Beatport's new podcast series

Podcast series are a double-edged sword in dance music.

On one hand, they're usually always free, and you get to hear some of the latest tunes before they're released as singles. But at the same time, most podcasts are just that- a collection of new songs thrown together in a one to two hour format with no consideration to mixing, pacing, or storytelling. And the result is a glut of "shows" that sound more like a DJ's personal monthly chart rather than a mix.

So to be different, two approaches are becoming more common:

1) Make fewer episodes of a podcast and make each mix more thought-out. Quality over quantity...

2) Add an element to your show that makes each episode different. Quite a few of the locals here have built their podcast series around this characteristic. Brad Miller's "Push The Night" series switches genres each show, DJ Eco's "The Sound of (You)th" episodes are filled with snippets from his upcoming artist album, and Wayde Rafnel's "Uplift" podcasts usually have chunks of his live sets played at various New York clubs.

Beatport has announced their own podcast series today, centered around the first point outlined above...

except it's going to cost you $9.99 a month to listen.

*facepalm*

With a membership, you also get discounts and special offers from Beatport's webstore, and benefits at live evetns. The perks at shows is the most enticing part of the deal, but it's all dependent on your geographic location. If you're a resident of Wyoming for example, or even upstate New York, you're most likely never be able to experience these.

A monthly podcast series is a good idea for an electronic brand like Beatport. But please, don't charge us for something that everyone knows should already be free. Take a page out of Resident Advisor's book and let everyone enjoy the music- that's why we're listening, right?

[Image credit: Beatport.com]

Why the pluck-synth tuning is a bit boring

I think this video speaks for itself...

I've got a bone to pick with the U.S. location of ASOT 500

Armin Van Buuren just blew his chance at what could have been one of the biggest gigs of his career.

Next March, his popular weekly radio show, A State of Trance, will be reaching it's 500th episode. Whether you like the show or not, you can't deny that it's one of the most powerful brand names in electronic music.

Armin has used 476 broadcasts of ASOT so far to build an empire. Each week, millions of listeners worldwide hear the latest trance and progressive tracks on his show. He uses the airtime to promote new artists from Armada Music (the trance label he co-founded), and with the show, has made himself a name that's headlined nearly every electronic music festival that exists.

But there's one place that Armin hasn't played, and neither has anyone else in the industry. It's the one place in the United States that solidifies your position as a mainstream music artist, if you can get a booking there. And everyone who has played the venue has a story to tell about it.

That place is Madison Square Garden.

Over the summer, Armin announced that ASOT 500 would be taking place in five different continents on five different dates. When he started this show ten years ago, a few big milestones could be seen: episodes 100, 500, and 1,000, if he made it that far.

With the way his career has played out; the constant touring, production work, and the amount of time managing ASOT, I predict that Armin won't reach episode 1,000. He'd have to be in the industry for another decade for this to happen, as he's only at the halfway point now. Armin's only 34, and there are a few big names right now that have DJed into their 40's and beyond- most notably Tiesto (41), Sasha (41), Benny Benassi (43), and Paul Oakenfold (47). But I find it difficult to believe Armin won't get burnt out by the time episode 1,000 would arrive.

So that would make ASOT 500 one of the biggest gigs of his career. And the U.S. location for that event is not Madison Square Garden, but in a tent at the Ultra Music Festival in 2011.

Ultra is a huge event, but chances are the lineup Armin could be playing with are guys who have been performing at the event for years, since it hosts a lot of trance DJ's. So in reality, ASOT 500 in the US is just moving all of those guys into one tent and calling it that name. It's not the standalone event that it normally is.

Maybe Alda Events (Armin's booking agency), couldn't reach an agreement with MSG. Maybe he didn't want to spoil New Yorkers after playing two ASOT 450 shows here earlier this year. Maybe the Garden told them they don't do 9pm-5am events (which I don't recall them ever doing), so they would have to settle on a less-desired 4pm-midnight booking.

But either way, I can't see performing in a tent at Ultra being bigger than playing onstage at one of the most famous arenas in the world. Not for the visuals, the atmosphere, or the fans. And not even for Armin.

Maybe we'll have to wait a little longer for that MSG electronic dance music event. Or we can just envision what ASOT 500 could have been...

Beatbot: Is it good?

Yesterday Beatport unveiled a new service for their website: Beatbot, which matches tracks that you like to similar ones based on sound, genre, style, and other aspects. It's a bit similar to the way Pandora works, but the goal is to get you to buy more music from the store.

Here's a quick demo of how it works (the track in this video, Gorge's "Xaxax", is pretty decent):



So how is it?

While I give Beatport effort for trying, it's nothing more than a glorified label tracking service.

For each song you want Beatport to do a scan on, it chooses 20 similar ones. But the problem is that only one or two of these 20 songs are not from the label of the song you picked. So you're essentially just getting an in-browser update of "what's new" from your favorite labels.