on the K computer, which is now ranked fourth on the biannual international Top500 supercomputer standings (China’s Tianhe-2 is the fastest now). Each synapse between excitatory neurons had 24 bytes of memory for greater accuracy. The simulation ran on open-source NEST software and had about 1 petabyte of main memory, which is roughly equal to the memory of 250,000 PCs” THE HUMAN TOUCH Personally I don’t want to see it happen, but folks, we may need to wake up and smell the silicon. It’s not IF many DJs will be replaced by automation, but WHEN and by how much. The engineering of this technology will fare well, but the blue collar wax slinger of yore may just become another tale told around digital campfires, long into the future. There may be one simple reason though why most dance floors will always have a “DJ”, even if they don’t need one. Modern commercial jets flying to modern commercial airports don’t actually need a pilot to successfully complete the journey – but would anyone actually get on a plane without a human pilot in the front? We may see a future where DJs are just paid popularity symbols that stand on stage and hype up the crowd with champagne blasts, and fist pumps. Wait a minute, what year are we in…..? Finally, we can all agree that there is something magical when people interact with each other through music. These days it seems like music technology, not to mention VIP ropes and giant stages, have been creating more separation than connection. Perhaps there is some way in which we can leverage these advances to harness the best of both worlds. Computer learning could reveal deep information about our environment, while human control and insight provides the possibility for mistakes that make us – well human, and beautiful. Source: djtechtools.com

Back in 2012, Simon Cowell looked to apply his X-Factor and American Idol reality show model towards the booming genre of dance music, as he announced that he would begin a TV program in search of “the world’s greatest DJs.” Months later, the New York Post reported that Cowell’s “X-Factor for DJ” concept had been called off; a sigh of relief for just about anybody with appreciation for the genre. What would Cowell’s “EDM American Idol” contest have looked like anyway? Well, Fatboy Slim has spoken out to reveal that he was offered to become one of the show’s judges, but that he turned down the offer and even insisted that Cowell should not proceed with production, begging “Please don’t do it. It’ll ruin it for the rest of us.” Source: thesun.co.uk

With the Summer season at an all-time peak and Pete Tong otherwise preoccupied with his global ventures, Danny Howard was back to sit-in for Pete Tong with an admirable return to the Essential Selection show on BBC Radio One this weekend. With the ranks of Pryda, Toolroom, Axtone and Size Records all flaunting new and exclusive music throughout, Calvin Harris would prove a recurring star of this annual injection of Friday night floor fundamentals. Set in motion by Matisse & Sadko’s remix duties for The Aston Shuffle, Howard steered a new music overload from the very outset, with fresh material from Jeremy Olander, Armin Van Buuren, CLMD, Ivan Gough & Jebu complimenting Howard’s impressive ear for peak time floor-fillers. Nicky Romero-approved duo Vicetone were on the Goody Goodies trail this week, leading to the unveiling of Calvin Harris’s remix duties for Fatboy Slim’s ‘Eat Sleep Rave Repeat’ as Essential New Tune, narrowly knocking Kryder’s impending Axtone offering ‘Afrodite’ from the celebrated title enroute. Erick Morillo was inaugurated into the Hall of Fame with a nod to the days of Ministers De-La-Funk and the seminal anthem ‘Believe,’ steering the show onwards for a well deserved future stars spot from German outfit Chasing Kurt. It Swedish trailblazer Alesso that sealed a very special stand-in, bringing his hot mix live from Ibiza, exclusively unveiling his impending collaborative duties alongside Calvin Harris for ‘Under Control’ to seal yet another two-hour triumph from Howard – a man who is looking more-and-more comfortable in the Friday night hot seat. Source: dancingastronaut.com

Lol ^

Will listen when I get home

With its infamous summer clubbing season now well underway, you would struggle to find a European destination more hotly discussed among clubbers than Ibiza. An island famed for its past hedonistic attributes, unparalleled clubbing experiences and more surprisingly, some damn good sushi, the White Isle sees more DJs per square foot than any other European hotspot in the world. Though its club circuit saw a lot of chops and changes on the approach to 2013, there has never been a better time to experience the island for its lesser known attributes. Dancing Astronaut tapped a host of the island’s frequent flyers to scope the secrets and spoils of Balearic clubbing straight from the DJ’s mouth. Hit more to learn the ropes from our all-star panel of guests. Mark Knight I am big fan of Nassau Beach Club in Playa D’en Bossa. It’s a fantastic place to hang out for the day. The food is fantastic and my tip would be to go for the Ibérico ham. It’s certainly not cheap but it’s out of this world and as you are on holiday, treat yourself! The beds are super comfy, but book early because its does get busy! I am not sure of the name of the guy who DJs there in the day but he is amazing. I spend the whole day either on Shazam or going up asking the name of tracks being played. I was so inspired by the whole experience; I named my remix of Laidback Luke’s “Speak Up ” after it. Have a listen to it and hopefully it will paint a picture in your mind. Norman Doray One of my favorite inexpensive hotels in Ibiza is the Simbad Hotel. It is no secret that the island is quite expensive, especially during the summer, so I’m really happy to have found this place on Talamanca Beach. The terraces are gorgeous and it comes with an amazing view of the sea. The rooms aren’t a 5-star affair, but who is really sleeping in Ibiza anyway? El Chiringuito is surely the best “old school” restaurant on the island. The fish is fresh from the morning, you only have camping tables and chairs and you are eating straight in front of the sea on the rocks! There is no map for it, but finding it is half the fun! For me, Pacha has always been the best club in Ibiza. This was the first place I played on the island and it has always been a sexy and crowded place to play. The vibe is always very special – there really is only one Pacha Ibiza. Café Mambo is amazing in its own way, as it’s the only place you will find DJs playing for free. It’s a unique place where you play for the sunset and you drink more Hierbas in one night than you would in the whole year! Mike Vale I think just being in Ibiza is a highlight in itself. It’s such a magical place with so much energy and positive vibes that almost everyone falls in love with the island for their own reasons. The simple beauty of Formentera is a balsam for soul and spirit, a place where you can relax and just be yourself. There are a lot of places where you can watch beautiful sunsets and eat good food at the same time but let’s say I would pick Café Mambo on San Antionio’s legendary sunset strip. The iconic institution boasts a long history of great music and famous DJs, not to mention some awesome off-the-cuff DJ sets. In terms of clubs, it’s got to be Space. There are more clubs that I love, but Space Ibiza is definitely one of my top places on the island. I’ve probably been there the most times and met a lot of friends during the years. The club is massive with the amazing crowd and I can’t wait to be back there this year alongside Roger Sanchez. Sander Kleinenberg I love taking the little ferryboat from Talamanca to Ibiza town, it’s a great way to avoid the parking in the old town on a busy day and it’s great to arrive in Ibiza’s old town by boat for 3 Euro. Park your car in front of Ocean Drive Hotel and make your way down the harbor and it’s about a ten-minute boat trip. Down in Es Cubells there is a fish shack called Ses Boques. The drive there is very spectacular and you make your way all the way down to a really small-pebbled beach to find it, but it’s worth the adventure because the food is stellar. You also need to climb Sa Talaia (you can do it by car if you don’t have the stamina to do it by foot). At approximately 500 meters it’s the highest point on the island and the view is spectacular! I also really love the sushi at Pacha. I’d go as far as to say it is the best on the island and after the meal you can conveniently sneak into the club. Laidback Luke My favorite place to play in Ibiza is the terrace at Amnesia. It has been magic for years for me now. I feel it’s a unique vibe and place in the world that you can’t find anywhere else. Oliver Twizt Before I was DJing I had several Ibiza compilation CDs on repeat, imagining being in a theatrical scene, filled with house music lovers and surrounded by a breathtaking party atmosphere. Last year I played in Amnesia and it was exactly how I hoped it to be, house music comes to life there! Sandro Silva: I’m a big fan of Ibiza, because it has so many beautiful places. It’s not just a “party island” as many people think. A year ago I did a scooter ride throughout Ibiza, just to discover the island, and it has beautiful green mountains and valleys, perfect for cruising around! Club-wise I’m a huge fan of Amnesia, because it’s not all about the bottles and how many girls you have as company. They are just there for one thing and that’s to rave on to their favorite DJs. Playing those sorts of crowds is a DJ’s dream. There are clubs in Ibiza that will always be very special to me. I had my first Ibiza show two years ago at Privilege with my hero Tiësto and wow, what a big venue it is. The vibe is just next level. Another club that’s really special to me is Pacha. I had my second show there a couple of weeks ago and it was with one my of my biggest heroes, David Guetta. It was like a dream come true. The venue speaks for itself — it’s a special club and with David it’s even more special because of the strength ‘F*** Me, I’m Famous’ holds. W&W: Although we’re always on the island for just a short while, we really enjoy staying at the Ocean Drive Hotel on Talamanca. It has great service and is just a beautiful boutique hotel. Our favorite restaurant is B-For (sushi) and we always go there before our shows. Having a residency at Privilege with Armin is amazing cause we get to play a lot for thousands of party people, so by all means stop by the club and see it in full swing every Monday. Qulinez: There are a few places we like to check out depending on the mood. Ushuaia is a very fancy place if you want to look at big DJs. We also like Space. That place has an amazing after-party vibe going on. Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano We always stay at the Ocean Drive hotel. It’s a nice hotel and close to Talamanca beach, which is a nice quiet spot near Ibiza town. As the club where we started our Sexy by Nature residency, Boom Ibiza has to make the list. It’s a really cool club with an awesome design and the best sound system there is from pioneer. We have fallen in love with it since starting our residency there. B-For Restaurant has the best sushi of the island and a really nice atmosphere! Our tip would be to order the Dragon Roll – you wont regret it. Source: dancingastronaut.com

LOL he'd be pissed that that chick called him a dj

LIVE WITH DNB RIGHT NOW

I’m sure everyone remembers the YouTube video of Madeon doing his live “Pop Culture” mashup (above), because it was one the most legendary beat pad displays we’d ever seen…not to mention if was from a young Madeon…only 17 at the time! Today we have an unbelievable remix to Adrian Lux’s amazing tack – Damaged from M4SONIC (below). The remix itself is brilliant as it adds a new electro-twist to the original, but the video, on the other hand, is a completely different story. We get to see M4SONIC mixing live with four Novation Launchpad controllers that rival Madeon’s video and talent level ever so much. Enjoy this incredible video, because it’s truly a marvel to watch. After watching both, which one do you think is more impressive!? Source: fistintheair.com

obviously it would be terrible if people were ripping lo-fi youtube clips, but imaging about being able to print off your own tracks on wax once mastered

You know exactly what we’re talking about… The melodies that chill you to the bone. Everyone has experienced that single defining moment when a vocalist steps on stage next to the DJ. Instant goosebumps. These are the women of EDM culture with the voice, the beauty, and the hypnotizing lyrics that make us connect emotionally with the music. While the synth powered, bass hitting, vintage dance music minimizes the heavy vocals- today’s generation relies on the lyrical sentiment portrayed in dance music’s chart topping tracks. Whatever genre you are into- it can not be denied that when you throw in vocals, the track instantly becomes relatable. Here are our top 10 powerhouse female vocalists… No.1 INNA Out of Romania, Inna (Elena Alexandra Apostoleanu) has taken charge of Europe’s EDM charts since 2008 with her unique, ultra sexy vocals. The singer-songwriter was the first European female vocalist to surpass over 1 billion hits on YouTube. Her hit singles include Love (2008), DejaVu (2009), and Hot (2010) with three studio albums: Hot (2010), I am the Club Rocker (2012), and Party Never Ends (2013). https://soundcloud.com/inna-official/inna-hot No.2 EMMA HEWITT What do we say about Emma Hewitt? Besides the fact that she is an Australian bombshell with mind shattering vocals…? Her collaborations with Cosmic Gate, Gareth Emery, Dash Berlin and Armin Van Buuren have put her name on a pedestal in the world of Trance. In 2012 Emma’s debut album “Burn The Sky Down” took us on a roller coaster of ambient, vocal trance that keeps us coming back for more. Sing to us, Emma. https://soundcloud.com/cosmicgateofficial/cosmic-gate-emma-hewitt-calm-5 No.3 CARI GOLDEN Cari Golden is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter, with a captivating voice and a flair forthe unexpected. For over 10 years, Cari has entertained the likes of EDM producers from every end of the spectrum. Her multi-genre talent has landed her collaborations with Audiofly, Pan-Pot, Mario Zar, Android Cartel and many others- along with track releases on Armada Records,Ultra Records, Rapid Response Recordings and more. https://soundcloud.com/cari-golden/quivver-feat-cari-golden-happy No.4 ARUNA Finally, New Jersey gives us a woman worth talking about. Aruna Abrams is far from the world of orange “jerseylicious guidettes, and we could never thank her enough for that. Aruna’s voice is as mysterious and enticing as her name, showcasing her vocals alongside the likes of Myon & Shane 54, ATB, Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten– just to name a few. In 2012, Aruna became the first female solo artist to host Above & Beyond’s international podcast, ‘Trance Around the World.’ This breakthrough put Aruna on the path to her own podcast- ‘The Hot List,’ which skyrocketed to #14 on iTunes Top 200 Podcasts. https://soundcloud.com/flashoverrecordings/ferry-corsten-ft-aruna-live No.5 NADIA ALI This Pakistani-American vocalist caught the attention of Europe’s dance music charts in 2001 asthe voice behind the band iiO, with the debut Hit Single “Rapture.” Nearly a decade later, Nadia Ali caught the attention of the world with “Pressure,” a collaboration with Alex Kenji and Starkillers- which became a worldwide festival anthem overnight. Ali’s unique blend of trance, ballads, and eastern acoustic musical styles combined with a passion for songwriting has landed her a Grammy nomination, and an International Dance Music Award. https://soundcloud.com/high-rankin/nadia-ali-rapture-high-rankin No.6 MAIDAY While Rachel Moulden is more widely known for her songwriting talent, she has proved that her voice is as promising as her lyrics. Known as Maiday, this British singer-songwriter-producer has produced songs for Wretch 32, Leona Lewis and Little Nikki. Her collaboration with Jakwob landed her a deal with Interscope records on July 4, 2013… We can’t wait to hear what Maiday does to the EDM charts. Stay tuned for epicness. https://soundcloud.com/cassie-long/true-tiger-ft-maiday-big-love No.7 JAHAN & YASMINE, KREWELLA Who gets wet, smells like whiskey, and makes you feel alive? Krewella. And we love it. Jahan and Yasmine make up the unmistakable vocals of Krewella, a trio from Chicago. While we dig your production skills, Rainman- this feature is for the girls. Or Trolls, as they call themselves. Krewella began their career with the tracks “Strobelights” and “Life of the Party.” The songs gained popularity on several online audio distribution platforms, which led to the hit, “One Minute.” In 2012, Krewlla dropped their EP “Play Hard,” and they’ve been rapidly climbing to the top ever since. https://soundcloud.com/krewella/adventure-club-ft-krewella-1 No.8 MAYA JANE COLES/NOCTURNAL SUNSHINE Music Producer, Audio Engineer, DJ, Music Extraordinaire… Seemingly describes Maya Jane Cole. Based out of the UK, Maya composes/produces deep house and underground garage tracks by day, and as the night takes over- so does her dubstep alias- Nocturnal Sunshine. At the age of 15, Mayabegan producing trip-hop tracks, which led to her first two records in 2008/2009, released by Dogmatik Records. 2011 proved to be a rewarding year for Maya, winning Best Newcomer at the Ibiza DJ Awards, Mixmag’s Best Breakthrough DJ, and DJ Mag’s Producer of the Year. Her debut full length album, “Comfort,” was released earlier this year. https://soundcloud.com/mayajanecoles/burning-bright-ft-kim-ann No.9 FIORA Songwriter. Singer. Producer. Orchestral Composer. Meet, Fiora Cutler (Fiora). This multi-talented musical sensation from Tasmania first showcased her talents with the lyrically compelling track by Antillas, “Damged.” Her career began with Opera in the Queensland Orchestra in 2001. Her passion for music combined with a talent for composition led her into the world of dance music, where she has since produced tracks along the sides of Armin Van Buuren, Seven Lions, and Arty. https://soundcloud.com/vitoditodj/antillas-feat-fiora-damaged No.10 MIRIAM & OLIVA, NERVO If you have not been a part of the Australian twin revelation known as ‘Nervo,’ you need to crawl out from the rock you’ve been living under. Miriam and Oliva began their quest as songwriters, publishing music for multiple international pop stars- including Kelly Rowland and David Guetta’s number one hit, “When Love Takes Over.” Their success immediately landed them a collaboration with Afrojack, “The Way We See the World,” which became the Tomorrowland Anthem, and has put them at the Belgium festivals main stage for three consecutive years. https://soundcloud.com/nervomusic/hold-on-angger-dimas-remix Source: magneticmag.com

For working DJs, sometimes the greatest competition is an internet-connected jukebox. While it might not have any talent in terms of contextualizing and mixing music, its ability to fulfill the direct musical desires of a room makes it a prime choice for venues that could easily have a DJ. Becoming a versatile, multi-genre DJ who can react to a room is essential to get more gigs – learn more in today’s article. WHY BECOME A MULTI-GENRE DJ? No More Evacuating The Dancefloor: A lot of DJs are experts in specific genres, often because of a personal draw to a certain sound. Often times these DJs suffer when placed in an environment where their usual style isn’t working – and not having the ability to break out of the usual will keep the dance floor nice and empty. More Gigs: DJs who want to play more gigs often have to learn how to become a generalist instead of a specialist. This doesn’t mean giving up mixing your favorite type of music, but it does mean building a library, improving selection skill, and mixing prowess that will come in handy when your audiences change every time you play out. Different Venues: Fancy becoming a resident DJ at a bar or club with its own independent draw? These venues are usually well known for being a great place to go, and not for a particular night – so when a huge pack of international students from a local college roll into your brand new residency, filling the dance floor and demanding tracks way outside of your normal repertoire – you need to be ready. Go Mobile: If you’re planning on getting into the mobile side of gigs (read: weddings, bat/bar mitzvahs, school dances, class reunions, etc), you often walk into these types of gigs almost entirely blind in terms of what type of night it’s going to be like. You can’t scout out these events a week ahead of time – there’ve been countless times I’ve showed up to an event with a completely different crowd than what the organizer expected (wedding receptions can always be a surprise). Remember: almost any gig you play can make you a better DJ. Even the ones where none shows up, or where the club owner yells at you for not playing his favorite new Rihanna song, or where you forget to reset the timecode track on the bride and groom’s first dance and the song stops 30 seconds in. BUILDING A MULTI-GENRE LIBRARY Becoming a DJ who can perform in any genre does not mean that you have to have every single song in that genre. The reason why is simple – if you don’t know what music you have, your ability to choose quality tracks that surprise and delight the crowd in front of you is limited by your guesswork and the requests that you get. Instead, think about building up a quality collection that focuses around these three different types of songs in per genre: Classic / Timeless Track: The well-known tracks that defined the genre. Deep Cuts: The lesser-known dark horses in a genre, you’ll have to hunt for these quite a bit more. New, Current Songs: If a song is getting radio play, you’re going to want to have a copy in your arsenal. Feel free to prune these regularly. Here’s some of the best practices that you can do to build a great, current library: Paid Record Pools: We’ve written a whole roundup of digital record pools earlier this year – having a service that curates music for DJs is a great way to rapidly build a current library and not miss out on songs as they come out. DIY Personal Record Pool With Friends: While we don’t encourage piracy of tracks you don’t own, having a few trusted friends (ideally fellow DJs!) who you talk shop with and share rare edits and interesting tracks with is a great way to build your library. Top Lists: If you’re after a great mobile library, start with the Mobile Beat Top 200, powered by DJIntelligence (one of the most used mobile DJ request services) – this will cover many of the requests you’re likely to get. Podcasts + Radio: We hear from more and more DJs who regularly listen to podcasts to search for new tracks and who use digital radio services like Spotify, Pandora, or even Hype Machine to keep their library peppered with current tracks – or to educate themselves on genres that they might not know anything about. Pro tip: Set aside a time every week to go digging for new music – and as you find things during the rest of the week download them and put them in a playlist to listen, review, and categorize when this library-building time comes around. IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU: READING THE CROWD Just having a great music library means nothing if you aren’t playing to your crowd. Not every crowd will tell you what they want to hear, or how they’re doing. Start first with what you know about the gig – are people here to dance all night, sing along to pop hits, or just have ambient music to socialize to? In some cases, the ideal state changes dramatically over the course of an event – take a traditional wedding reception, which starts off with mellow cocktail music and escalates to first dances and a potential full-on dance party as the night goes on. To get people to start dancing, look for the connectors in the room – the people whose enjoyment of your music will infect others around them. Wedding DJs know exactly what I’m talking about – if you get the wedding party on the dance floor, you can usually get everyone else out there pretty easily. Pro tip: a really good exercise is to go out to the venue where you’re considering doing a gig and watching how things go down. How does the night evolve, and what’s the relationship between the DJ and the crowd? You’ll get lots of good ideas this way, so always scout your gigs if possible! EVERY GIG IS A CHANCE TO PRACTICE MORE DJ AM stood at the top of the pack in terms of being a DJ prepared for every type of gig – simply because of the variety of performance experience he had, which included radio, mobile, band, and club gigs. Having spent thousands of hours DJing between all of these contexts made him an expert at reading a room. In general, DJs who take every opportunity to select music for a group of people are the first to become pros at commanding a room. Some great ways to score more reoccurring hours playing out include: 1. Searching on wedding sites and Craigslist for a multi-op (more than one DJ) company in your region and seeing if they need new DJs or roadies. 2. Signing up to work at community or college radio. 3. Finding a regular live music night that has downtime between acts and volunteering to be the between-band DJ. Source: djtechtools.com

Moments before Flying Lotus’s set on Saturday of HARD Summer, a man was transported to the nearby LAC+USC Medical Center for what has been reported as cardiac distress. According to SPIN Magazine, who were on the ground at the event, paramedics were unable to resuscitate the man on site. LA Weekly reports that; “A 25-year-old male was found unresponsive, pulseless and non-breathing at the venue by a team of veteran LAFD paramedics. He was transported in grave condition to L.A. County-USC Medical Center.” Flying Lotus, who also witnessed the tragic event, expressed his shock on Twitter. In response Live Nation, who currently owns a portion of HARD, has issued an official statement. Source:dancingastronaut.com

Where the White Isle has continued to play host to some of the biggest nights on the European clubbing calendar, BBC Radio 1 has seldom missed a beat. Cue a rare turn for Pete Tong’s Essential Selection duties, which saw the show transported to Ushuaia Ibiza for part-two of their Ibiza broadcast marathon. With the likes of Rudimental and Alesso already having taken the annual event, all eyes were on Pete to deliver a standout session. The ice was quickly broken courtesy of a rare DJ appearance from Chris Malinchak, whose deep and dreamy sound scope travelled perfectly towards a befitting climax of his own charted calling card ‘So Good To Me.’ Off the back of their EDC London opening duties two weeks before, Australian duo Nervo were next up to bat with their own persuasive festival antics; the set scaled a host of their own releases and primed club anthems alike, finishing with ‘Like Home’ to top another potent set from the fast-ascending sisters. Having buoyantly balanced appearances for Sankeys and his own +1 residency at Pacha throughout the season, Solomun was a more than welcome addition to the line-up. Rallying cuts from his own Diynamic imprint, his instrumental licks and purebred underground house get-up left little speculation as to his unprecedented status across global club land. The main spectacle tonight however was a rare back-to-back slot from Tong himself and Hotflush favorite George Fitzgerald, whose collective deep stylings made for a show stopping finale for this BBC calendar mark that just keeps getting bigger by the year. Source: dancingastronaut.com

With a decade of genre-hopping experience behind them, London’s Chase & Status have set a precedent in British drum & bass and it’s notorious commercial evolution. But after months of patiently waiting and a run of suggestive announcements, the duo have announced that their third studio album, Brand New Machine, is set to be unleashed on October 7 on Casablanca Records. As the follow-up to 2011’s double-platinum selling No More Idols, the album’s lead singles “Lost & Not Found” and “Count On Me” have already set expectations high for this nostalgically charged duo’s return to the full length platform. As one of Europe’s most prolific live dance acts, their radio-friendly edge and vintage rave sensibilities look to be comfortably paired once again for album number three, adding seven-date Rock The Bells tour scaling both North America and Canada to sweeten the deal enroute to the big day. Hit more to hear the first two singles and stay tuned for DA’s forthcoming interview with Chase & Status. Source: dancingastronaut.com

been looking good dude, ive noticed a few changes over the last few days

he just wants more money out of it

i feel like slapping him just for wearing those headphones

yeah im down for that, ill come up with something this weekend and share it with you

Gusta

you're lucky :>

can you add this to the rotation please https://soundcloud.com/oxykon/oxykon-se ... -july-2013

am live right now with some dnb, tune in

Last month, we engaged in a full on “make-over” of my social media presence. The question was: If I followed the advise of experts and upped my posting regularity – could we double my followers? Using scheduling tools, and the assistance of a few people in DJTT my mission was to drastically increase the number of posts per day and take my activity from zilch to full on. How did things fare? Did I succeed? Most importantly – what did we learn? The series started off in an onerous fashion with the top rated comment beseeching me to make more videos and forget about social media: This was the big question. Could I provide value on social media without taking time away from the real work of an artist? In short – the answer was yes and no. While I managed to have a few moments that really worked, most of our posts were largely noise, and did little more than distract me from creating inspiring content. The schedule we set out for ourselves was unrealistic and not even that effective in the end. There were a few moments where social media did show some real potential but the experiment was a mixed bag and brought me back to my previous verdict: post when I have time and focus on creating real value – not talking about it. THE FACTS We set out with a lofty goal of doubling my followers. Here are the raw numbers on where I started + ended up: Verdict: Perhaps I set the goals a bit too high in trying to double my total fanbase in such a short time period. There’s no doubt that being more active seems to have resulted in a growth of fans, but it was primarily a few cool + interesting posts that really succeeded. It seems that just because you’re the person who is talking the most in a room doesn’t mean that you’re the one everyone pays attention to. This is pretty well correlated with a slide that was a part of an industry report released at the International Music Summit earlier this year. The slide (pictured below) shows that tweet frequency was not a major determiner of total followers among DJs and electronic music artists: THE FAILS Posting to social media daily is hard enough for regular people, but for artists with busy careers it’s very challenging. If you happen to be slightly insane and find yourself running a company at the same time (like me) – it’s nearly impossible. What’s the answer? Normally companies like Fame House step in and manage the social media channels of big artists directly. These social managers are posting on their behalf and keeping the funnel full with up to the minute content – he’s Fame House’s Digital Strategy Director Hisham Dahud on the matter: “In today’s digital world, it takes a great deal of diligence to keep up to date with all the changes occurring nearly everyday. Platforms are constantly being updated, new experimental technologies are popping up on a regular basis… so it’s important for an artist and their team to remain ahead of the curve. When you’re playing 150 gigs a year, running a label, and/or making music year round, you simply don’t have time for that.” Gig Posting: We set a bunch of posting goals including a prescribed number of tweets + Facebook posts before, during and after the gig. This was my biggest fail. Actually delivering content around the gig is nearly impossible for me personally. My gig routine after 15 years of DJing has largely settled into: Day of the gig: Rest, focus, relax. No computers, mappings, music browsing or mentally taxing activities. Go to sound check. Before the gig: Check all gear, make sure the set is ready to rock. Do a 20 minute pre-show meditation routine. During the gig: Try to have more fun than the dance floor. If I am dancing harder than anyone else, the set is going well. After the gig: Somehow try to unwind, let the ears recover, sleep and hide from the world for a day. There is just no room in here to be taking photos and posting to social media about my upcoming gig, and frankly I am pretty sure no one really gives a shit. Perhaps David Guetta’s fans want to see backstage shots with Paris Hilton but I am pretty sure mine just want new cool technology to play with. High Volume Managers: Because posting everyday to three sites was impossible with my daily demand, we scheduled out tweets in advance and had Dan (our managing editor) post to Facebook daily on my behalf. Perhaps the fans don’t really care if it’s not really me, but in the end this just felt plain douchey. Not surprisingly, very few of these posts gained much traction and almost none of them achieved the real goal of building a base. Im definitely not comfortable with, and won’t have other people posting on my behalf in the future. My personal philosophy is: Posting little bits of info everyday just for the sake of staying “active” on social media doesn’t fit my personal values, and frankly seems to only benefit Facebook. Zuckerberg has plenty of money, so for the time being I think he will be okay if we post a little less. THE SUCCESSES One night, frustrated by the largely vacuous and impersonal posts like: “Check out this cool photo of me and my studio speakers! Aren’t they cool?” (barf in my mouth), I was inspired by some atrocious stage photos (from a young DJ who will remain anonymous) and posted something real, personal, and serious: 40.6k people saw the post, and my numbers really made a jump for the first time in the entire experiment. This was a simple, heartfelt note without any fancy photos, media or videos. My personal takeaway: Skip the fluff and post things that actually matter when you have something real to say. The DJ world is chalk full of smoke, mirrors, and PR BS – perhaps the way to cut through is by showing them who you really are. The runner up for second best post in terms of reach (albiet much lower at 18k) was a simple photo of an awesome street DJ I saw spinning 45s on a Columbia GP3 toy DJ setup. This again removed me from the center focus and instead allowed my perspective and observations on something cool to be the focus of the post. THE LESSON Social media is an interesting way to share smaller bits of value between the bigger moments in an artists career. In today’s fast-paced, over-saturated environment it does seem that DJs who only publish every few months or even years get quickly forgotten about. Staying engaged with your fans on a weekly basis can keep the energy alive and build up excitement to the big releases, but it’s easy to get caught up in the posting frenzy. One good example is the new DJ TechTools Midi Fighter Twister project (pictured at right). Rather than a single announcement saying the controller is coming, followed by one long break, and other post 4 months later saying it’s here, we have been providing regular updates on the project development. This style of update worked amazingly with our first product, the VCI-100SE: after 4 months of talking about the controller and getting people excited, the first batch sold out in 2 hours when it finally dropped. I would personally avoid forcing yourself to post “something – anything” daily and instead post when you have something that people will want to share. That is the entire point right? Without meaningful, sharable content – we are all just shouting in a very noisy world. Source: djtechtools.com

Welcome dude