Back at the end of March, we reported Stockholm’s famous lunch time raves were finally making their way to New York City. The first event must have been quite the success and even The New York Times picked up the story, highlighting the buzz surrounding the unique event and bringing it to mainstream attention. Lunch Beat dance parties offer people of all types to enjoy letting loose over “lukewarm pasta” allowing for a strong community to unfold in the name of dance music culture in over 50 chapters around the world. With a line wrapping around 26th Street and even attracting attention of police in NYC, the event held 300 people moving and grooving in a sober setting. The best part of this story is, you can start a lunch beat event in your hometown quite easily with details here.
…a guy in Chuck Taylors moonwalked across the dance floor, a man in a hoodie threw up his hands to form the “W” that stands for the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. Strobe lights bounced off a giant disco ball. Sweat glistened on foreheads. “Gin and Juice” thumped. Cheers erupted. It was midday, but inside Marquee, it could have been 2 a.m.
Read the rest of the article here via The New York Times.
While Las Vegas has successfully entrapped the meteoric rise of dance music popularity, the White Island has been left to come up with new business strategies to attract global audiences. The New York Times analyzes Ibiza’s legendary 40-year-old club, Pacha, in the wake of America’s music renaissance, touching on the ballooning costs associated with DJs and how to counteract the movement. The article centers around José and Ricardo Urgell, the 75 and 65-year-old brothers who have owned the venue since its humble disco beginnings.
“The DJs wanted more money to play less,” said José Urgell, “It was an abuse. We had to come up with a new plan because the old one was going to explode.”
(more…)
Mainstream media takes yet another stab at trying to understand the electronic world. The New York Times is featuring a new video labeled “The New Pop Stars,” with an enclosed caption that reads “Tiësto and other superstar D.J.’s earn millions of dollars a year for what some critics say is essentially playing prerecorded music live.” The video showcases spastic clips of Tiësto’s recent tour, while divulging into Madison Avenue’s love affair with using DJs as brand ambassadors and if the pay is actual worth the perceived effort.
(more…)
After securing a spot in the internet hall of fame and a cover story on Billboard magazine, the young Brooklyn-based producer, Harry Bauer Rodrigues, better known as Baauer, has come under fire for the sample used in his breakthrough hit “Harlem Shake.” Hector Delgado, a former reggaeton artist known as Hector El Father, is responsible for the “Con los terroristas” (“With the terrorists”) sample while Jayson Musson, formerly of Philadelphia-based rap group Plastic Little, is credited with the “Do the Harlem Shake” vocal cut that triggers the track’s infectious break. Neither artist gave permission for their samples to be used and are both seeking compensation from Mad Decent and Baauer in light of the track’s explosive success.
Oddly enough, Hector Delgado’s sample was also used in a remix of Gregor Salto’s “Con Alegria” by two lesser known DJs back in 2010 but Mr. Delgado did not seek compensation from that incident – most likely because the remix in question did not achieve the level of success that Baauer’s original has.
Machete Music, a Universal Music Group label, is currently negotiating payment from Mad Decent.
Via: New York Times
For the first time in thirteen years global sales in the music industry have risen, according to a study reported by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The increase was meek — 0.3% — but the trend in an important indicator for the future of the music industry. Once seen as the gravedigger for record companies, it is of course digital music that is leading this slow road to recovery.
Back in 1999, when many of us were still making mix CDs off our colored iMacs, Napster was skyrocketing the popularity of mp3s to untold heights. For years, the titanic corporations trying to drum up legal digital music business models could simply not find ways to compete with explosive rate at which a new generation was downloading and sharing music illegally. This plague has now turned to profit — subscribers to services like Spotify and Rhapsody grew by 44 percent last year, and sales from iTunes have not slowed either.
(more…)
Good news dance music junkies: Shazam-ing just got easier. According to the New York Times Media Decoder blog, the popular song identification app has struck a deal with Beatport that will expand its current database by 1.5 million songs. Shazam currently boasts 275 million users (175 million more than its strongest competitor, SoundHound), and the company’s director of music and content, Will Mills, explained to the NYT that dance music continues to become more and more popular on the app, making up for 31 of the 100 most tagged songs in 2012.
(more…)
Best of the Rest is a daily feature from Dancing Astronaut that recaps the most important posts of the day as well as the stuff we didn’t get to. With the rapidity that dance music news and releases come out it’s difficult for us to hit everything — we hope BOTR serves as a catch-all. Make sure to check it out at the end of each day to ensure you don’t miss anything! (more…)
