Archive for March, 2007

I will be playing in my hometown of London, Canada on Sat. April 7th at Rum Runners alongside one of my personal favorite DJ’s, all the way from Eindhoven, Netherlands, Taboo Events is proud to present: Sander van Doorn.

Fresh off his run of insanity at this year’s Winter Music Conference in Miami, Florida, he will be bringing his most talked about sound to London for a night of excitement and great music.

For more information and tickets, please visit Taboo Events.

View: Sander van Doorn Homepage
View: Sander van Doorn MySpace

Today was to be a relaxing and a “take-it-all-in” style of day. We lounged around the beach, walked up and down the strip, grabbed some nice food.

We had planned to head back down to the Beatport hotel for a quick set from Gabriel and Dresden, but unfortunately they weren’t letting people in anymore so that didn’t end up working out for us.

It was our final night in Miami, so we just relaxed and thought about the craziness of the previous 5 days.

Today we decided to take things easy because in the evening it was to be our last major day of partying and we wanted to be fully rested up. Most of the day was spent lounging around and doing some local shopping around the hotel.

We hit up the Armada party first in the evening at Twilo walking in with Matthew Dekay hammering away on the decks. I’ve always been a major fan of Dekay, so to see him flawlessly working a crowd here in Miami was something very special. Great seeing Blake Jarrell and Topher Jones out again up near the front. We headed down to the VIP and chatted with Armin for a bit and a few minutes later Ferry showed up to join in with the partying.

Elevation arrived a few minutes later as did Markus Schulz: the night was quickly becoming a star-studded time. Armin came on around 12:45 and was banging out until about 3:30. His set was alright, but in all honesty he seems to play a lot different and more exciting in Toronto than he did this evening. Markus came on at about 3:30an with a great new intro track and was holding the crowd very well.

We headed over to Karu Nightclub for around 5am and Sander van Doorn was just finishing up. Blank and Jones were up next and they started throwing down their mix of old and new trance. They weren’t bad, but again they play a better set in Toronto.

We headed out to the back terrace a little after 6:00am and Torontonian DJ Sean Miller was ripping on the decks. Great to see him once again as he’s always one of my favorite local DJ’s. The reason we were at Karu though was for the “Special Guest� known to the public as “The King and his Friends�; it was pretty obvious though that it was Tiesto.

He arrived in the VIP and grabbed some food before hitting the decks for 7am. His set was very housey but it was amazing to see Tiesto play in Miami as the sun rose up to an exclusive and small crowd. Special thanks to Craig and Julie for letting us know about the party.

Today’s festivities started earlier than usual. We headed down to Ocean Drive for some breakfast with the London crew to catch up on their stories of the week’s shenanigans.

On our way down we walked past Miami Ink’s studio and noticed that Darren Brass was sitting outside. We chatted for a bit and also noticed Chris Nunez sitting in the near-by restaurant. Apparently they were filming that day for the current season.

We decided to head back up to our hotel after dinner and do some shopping before heading over to the Beatport party at the Remix Hotel. We ran into Paris Hilton on our travels, which was quite the spectacle to be seen. You never get a true showing of the paparazzi until you see them in their prime as they were definitely out in full force.

After some quick shopping we headed down to the Beatport party. Our goal was to catch some of fellow Canadian DJ Richie Hawtin as he is always on fire during his WMC events. We ran into Greg Benz and his wife and friends and a slew of other people, so the party vibe was top notch. Sadly his set was delayed and we had already planned to meet with Josh Gabriel for a lecture on Logic Pro. Following Josh’s demonstration was a lecture by BT himself on Logic as well as a private 5.1 surround screening of This Binary Universe. Again, sad we had to miss this but we needed to head back to the hotel to grab some dinner and prepare for the night’s events down at Nikki Beach.

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Day three started slowly with a gigantic headache: proof the previous evening was a resounding success. Headed down to Ocean Drive for some breakfast and then off to get signed in at the National hotel for the Beatport Remix Hotel events. Had the pleasure of meeting Paul van Dyk for the first time before he did a lecture on Logic Pro at the Apple area.

Then it was off to the actual Apple store on Lincoln Drive for a short 1hr performance by Above and Beyond. Great hanging out with the boys in such an intimate and tiny ‘venue’ and seeing people who weren’t clubbers getting into the music and dancing around in the store.

Tonight was back at Cameo for a night of Ferry Corsten. It was great running into Edgar V and Arturo Amnesia backstage. Highlight of Ferry’s set for me personally was hearing Filo and Peri’s “Anthem� with not only the entire place singing along, but Bo and Dom standing there hands in the air the entire time, soaking it all in. A great moment, that’s for sure.

However the major highlight of the night for me was having Tiesto and BT show up for the party in the VIP. Partying it up with those guys and the Blackhole crew was totally the icing on the cake for such an already great event. I can’t wait to find out what the final nights here in Miami have in store.

Day two started off as nice as the previous day: a walk down Ocean Drive and breakfast on the patio. Met up with the London crew and wandered down to the Wet Grooves party. There’s nothing like a day on the beach with sun and dance music coming from a hotel patio.

We met up with Andy Moor and his friends for sushi along with Elevation who joined us a little later. It’s always trouble when we all get into the same room (for the restaurant staff anyway) but always a great time for everyone. We decided to head back down to the Wet Grooves party to see what was up down there.

Later that night was a party I’d personally been looking forward to for quite some time: Sander van Doorn at 5th, hosted in conjunction with TranceAddict. Great opening set from Edgar V to really set the tone of the night. Sander came on a little after 1am opening with “By Any Demand� which I’ve got a feeling will be one of the major tracks talked about for the conference. Sander finished up a little after 4am with a still packed out house. Absolutely brilliant set with a great crowd full of excellent people. Fantastic night overall.

Today started with a casual stroll down Ocean Drive for some breakfast on a patio followed by a long morning walk on the beach as we continued to soak in the fact that we were in paradise in South Beach.

It was a long day on the beach full of sun and walking, which in hind-sight may not have been the best idea seeing as tonight was to be out first actual party night.

We attended the Perfecto Night at the former Crobar (now called Cameo) featuring Kenneth Thomas, Hernan Cattaneo, Sandra Collins, and Mr. Perfecto himself: Paul Oakenfold.

KT was playing as we arrived nice and early. His lovely wife invited us up into the DJ booth and passed us a few drink tickets. It was at this time I ran into one of the reasons I started DJing: Darude. Absolutely fantastic meeting him and we hope to hang out more during the rest of the conference.

KT’s set finished up and Hernan came on. I’m personally not a fan of Hernan’s groovy-house style, but the crowd seemed to enjoy the flow of the set.

Next up was Sandra Collins complete with her DVDJ’s and VJ crew for support. She started out with a great electro remix of “Float Away” but lost most of the energy from that point on. Again, I was disappointed as Sandra seemed more interested in other things instead of mixing. Oh well.

Oakenfold hit the stage by 3am to a completely rammed club. Not sure on the capacity, but it was full up. The ice cannon’s and lighting system were in full effect as well.

All in all, a great start to the week at hand. Looking forward to Sander van Doorn tomorrow, but for now I need to hit the sack.

Pics will be updated later when I can figure out a better wireless connection to hack into.

Today started off at 6:30am from Ontario, Canada with waking up to a snowstorm. Now as much as I hate driving in the snow, there was a feeling of bliss knowing that in only a few hours I would be leaving it all behind.

I’m currently sitting on the small balcony of my hotel room in downtown South Beach, Miami hacking into some (very slow) wireless internet to make sure I can keep the updates running. We arrived around noon today to the sun and festivities that will be my first time in Miami, as well as WMC.

We’ve been settling into our hotel and preparing for the week by touring around the main strip (we’re right across from Cameo and down the street from Miami Ink). Elevation invited us out to a party he’s playing over in Hollywood at Passion in the Hard Rock Cafe, but seeing as it would be a $100 cab ride either way, we sadly declined on the offer.

After a tour down to the beach and a must needed alcohol run, we’re settling in for the night, taking things easy for what I’m sure will be a week of debauchery and excitement.

More updates as the week unfolds.

Make sure to check out the Flickr gallery of pics that I’ll be updating daily.

Photo Update: 29 Photo’s Added

Update: 19 New Photo’s Added to the Gallery

Winter Music Conference, in its 22nd year, is regarded as the singular networking event in the dance music industry, attracting professionals from over 60 different countries. With its high concentration of top international artists, DJs and industry professionals, WMC permeates the international press and is thereby one of the most publicized events in the business. Every aspect of the industry is represented including the top technological innovators, artists, DJs, producers, radio and video programmers, retailers, distributors, audio manufacturers and many more. There are countless reasons why people from all over the world return year after year for this event, the most outstanding one being that there is nothing else in the world like it.

This will be my first year attending WMC, and also my first time being to Miami (the event is held on South Beach). I’ll be gone from the 19th-26th of March for a week of fun in the sun. The actual conference is from the 20th-25th so I’ve booked some time before and after just to make sure I get some downtime and possible relaxation.

My tentative schedule is as follows, but I’m sure things will be changed up and definitely added to as the week moves along.

3.20.07
3.21.07 - A Night with Sander van Doorn
3.22.07 - Anjunabeats Night
3.23.07 - Beatport Party with Richie Hawtin
3.24.07 - Armada Night
3.25.07 - Beatport Party with Gabriel and Dresden

I will be updating this entry as I go along through the week with lots of pictures as well. Wish me luck, and hopefully I don’t get too sunburned.

View: Winter Music Conference (WMC) Official Site

As a very frequent member of the online music scene and internet radio scene, I am quite bothered and concerned by the recent developments in licensing put forth by the RIAA and SoundExchange in the USA. With these recent actions, I am quite uncertain as to the future for my current home of “BOOM” as it is hosted in the USA on Party107.com. I’ll provide more details as I receive them, but just by the looks of it, this could be quite a blow to the internet radio scene as we know it today.

I have included an article from Save Internet Radio. Please read it and pass it along to your friends to promote awareness amongst the community.

If the RIAA and SoundExchange get their way, independent webcasting / Internet radio will soon cease to exist.

Why? Earlier today, the Copyright Royalty Board, the group overseeing statutory licensing for US-based internet radio stations, announced the new royalty rates for streaming radio performance rights. The board rejected the arguments made by webcasters and instead chose to adopt the proposal put forth by industry-backed SoundExchange, a royalty fee collection agency created by the RIAA.

The new rates are based on “performances� of songs. A “performance� is defined as one song being streamed to a single listener. In other words, a station with 1000 listeners is charged for 1000 performances of each song it broadcasts.

Further, the new rates, just announced today, are retroactive to 2006, and increase rapidly each year. The rates per performance are as follows:

$0.0008 in 2006
$0.0011 in 2007
$0.0014 in 2008
$0.0018 in 2009

At first glance, those seem like fairly small numbers: eight ten-thousandths of a dollar, eleven ten-thousandths of a dollar, and so on. When you actually do the math, however, you see the truth revealed. The average radio station plays 16 songs in an hour. Under this system, that would be equivalent to 16 performances.

0.0011 x 16 = 0.0176

Still a fairly small number - under two cents. But now assume this station has 1000 listeners. That means that, in one hour, the station would be billed for 16,000 performances.

0.0011 x 16000 = 17.60

That’s $17.60 an hour. Now we’re starting to see how expensive this truly is. Multiply that by 24 hours a day.

17.60 * 24 = 422.40

$422.40 a day. But there’s 365 days in a year.

422.40 * 365 = 154176

$154,176 for the year in performance royalties alone for a station with 1000 listeners. And that’s just for 2007: it gets even worse. In 2008, the cost rises to $193,536 for the year. In 2009, it goes up to $248,832. Even for a much smaller station, the royalties owed are huge.

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