Tag: music

@8tracks playlist: Visions of a Sky 2

I was inspired to create @8tracks Visions of a Sky 2 playlist. It's my second playlist featuring warm, lush synth pads, melodic melodies and vocal stylings to move your mind, body and soul.

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Tony Z’s take on Spin.com’s streaming and Dance Music article and comments

Okay, so I've read Phillip Sherburne's piece and many of the comments from DJs, Producers and others who ask some very good questions about streaming and cite many reasons why the quality of dance music seems to be suffering. Sherburne writes that today's dance music producer is so frazzled between DJ gigs and travel, that they have no time to write quality music. Is that true? I don't know, but what I do know is that music production is vastly different today than it once was. No longer are you stuck in a studio for a 15-hour session or back-to-back all-nighters. You can get stems from others contributing to your production or vocals from your singer in your DropBox, then drop them into your Ableton production on that 19-hour flight to Singapore. Sure, you're not stuck in your home studio, but your hotel room, your flight or your limo ride have replaced the studio as your production environment.

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10 Deep Grooves To Make You Move (8tracks.com)

Here's a new 8tracks.com mix I put together with some great smooth and mellow deep house, techno and tech house tracks. Hope you enjoy!

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Maya Jane Coles: Watcher

One of my favorite producers of late, Maya Jane Coles, is a rising start in the house music arena. She’s been tagged on a number of lists:

  • ‘Producer of the Year 2011′ by DJ Mag
  • ‘Best Breakthrough DJ 2011′ by Mixmag
  • Debuted at No. 9 on the Resident Advisor ’2011 DJ Poll’
  • ‘Best Newcomer 2011′ at the Ibiza DJ Awards 2011
Here’s her latest track, Watcher, take from a Dogmatic Records EP. This track is a throwback to early Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, and King Street deep house tracks. It’s impossible for me to say whether Maya was actually influenced by these labels, given her relatively young age and the fact that she produced Hip-Hop and Drum’n’Bass earlier in her career. But, I can’t imagine from hearing this track that she wasn’t influenced in some way by early house pioneers to create this melodic and soulful, deep house experience.
You can buy it here on Beatport.

My new gig at Market America

Reporting in from the Market America World 2012 conference at the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami, Fl. I've joined the team at Market America as Director of Product Deveopment for Music Services and am getting a full immersion in my first week on the job.

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Reminiscing…

I was thinking about one of my most favorite songs of all time, Street Life by The Crusaders. Here’s a live rendition from 2003 at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. Randy Crawford is the vocalist.

Netmix Global House Sessions Podcast – November 2011

When I’m not toiling away in OmniGraffle, creating site maps, wireframes, and associated product documentation, you can find me creating DJ mixes using the digital audio workstation, Ableton Live. Before I got involved in building and managing really cool web products, I was a DJ in the Boston area. And, that’s where, in 1995, I launched Netmix.com. It was the first DJ culture website in the world to broadcast globally renowned DJs in the mix.

I originally ran the site out of my apartment in Brookline, MA. I paid a local web development shop about $10,000 over two-years to build and host the site and Real Audio streams. In 1996, I split up with my girlfriend at the time and moved to New York City to pursue fame and fortune as one of the first online music start-ups. After 5 difficult years working p/t to pay the bills and spending nights and weekends on Netmix, I sold the company for $3.165 Million in cash and stock. While that looks like a phenomenal sum on paper, it turned gold honey pot turned to a dark bronze.

Our deal closed on June 1st, 2000. I bought a few bottles of Moët & Chandon, then popped the cork in the office we were sub-leasing from one of my former partner’s friends on University Place at 10th Street in the West Village. I remember shedding a few tears of relief, for it was a long arduous journey from growing up in subsidized housing in the Allston section of Boston, to being handed a check for $100,000 with the next payment around the corner. Unfortunately, that payment never came. The bubble had burst and our parent company couldn’t raise a nickel to keep us alive. In fact, despite our combined traffic numbers and the dedication of our content team, our sales team hadn’t sold a dollar of advertising that summer. While Netmix was on its way to generating our first $100,000 in sales that year, our parent company folded only 6 months later. The advertising market bottomed out and the writing was on the wall.

After 6-years of continuous growth, Netmix went dark. I still have all the mixes. One day I’ll put them all online again.

It’s been 11-years since those tumultuous days of what is now called “dotcom 1.0.” In 2003, I discovered WordPress, a blogging platform that allowed me to bring Netmix back online as a blog. Since that time, I have published over 400 articles and launched my podcast, the Netmix Global House Sessions. It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing–Netmix will always be live. It may not be as timely or as relevant as it once was. The inconsistent publishing schedule is evident and my mixes are the only audio on the site. But, I don’t do it for the money. I do to keep alive what I first started over 16-years ago. And, who knows where it will go.

In the spirit of Netmix, here is my latest Global House Sessions podcast. You can either listen to the SoundCloud version below, or subscribe to the podcast and download it with iTunes to your desktop or iOS device.

8tracks handcrafted Internet radio powering a new generation of DJs

8tracks is on of my favorite Internet radio sites. And, I'm not just saying that (disclosure: I'm on the Board of Advisors), because I'm down with the crew. It's just that these cats were able to survive the major label mafia and keep their handcrafted internet radio service available to wanna-be DJs. You gotta check out some of these mixes. Definitely music you won't hear on the radio. I'm digging this mix I posted from Aiden Bordner. Check this out and other phat mixes on 8tracks.com. Start your own radio station, tell your friends, and play all the music you probably have never heard, for as long as your ears can stand it. Anyone can become the DJ. I've got some joints on 8tracks as well. You can listen to my mixes on my profile here.

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