Friends and fans are constantly asking me where I get my music from and to be honest there is no one single location. Some of my music comes from subscription services, like Promo Only. Other places I get music from include iTunes, Crooklyn Clan, and Beatport.com. The music resource I would like to talk about today is Beatport.

Beatport is a US based website offering digital downloads for DJs and dance music fans alike. Apparently this site is the “first authentic digital music store designed to service the evolution of the digital music culture, redefining how DJ’s and enthusiasts acquire their music.” They aim to do this through negotiating deals with an immense number of record labels and then offering those labels tracks to download on their site.

Beatport is an adobe flash driven website which is sometimes hard to pull off if you have a lot of user activity (e.g. downloading, logging in etc.), but Beatport manages to maintain a sleek and modern look while also implementing unparalleled functionality and ease of use. For a first time user it may take 10 minutes to learn how the site is laid out, but once you have a feel for how it is setup — you’ll realize how easy and efficient the site really is. As an established user I can log onto the site and find music that I want to purchase within just a few clicks. The website is can sometimes act a little sluggish if there are a lot of users connected, but for the most part it is very quick. The website also occasionally suffers from some glitches from it’s flash design. Again, this is pretty rare and is definitely being ironed out over time.

Beatport designers keep their features nice and simple. You can browse the music by genre, which is pretty standard. There are a lot of genres and sub genres to choose from, including: Breaks, Hardcore, House and Trance. There is definitely something here for every lover of electronic dance music. I personally prefer the House and Electro House genres.

The charts are also very handy. There are a number of regular DJs that publish their music charts on the website, and if you manage to find a chart that you like, you will constantly find a good supply of music here. This is especially helpful in unearthing those hidden gems. Personally I’ve found a few classics which when played out, people are desperate to know the name of. The website makes it simple to “favorite” your … well … favorite artists, genres, and labels. Each time you log in, Beatport remembers your favs.

Download Formats

When you choose to purchase a track from Beatport, you get a choice as to how you wish to receive it:

* 320kbps CBR MP3 – This is the best quality MP3 download they do. It is pretty much identical to CD quality.
* 192kbps VBR MP3 – The quality of this MP3 is also good, but it is a fair bit less than CD quality. There isn’t really a need to download at this quality, unless you’re trying to save on disk space a bit. But with the costs of hard drives these days, you’d be mad to want to sacrifice on quality when the price is still the same.
* WAV file – This can only be received through the mail. However it offers the best audio quality out of the three options. I’d suggest that this is for those moments when you want a superb copy of a track. WAV is the highest quality digital audio format. MP3 compresses sound information to save space where as WAV files offer NO compression which usually results in HUGE file sizes.

A great feature that you’ll find, is that once you’ve purchased using your card once, it will store your card details for you. This means that next time you go to buy something, you only have to add it to your crate, choose the format, and then click purchase. Your card details will be recalled automatically. Very handy and it saves you from having to type it all in every time. And if you are concerned about safety and storing your card information on their servers, don’t be. As an experienced web designer I can tell you Beatport has a very secure system.

If you order MP3s they are available to download instantly, as soon as your payment is accepted. You will be redirected to the download page. If you aren’t, simply ensure you are logged in and click on “My Account”. This will allow you to see the records that you have not yet downloaded.

Legal Issues

Obviously some users will be concerned as to legal issues of downloading MP3s, no matter which website they are downloaded from.

All of the MP3s on Beatport are legal and you are licenced to use them for your own personal use. Essentially it is just like buying a record from the record store. The same legal implications are in effect. Beatport has taken the time to create agreements with all labels involved.
You can be sure that both the label and the artist will receive royalties for each track that you download.

Once you’ve downloaded the MP3s there are no watermarks or devices that will stop you from burning them to CD, so that you can DJ with them or listen to them elsewhere.

Overall

This website is a fantastic resource for DJs and dance music fans alike. If you’re a DJ or a dance music fan and you’re looking for a place where you can legally download upfront music and promos, Beatport is a great resource to have access to.

As promised, here are the pictures from Chelsea’s Sweet 16 at the Crowne Plaza in Somerset, NJ. (Saturday September 13th, 2008)

You can view the Sweet 16 photos at the Hurricane Productions Facebook Fan Page. Even if you don’t have a Facebook account, it’s ok! You can still view the pictures by clicking the link above.

If you do have a Facebook account and you notice yourself in a few pictures, feel free to tag yourself in them.

DID YOU ENJOY OUR PERFORMANCE AT THE SWEET 16?

• Interested in booking us for your next party or engagement? Give us a call and we’d be happy to speak with you about our availability and your entertainment options.

• Also, you can listen to all of DJ Strato’s remixes at his website, DJStrato.com
• Several of the remixes you heard at Chelsea’s Sweet 16 can be found on DJ Strato’s site!

Go Girl, The Anthem 2008 is a new Hip-Hop / House mash featuring DJ Strato / Alex Gaudino Pitbull, Flo-Rida, Lil’ Jon and Cisko Brothers.

The original house instrumental was produced by Cisko Brothers and remixed by Alex Gaudino. The original house instrumental is called “Guaglione”. In 2008 DJ Strato picked up the track and remixed it again, this time adding lyrics from various hip-hop and reggaeton artists including Pitbull, Flo-Rida, and Lil’ Jon.

This mashup has seen huge success at Sweet 16s, graduation parties, and other teen oriented events including Rutgers University Convocation. The evolution of this track is finally complete with the release of the official music video produced by DJ Strato.

DJ Strato reflects on how he has developed his style of remixing:

The thing that I love about mashing popular hip-hop lyrics and house / electro beats is that it combines two areas of popular culture that regularly exist among young audiences. During any teen oriented event there is usually an obvious duality amongst the crowd. Usually, half of the audience enjoys dancing to hip-hop and the other half enjoys dancing to club and house. By combining the two genres in a mash, it allows the hip-hop enthusiasts to sing along and participate in something familiar while it also satisfies the club/house enthusiasts taste for heart pumping bass lines and gradual momentous buildups.

With the entire world of music at our fingertips, made possible by our friend the internet, it’s relatively easy for DJs to amass an extensive music library. As a mobile disc jockey this is a fantastic realization. DJs no longer have to buy expensive records or even CDs and what’s even more appealing is that two hundred pounds of records has now been shrunk down into a half-pound external hard drive. Services like iTunes and Real Rhapsody make it possible to legally download huge amounts of musical data right from the comfort of your home.

Despite all the conveniences the internet brings to the mobile DJ table it is still very possible to incur massive holes in your music library! Let’s face it, even the biggest external hard drives cannot hold all the world’s music. So what do we do as DJs? We try to make sure we have the top songs from popular artists and try to anticipate what requests might be for each individual event.

That being said, there is always a chance you make not have the song, best man Jim Johnson wants to lip sync at his best friend’s wedding. Or perhaps a brand new song has just aired on the radio, it slips under your DJ radar, and someone requests it at a Sweet 16.

Well as a DJ, the words “I don’t have that song” NEVER want to leave your mouth. To combat such statements from even entering the forefront of a DJs brain, a few core values must be bent. Most DJs are honest, passionate, friendly individuals — but when it comes to the embarrassment of not having a song, honesty sometimes takes a back seat.

That brings me to our list of the Top 6 DJ Excuses for Not Having a Song Request:

1.) I’m sorry, the version I have is not edited — and I can only play clean music.
2.) That song is a little too up-tempo for right now, I’ll play it when the music gets “dancier“.
3.) Bah! This is terrible… the CD with your song on it is scratched.
4.) I know I have it, just give me a minute to find it.
5.) It’s almost dinner time, I can only fit a couple more songs in.
6.) I have about 11 requests to fulfill before yours, be patient [...hopefully forget about the track...] and I’ll play it after the other eleven songs.

Now, only a couple of those excuses are backfire-proof. Most of the excuses rely on the guest either forgetting about their request or simply not wanting to bother the DJ again. However, there are always a few persistent guests who return to the DJ booth three, four, or even five times nagging the DJ until their song gets played. In that situation you’ve got to be resourceful.

Most venues have a wireless internet connection that a DJ can tap into in the case of a music request emergency. Also, the majority of our DJs have made the cellphone switch to the iPhone and with the iPhone you can download a song from iTunes virtually anywhere in the world.

As easy as that sounds, it is still quite a hassle to take your concentration off the mix — find the appropriate wire for the iPhone — plug it into your AUX port — download the song — and somehow smoothly mix into it from the iPod. Wireless internet technology is improving every day and the hope for DJs is that in the future we will never have to make up excuses for not having music — but until the technology becomes faster, more convenient, and easier our list of six will continue to sustain disc jockey pride.

The following is a time-lapse video of Hurricane Productions’ Vin DJ and DJ Strato setting up for a large Sweet 16. The Sweet 16 was held at the Crowne Plaza in Somerset, New Jersey.

Featured in this video is Hurricane Productions’ Complete Sweet Sixteen package which includes a QSC HPR Audio System and an impressive Chauvet & American DJ intelligent lighting array on a five foot wide truss.

An HP|TV presentation.