My email inbox is often a great source of inspiration for writing blog posts. Sometimes the occasional wacky and weird email comes in just like the one I received the other day. It simply read “I am a DJ, where can I get rare remixes online?”. What? Do I look like your own personal DJ Google?
Although the email was short, abrupt and rude, it did honestly get me thinking. Where can a DJ go to get those highly sought after remixes and mash-ups to make their set stand out on the dancefloor and in their podcasts?
Of course its easy to go to your typical online DJ music stores like Beatport, TrackitDown and DJDownload but as these are, in my opinion, the most popular online stores there is a very real chance you could end up with exactly the same music crate as everyone else. No, what I see this question as asking is this: Is there a good place to get hold of those tracks that are not so readily available… tracks that are hard to find and are a rareity?
Music that can be labelled as rare in this day and age is virtually non-existent. The digital media that we all consime today lends itself to be copied so very, very easily and therefore supply is practically unlimited. Several years ago (and perhaps still true today) the music genre I played was only ever available on vinyl. CD decks were still in ther very early infancy and MP3 decks weren’t even conceptualised. The music back then was a phsyical product that you could hold in your hands, you could see it, touch it and smell it - perhaps even taste it. YUMYUM.
“DJ-only” pressings of records would be released in very limited numbers which was the mothod of releasing your music to those in the know, a service which has now been replaced by online promo services. Getting your hands on a DJ-only or “promo” vinyl record was like discovering goldust and having a test press or acetate in your record box was way cooler than having the actual commercial release of any tune.
For those of us desperate enough we would import records from other countries and wait weeks if not months for our music to arrive. Italy and Germany used to get some of the best cuts from way back when. In today’s industry, ordering of music across differing countries is immediate and taken very much for granted.
So with an abundant supply of tunes available in an instant from anywhere to anywhere in the world is there really such a thing as a rare tune or remix anymore? How can something be classified as rare if muliple copes can be made in just a few mouse clicks and distributed globally just as effortlessly?
Music stores like HTFR.com and VinylSearcher.com are still trading and specialising in those hard to find vinyl records, even eBay is littered with thousands of records all up for sale with some pretty serious bids going in which leads me to beleive that there are still some avid vinyl junkies out there - those people that really won’t sleep at night unless they finish their collection, or until they get their hands on a remix that was originally thought to be just an urban legend.
I don’t think you will be able to find rare remixes of contemporary music in any one spot from any one vendor. No sooner is a track put online, its then copied and re-distributed en-mass which in itself negates the ‘rare’ value first put upon it.
With the closing of Xpressbeats, a little bit of exclusivity died too. Often Xpressbeats would have exclusives listed alongside their other general release tracks which definitely in my eyes set it apart from any other online DJ MP3 store. Beatport will on occasion have a couple of exclusive tracks on their site that can not be found elsewhere but I have not found the quality of these to be that great.
Vinyl was definitely my first love and I’m sure it’s no different for many thousands of other DJs in their late-somethings today. I don’t beleive that the move to digital DJing is a bad thing per se, it’s just a natural progeression of music and the technology that powers it. I’ll still miss the vinyl days and that slight crackle of static you would get from sliding the vinyl out of a brand new dust sleeve for the very first time, but the game changes over time and things have to move on. Music and technology are not exceptions to this rule.
I think the true rare value of a record comes from the ability to physically own it, to hold it in your hands and this is most definitely something you can only get from a limited edition, DJ-only, black circular piece of plastic enscribed with one long continuous groove.
I received an email in my inbox this morning from Xpressbeats.com who are an online digital download store where I purchase a large chunk of my music from.
I was greeted with the sad news that they are closing down on the 31st December for good. Here is part of the email they sent:
We are writing to let you know that the Xpressbeats music store will close on the 31st of December 2009. We want to thank you for shopping with us over the past couple of years, we’ve loved bringing you the best in dance music to buy online but all good things must come to an end.
If you have any questions regarding Xpressbeats you can e-mail us at admin@xpressbeats.com. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we’ll catch you in 2010.
This is such as shame as many of my favourite tracks in my mixes came from exclusive mixes on the Xpressbeats.com web site.
Producing a mix each and every month means that I am always on the lookout for fresh new tracks to play. Quite often I get asked where I get all of my music from and today I thought I would share some of my secrets. All content correct at time of writing.
Most of my music comes from DJDownload simply because they seem to always get their hands on the most upfront music several weeks before it appears anywhere else.
The prices on offer are the lowest I have ever found for niche music and the customer service is always spot on.
DJDownload also have a loyalty scheme where for every 10 (approx) tracks you buy, you will receive one free download token that you can redeem for a free track. This is very welcome and is a nice touch to reward those who keep coming back.
DJDownload were the first to pioneer the ‘needledrop’ technology in their preview player which allows you to preview an entire track prior to purchase by positioning the cursor anywhere along the waveform. There’s nothing worse than previewing a track only to have the preview stop before it gets to the good bit.
The search facility on DJDownload can be a little bit fussy. For example, a search of “Armind Van Helden” yeilds zero results. You don’t even get a “Did you mean…” option.
The homepage chart can often be a bit too electro for my own personal tastes but usually there are some real gems tucked away in the top 20. Whenever I am looking for new music to purchase I always go to DJDownload first.
192Kbps MP3s available for 99p. Exclusive tracks and remixes.
Rating:
****
I really like Xpressbeats. They seem to be tuned into my style of music. The stuff that charts well on their site is often a reflection of my own musical tastes. This is one of the main reasons I keep coming back to Xpressbeats.
The fairly recent revamp of the site has made it easier than ever to navigate around plus there are a good selection of genres to get your teeth stuck into.
The MP3s on Xpressbeats tend to be the most expensive out of the places I shop (pre-releases and exclusives can go up to £1.85), however I don’t mind paying a little bit more as quite often they will have tracks or remixes that you will not be able to find anywhere else and are exclusive to Xpressbeats. Plus, they are GOOD exclusives too. Look out for the little Xpressbeats sticker next to the exclusive tracks.
You can pre-order tracks prior to their official release to make sure you are right on the cutting edge of your genre’s sound.
Xpressbeats have a Virtual Wallet facility. This allows you to make one large deposit into your online account at a slight discount. The benefit of this means you don’t need to keep digging out the credit card every time you want to make a purchase as the balance is deducted from your Virtual Wallet and does save you time.
If you want your DJ sets to be different as well as cutting edge then I reccomend you shop at Xpressbeats.
Exclusive tracks and remixes. Loads of niche genres. Great preview player.
Rating:
*****
I could lose myself in this site for days! The sheer enormity of it is out of this world.
Trackitdown (TID) appear to have the largest database of tracks I have ever seen and because of this they are able to offer extremely genre-specific tracks for you to download. Whereas most MP3 download sites will break down my genre as House > Funky House, TID goes that one step further and have a massive list of sub-genres to go digging into. Niche-specific stuff such as Deep, Electro, Dirty, Hard, Wonky, Disco, Classic, Vocal, Jacking, Tribal, Fidget the list just goes on… And thats only what’s listed under House!
As well as having one of the largest libraries they also sell DJ gear, merchandise and games too.
TID have one of the best MP3 preview players and it’s easily one of my favourites by far. It keeps your last 20 played tracks on standby and also follows you up and down the screen as you scroll which is very useful. Even if you are halfway through listening to a track and jump to another page the player remembers your position in the track and resumes on the next page. Impressive stuff.
TID is reccomended if you have a very specific taste in music or if you’ve just got to have that track in uncompressed WAV format.
I might upset a few people here but I don’t really get on that well with Beatport. Although they are a hugely successful brand and they seem to stock a wide range of music I feel their website completely lets them down.
It’s far too hectic with so much being crammed into such a small space. Their prices do not include TAX/VAT either so there’s an implied added cost at the checkout. But when you do get to checkout purchasing tracks is a very smooth operation, you get a full on breakdown of all the costs before you pay which is really nice. If nothing else Beatport have my favourite payment screen its just a shame the rest of the experience isn’t as well laid out.
Beatport tends to lean towards the deeper, tribal and electro side of house.
Promos cost $3.99. Tracks priced in $. Audio is watermarked.
Rating:
**
It’s the same kind of story as Beatport here I’m afraid. Far too much going on, I often feel I am battling against too much information in front of me rather than enjoying previewing tracks to buy.
The thing that’s kept me away from Traxsource is it doesn’t really cater for the Funky Disco House genre that I look for in my music. However for each realease they always seem to have a huge number of mixes and remixes on offer to choose from.
Everything is priced in dollars which is a downside for me in the UK at the moment as the exchange rate into GBP still is not that great right now.
The preview player opens up in its own window which can get lost if you aren’t careful - although DJDownload do this too, the Traxsource player is very tiny and doesn’t have the waveform that DJDownload does.
What IS nice about Traxsource is that each track that you purchase is embedded with audio watermarking technology. So if you go uploading your bought tracks to file sharing web sites, Traxsource will be able to trace who they sold the track to and prosecute accordingly. I feel this is a brilliant idea to stop people from stealing music.
Traxsource offer a very broad, if expensive, selection that focuses on Soulful House and US House so give them a visit if that’s your bag. But watch out for that transaction fee if spending less than $10 in one go.
Cheap commercial music. No 320Kbps MP3 or WAV options.
Rating:
**
Did you know that Amazon are selling MP3 downloads? You do now! And to be fair it’s not a bad service.
The two main sticking points that let it down are the fact that it’s only really suitable for mainstream music - you won’t find many extended mixes here! Then you are forced to download and use their own media manager software which is a bit intrusive. Why can’t I just click a “download” link like every other site out there? No, I’ve got to use their own shitty donalod manager system. Which blows. Hard.
However, when a track can cost as little as 29p to download it’s suprising that Amazon MP3 downloads are not a hell of a lot more popular than iTunes.
Any tracks that I have bought from Amazon MP3 I have not used in any of my DJ sets. It’s up for debate but I rarely play out any track that is not encoded at a 320Kbps rate because it will sound shockingly bad on a loud club installation sound system.
But if there’s something in the charts I like and I only want to listen to it at home then based on price and the fact that the music is DRM free, Amazon is the place to go.
Confusing navigation. Burn tracks to CD option for +£2.00
Rating:
***
Ah, my beloved Juno. Juno is where I went to get all of my vinyl from back in the day. Juno had a top quality service back then and still does today.
Unfortunately when I stopped buying vinyl records I stopped using Juno as a service. I have made one or two purchases in the last 12 months but Juno is always last on my list when I go looking for music. The variety of music for me is not as widespread as other sites although they do often have good album deals.
Navigating the site is a bit of a chore. It feels like every time I click something a new window opens up with the information in it - which I find very disorientating. Nevertheless, the checkout is smooth and painless process.
Go to Juno if you are on the lookout for good value album downloads and you don’t mind a new window opening every time you click something.
Specialises in House, Minimal, Techno, Trance. You can release your own music.
Rating:
****
DJtunes.com is a relatively newcomer to the digital download market. It’s a European focused web site with over half a million tracks in stock for download.
I have not used DJTunes heavily yet but the site is easy to use and everything is laid out extremely well.
The preview player is a slight let down as more space is given to the logo rather than the actual controls which makes previewing tracks a little bit fiddly.
A nice touch is the ability to add labels to a favourites list and with some labels you can send them a direct message straight from the web site.
Upon registration you get to download 10 free tracks, but its from a pre-determined list and in my opinion there’s nothing special there, but it is a nice touch to instantly boost your collection for free. They seem to specialise in the more techy minimal side of House so I don’t think this will be my first port of call when crate digging but I will be sure to check out this site in future.
Option to pay via SMS. Mostly commercial releases. Cheap as chips.
Rating:
***
This MP3 download store is very simmilar to the Amazon download store in many ways. It offers cheap MP3 downloads for around 79p and is very commercially weighted. However it was nice to see tracks in this store from Strictly Rhythm, Plump DJs, Defected and Hed Kandi.
I like the fact that you can purchase tracks from this store via text message. Very handy if you do not have your card details to hand or if you don’t have access to a Paypal account.
7 digital is perfect for getting hold of that secret shame track that is in the charts and you shouldn’t like but you secretly do. You know the one. You’re humming it in your head right now, aren’t you?
Worth checking out if your taste is in ever-so-slighly more generic pop-tinged House music.
That’s It!
There you go, nine digital download stores reviewed and rated in my own very humble opinion. I’ve been as honest as I can and although there are many many more MP3 digital download stores out there these are the ones I use most often or are ones I reccommend.
If you have your own favourite digital download store that you would like to share, please let me know in the comments below.
RiffSpot is the music industry’s newest concept in dance music promotion. They offer an innovative and effective service for record labels, independent artists and music industry professionals worldwide. RiffSpot facilitates distribution of digital music releases from top record labels to 1000’s of carefully selected club DJs, radio producers, A&R professionals and media outlets.
RiffSpot focuses on two main audiences; Record labels/Independent artists and top music industry professionals. Both get a fantastic and unique service whatever their needs. Record labels and independent artists can rely on RiffSpot to distribute their forthcoming releases to music industry professionals that have an influence within their music genre. Each professional on the books is vetted to ensure they’re able to provide significant exposure for each release. Also you can supply your own list of music industry contacts to RiffSpot and these contacts will also receive the promo allowing you to track your efforts from one single place. Once professionals have received your promo, they will preview and rate your music prior to downloading it. This means that you gain access to insightful
feedback in real time, allowing you to visualise the reception of each track.
RiffSpot’s second target audience of music industry professionals includes individuals such as club and radio DJs, A&R, bloggers, journalists and reviewers. Tastemakers can register with RiffSpot for FREE. With the added advantage, unlike other services, that promos are offered in both 320Kbps MP3 format and CD Quality WAV format, professionals can be assured they are getting the highest quality downloads. All downloads are supplied with information sheets, cover artwork and are correctly tagged ready to be used straight away.
The best thing about RiffSpot is that for record labels and independent artists, it eliminates the enormous cost of conventional promo distribution. Whilst you would normally have to spend money on CD manufacturing, mailing and the staff to organise it; the entire process is shifted to the internet for a fraction of the cost! Also, for all of your releases, RiffSpot will use digital watermarking technology to encode every single download with a unique tracking code. This is done to protect your content and allows you to be safe in the knowledge that if your track gets shared illegally, you will be able to gather the evidence necessary to make a legal prosecution.
As a special launch offer, RiffSpot are offering record labels and independent artists who register their interest at http://www.riffspot.co.uk before the 1st November, 1 month’s free trial of the service! They also still have space on their books for more tastemakers so remember all club and radio DJs, A&R, bloggers, journalists and reviewers, you can sign up for free at http://mip.riffspot.co.uk
For more information on any or the services offered by RiffSpot contact info@riffSpot.co.uk
Have you ever wanted to rip a piece of mp3 audio from websites like YouTube or MySpace? Yeah you have. I’m going to show you how to do it using a clever, free piece of online software.
Now, before I start, I just want to remind you that downloading music from the internet that you do not have permission for and/or have not bought is ILLEGAL. Don’t do it.
1. Find A Video
Start off by finding some audio on YouTube that you want to get hold of. For this tutorial, I shall be using a video of myself DJing located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq6nWTIltl4
2. Grab the URL
You will need to grab the full URL of the web page. If you are unsure what this is, take a look at the top of your web browser of choice and look for the bit that starts “http://”. Copy the entire length of the URL by highlighting it, and pressing CTRL+C, OR you can right click and select “copy”.
3. Pay A Visit To Keepvid.com
Next, you need to go to a cool little website called KeepVid. This is the secret little online tool that will allow you to download and save the Youtube video. Paste the URL from step 2 into the box at the top by right-clicking and selecting “paste” or by pressing CTRL+V. Click the “Download” button to the right to start your download.
4. Save Your File
You will be presented with 2 options to download. You can either grab the low auality .flv file or you can get the high quality .mp4 file. Always choose the high quality version. Right click the link and save the file somewhere memorable.
5. Convert The File
Now you have your .mp4 file, you can just stop here if you want to capture video. But we want to grab the audio in this tutorial. There are many .mp4 to .mp3 converters out there for all sorts of prices so I won’t go into detail, but a Google search on mp4 to mp3 converter should yeild some results. My favourite is Sony Vegas which you can pick up for around £30.
Instructions for Sony Vegas: Drag the file into the timeline, click “Make Movie”. Select “Save it to my hard drive”. Click “Advanced Render”. Give it a filename and save as type “MP3 Audio”. The next drop down box allows you to select the quality of the mp3.
Job done!
It’s not only YouTube you can rip audio from, other sites with Flash players like MySpace are likely to work too. Not all web pages will work with KeepVid sometimes it will say nothing found. If that happens just try another web page.
Many thanks to DJ Ruxpin for the use of his track in my video.
This is just a quick post as I do not know how long this speical discount code will be valid for, but I have managed to find a special link that will give you a total of 10% off your final shopping basket when you order your tunes through djdownload.com.
This is great news for me as these guys give a fast friendly service, and their catalogue is stuffed full of the latest freshest tracks. In fact djdownload.com is where I get a good chunk of my records from each week.
So follow the link below and stuff your bag with as many tracks as you can handle to take advantage of the 10% discount offer.
To say thank you for caring so well for local young people with terminal illness, breaks music producer Simon Tagg aka Kouncil House put the call out to his contacts book and created a block busting album of exclusive tracks from some of the world’s biggest acts.
Released digitally through leading download store trackitdown.net in June on his respected ADHD Digital label. All proceeds raised through paid for download will be donated to the worthy cause.
Testament to the old skool empathy of the underground dance community and the power of the new skool digital era, 45 amazing breaks, house, dubstep and drum and bass tracks came flying in from such heavyweights as; Justin Robertson, Brookes Brothers, Slipmatt, Meat Katie, Krafty Kuts, Leeroy Thornhill and Deekline & Wizard.
‘It’s a pleasure to be involved in such a great project in such good company’ says acid house legend Robertson, while Brookes Brothers agree ‘[that] there’s not enough projects like these for producers like us to get involved in.’
Simon Tagg was also motivated by the recent and sad loss of his mother who helped inspire this payback project and he dedicates all the effort and hard work to her memory.
Ellenor Lions Hospice is based in Greenhithe in Kent and will benefit from any proceeds raised by the digital sale of this amazing package of cutting edge tracks. For many years they have worked in the local community to help people with terminal illness act in comfort and dignity, and all involved agree that this is a worthy cause; ‘it’s for a great cause and everyone should want to get involved’ states drum and bass godfather Mickey Finn.
Trackitdown.net is the UK’s leading dance music download store with well over 200,000 DJ’s registered as customers giving this project a great platform upon which to launch. Founder Ed Real states; ‘we really hope that every one of our customers and the wider dance music community seriously consider downloading this album – even regardless of the good cause, this is one serious set of tracks for the biggest acts on the planet!’
Format; Full length tracks plus DJ Mix available in 320 kbps and Wav file downloads
Tracklist:
1. Perfection & Will Streetwise- Tough Old Colin
2. Flore featuring Mc Runigga - La Cour
3. Krafty Kutz & A Skillz -Charles Bronson
4. Hardy Hard & Lady Waks featuring Afrika Bambaataa - Downstroke
5. Micky Finn & Kouncilhouse - You got Me
6. Mark Choice Featuring Lady MC - Rockin N Rollin
7. Deekline & Wizard - Warehouse
8. Justin Robertson - Running In The Water
9. The Egg - Free
10. Longrange - Dispel the clouds_(lee Coombs Remix)
11. Dom Kane - Acid Groove
12. Meat katie - Just Dont Break
13. Backstage Sluts - Lucy In The Sky
14. Cut La Rock - Disco Feelin
15. 601 - Crush (2009 club mix)
16. Groove Diggerz - Rock Da Beat
17. Jagged Slap - Something you got
18. Funkasaurus - Bomb#19_(Broken Planet Mix)
19. Vlad Sokolov Vs Shomi Woodman Featuring Sinovatz - Mr Pitch (Vlad Sokolov V.I.P mix)
20. Leeroy Thornhill - Connect
21. Loop DeVille vs Boonos - Heated
22. RCaine - System At Risk
23. Rennie Pilgrem - Don’t Burn
24. Slipmatt - Something Like This
25. Afghan Headspin - Beefdisco
26. Rico Tubbs - Bad Stylist
27. The Wrongstars - Running People Over On Tuesday Afternoon
28. Plaza De Funk_ - Do It
29. Rektchordz - Dizzy lounge
30. Angel Farringdon - Speed Of Thought
31. Shane The Cutter - Blood Runs
32. Soul of Man - Foxy moron (Myagi 2009 Remix)
33. Aquasky & El Hornet - Girls & Boys (Aquasky VIP mix)
34. Kouncilhouse & Micky Finn - Yes Man
35. Smallfry - Inline
36. I.D - Hurka Bob
37. Stenchman - The Madness
38. Wolfman - Touching the void
39. TomCraft - Airwolf
40. Atomic Hooligan - What we say
41. Humanoid & Kouncilhouse - Stakker Humanoid_(2009 Dirty Remix)
42. D’Cruze - Menus Precious Filius
43. KG - Sleep
44. Cling - Slipping Away_(Erb N Dub Remix)
45. Brookes Brothers - The Light
As usual, I’ve been working my fingers (and ears!) to the bone to get to you some of the latest cuts from around club land. each month I try to think of how best to describe the mix to you so that you get encouraged to download it, but this month I think that the music pretty much speaks for itself.
The first track I play is a Robbie Rivera remix of a guaranteed floorfiller - Basement Jaxx and Do Your Thing. Its probably got one of the longest intros in the world, but when it kicks in you will be bouncing around like you need a padded room. Guaranteed or your money back!
ESquire, Jamie Wamie and Future Funk head up the next few remixes to keep the vibe going. Audio Jacker makes a very welcome return with Check It Out swiftly followed by a superb oldskool vibe track by Drumattic Twins.
Seriously, words can not do it justice. So take advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend, download this mix, put it on CD or whack it on your MP3 player and crank it up as far as you can.
The clocks went forwards the other night. That’s a bad thing because it means we lose an hour from our weekend. Rubbish! But the good news is that this means it is now officially the start of British Summertime.
And what better way to celebrate than to send you this latest offering of fresh club cuts which is guaranteed to make the sun shine. I love the sun.
Kicking off is a track I’ve had for a while and have been meaning to add to my mix for ages. It was sent to me from someone who got in touch via MySpace and is a really nice start to this month’s set.
Funky saxaphone business soon follows thanks to Jolyon Petch vs General Lee and a sweet transition into a track from Soulshaker that was released last year, but I’m adding it to this months mix because its so damn good.
It just gets better and better from here on in, tracks from Armand van Helden and also my new favourite producer Audio Jacker. Until The Break Of Dawn has traces of classic oldskool Garage throughout and I am a bit of a sucker for the classics so I thought I’d throw it in. Hope you like.
I finish up the mix with another belter from DJ Deekline. Lately he’s been producing some really good funky breakbeat crossover tracks that fit well into the style that I like.
Hope you enjoy the mix. As usual, keep the comments coming in either via Facebook, or through the contact page as it is you people that I make these mixes for.
Also, don’t forget to check out my new bi-monthly radio show called Platform Six now airing on both SSRadio and Lifted Radio.
For those that don’t know, Platform Six is my new radio show that is being broadcast to the world via the magical delights of the internet.
Every fortnight you get to hear some classic and upfront funky house tuneage mixed by self. Plus you also get to hear me jabber on about pointless crap too.
Each show is two hours long and has a featured guest mix tucked within it’s depths. I try to cover a wide spectrum of funky house sub-genres but essentially it’s all just a load of tracks that I like all strung together with a bit of filler in the middle. I like it and I hope you do too.
@simianstudios thats not a bad idea. 3 hour monster mix as a Christmas treat for everyone... #15 hours ago
Mixes and audio available from this site are intended for home review only. If you like the music, please support the artists and purchase the music legally from the links provided.
My email inbox is often a great source of inspiration for writing blog posts. Sometimes the occasional wacky and weird email comes in just like the one I received the other day. It simply read “I am a DJ, where can I get rare remixes online?”. What? Do I look like your own personal DJ Google?
I received an email in my inbox this morning from 
RiffSpot focuses on two main audiences; Record labels/Independent artists and top music industry professionals. Both get a fantastic and unique service whatever their needs. Record labels and independent artists can rely on RiffSpot to distribute their forthcoming releases to music industry professionals that have an influence within their music genre. Each professional on the books is vetted to ensure they’re able to provide significant exposure for each release. Also you can supply your own list of music industry contacts to RiffSpot and these contacts will also receive the promo allowing you to track your efforts from one single place. Once professionals have received your promo, they will preview and rate your music prior to downloading it. This means that you gain access to insightful
Every fortnight you get to hear some classic and upfront funky house tuneage mixed by self. Plus you also get to hear me jabber on about pointless crap too.
