A lot of producers I speak to are in some kind of weird crossroads in their careers at the moment where they are trying to figure out what the next step is in terms of direction. I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot recently....
I’m talking more in terms of producers who are doing stuff in scenes that are not as prevalent in the club circuit. It seems that the lack of things really happening for emerging styles in clubland is bending people’s tastes as they attempt to get into the gig circuit...
I think the fact that Soundcloud seems to be drying up as producers are growing tired of it’s lack of growth as a platform, and listeners are flocking to spotify etc in droves from there. The importance of landing in big playlists on Spotify is changing the approach...
People are producing for two goals - 1 is to land in a Spotify playlist and hope to gain traction from it. Secondly, there is the aim to get in the club circuit. Club friendly sounds like Bassline are seeing a swell of producers moving into that scene because of this
The other route people are taking is moving into established club circuits like house and techno which we’ve seen happen for decades. But what does that mean for smaller genres? If you are a user of Bandcamp you may be seeing the importance of that platform for emerging sounds
Some of the biggest selling releases on Bandcamp come from the Synthwave genre. That’s a sound that has little to no club circuit, acts get big on their own and then tour like we see in america’s electronic circuit in most cases outside house & techno and club sounds.
There are so many layers to how you can get a break now that the lines and routes are blurring depending on how close you want to be to mainstream music, or how you see yourself performing - be it in clubs or on a stage behind some synths or drum machines.
I think this is going to have a big effect on the UK club circuit as well as we are losing so many venues. We’re already seeing more and more midweek “headline” shows for MC’s who we’d have seen headlining clubs like Fabric instead maybe 5-10 years ago. The same for producers.
Just a couple of weeks ago we had Mala and Swindle performing live gigs on a Sunday and a Tuesday. Big massive live productions with full bands backing them. That’s where a lot of producers now aspire to be as opposed to being a DJ. And becoming more common in bass / beats music.
We’ve been watching this change happen for a while now. I’m intrigued to see where we’re headed. It does also make me wonder what’s next for people like myself who enjoy DJ’ing in clubs over playing on stages though, and it’s that uncertainty that leads many dj’s into club styles
I haven’t been able to get in the studio much this year but whenever I have I have been experimenting with making stuff more dancey than I’ve ever done and this is a direct effect of me wanting to play more club shows
Keen to hear people’s thoughts on all this, I am sure many of you can relate!
