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.

Ovum Records celebrates 15-years with their 14th-annual Ovum Party on Wednesday, March 24th. The festivities take place at Shine nightclub in the Shelborne Beach Resort Hotel from 10 pm to 5 am. In the main room, Josh Wink vs. Steve Bug, Nic Fanciulli vs. Joris Voorn, David Squillace vs D’Julz and Luis Bacchetti. DJ Sneak, Doc Martin and Manik are in the lounge.

Josh Wink recently announced the opening of the Josh Wink store online, where you can pick up the Banana T-shirt to show your a fan of Josh’s new studio album, When A Banana Was Just A Banana.”

Follow Ovum on Facebook Page: ovumrecordings or on Twitter @ovumrecordings. Follow Josh Wink on Facebook: JoshWinkOfficial or Twitter @JoshWink1.

Take a listen to these tracks from the new album in the Beatport player below.

Josh Wink Resident Advisor Podcast

It is said that the music genre of Hip-Hop was born the night of August 11, 1973, when a young DJ named Kool Herc organized a party in the recreation room of a housing development at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue (New York Magazine story). 36-years have passed since that seminal moment in music history and African-American culture, and various efforts along the way have tried to capture Hip-Hop’s momentous contribution in the form of a museum. No one has gotten as far as the current organizers of the movement to create the National Museum of Hip-Hop. (Facebook | Twitter).

For the past five years, the museum’s organizers have been painstakingly planning a physical, interactive museum and cultural center to cement Hip-Hop’s rightful place in history. From meetings with Hip-Hop’s early pioneers to New York City’s office of Economic Development, the NMoH team are working through the process to make the museum a reality.

Prior efforts to create a Hip-Hop institution have been dogged by lack of funds, political issues, or the absence of a qualified team to pull it all together. Many of the pioneers of Hip-Hop had been unable or unwilling to agree to participate for one reason or another. Some of the early stars of Hip-Hop, who never enjoyed the financial success of today’s rap superstars, understandably want to make sure they are compensated for their participation. On the business side, label executives see the possible financial upside of a commercial enterprise, advocate for a Hip-Hop Hall of Fame, where they can clearly monetize Hip-Hop through a flagship restaurant, merchandise and other commercial activities.

On the political side, there’s heated discussion about where the museum should be located. In the Bronx, the birthplace of Hip-Hop? Brooklyn, where Jay-Z and Biggie emanated from? Or, Queens where Run D.M.C. were born? And, Staten Island is always a long shot, because of ease of access. All signs are pointing to Manhattan for now. Hip-Hop is a global phenomenon. Although the museum would certainly benefit any borough, the political and financial realities of a Manhattan location, with possible smaller borough-based satellites makes sense economically. Tourism will be an important driver and the museum’s success depends on being accessible to visitors from around the world.

To kick off fund raising for construction of the museum and drive awareness for the museum’s cultural programs and community-based initiatives, the organizers are planning a black-tie event, slated for February 9th at M2 UltraLounge on Manhattan’s West Side. Chuck D and KRS-One will host the star-studded event. Confirmed guests include Big Daddy Kane, the Cold Crush Brothers, members of the Rock Steady Crew, MC Lyte, Rakim, DJ Red Alert, Ralph McDaniels, The Roots, and Redman. The events co-chairs include, Bill Adler, Dr. Ben Chavis, Andre Harrell, Afrika Bambaataa, Terry Stewart and Jim Fricke.

“The timing is perfect for the development of a museum that will preserve the great culture of Hip-Hop, a museum that will serve as not only a beacon for Hip-Hop’s achievements but also as a hub for community enlistment,” said NMoH President Craig Wilson.

The project’s Advisory Board includes Def Jam Records co-founder Russell Simmons; political activist Dr. Ben Chavis; Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell; Leyla Turkkan, C.E.O. and President of PR/Marketing firm The Catalyst Group; Hip-Hop curator, journalist and publicist Bill Adler; Bob Santelli, executive director of the Grammy Museum; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s President and C.E.O. Terry Stewart.

For more information on the National Museum of Hip, please sign up on their Facebook page located at http://www.facebook.com/hiphopmuseum or follow their announcements through @NMoH on Twitter. NHoH’s proper web site is coming soon at http://www.hiphopmuseum.org.

(Disclosure: Netmix founder, Tony Zeoli, is also acting Director of Interactive for the National Museum of Hip-Hop.)

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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Check out this track by PJ Hanke feat. Dee Clay, Future Of Our Love., which is featured in this YouTube video for an Acura TSX commercial. To date, it’s got over 21,000 spins.

The original and remix are available for licensing for compilations. You can contact Netmix directly to inquire about the music for your upcoming release.

Here’s the remix on SoundCloud.com:

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

Google and Facebook will be adding music to their offerings through agreements with iLike.com, Lala.com and Imeem.com. According to a NY Times blog post, next Wednesday, Google will announce a new feature of its popular search engine that will return with search results music files hosted by a iLike and Lala. If a user types in a search for Tiesto or Kaskade, the search results will provide links to pop-up music players and the user may stream the tracks directly from the search engine, without having to go to the sites themselves.

Facebook will add Lala to its Gifts shop. Many Facebook users already purchase credits to send personalized messages to friends, like birthday e-cards. User will soon be able to purchase tracks for 10-cents and share them with friends to stream or simply purchase tracks for $1 and then download.

In related news, MySpace announced that videos from recently acquired, iLike.com, will appear on throughout the Facebook platform.

For more on these stories, check the following sites:

• http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/hot-on-heels-of-google-facebook-to-take-first-step-int-music/
• http://mashable.com/2009/10/21/facebook-lala/
• http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Google-MySpace-Facebook-make-apf-2162130000.html?x=0&.v=9

On the Grind…Building!

For the past six week, some of you may have noticed a bit of a slowdown in posting to the Netmix blog. It’s not for lack of trying, I’ll tell you that much. It’s simply because I’ve been insanely busy with a couple of projects, and I have been too frazzled to sit and crank out a few posting.

I know, you say, “too busy?” Yes, too busy. In face, so busy that I missed the Electric Zoo Festival, which was something I was really looking forward to. Too busy, that in the last 30 days, I think I pulled a few 12-hour days and one 19-hour day. The latter killed me, because I didn’t leave my office until 7:30 AM, which was 19-hours after I’d gotten to the office the day before. Okay, I cheated by 1.5 hours. I took a little break to share a plate of Calimari with some friends at a local eatery. Rest assured, I jumped right back into work shortly thereafter.

What’s one to do when you’re so busy you can’t post to your own blog? I tried to enlist the help of a Wordpress plug-in, FeedWordpress, which enabled me to aggregate RSS feeds from other sites to post to Netmix, but I stopped using it for a couple of reasons.

First, while FeedWordpress did a great job of ingesting posts from other sites for display on Netmix, it took the entire post from Billboard.com’s RSS service, which included both text and photos, instead of just a summary. I can’t be sure, but it seems as if Billboard.com’s RSS is displaying the full text with images of articles, and not the text summary. For legal reason, I did not want to infringe on Billboard’s copyright by using their content without permission. Because it was an automated tool, I didn’t have the time to go in and credit each news service pinged. After adding multiple services, I realized there were so many posts, it would have just taken way too much time to go through each one to post an attribution, so I gave it the old heave-ho and deleted it.

A second and equally important reason, is because FeedWordpress was causing a harsh php scriptiong error affecting the Netmix home page load incorrectly. Each time the page loaded with php parsing error, it affected Netmix’s page view stats with our analytics program. Certainly a very serious issue.

Lastly, the content coming through these feeds was of relatively little interest to the DJ culture community. It’s all pop crap, right? Netmix has always been committed first and foremost to DJ culture and not general music news. There are a few competitors out there already that do a pretty good job of covering music news. You know, Billboard, MTV, Yahoo! Music, AOL Music and the like. Yeah, I could go head to head, but…er…no, thank you. I’m just kidding, of course. It’s just little’ol me plugging away on Netmix whenever the urge arises. I couldn’t be bothered covering what a “jackass” Kanye West was, who’s getting divorced, or whic faux pas some superstar artist committed. Not my bag, man. We’ll stick to DJ oriented stuff here.

What’s New

There’s a few new things I want to tell you about.

1. 20dot20

20dot20.com

The first is an industry networking event the guys and Habitat Music and I launched four months ago. I know—not a peep here about it on Netmix. Crazy, right? That’s what happens when you’re juggling multiple Twitter feeds (@djtonyz, @netmix, @twiijdj and @eroticdisco, blogs, my Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Orkut, Tribe.com, Ping.fm, LinkedIn, Plaxo and all the other Web 2.0 sites that are keeping me crazy busy.

Fortunately, we’ve been documenting everything over at 20dot20’s web site (http://www.2odot20.com). We’re very proud of this event, which is the buzz of the advertising music industry.

The event takes place the last Thursday of the month. We were located at 20 W. 20th, however, we just gave up the space and are moving the event to 95 Morton St. in the interim. Check the 20dot20.com Web site for event details and to sign up to the event or receive email notifications of future events. Here is the invite link: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/431022199

2. National Museum of Hip Hop

For the past four months, I’ve been assisting the organizers of the National Museum of Hip Hop with their online strategy. We’re in the process of developing their Web site, which will be tentatively located at http://www.hiphopmuseum.org. The group is planning its fund raising campaign with a a gala event on November 10 at M2 UltraLounge in New York City. Stay tuned for more details and the Web site launch in just a week or so!

3. Twiij.com

Twiij

In the spirit of UltraLight Startups, a New York City small business networking event focused on entrepreneurs bootstrapping their ideas with a few bucks and some wind at their backs, I threw $500 an idea at the wall and got Twiij.com to show for it. What’s Twiij? It’s a Twitter-based music promotion service, where anyone can Tweet their tracks to DJs following our Twitter account: @TwiijDJ. With hundreds of DJs following, you can simply fill out the form. Twiij shortens your URL using the Bit.ly API, and through an online form service creates all the hash (#) tags. Hit submit and watch your Tweet roll out in our feed, where DJs following can pick up on the new music. Think of it as the first Twitter record pool for DJs. Just go to http://www.twiij.com to Tweet your track.

4. EroticDisco

There’s been an explosion of talented female DJs around the world. You can find a few sites dedicated wholly to female DJs, like the popular SheJay.com. One day last year, I was putzing around the Web, thinking up ideas for new sites. I’d been listing to an old Vanessa Dauo album, inspired by the poetry of Erica Jong. That gave the idea for EroticDisco. I completely understand that some people think the word “erotic” followed by the word “disco,” means that it’s some kind of porno site, but that’s the furthest thing from my mind. However, I do want to focus on the fashion of female DJs, because I think that’s going to be a driver for young women who are interested in DJ culture.

EroticDisco.com Tamara Sky

My girlfriend, bless her heart, thinks that EroticDisco.com should cover ALL female DJs, no matter what they look like. Well, that’s what SheJay is for. We’re trying to be a little different and focus on the fashion, the style AND the music. It’s my editorial vision for the site to focus on stylish, attractive women who are also slamming DJs. Call it whatever you want. If you’re not feeling it, then may I suggest that you start your own Web site. There are thousands of ways to launch your own Web site nowadays, it shouldn’t be too hard. Just don’t hate the player, hate the game! We’re just trying to have a little fun in all the seriousness.

Wrap-Up

Yes, we’ve been GRINDING it out this summer! That’s for sure. If that wasn’t enough, I’ve been in the studio with DJ Ming working on some music. And, I’ve been helping my friends with their sites: TrendyMommies.com, 622Photography.com, and MelibeeGlobal.com.

I’ve also started developing our NetmixMedia.com corporate site, which is the parent org of this site, Netmix.com, and Twiij.com, DJGig.com (coming soon) and SoundsSocial (also coming soon).

This, and all the work I’m doing with Zaah Technologies at Lead User Experience Architect, which includes a bunch of sites that I can’t disclose, but they are all pretty big projects and we’re doing some fun stuff!

That’s a wrap. Stay tuned, because I’m going to be kicking it a bit more here on the blog in the next few weeks! Apologies for disappearing for a minute, but you can see why. It’s been mad hectic, for sure!

– by Tony Z.

I just came across this blog post on Boston.com’s Metro Desk: Defendant’s lawyer puts on a show in illegal downloading case. Globe staff writer, Jonathan Salzman, describes the courtroom antics, he writes, that “Charles Nesson, the flamboyant Harvard Law School professor defending a college student accused of illegally downloading and sharing music online,” has used to make the case that his client is not responsible for copyright infringement. At the time of this post, there were over 40 comments to the original article. I wanted to share my two cents on the subject, which I posted in the comments section earlier tonight. I’ve fixed a few errors and added a few words to this, but it remains pretty much intact from my original comment.

When someone says that music is not a tangible thing, I tend to disagree. When you can take digital bits of information and move them using a USB drive from one computer to another, although it seems as if you’re moving air, you’re actually migrating a process that thousands of man hours went into creating.

Digital music is a “physical” product. When we think of the CD, we think that is the physical product, when in all actuality, it is simply the transport mechanism, not unlike an MP3 device is today. I believe that if I make a song and it is converted into digital format, then it is a product that is my property. If I choose to share that property with others as “open source,” then that’s my choice. If I choose to restrict access to my product, that’s also my choice. The copyright laws in this country protect that choice.

What most people don’t think about is this: One day you download someone’s music file and then place it on your computer. You allow open access to your computer through a file sharing network. Others then come and take and share that file through their computers. All of a sudden, that file has been downloaded a million times, usurping the ability of the content owner to generate revenue based on their production of that music. The next day, you write a blog post about that music, then someone copies your blog post and puts it on a hundred web sites, which they are monetizing with Google’s Adsense program. You get angry and say, “that’s unfair! I wrote that article about that song that I downloaded…for FREE!” And, the cycle continues.

What happens then? How do you generate revenue? Well, most people think today that the creative process is really just a driver for sales of tickets to the live performance and a piece of your life in the form of merchandise and other stuff that people will buy, and therefore support your life. In today’s world, if you’re a musician and you’re not monetizing your life in other ways than just through the sale of your music, then you’re not very entrepreneurial.

Sell the right to have dinner with you and talk about music with one of your most ardent fans. Provide inside access to a recording session and sell the right to be there to a fan. Let that word of mouth about how cool you are translate into more people who are interested in you and then watch that word of mouth, viral marketing strategy take off. Get innovative.

Stop depending on music sales, which were NEVER your bread and butter anyway. The less we sell music, the more we sell access to our world. We’ve always given music to radio and they’ve profited handsomely by only paying ASCAP and BMI, but not the other entities that are arguing they should be paid today. If you want money, go after radio, who play your music and play commercials in between every song, or go after a file sharing networks profits from advertising around your music. But once you start suing your constituency, you tell them they are not valuable to you. That they can be tossed into the cesspool at any time for simply wanting to support the music by freely sharing it unencumbered.

It’s tragic that the major labels continue to sue their way into oblivion. All that money gone to lawyers, when it could have gone back into the business of music and generating new pathways. I can totally understand the desire for control, but haven’t we learned that there will always be leaks? Haven’t we learned that it’s so hard to control human behavior? You can try to kill all the mice in a house, but one always gets away, only to start a new family somewhere else.

There is surely another way to embrace and not destroy your audience. A way to give them what they want, when they want it, and find other ways to profit from their use of your copyright. Look at companies like Wordpress. They have found a freemium model of giving away the software, but providing fee based support services around that model.

I know some labels are starting to become more like boutique agencies that are hired by their artists, instead of artists being signed to them. The better they do, the better the artist does and everyone wins in the end. The new paradigm that being a label isn’t really being a product provider, it’s become being a service provider. That’s where the world is headed and these stupid lawsuits are just postponing the inevitable demise of the old model.

If you took all the money and invested it into the service model, which is what Live Nation and Ticketmaster are sort of doing, that could be (a decent) solution. Hire your label, not the other way around. Say, I don’t want to be signed, I want to hire you to be my label and work for me. If they don’t, then you can fire them and move onto another group more to your liking.

There you have it! My take on what ails the industry and a possible other way of looking at what it means to be a recording artist today, and why you have to change they way you think about the label system. The old way is dead. There’s no looking back. The new paradigm is “software as a service.” or SAAS. Giving software away for free and providing services around that. Music companies need to think about how software companies are giving away the product, while providing value on the other end. If Wordpress, Movable Type, Jomla!, Drupal, and a ton of other Open Source companies can do it, why can’t we do it in the music business?

– by Tony Z.

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.

Octavia St. Laurent (Courtesy NYTimes.com)

Daryl Marcus presents GROOVY at Bar 13. Tonight’s event is a fundraiser to benefit the familes of Octavia Saint Laurent a fixture in the house music scene for over 20 years. Octavia passed away on May 17, 2009. As far as we’re aware, no details have surfaced as to the cause of death.

The event showcases 20 different Guest DJs on 3 floors of music from house to hip hop. There will be surprise vocal performances all night on the Bar 13 rooftop (moved inside if it rains). DJs Jellybean Benitez and Hex Hector wlil be spinning with Andre Collins of The Warehouse and Better Days. More surprise DJs are in the works, but no news yet from the Daryl on who those will be. I guess you should show up to find out. Work!

Octavia St. Laurent Benefit Party Flyer

Octavia St. Laurent is a transgendered fashion model, nightlife maven and activist featured in the 1990 film, Paris is Burning, by Jenne Livingston.

Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the poor, African American and Latino gay and transgendered community involved in it. Many consider Paris Is Burning to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City drag balls, as well as a thoughtful exploration of race, class, and gender in America. – (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Is_Burning_(film))

St. Laurent was a fixture in the transgender, gay, lesbian and bi-sexual “ballroom” community also known as “ball culture.”

Ball culture, the house system, the ballroom community and similar terms describe the underground LGBT subculture in the United States in which people “walk” (i.e. compete) for trophies and prizes at events known as balls. Those who walk often also dance and vogue while in various genres of drag often trying to pass as a specific gender and social class. Most people involved with ball culture belong to “houses” led by a single leader. – (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_culture).

Why is “ball culture” important? From the early 70’s to the today, the LGBT community has driven dance music and DJ culture in the United States and around the world. Growing out of the Disco movement of the 70’s, House Music and the nightclubs, bars and other indoor and outdoor events and venues that feature the music have been part of the social fabric of this specific community, which influences the larger electronic music movement world wide. As mainstream Ameria has turned to Hip Hop and Rap as it’s primary form of popular music, the LGBT community has never wavered from its support of Dance and Eectronic music. It’s important to understand how this group’s embrace of DJ culture fueled and continues to support the music and the lifestyle. Individuals like Octavia St. Laurent are notable for their celebrity status within house music sub-culture, as they are the drivers of the fasion, dance (Vogue) and attitude that supports nightlife as part of the entertainment arts that we continue to enjoy today.

Here are some links for you to check out:

• Michael Musto / Village Voice
• The Vine
• Octavia Saint Laurent – Wikipedia
• IMDB – Octavia Saint Laurent
• Brooklyn Blues Blog
• TransGRiot Video Clips Collection

Watch the YouTube video from Paris Is Burning:

– by Tony Z.

Wow! How MySpace grew to over 1,400 employees, no one knows? Maybe that’s the worldwide number. Regardless, the company, which was acquired by News Corp a few years ago for what was then thought as a steak, is trying to streamline operations and get back to the “start-up” mentality that helped to fuel it’s growth. This blogger highly doubts putting senior executives from companies like AOL and Viacom in charge of anything at MySpace resembles anything close to stealth mode.

Remember, most of these guys and gals have never, ever worked at a start-up. If they have, they are far removed from those experiences and can now sit back and collect six figure salaries to try to stem the exodus to other social media sites, which have been chipping away at their lead. How would they know what start-up even feels like? Nice to want to be something your not, especially in the face of competition from Facebook, whose “Pages” are quietly becoming the new port of call for many recording artists–many of whom have tired of paying someone a couple of grand for a tricked out MySpace page, when what they really need are simple artist tools to aggregate an audience, then promote and share their events. Can you say Going.com or event EventBrite?

To me, MySpace is an entertainment destination. Certainly a necessity for artists, actors, comedians, photographers and other media-centric folk, but Facebook has overtaken the service in terms of functionality and usability as a true social network. For example, the other day, I was looking for a Twitter app for my MySpace page. First, trying to figure out where the application directory is was confusing. Once in the director, I entered Twitter into the search box. The search returned the same application home page twice. It wasn’t until the third time that I found a couple of hits on a Twitter app. I quickly learned that whoever are developing these apps on the Open Social platform are not as sophisticated as Facebook developers. The “iTwitter” app I selected required me to unblock my status on Twitter, in order for it to feed my Twitter data into the app on my MySpace profile page. And, I learned that I couldn’t move the app up or down the page, as Facebook allows, when you’re logged in to your profile.

In comparison, I’ve been Twittering to my Facebook without an issue since the first Twitter app was created. Enuff said. And, with TweetDeck, I have the functionality of both. Where is MySpace in making a relationship with TweetDeck? With anyone for that matter? This is what happens. Control, control, and more control. Once social media companies are snapped up by larger concernes, they lose their mojo. While some argue that Facebook is stupid for not taking the money, I argue that they have a smart plan to be the best at what they do. If you focus on what you’re good at and you don’t sell out (can anyone say Google?), then you will win in the public markets in the end. MySpace now has lost the opportunity to go public. Facebook–if it goes public–will be Google-esque in their command of the social media marketplace. I’ll admit I could have learned a thing or two from that strategy with Netmix back in the day. Fortunately, I have a second chance. Most people don’t get a second chance.

Needless to say, MySpace is light years behind Facebook now in functionality and usability. Where Facebook is almost a perfect (is anything every really perfect?) social media interface and Twitter makes social networking simple, MySpace lags far, far behind. MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta is correct in saying that MySpace is a bloated company. If they can’t get their app search correct, which is one of the simplest of concepts, how do they expect to compete against the next generation? They have a lot of ground to cover, that’s for sure.

Check the Gawker post or read the story at NYTimes.com.

Speaking of closures, I just found out from a friend who worked at Ticketmaster owned and operated, Echo Music, that the company is jettisoning over 200 artists with hosted web sites from division and merges the company with it’s L.A.-based Entertainment division. May artists have been left in the lurch, scrambling to build new web sites or redirect their domains to their MySpace pages. We think Echo Music made a huge mistake being acquired by Ticketmaster. This is what happens when you look for the big payday. You can be out of a job in less time than it takes for a scalper to score 100 front row seats to a Miley Cyrus concert. For more on the Echo Music shutdown, check the String Theory Media blog. They’ve got the in-depth scoop.

– by Tony Zeoli

Axwell produced this video postcard from WMC 2009. The audio sounds really nice! Love Axwell’s tracks, which you can check out on MySpace. He’s definitely come on the scene in a big way.

His most recent, “Leave The World Behind,” is blowing up worldwide. Sorry, no links yet avail from iTunes to purchase. You might want to check Beatport for this track.

Axwell’s upcoming gigs:

Apr 10 2009 8:00P Spin, San Diego, USA – San Diego
Apr 11 2009 8:00P Avalon, Los Angeles, USA – Los Angeles
Apr 12 2009 8:00P Bal en Blanc, Canada – Montreal
Apr 30 2009 8:00P Pacha ,Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt – Sharm el Sheikh
May 15 2009 8:00P INOX, France – Toulouse
May 22 2009 8:00P Catwalk, Barcelona, Spain – Barcelona
May 23 2009 8:00P Venue, Athens, Greece – Athens
May 31 2009 8:00P Paradise Bay Beach, Malta – Malta
Jun 4 2009 8:00P Skive Beach Party, Denmark – Skive
Jun 5 2009 8:00P Forum, Denmark – Copenhagen
Jul 4 2009 8:00P Stade de France, Paris, France – Paris
Jul 18 2009 8:00P Extrema Outdoor Festival, Holland – Best
Aug 12 2009 8:00P SHM@Greenbeat Festival, Croatia – Zagreb
Aug 21 2009 8:00P Catwalk, Barcelona, Spain – Barcelona

A3C Festival

(ATLANTA – April 7, 2009) The A3C Hip Hop Festival organizers announced today that the 5th installment of the annual A3C Hip Hop Festival will take place across multiple venues in the East Atlanta Village, October 1-3, 2009.

The A3C Hip Hop Festival has grown exponentially over the past 5 years to become the largest Hip Hop festival in the southeastern United States. Past events have featured a historic reuniting of Hip Hop legends The Juice Crew, the nationally acclaimed breakdance battle “Red Bull 4 Corners,” fashion shows, producer battles, street art exhibits, a world class producer battle, technical demonstrations, panels and over 40 live performances annually.

Past performers range from major label staples like Biz Markie, The Clipse, Little Brother and Bonecrusher, to independent mainstays like Del The Funky Homosapien, Souls of Mischief, Aceyalone, Black Milk, as well as up and coming superstars like Wale and B.o.B. The festival also strongly focuses on having a solid representation of smaller, national-touring, regional and local artists.

The move to fall dates and the move to a multi-venue format will allow the A3C to continue to bring more content to balance craved Hip Hop fans across the country.

Brian Knott, A3C Hip Hop Festival founder explains, “This year’s event represents for us the final step in a plan that was hatched five years ago. When we started the A3C we had the dream of bringing a balanced Hip Hop event to Atlanta that would someday rival what SXSW and CMJ have built in New York and Austin for rock music. With the overwhelming success of last year’s event we felt this was our opportunity to make a bold move and do something in Atlanta that would serve as an annual rallying point for all the elements of Hip Hop and all the flavors of Hip Hop music nationally.”

The East Atlanta Village (EAV) has experienced a meteoric rise over the last two years with the opening of a number of new listening rooms, small and mid-size venues. While still maintaining its independent attitude, the growth of the EAV has created for the first time in a decade a centralized area in the city to hold a multi-venue event and still enable fans to walk from room to room.

“Five years ago when we started A3C the EAV was still on the cusp of becoming what it is today. The growth of the EAV and the growth of the A3C have really been very similar. It seems like we are arriving at this point at the same time and we are really excited about the marriage. We feel like the EAV is our 2nd street in Austin,” said Knott.

ABOUT THE A3C: Now in its 5th year, the A3C Hip Hop Festival is a 2 day, 3 night event held annually in Atlanta, GA featuring live performances from some of Hip Hop’s most elite artists. The live performance schedule is enhanced by day and nightly events showcasing some of the most exciting break-dance, graphic art, fashion, film, equipment demonstrations and panels relating to Hip Hop culture.

The 2009 A3C will be held in multiple venues all located within easy walking distance of one another in the East Atlanta Village. Since 2005, the event has featured over 200 of the most exciting artists in Hip Hop including The Juice Crew, Biz Markie, The Clipse, Souls of Mischief, Little Brother, Wale, and B.o.B.

In 2008 the event was attend by over 9,000 fans and featured partnerships and co-sponsored events with MySpace, Red Bull, Scion, URB, Pabst Blue Ribbon, New Era and Stanton.

– from A3C Festival Press Release

WMC 2009 Blogging, Podcasting and RSS Panelists

The Blogging, Podcasting and RSS panel at WMC 2009 focused on the various ways to get out the message through blogging, podcasting and RSS. Although BPM.FM and Play.FM are more streaming services than podcast outlests, the point was that Dance music radio has moved online and is where many people are accessing their favorite mix shows and artists.

The conversation turned to the new Flip video recorder, which is, for some, equivalent to the iPod for music. It’s a nifty $150 device ($200 for more storage) that has a built-in USB output, which means not having to worry about carrying around a USB cable. And, it syncs your video direct to YouTube for instant web channel publishing. The company was recently acquired by Cisco.

Flip Video (Photo courtesty of Pure Digital)

We also covered the power of Wordpress and it’s over 2,500 3rd party supported plug-ins, which enhances the power of the popular Open Source to a full blown CMS, if that’s what you need.

From left to right: panel moderator Laura Betterly (Yada Yada Marketing), Stuart Miller (Smart Move Music), Jamie Peterson (BPM.fm), Diego Sanchez (DMSR.com), Tony Zeoli (Netmix.com) and Thomas Buchstaetter (Play.fm).