RightsFlow, a leading provider of bulk mechanical licensing and royalty services, recently announced a deal to provide global reporting services for Beatport, one of the world’s leading international dance and electronic music digital aggregators.

This deal offers Beatport a comprehensive solution for reporting to rights societies around the world so that they can continue to make sure that musicians and songwriters are properly paid for their work. The deal will also enable Beatport to focus on their historically challenging customer service, an area of weakness that has improved as of late, rather than the time consuming and detailed processes required in accurately reporting metrics.

Beatport is a popular international online music service, offering hi-speed, quality dance and electronic music downloads to DJs and fans alike. It is a site known for its ease of use; as a web information architect, I applaud them on their superior user interface.

This partnership is significant;  DJs and producers will feel more confident that their work will be compensated with a global reach in a timely manner. Additionally, my hope is that Beatport will continue to ramp up its customer service processes to rectify any issues in an equally timely manner.

See the full story  on Mi2n.com here.

Looking for something to do on Thanksgiving Eve next week? The Bowery, Pacha NYC and Terminal 5 have teamed up to bring you and evening of hyped beats and funky sounds from everyone’s musical maestro of the moment, Deadmau5. Alongside will be U.K. funkmaster, BURNS, who’s Parisian-style funk melded with UK disco-filtered house is rocking dance floors around the world.

BURNS has been busy remixing the sounds of Ladyhawke, Jack Spalsh feat. Missy Elliot, Passion Pit, The Gossip, Kasabian, White Lies, FrankMusic, and Calvin Harris.

Take a listen to BURNS Pre Party Jamz set recently featured on NickyDigital.com.

NickyDigital_Pre_Pre_Party_Jamz_ BURNS

Now for something we didn’t know…Birmingham U.K. producer/dj, Kim Fai! He’s listed on the bill along with Sleepy & Boo. This cat is sick! We just checked out his tracks on his MySpace. What! Yo…crazy! His remix of the balearic classics Inner City Good Life and the Paul Thomas & Myke Smith remake of Atlantic Ocean Waterfall are incredible. He’s got a bunch of tracks out, including Drug Music 2009 with Mark Knight from Toolroom Knights on the vocal. We hadn’t heard his remix of Funkagenda’s “What the F*@&k.” We found the YouTube track and it’s served up in this post. Very deep, dark and certainly underground.

The Empire Hotel’s roof top played host to the One Night in St Tropez Tour on Thursday evening. Dane Cook rolled in with an impressive entourage after his performance at Madison Square Garden, the Sex in the City cast was in attendance as were Janeane Garofalo and Mike Epps with entourage in tow. Promoter / hosts Jewels Ferante, Jon Paul Pezzo, Poppa Pri and Eric Scucci get a boat load of credit for tastefully juggled the paparazzi, models and socialites all night. The late great DJ AM had plans to work on future One Night in St Tropez events. All but being handed the thrown, DJ Kenny Summit rocked the celebrity filled gala in a very impressive manner, spinning everything from early 90s hiphop to daft punk, rock, house and everything in between (all while wearing a RIP DJ AM pin on his shirt).

- Contributed to Netmix by Oscar for Katrina Public Relations

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Armin Van Buuren

Every year, DJ Magazine publishes a poll of the Top 100 DJs as voted by dance music fans around the globe. We don’t really know if it’s all that scientific or not, but it’s pretty fun to watch who gets added, who moves up or down and who gets bumped. New York City’s Ultra Records, a label that has somehow survived the tragedy that has beset other labels through three economic downturns in the last 10-years, releases records from many of the artists that top the polls. With Strictly Rhythm a shell of its former self and Tommy Boy and Robbins chasing pop radio, Ultra latched onto the trance movement, while also releasing a few house records here and there. Although they do chase radio as well, they’ve been able to bridge the gap between radio cheese and quality dance music, and almost always with a vocal. Dance music producers take note: You want to make long lasting records that sell across the globe? Get yourself a vocalist−period!

Because we’re a blog and not the New York Times, we’re not going to recap history here. It’s always easier to simply publish the label’s own self-promotion. But, what we did do was link everything up for you. That, in itself, takes a good hour to complete. While you read, we’re off to have a brew and kick some beats.

Ultra Records Press Release

New York, NY – Ultra Records is proud to be the home for a staggering number of artists and DJs who have placed on this year’s annual DJMag Top 100 DJs Poll, the biggest music poll on earth. Results were announced Wednesday night from a star-studded gala event at Ministry of Sound in London.

Armin van Buuren and Tiësto, at #s 1 and 2, are non-movers this year, and with Above & Beyond (#4), Paul van Dyk (#5), deadmau5 (#6), Ferry Corsten (#7), Markus Schulz (#8), and Sander van Doorn (#10), dominate the Top 10 with eight of the total places. Three-time champ Tiësto is still celebrating the successful release of his new artist album Kaleidoscope (Ultra Records) with a multi-city North American tour scheduled to hit Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Vancouver, and LA in the coming weeks, wrapping up with a New Year’s Eve extravaganza in Las Vegas.

Above & Beyond squeak into the Top 5 at #4, just in time for their Anjunabeats Volume 7 (Ultra Records) release party at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom on Halloween. Completing the Top 5 is DJ Paul van Dyk, whose career-spanning best-of collection Volume was released by Ultra Records earlier this summer. Just missing the Top 5 at #6 is 28-year-old Canadian dance music phenomenon deadmau5, known for wearing a big mouse head, on the heels of the release of his critically-acclaimed For Lack of a Better Name (Ultra Records) album.

At #19 is Cosmic Gate, whose move up 49 places makes them the poll’s Highest Climber.

Ultra Records represents a total 20 artists who placed in the top 100 this year, including Ultra recording artist Kaskade who entered the chart for the first time at #51, as did DJ Sharam at #73, whose Get Wild album was released on Ultra earlier this year. Robbie Rivera re-enters this year’s poll just in time for the release of his new artist album, Closer to the Sun, out on Ultra November 3.

The Top 100 DJs Poll annually attracts over 350,000 voting fans from around the globe and is powered by Trackitdown.net. Artists placing on the Poll and represented by Ultra Records are listed below. For the full list, visit http://www.djmag.com/top100djs/

1. Armin van Buuren (non-mover)
2. Tiësto (non-mover)
4. Above & Beyond (non-mover)
5. Paul van Dyk (down 2)
6. deadmau5 (up 5)
7. Ferry Corsten (down 1)
8. Markus Schulz (non-mover)
10. Sander van Doorn (up 3)
14. Axwell (up 6)
19. Cosmic Gate (up 43)
26. Benny Benassi (up 13)
29. Fedde Le Grand (non-mover)
34. Eric Prydz (down 13)
49. Richard Durand (up 17)
51. Kaskade (new entry)
60. Roger Sanchez (down 3)
66. Laurent Wolf (up 1)
70. Sander Kleinenberg (down 11)
73. Sharam (new entry)
95. Robbie Rivera (re-entry)

About Ultra Records
Ultra Records is an American independent electronic dance music record label, voted Winter Music Conference’s IDMA “Best American Dance Label” (2006-2009) and Billboard’s Dance Airplay Label of the Year (2005-2008). Ultra was formed in New York City in 1995 by former Polygram and Virgin Records executive Patrick Moxey, who is still the owner. Ultra’s current roster includes American artists Markus Schulz, Steve Smooth, Kaskade, Sharam, Cedric Gervais, and international artists Tiësto, Paul Oakenfold, Above & Beyond, The Young Punx, Benny Benassi, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren, Kraak & Smaak, Morcheeba, Fedde le Grand, Enur and others in North America. Ultra has featured releases from the aforementioned artists and many others such as Pitbull, Paul van Dyk, The Crystal Method, Timo Maas, Sasha & John Digweed, 4 Strings, Panjabi MC, Despina Vandi and Junkie XL. In the U.S., Ultra Records is distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance/Warner; elsewhere, Ultra is distributed by EMI Canada and Vital UK.

Web site: www.ultrarecords.com

If you don’t know Dubspot, the music production and DJ school has quickly entrenched itself as the defacto spot to learn the tools, tips and techniques for the DJ trade. Whether it’s making music with Ableton Live, scratch classes using Serato, or DJing with the Pioneer DVJ mixing console using DVD’s, the school has a class for you.

Dubspot’s 2009 Summer registration is under way and you’ll need to jump on it quick, because I hear that classes are filling up. According to a recent NYTimes article about DJing in the dowturn, Dubspot enrollment has doubled to 300 since last year. Since the economy took a turn for the worse, it’s always good to use the time to pick up a new skill. While some are transitioning to nursing and health care or other sectors, you might be thinking about leaving the corporate carer behind to do something infinitely more creative than crunching spreadsheets and building Power Point presentations.

Recently, Dubspot celebrated its two-year anniversary with a weekend long event from June 25th to the 28th. I wasn’t able to attend, but the folks at Dubspot and Plexi PR were able to provide this wrap up:

DubSpot, New York City’s home for dynamic electronic music production and DJ education, celebrated its 2 Year anniversary with a long weekend June 25th-28th.  In addition to hosting three individual birthday parties, DubSpot also brought its Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour in for its home stop, with Ableton Live 8 production and performance workshops.  An abundance of high profile artists were involved throughout the events, and the weekend has received enthusiastic praise from all participants not only for its ingenuity, but also its originality and high standard of quality.  Full workshop videos with techno auteurs Richie Hawtin & Ambivalent, Dub pioneer Scientist, Peter Kirn of CreateDigitalMusic.com and much more to be made available online soon.  Check out the DubSpot blog here for updates.

The first of DubSpot’s 2 Year Anniversary parties was the Funk Aid for Africa NYC release party.  The album, and the fundraising effort in general, had been riding high already from a 4 star review from Time Out New York, and DJ sets from OBaH, Reborn and Ticklah carried the party late into the night. The second of DubSpot’s 2 Year Anniversary Parties was held at Love, and saw Minus’ Richie Hawtin take to the decks for a special 4-hour set.  Hawtin set the place ablaze in an all too rare club appearance in New York.  Working with our partner, NYC techno promoters  Blk|Market Membership, DubSpot packed the house with instructors, students and friends, and danced until dawn to the banging beats of world-class techno. Sunday night’s Hi-Fidelity DubSpot Sessions kept the momentum going late, as Scientist mixed Dub Is A Weapon live, plus sets from Badawi, DJ Kiva, Matt Shadetek, and DJ Rupture.  The show was widely enjoyed and appreciated as a world-class night of music and community.

Below are a list of classes and dates. I’ve included the recent July dates just in case there’s an opportunity to join in late, since they only started a week ago. Click the links for more information.

DubSpot Upcoming Class Start Dates : Summer 2009
Registration is open for DubSpot’s summer sessions. Get started on bringing your musical ambitions to life.

July 21: DJ Beginner & Extensive packages Tuesdays will begin with DJ OBaH at 7:15pm.
July 21: Turntablism classes meeting on Tuesday will begin with 2007 DMC World Supremacy champ DJ Shiftee at 5:15pm.
July 23 Music Production package B: encompassing Reason Ableton & Logic Thurs 6:15 taught by Chris Petti of the Reason Users group.
August 2nd Ableton Live with Jon Margulies: Sundays at 4:00pm Can be taken separately or as part of our year long Ableton certificate program
August 7th Ableton Live with Jon Margulies: Class will meet Wednesdays and Fridays at 6:15pm. Can be taken separately or as part of our year long Ableton certificate program
August 14th  Logic Intensive with Matt Shadetek of Dutty Artz – Mondays Wednesdays Fridays 10:15am
August 18th Ableton Live: Class will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:15pm. Can be taken separately or as part of our year long Ableton certificate program
August 18th DJing with Video class with Lars of DVJ Vision begins Tuesdays at 5:15pm.

In just two short years, DubSpot has fully emerged as a force in the electronic music world.  The Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour will continue this Fall in Los Angeles in October, then move on to 5 other cities including Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin and Washington D.C.  And that’s just this first round.  The tour will continue to grow, and continue to be the ambassador of DubSpot’s devotion to excellence in electronic music.  By providing unique opportunities for established and aspiring artists alike to develop their knowledge, careers, and production and performance abilities,DubSpot will secure and advance its position on the cutting edge of electronic music education! – Quote courtesy, Plexi PR

DubSpot 348 West 14th Street New York, NY 10014
212.242.2100 // info@dubSpot.com
www.dubspot.com

- by Tony Z.

Last Wednesday night, despite the lingering rain that has been pestering New Yorkers for the last month or so, I decided to venture out to the newly revamped Mansion, which is now known as M2 UltraLounge–the stealthy moniker that is cover for what’s supposed to be Ministry of Sound’s new NYC effort. If Pacha can bring the funk to New York, then Ministry of Sound sure can too, even if it it takes over a space that has seen it’s better days. I wasn’t much of a fan of Crobar, the club’s original incarnation. But, I must say the venue’s design team have given a touch of class to a huge room that was sorely lacking sophistication.

Showing up to Bacardi’s B-Live was, for me, an off, then on again affair. It was 11 pm and I’d just arrived to my friend’s house across the Hudson in Guttenberg, NJ, where I’m staying for the month to be closer to the city. I knew I had to get up for work early, because I commute about 1.5 hours each way to the office in Long Island. As I sat down to check my Facebook messages, I saw a friend sent me an earlier note asking if I was going to go. If so, she was wondering if I was going to take some shots that she could use for a publication she writes for. Despite my better judgement, I knew she needed my help. I got my butt up off the couch, jumped in the car and shot into the city to see what I could come up with. After all, she’s a great gal and I don’t mind doing a favor for a friend.

Remember, I’m supposed to get up at 6:30 AM to make my way to Long Island for my day job. Staying out late on a Wednesday night is not something I’m accustomed to, but it was for a good cause. Plus, I got some great video and ran into some friends, including Armand Van Helden and my man Ricky and his production partner, Ray, who are working on some tracks as Housing Project (MySpace). More on new music from that crew another time, for sure.

The night was definitely jackin. I go there just in time for the last 1/2 hour of Jazzy Jeff’s set. Every element of every track dropped in that 30 minutes was a bomb that warmed up the crowd for A-Trak, who broke out a big beat infused set of electronic, rock and urban rhythms that kept the crowd jumping until around 3 am. Then, it was DJ AM’s turn to take the wheels. After a few intro tracks, he dropped Notorious B.I.G. and the late night revelers kicked into gear once again.

For Bacardi, this certainly was a highly successful branding experiment. To pack an NYC venue on a Wednesday night until the wee hours of the morning says something about the talent and the offering. Bacardi staffers were everywhere throughout the venue, directing punters to get the pics taken in the Bacardi photo booth, have a custom T-Shirt printed on-the-spot, or grab a rock inspired poster. Throughout the venue, Bacardi imagery was in full effect. Of course, the sure winner was the HUGE, fully lit boom-box, which backed the DJs on the stage. I saw some walking around with messenger bags with a boom box pic printed on the flap. For a commercial effort, they got it right. People dug it and it wasn’t too obtrusive. Even the tour bus out front was hot, which photos of the DJs plasted on the sides.

All in, it was a pretty exciting night for Bacardi and NYC. Definitely a hot event. If B-Live is coming to a city near you, I wouldn’t miss it.

Check out the videos and photos below of Bacardi’s B-Live stop in NYC.

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Electric Zoo Festival

Electric Zoo New York – to be held in Randall’s Island Park, New York City on Saturday, September 5 & Sunday, September 6, 2009 – is pleased to announce more acts at this year’s inaugural festival.

The world’s No.1 DJ ARMIN VAN BUUREN and French superstar house music sensation DAVID GUETTA will helm an unprecedented line-up of over 50+ artists across 4 stages, covering all genres; House, Techno, Trance, Electro, and Indie, including DJs and live acts.

On Saturday, the heavyweight line-up is joined by Canadian prog/tech star Deadmau5, Montreal’s club veteran Tiga, LA’s scenster DJ Steve Aoki, Ed Banger, electrohouse DJ Busy P, fellow French cohort DJ Mehdi, English electro-rock band The Whip, and fiery French live act Yuksek. On Sunday, NYC’s own disco-house purveyor Andy Butler of Hercules & Love Affair, UK progressive house darling Desyn Masiello, Swedish techno auteur Adam Beyer, prolific Jedi/producer /remixer Tom Middleton, next-wave computer rock technoist Nathan Fake, and Parisian experimental house/techno outfit Chateau Flight join the festivities to close out the weekend.

The principals of Made Event, Mike Bindra and Laura De Palma explain their vision for the festival:

“We have been inspired over the years by what happens in Europe each summer, and we’re very excited to be bringing our version to America; Electric Zoo, New York’s first electronic music festival. Our intention is to showcase the top artists in each of the sub-genres, there will be something for everyone – a literal ‘zoo’ of electronic music. For us, this is the culmination of many years of dedication and hard work. The realization of this goal is another step forward for electronic music here, and we’re laying the foundation for many years to come.”

Special introductory ticket prices for Electric Zoo end on 12 midnight June 18th. Use promo code EZNY for $45 single-day passes and $80 double-pak two-day passes for General Admission. VIP single-day passes are available at $120 and VIP double-pak two-day passes at $225. VIP passes include a separate VIP entrance, access to VIP lounge with private cash bar, exclusive viewing area at main stage and access to VIP-only deluxe bathrooms. Tickets are available at www.electriczoofestival.com.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th

• Armin van Buuren
• Deadmau5
• Benny Benassi
• Danny Tenaglia
• Roger Sanchez
• Luciano
• Robbie Rivera
• Tiga
• Marco Carola
• Chus & Ceballos
• Steve Aoki
• Busy P
• Kaskade
• DJ Mehdi
• Paco Osuna
• Chris Lake
• Speedy J
• The Whip
• Martin Buttrich
• Yuksek

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6th

• David Guetta
• Ferry Corsten
• Richie Hawtin
• Markus Schulz
• Special Disco Version featuring James Murphy & Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem/DFA)
• Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair)
• Frankie Knuckles
• Steve Bug
• Josh Gabriel
• Desyn Masiello
• James Holden
• Adam Beyer
• Tom Middleton
• Audion
• Nathan Fake
• Menno De Jong
• Chateau Flight

Enjoy the music, share your voice.

Launched in December of 1996 at the beginning of Web 1.0, Netmix.com was the first mix show Web site to feature the world’s most influential electronic dance and hip-hop DJs, in the mix. The company’s founder, Tony Zeoli (DJ Tony Z.) retired the mix show format in 2003 and relaunched as a DJ culture, music and technology blog.

We are looking for people from all over the world, passionate in the dance and DJ culture  to contribute their thoughts, photographs, and videos over the next 365 days, with the goal of remaking Netmix into one of the top DJ culture destination on the Internet. 

You will be given a user name and password to the site and you’ll be asked to contribute at least once a week on topics such as these:

• Artist, Music, Event Reviews
• DJ and Production Products and Technology
• Internet sites that serve the DJ culture community
• Web, mobile product development best practices for the DJ community
• Review of Internet radio stations and DJ mix shows online and off, which is important…we don’t want to forget about offline too!
• Videos and photos from nightlife establishments and parties around the world
• Coverage of music conferences
• Podcast interviews and/or music downloads and possibly Netmix Online Radio, which can be developed over time.

What kind of music:

Netmix is foremost a DJ culture environment. House, Trance, Techno, Drum n Bass, Hip-Hop, Electronica, Downtempo, Acid Jazz are all formats we embrace. Bring on some French, Indian, Japanese or Brazilian hip-hop…world beat is something we also want to cover. Anything that tows the line between dance and rock is fine too. We generally lean new, but if you want to post 100 YouTube videos of classic house and hip-hop tracks on a page, it’s your world.

Requirements:

You should have excellent written and communication skills, social networking and be good with technology, as you’ll be posting content from your iPhone, manipulating photos and editing video footage. You might want to know a little HTML and CSS. 

Incentives: 

Whether you are looking for college credit or jump starting your career, writing for the blog would be a unique type of writing sample that you would have to add to your portfolio- that in which you can show future employers for internships, jobs, etc. With social media on the rise, employers will find it fascinating and impressive you have contributed to a blog in the past. 

Currently, the site generates incremental revenue, but not enough to pay anyone just yet. 

This is your chance to get in on the ground floor and help grow Netmix into an internationally respected brand. Here you can learn to advertise and affiliate valuable relationships to last your entire career. 

Please send your resume with brief introduction, links to all your relevant social profiles, a writing sample and links to any images or video you’ve shot in the past 3 to 6 months at events around the world.

Send to jobs [at] netmix.com

No phone calls. Allow two weeks for a response. We will get back to everyone.

Here’s a recorded UStream.TV DJ battle from my friends over at John Jay College.

– by Tony Z.

Hey, scratch DJs. Always wanted to know how to set your stylus properly? Here’s a decent YouTube tutorial video on how to zero our and balance your tone arm and set your stylus weight properly to keep your needle from skipping during your performance.

Check out this 8-year-old, DJ Sara, cutting it up on the 1200’s. Can’t wait to see her at the DMC championships one day. It’s pretty amazing for someone so young to be so talented at this stage of the game. I’m loving this. So will you.