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.

Flickr Video Flickr Video Flickr Video

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

– From Press Release

Respected and acknowledged around the World as one of the three Detroit Techno innovators, Kevin Saunderson is a legend in his own right, who helped to reshape the future of Dance music as we know it today!

To celebrate his mammoth 20 years worth musical genius, KMS & Fabric Recordings join forces and unleash a retrospective of Kevin’s work with a brand new compilation ‘History Elevate’ featuring a heavyweight selection of KS classics.

This hefty package includes remixes from the maestro with tracks from Cerrone, Pet Shop Boys and Octave One and his first ever remix for Wee Papa Girl Rappers ‘Heat It Up’ (1988), among many other jewels. This journey through Kevin’s incredible musical history also features some of his own penned hits, including some Inner City gems, all remixed by top producers including Luciano, Carl Craig, Simian Mobile Disco, Claude VonStroke and many more.. ‘History Elevate’ is a must have retrospective collection for any proclaimed Kevin Saunderson and dance music fan alike!

My first remix for Wee Papa Girl Rappers ‘Heat It Up’ was the first remix of its kind anywhere. At that time, I was like Just do it! So I listened to the original track, I really wasn’t feeling it, but I did like some of the vocals, but thought that it wasn’t going to work doing a traditional edit/remix. It wouldn’t fit in with what I was doing production wise, so I thought why don’t I make a new track and make the vocals work on top of what I’m doing. I sampled some of the vocals, re-triggered them and laid them out into my format, this was radical in 1988! Consequently I went on to produce many more, some of my favorites are featured on CD1 of this album. The remix is still such an important part of our music and it’s been fascinating to work with the great producers featured on CD2 who have remixed some of my classic material in their own unique styles. We believe this project ties the past to the future, creating a launch pad for
techno to spread our message far beyond … into deep space. – Kevin Saunderson

Kevin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1964, but moved at the age of nine to the place known as the ‘Motor City’, Detroit. At school he befriended two other like-minded students (Juan Atkins and Derrick May). After a 2 year affair with playing football, Kevin quit in order to focus on music, so he reunited with his high school pals, which unknown at the time would be the move that would help Kevin’s career escalate.

Starting out as a DJ, Kevin soon developed new skills that led him into producing records, which he released on his own label, KMS Records. The demand for Kevin as a Producer and DJ was overwhelming overseas, as well as in the States. He introduced acts like ‘Kreem’, ‘Reese’, ‘Inter-City’ (later to become Inner City) and ‘Reese & Santonio’. Kevin has had many other aliases too, such as; ‘Tronik House’, ‘The Reese Project’, ‘EssRay’, ‘Kaos’ and more recently, ‘E-Dancer’, which he uses to show his versatility at being able to create different facets of Dance music.

Kevin’s biggest achievement and his most commercially recognized project has been INNER CITY with Paris Grey, who have come full circle after13 years, as one of the World’s most influential Dance acts and prime time movers in the house and techno revolution of 1988. The duo have proven they are one of dance music’s great survivors with a new dazzling renaissance and they’re justifiably proud of a healthy career spanning early pioneering hits like “Big Fun” and “Good Life”, “Ain’t Nobody Better”, through to “Hallelujah”, “Pennies From Heaven”, “Till We Meet Again”, “Do Ya”, “Your Love” (to name but a few) and more recently the 1999 Spanish re-recording of “Good Life (Buena Vida)”, which soon became a Number One Club hit in Europe and entered the TOP TEN on the UK Pop Charts, and “Good Love” which was also an instant smash.

Their career has been nothing short of remarkable, not only for their numerous critical and commercial achievements, but also for their longevity. It was in 1987 Kevin and Paris met by introduction from Chicago house producer, Terry “Housemaster” Baldwin. Paris flew into Detroit, came up with lyrics and “Big Fun” was born. Incredibly the tape was then filed away and almost forgotten until UK dance aficionado, Neil Rushton, visited the Motor City to compile the album, Techno – The New Dance Sound Of Detroit for Virgin. He freaked when hearing the song and made sure “Big Fun” was on the LP. Soon afterwards, it was released as a single and went on to become a World wide smash. But despite it’s instant success, the follow up, “Good Life” outsold “Big Fun”. The third single “Ain’t Nobody Better” retained Kevin’s techno-logic microchip feel, topped by Paris’s soulful voice. Their debut album, “Paradise” cemented this prosperity and highlighted the Detroit techno blueprint.

In 1993, Inner City parted company with their label, Virgin Records. The label released the Testament 93 remix album to celebrate their time together. Also in that year a “homecoming” deal with their manager Neil Rushton’s SIX6 label was finalized. Another UK Tour followed in August ‘93, including a headlining appearance on the Reading Festival’s dance stage and the top slot at the European Dance Weekender in Paris the following month. It was also at this time that Kevin’s work with his other group The Reese Project was greeted with equal glee by journalists and clubbers alike.

To date, Inner City have had 12 Top 40 hits in the UK, as well as having had two Top 20 albums, with combined sales of more than 6 million. Inner City have also received 4 Gold singles, 1 Gold Album and 1 Platinum Album.

Meanwhile, Kevin’s alter ego E-Dancer produces Techno Music, pure and simple. Created for a savvy audience by an original master. E-Dancer’s first full length LP entitled simply Heavenly, has hooked audiences and critics alike. Following on with his new Inner City release ‘Say Something’ it reaffirmed Kevin’s standing as one of the ‘INNOVATORS’, and a leader in the industry.

One of the most exciting movements for Kevin in 2005, was his new title which has also given him one of the biggest challenges of his career, the Producer of Fuse-In, the newest reincarnation of Detroit’s 6th electronic festival at Hart Plaza, with an outstanding line up which included Mos Def, Ken Ishii, Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson, Green Velvet, Ritchie Hawtin, Underground Resistance, Alexander Robotnick and many more..

As Kevin states “What we’ve done in our history in Detroit with techno is a result of a love for all kinds of music, I don’t want this just to be a techno event, I want techno to be the foundation and for people to realize how powerful Detroit has been and still is, I want to put on a good show with good artists so people can be inspired by the music.”

Springboarding to present day, Kevin continues to tour the world and has been busy remixing many a dancefloor hit over the past 2 years penning reworks including: Simian Mobile Disco ‘Hustler’, Claude Vonstroke ‘Who’s Afraid Of Detroit?’, Hercules And Love Affair ‘You Belong’ and The Presets ‘This Boy’s In Love’ among others. This is Kevin Saunderson, this is inspiration for all music lovers alike and there is so much more to come…

Kevin Saunderson
History Elevate Tracklisting

CD1: Remixed by Kevin Saunderson

01 The Christians – The Bottle – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Universal
02 Wee Papa Girl Rappers – Heat It Up – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Sony
03 Ann Consuelo – Do It For Love – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Kevin Saunderson
04 Cerrone – Supernature – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Malligator/TLP
05 Pet Shop Boys – Go West – Kevin Saunderson Remix – EMI
06 Lighthouse Family – High – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Universal
07 Hercules And Love Affair – You Belong – Kevin Saunderson Remix – EMI
08 The Presets – This Boy’s In Love – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Modular
09 Octave One – Blackwater Ft Ann Saunderson – Kevin Saunderson Remix – 430 West
10 Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler – Kevin Saunderson Remix- Wichita
11 Cameo – Money – Kevin Saunderson Remix – Warners

CD2: Kevin Saunderson Remixed

01 Intro
02 Kevin Saunderson feat Inner City ‘Good Love’ Luciano’s Good Love Remix – KMS
03 Kevin Saunderson ‘Bounce Your Body To The Box’ Mike Shannon’s Flashback Mix – KMS
04 Kevin Saunderson ‘Just Want Another Chance’ John Tejada Remix – KMS
05 Kevin Saunderson feat Inner City ‘Big Fun’ Simian Mobile Disco Remix – KMS
06 Kevin Saunderson ‘Till We Meet Again’ Carl Craig Remix – KMS
07 Kevin Saunderson ‘The Human Bond’ Claude Vonstroke Rave Recognize Rave Mix – KMS
08 Kevin Saunderson ‘Rock To The Beat’ Ben Sims Remix – KMS
09 Kevin Saunderson ‘Rock To The Beat’ Christian Smith & John Selway Remix – KMS
10 Kevin Saunderson ‘Pump The Move’ Samuel L Session Remix – KMS
11 Kevin Saunderson ‘World Of Deep’ – Jesse’s Respect To Detroit Mix – KMS
12 Kevin Saunderson ‘Bassline’ Joris Voorn 07 Remix – KMS
13 End Peace
Mini mash bonus mix:
Kevin Saunderson ‘Bassline’ Loco Dice Remix
Kevin Saunderson feat Inner City ‘Good Love’ Jay Haze edit – KMS
Kevin Saunderson feat Inner City ‘Good Life’ Mathew Jonson’s Acid Mix – KMS

‘History Elevate’ will be released on June 9, 2009 on KMS Records & Fabric Recordings

Kevin Saunderson will play Detroit’s Movement Festival, which takes place May 23, 24 and 25. More info on XLR8R.com.

While we were out and about covering WMC from the Netmix perspect, About.com’s Dance/Electronic Music channel DJ Dewight Barkley was equally as busy traversing the many parties and happenings at this years event. Check out the post-WMC wrap-up by DJ Dewight Barkley on About.com Dance/Electronic pages.

X-Mix Productions 9th Annual Winter Music Conference Party hits Miami Beach on Friday March 27, 2008, at Aero Bar, featuring sets from Armand Van Helden, Bad Boy Bill, DJ Sneak, Felix Da Housecat, Harry Choo Choo Romero, Junior Sanchez, Mark Farina, and Todd Terry. Check out our DJs performing at other parties during WMC with Lil Jon, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.

ARMAND VAN HELDEN feat. Netic from Game Rebellion ‘Illin N Fillin: It’ is out this month on Southern Fried with remixes by Malente, Starkey, Jaimie Fanatic, and Lee Mortimer. The single is taken from Armand’s ‘New York: A Mix Odyssey 2’ compilation out now on Southern Fried. The highly anticipated Dizzee Rascal Vs. Armand Van Helden ‘Bonkers’ is out in May on Dirtee Stank. Armand’s ‘You Don’t Know Me The Best of Armand Van Helden’ compilation is out now on Universal.

BAD BOY BILL feat. Alyssa Palmer ‘Falling Anthem‘ available now on Beatport via Nettwerk with remixes by Herve’, Harry Choo Choo Romero, Chase, and Sylvane. The full retail release packages hit stores in April and May. Bad Boy Bill ‘The Album’, Bill’s debut artist album, is out later this year on Nettwerk. Bad Boy Bill ‘Behind the Decks Live’, Bill’s first ever live mix CD/DVD, is out now on Thrive.

DJ SNEAK vs. Herve’ ‘Droppin Kisses,’ out now on Cr2, reached number 1 this month in Music Week UK’s official club chart and has received BBC Radio 1 spins from Annie Mac, Pete Tong, Judge Jules, and Kissy Sell Out. Sneak’s forthcoming artist album ‘House of House’ is out later this year. Look for Sneak’s remixes of tracks by A-Trak & Laidback Luke, Matthew Dear, and Locodice. DJ Sneak ‘Back In The Box’ compilation is out this month on NRK.

FELIX DA HOUSECAT’s new single ‘Kickdrum’ from his forthcoming artist album ‘He Was King’ is out in April on Nettwerk. ‘Kickdrum’ has received early support from 2manydjs, A-track, Boys Noize, Erol Alkan, and multiple spins on BBC Radio 1 from Pete Tong. Look for Felix on the cover of this month’s Mixmag with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. ‘Felix Da Housecat GU34 Milan’ compilation is out now on Global Underground.

HARRY CHOO CHOO ROMERO’s remix of Hardrive ‘Deep Inside’ reached the number 1 download spot on Beatport this month. Harry’s ‘Cumbia’ is out now on his newly re-launched Bambossa label with remixes from Jose Nunez, Jorge Jamarillo, and Jerry Ropero & DJ Mind. Harry’s ‘Lifting Me Higher’ is out now on Cr2 with remixes from DJ DLG. Harry Choo Choo Romero ‘Sessions’ compilation is out now on Ministry of Sound.

JUNIOR SANCHEZ ‘Zaxxon’ is out this month on DJS Are Not Rockstars. Blaqk Audio ‘Stiff Kittens (Jnrsnchz Blaqkout Remix)’ out now on Interscope is featured on the new ‘Underworld:Rise of the Lycans‘ movie soundtrack. Look for Junior’s remix of Lauren Flax feat. Sia ‘You’ve Changed’. ‘Onelove: Smash Your Stereo” mixed by Junior Sanchez’ is out now on Sony.

MARK FARINA’s ‘Mushroom Jazz 6’ compilation is out now on Om. Mark’s legendary Mushroom Jazz compilations and their cumulative sales of over a quarter million copies have essentially made Mushroom Jazz its own distinctive genre of music, blending hip-hop sub-grooves with jazzy, dubby, elements. Mark’s new single ‘Life’ is out now now Om. ‘Fabric 40: Mark Farina’ is out now on Fabric.

TODD TERRY presents CLS ‘Can You Feel It’ Remixes are out now on Strictly Rhythm with support from Annie Mac, David Guetta, and Riton. Todd’s ‘Uncle Tech’ is out now on MN2S. Look for Todd’s remix of Adele ‘Hometown Glory’ out soon on XL. Todd is developing new projects with Heatmakerz, Ameer Vincent, and Bridge 2 Love. ‘Strictly Todd Terry’ compilation mixed by Todd is out now on Strictly Rhythm.

Check out www.xmixprod.com where you can find information on X-Mix artists, upcoming releases, tour dates, press, music, and videos.

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.

We’re not pleased or excited about having to report this, because Netmix considers DJ, Producer, Subliminal Records founder and Pacha New York co-owner, Erick Morillo a friend. However, since we are a blog that reports on DJ culture, everyone gets equal treatment.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s positive or negative. We’d expect the same treatment and have certainly gotten some dings over the years ourselves. No one likes having to report these things, but that’s the nature of the business we’re in.

That being said, we have to tell you that Mr. Morillo was arrested at Glasgow Airport in Scotland for possession of cocaine. He’s pled not guilt and was released and will have to return to Scotland to face the judge in March. We’re hoping that doesn’t impact his plans for Miami’s Winter Music Conference, where he’s been a staple for many, many years.

Morillo was on his way to Glasgow from Amsterdam to play the Colours party at The Arches, when he was pinched by customs for holding. He spent the night in jail and the party’s promoters were forced to offer refunds to anyone who wasn’t satisfied with the night’s DJ program.

The international club circuit is highly demanding. The abundance of alcohol and recreational drugs in that environment is a given. It’s difficult for anyone who lives that lifestyle to steer clear of temptation, but it’s not impossible. It all depends on how you want to live your life. We hope that Mr. Morillo, if found guilty of the charge, will come to some personal realizations and take some steps to stay healthy.

Additional Links:

http://www.erickmorillo.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ericmorillo
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Erick+Morillo
http://www.subliminalrecords.com/

UPhonic Records released its latest compilation: Workout: Pumping House, today January 6th. Workout: Pumping House is the ultimate companion to countless New Year’s resolutions and a motivational tool for listeners to achieve their fitness goals. The complete package includes a double-disc set featuring 16 heart-pumping tracks, a bonus “interval workout” inspired 72-minute megamix, and a 7-day guest pass* to Bally Total Fitness. The album cover art displays Sydney-based personal trainer and fitness model Vinny Gough, courtesy of men’s underwear and swimwear brand teamm8.

The compilation includes songs such as RuPaul’s “Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous” which was used as the theme song for NBC’s The Biggest Loser and was a #1 dance download on iTunes; “Everybody Rise Pt. 2″ featuring dance legend, Muriel Fowler, which just debuted at #5 on Billboard’s Breakout Dance chart; a cover of the 1989 Billboard chart topping song “Send Me Angel”, skillfully remixed by one of the best DJ’s on the scene today, Georgie Porgie (He recently secured a #1 song on the Dance chart); “Mindbuster” featuring the first lady of house music, Jocelyn Brown (who has had over 21 hits on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play Chart); and the title track, “Workout”, a remake of Frankie Knuckles’ dance classic, which is also sung by RuPaul and features back up vocals from superstar Chris Willis.

Workout: Pumping House is in stores as of January 6th, 2009 and will be available in all major retailers (Best Buy, Virgin, Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.) and download portals (iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, etc.).

*Guest passes not included in digital purchases

URL’s”

www.workoutpumpinghouse.com

www.myspace.com/workoutpumpinghouse

www.uphonicrecords.com

www.myspace.com/uphonicrecords

The Ultra Music Festival (UMF) — the world’s leading two-day electronic and alternative music experience set for Friday March 27 and Saturday March 28, 2009 during the Winter Music Conference in Miami–has announced more exciting additions to its lineup. Promoters for the festival have revealed that The Prodigy (who will release their new album Invaders Must Die on March 2) and Pendulum, two of the most anticipated live acts for 2009, have been confirmed along with DJ titans Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buuren. Moby has also tapped UMF for his exclusive Winter Music Conference appearance.

Other acts that are newly confirmed for UMF include: David Guetta, Above and Beyond, Erick Morillo, Booka Shade, the Swedish House Mafia featuring (Steve Angello, Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso), Benny Benassi, Rabbit In The Moon, Infected Mushroom, Fedde Le Grand, Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Tiga, Perry Farrell, ATB, M.A.N.D.Y. v. Tiefschwarz, Kraak & Smaak, Dirty South, Pete Tong, Loco Dice, Steve Lawler, Boys Noize, Markus Schulz, Kaskade, Late of the Pier, Planet of the Drums, Andy C + MC GQ and The Whip.

The complete listing of participating artists to date is:

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

Main Stage:

Tiësto, Bloc Party, David Guetta, The Ting Tings, Deadmau5, Santogold, Steve Lawler, Perry Farrell, Late of the Pier. Bayfront Stage: Pendulum Live, Roni Size Reprazent, Rabbit In The Moon, Craze & Klever, Kevens. Carl Cox & Friends Stage: Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Loco Dice. Mid Park Stage: Swedish House Mafia, Benny Benassi, Tiga, Dirty South, Busy P, Chris Lake.

SATURDAY, MARCH 28

Main Stage:

The Prodigy, Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren, Eric Prydz, Above and Beyond, Fedde Le Grand, Infected Mushroom, ATB, Kaskade, Markus Schulz. Bayfront Stage: Deadmau5, Bookashade, Cut Copy, Simian Moblie Disco, Crystal Castles, M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Tiefschwartz, Boys Noize, Hercules and Love Affair, The Presets, Kraak & Smaak, The Whip. Carl Cox & Friends Stage: Carl Cox, Moby, Erick Morillo, Pete Tong, Elio Riso. The Mid-Park Stage: Roni Size DJ Set, Planet of the Drums (featuring AK1200, Dara, Diesel Boy, J. Messinian), Goldie, Andy C and MC GQ, Hybrid DJ Set, Ed Rush and Optical, Bassbin Twins, Soul of Man, DJ Icey, Evol Intent Live, Chase and Status, Drumattic Twins, Baby Anne.

The Ultra Music Festival is South Florida’s favorite music festival, internationally renowned for its memorable live performances and DJ sets from the world’s top electronic and alternative rock artists. It will take place during the 24th annual Winter Music Conference on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28 at the beautiful waterfront location of Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami (the same grounds it has occupied since 2006). Tickets are currently available via www.ultramusicfestival.com for $129.95 and then $149.95 as the event approaches. Two-day VIP passes are available for $350.00.

Access the UMF online at these sites:

www.ultramusicfestival.com

www.myspace.com/umf

Nielsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry’s data information system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product, Nielsen BDS, the music industry’s leading music performance monitoring service, and Nielsen RingScan, which tracks mobile ringtone purchases, have announced their 2008 U.S. year-end sales and performance monitoring data for the 52-week period December 31, 2007 through December 28, 2008.

2008 Year End Factoids:

* Music purchases in 2008 reached 1.5 Billion, marking the fourth consecutive year music sales have exceeded 1 billion; 1.4 billion (2007) vs. 1.2 billion (2006) vs. 1 billion (2005).
* Music sales exceeded 65 million in the final week of 2008, representing the biggest sales week in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. The previous record was Christmas week 2007 with 58.4 million music purchases.
* Overall Album sales (including Albums and Track Equivalent Album sales) declined 8.5% compared to 2007.
* Total Album sales declined 14% compared to 2007.
* Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” is the best selling Internet album for the year with 144,000 sales.
* During 2008, more Vinyl Albums were purchased (1.88 million) than any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. The previous record was in 2000, with 1.5 million LP album sales.
* Note that more than 2 out of every 3 vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during the year.

Digital Factoids:
* Digital Track sales break the 1 BILLION sales mark for the first time with more than 1,070,000 digital track sales. The previous record was 844 million digital track purchases during 2007; an increase of 27% over 2007.
* Digital Album sales reached an all-time high with more than 65 million sales in 2008; up from 50 million in 2007; an increase of 32% over the previous year.
* Note that digital album sales account for 15% of total album sales compared to 10% in 2007 and 5.5% in 2006.
* In the final reporting week of 2008 the following digital sales records were broken:
* Digital Track sales surpassed 47.7 million. The previous sales record was 42.9 million, week of 12/23 -12/30/07.
* Digital Album sales this week broke the two million mark for the first time with sales of 2.4 million sales; breaking the previous record of 1.9 million (12/30/07).
* The top 200 digital songs for the week posted an all-time high with 13.6 million sales; breaking the previous record of 11.9 million during the last week of 2007.
* The first time that the Top 5 digital songs (combining all versions of the same song) sold more than 300,000 downloads in a week with Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” selling 419,000. The record for most downloads for a digital song in one week continues to be Flo Rida’s “Low” with sales of 467,000 set during the last week of 2007.
* 2008 is the first time a digital song broke the 3 million sales mark in a single year. There were 2 songs that achieved this milestone; Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” and Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop;” with sales of 3.4 and 3.2 million respectively.
* In 2008, there are 19 different digital songs with sales that exceeded 2 million compared to 9 in 2007.
* 71 Digital Songs exceed the 1 million sales mark for the year compared to 41 digital songs in 2007, 22 in 2006, and only 2 digital songs in 2005.
* Rihanna is the biggest selling digital artist in 2008 with nearly 10 million track sales compared to Fergie in 2007 who had 7.5 million track sales.
* There are more than 450,000 different physical albums that sold at least one copy over the Internet during 2008 compared to 390,000 in 2007.

Best Seller Factoids:
* Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III is the biggest selling album of the year with 2.8 million sales.
* Taylor Swift is the biggest selling solo artist, with sales greater than 4.0 million albums and AC/DC is the biggest selling group in 2008 with sales of 3.4 million.
* Taylor Swift stands at the top of the list, marking the 2nd time in the last three years that a country artist is the top selling artist for the year. Rascal Flatts was the biggest selling artist in 2006 with 5 million sales. Josh Groban took the honors last year (2007) with 4.8 million sales.
* Taylor Swift’s Fearless and her self-titled album finished the year at #3 and #6 respectively with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million. This is the first time in the history of Nielsen SoundScan one artist had two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart

Holiday SeasonFactoids: (last 6 weeks of year).
* Overall Album sales during the 2008 holiday season were down 19% compared to 2007, with sales of just over 80 million.
* Album sales during the holiday season accounted for 19% of all album sales for the year.
* Digital Album sales during the holiday season experienced significant growth over 2007 with an increase of 37% to 9.9 million sales.

Strata Factoids:
* Album sales at Non-Traditional music outlets (digital, internet, mail order, venue, non-traditional retailers) hit an all-time high in 2008 with sales breaking the 100 million mark for the first time. Non-Traditional is the only strata that experienced album growth over the previous year; with an increase of 15% over 2007.
* Non-traditional outlets account for nearly 25% of all album sales, compared to 18% in 2007, 12% in 2006, 9% in 2005 and 5% in 2004 (4% in 2003).
* Digital services account for 65% of the Non-Traditional album sales.
* The last two weeks of the year produced the two biggest album sales weeks for Non-Traditional outlets; 3.3 and 3.2 million sales.
* The percentage of album sales at mass merchants declined for the second straight year after experiencing year over year growth from 2002 � 2006. In 2008, 37% of all albums purchased were at a Mass Merchant outlet compared to 40% in 2007, 41% in 2006, 40% in 2005.
* Chain music stores account for 33% of all album sales in 2008; compared to 36% in 2007; 41% in 2006, 45% in 2005 and 48% in 2004.
* Album sales at Independent music stores account for 7% of all album sales; up 1 point from a year ago (6% in 2007 and 2006, 7% in 2005 and 9% in 2004).

A little bird flew in and told us the possible cause for Beatport to suddently abandon their affiliate marketing program, while leaving many sites in the lurch with broken links and no answers.

The little bird surmised that Beatport’s affiliate program was costing them more dollars in fraudulent transactions than they were making in revenues. How does something like this happen? Let us explain.

User A sets up a blog on a hosted blog network, like Blogger.com, complete with Google Adsense links, which in time will become a secondary revenue stream in this scam. We’ll get to that later. Once the blog is set up, User A contacts LinkShare, which operates affiliate programs for hundreds of web sites, including Beatport’s now defunct program.

User A registers for the program. After the LinkShare registration is completed and User A is accepted into the affiliate network, User A then generates affiliate links to each weeks Beatport Top 10 and posts them on the Blogger blog with the Google Adsense program.

Using a stolen credit card number, User A clicks on his/her own affiliate links on the blog to purchase the Top 10 tracks from Beatport, generating affiliate revenue, which is then distribued back to User A through LinkShare. $2000 in transactions might mean about $57 in revenue to User A, funnelled back through LinkShare.

Because Beatport takes the transaction and then pays labels their share, once the transaction is disputed by the card issuer, Beatport has already paid the label and has to fight it out with the credit card company. Of course, the label is not going to return the money and it’s on Beatport to have to deal with it.

The more fraudulent transactions happen through the LinkShare program, the less inclined credit card companies are to work with Beatport for sending them an large amount of questionable purchases. As a business, Beatport can’t operate without credit cards. They are beholden to the card companies, who probably threatened to shut them off if they weren’t able to reduce the number of fraudulent transactions.

Under potential pressure from the card issuers and losing money by paying out affiliate revenue for fraudulent purposes to labels, Beatport was forced to abruptly cancel the affiliate program with no notice.

Now how does Google’s Adsense play into this? User A not only posts the affiliate links to the blog, but also a zip (compressed) file containing each week’s Top 10 tracks on Beatport for anyone to come and download. Of couse, this drives traffic to the blog and potential clicks on Google’s Adsense links, which become another revenue stream for User A.

Although Beatport might complain to Blogger about this practice, Blogger is under no obligation to take down illegal content unless served a take down notice by the copyright holder (generally the label or producer).

Since Beatport only sells the music and are not the rightful copyright owners of the tracks posted to the blog, their hands are tied. Many fledgling dance music labels that subsist on Beatport may not have access to attorneys for a variety of reasons. Blogger.com then goes unchallenged on many occasions, because they are not served with take-down notices.

Google, who owns Blogger, operates the Adsense program. In essence, as User A posts illegal content to Blogger, Google makes money from clicks on their Adense links against that illegally posted content. Nice work, if you can get it.

Now that we understand the dynamics, maybe we were a bit hard on Beatport in our original post. No one wants to see Beatport lose money or be the victim of fraud. That doesn’t benefit the industry that is now being supported through sales on Beatport. That being said, could they have been a bit more sensitive to their partners? Sure. We think they were losing money and needed to shut it down so abruptly, that they really couldn’t notify anyone in advance.

If we were too hard on you Beatport, we apologize. But, we’d at least like some acknowledgment of how much we’ve promoted the service, instead of just being but off with little explanation. A little massaging of your friends goes a long way in terms of good will.

– by Tony Z

The venerable Beaport, according to some the most popular DJ download store in America, continues to amaze us with their extraordinarily piss poor vendor support and customer service skills. Sure, we love the service, but they don’t seem to love us–the DJs, blogs and web sites that have helped them brand their service and become the first, succesful dance music download store on the Internet.

On October 20th, Netmix received a cryptic email from Beatport’s affiliate support department notifying us that we had been temporarily removed from their affiliate program. The email implied that we had done something wrong and our partnership is now terminated

All of the Netmix mix shows in the Podcast section have links to purchase titles through Beatport. Without prior notice, Beatport made a decision to shut down the program, without notifying us (or anyone else for that matter) in advance.

As you can see from the emails we have posted above, first we received notification of termination with no explanation. We replied to that email and received the second one, which simply confirmed everything.

If Beatport knew they were shutting down their affiliate program, didn’t they consider it would make sense to do it in phases? They should have let blogs and web sites know that they were going to terminate the service in 30-days time to give their partners (and I use that term very loosely) enough time to remove hard links to titles.

This is especially true in the case of a new DJ culture site, ILOVETHATTRACK.com, which provides DJs with the ability to upload play lists and link titles to services like Beatport for their fans to purchase and download. It must be a stunning blow to their revenue model. Maybe they have some side deal with Beatport to link up to an API or something, but after testing the site tonight, all the Beatport links are broken.

It’s got to be pretty devastating to a new service that is dependent on a partner like Beatport. Just pull the plug and lave ILoveThatTrack’s team high and dry to figure out something overnight. It’s not easy to make a wholesale change to your web database that pulled in and hosted all of those links. It will take days if not weeks and real, hard dollars to remove Beaport from their system, or switch to another service that may not have the same catalog.

This is why I’ve never been a big fan of the affiliate model. Your partner can pull the plug at any time and leave you holding the bag after you’ve invested time, resources and real dollars into building a business that depends on that ongoing relationship.

The company gets all the benefits of your partnership, especially in the form of marketing and promotion of their brand name, as well as the long term customers you’ve pushed into their system. Since you’re not taking the transaction, that customer is never really yours. Although ILoveThatTrack is a great service we hope succeeds, they’ll never be able to build a real business on the affiliate model for this very reason. You can see that dependency on affiliate partnerships as a revenue driver is a risky proposition. They’re going to have to go out and build a music service of their own to fulfill their customers expectations, if they haven’t started already.

It’s just another example of Beatport having absolutely no clue when it comes to relationship building with its partners. The perception is now that they’ve reached a certain level of success, let’s turn off the program that helped get tens of thousands (if not millions) of dollars in FREE exposure and good will through hundreds of web sites from around the world, without any prior warning.

One Beatport executive told me that there were a variety of problems with the affiliate program and it was costing the company more than it was making. Okay, we understand. You need to shut it down to ensure that you’re not spending more than you make.

But, the good will that has been squandered by just turning if off overnight is the same mistake that company after company has made with supporters, suppliers and vendors for hundreds of years. Has anyone at Beatport gone to business school? Don’t they read Seth Godin’s or Guy Kawaski’s blogs?

It’s part of the ethical code of running a business that you notify your partners well in advance that you are going to make a major change to your business model, which will affect their revenue and their content IMMEDIATELY. You must give your partners time to prepare. Beatport did not, and for that they deserve a letter grade of “F” for failure.

What’s worse is, not only did Beatport shut it down, but in our mind slapped all of its partners in the face by telling them that they’ve been removed from the program for negative reasons, without any explanation whatsoever. That’s real warm and fuzzy for ya! A great way to run a business in this day and age. Kick the people who put you where you are today.

Every time a company goes out and makes poor judgments like this one, they can’t expect to go back to the same people for support in the future. Why would anyone want to help you now? They’re probably laughing right now reading this, but I say to them, look at GM and Ford. Two of the greatest car companies in the world are on the brink of collapse, all because they refused to see the future.

Whether something is working on not, you have to ask yourself, is it in my best interest to shut the program down without any prior notification? Or, should I let everyone know what the deal is before I pull the plug? The way I work, I think letting people know is the fair and right thing to do. The way Beatport is run, it seems like a very few in that organization care about their customers or their partners. And that’s what the dance music industry never learns, which is certainly the subject of a future post: How come the dance music industry can’t get out of it’s own way?

It’s all about Beatport and no one else. That’s a lonely road to travel as your competitors chip away at your lead. Sounds like an election we just had.

– by Tony Z.

How’s this for nerdcore? At the request of NASA, London-based rapper the Metro recently recorded a track devoted entirely to astrobiology, in order to make the tricky subject more easy to understand. So how’d it feel to be essentially dubbed the nerdiest rapper in the land? “Being commissioned by NASA to produce the ‘Astrology Rap’ was a great compliment,” says Metro.

Check out the video below. I can’t help but think that this is something my best friend and I could have cooked up in our youth (she’s literally an astrophysics genius; I’m a nerdcore rap alum).

- Melanie Donnelly

While I haven’t given Oasis much thought since I microwaved my What’s the Story, Morning Glory? CD when I was 14 (true story), the Brit band has cooked up an album release stunt that I find absolutely fascinating. No, it’s not another name your price scheme à la Radiohead; today, September 12th, Oasis will have street musicians scattered throughout Manhattan parks and subway platforms, performing songs from the band’s upcoming record, Dig Out Your Soul (due in the U.S. on October 7th). Among the performers are indie rockers, a funk group and a shred violinist, and though Oasis isn’t scheduled to perform anywhere, Pitchfork reports rumors that the band’s members may be peppered throughout some of the performing groups. Oasis fan or not, you’ve got to admit that this is one interesting take on the increasingly popular album release stunt.

For more information and a map of where to find the performers, visit nycvisit.com/oasis.

- Melanie Donnelly

According to a new study, there might be some truth to those stereotypes about the music you listen to, after all. Researchers at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh recently surveyed 36,000 music fans at Peopleintomusic.com, who rated 104 genres and were asked to answer questions about their personalities. The researchers found that the following tends to be true about the fans of these genres:

• Dance: Outgoing, creative, self-centered, unfriendly
• Indie: Creative, low self-esteem, unmotivated
• Rap: High self-esteem, outgoing
• Rock: High self-esteem, hard-working, at ease with themselves
• Blues: High self-esteem, outgoing
• Classical: High self-esteem, creative, gentle, not outgoing
• Heavy metal: Creative, at ease with themselves, unmotivated
• Reggae: Creative, outgoing, kind, generous, unmotivated
• Country: Very hard-working, outgoing

While I was half-expecting to see “marked love of asymmetrical haircuts” under the indie category, I wonder: how accurate do you find these results?

-Melanie Donnelly