DMb | Dance Music blog & Podcast

Spotify, last week, finally got round to opening their services up to music lovers across America. And now we have the chance to stream full albums for free, download the songs we like and sync our spotify accounts with Facebook, Twitter and iDevices.

This recent release comes as Spotify passed the 1 million subscriber milestone across Europe and continues to grow. To celebrate Spotify’s landmark achievement the guys over at Spotify HQ have offered Point Blank a limited number invitions for users to use the service for free.

To get your hands on the streaming service, all you have to do is head over to Point Blank’s Facebook page, ‘like’ it and send your name and email address to james@pointblanklondon.com. You will then be contacted with a link to download Spotify and create and account. Remember there are only a limited number of invitations, so they will be distributed on a first come first serve basis.

Point Blank is an online college for Music Production and has lots of great classes geared towards Electronic Dance Music taught by some of the biggest names in the business. They also offer some free Tutorials on various aspects of production, check it out.

To find out more about Spotify, and it’s recent US launch, check out the video below.

Visit:
Spotify
Point Blank College

Sander Kleinenberg just gave us an Exclusive DJ Mix for our podcast and now he’s giving us a pair of these beautiful headphones for one of our beloved readers. And here I was thinking that we loved Sander more than he loved us. Let’s show him our appreciation and hop over to iTunes and check out his new album “5K” and his Facebook page for some “Like” action.

For your chance to win the headphones just post a comment with the name of your favorite Sander Kleinenberg song or remix. Contest will end at Midnight PST Friday July 15, 2011 and is only valid for US Residents. The winner will be chosen in a random drawing from all valid entries.

Check out these headphones at V-Moda Website

So MixMag did this Poll and I didn’t vote. In fact I didn’t even know this poll existed, but nonetheless here it is.

10. 2Many DJs (Who?)
09. Tony DeVit (A definite Legend)
08. Sasha
07. Paul van Dyk
06. Ricardo Villalobos (Not sure how he snuck in there)
05. Carl Cox (Isn’t he a cage fighter these days)
04. Andy C
03. Sven Vath
02. Richie Hawtin (Should have been #1)
01. Tiesto

via: MixMag

Excision currently holds the records over here at DMb for the most downloaded podcast, so we figured there’s bound to be some readers who would love to get a hold of some remix stems and possibly get your own record on his Rottun label. All genres welcome though I highly doubt you’ll see a Progressive Trance track winning this contest. Download links below.

From Excision:

In case you didn’t notice yet, there are no basses or drums provided in the stems. This is because we want you to show us your synthesis skills and your ability to make a proper track without having
everything handed to you.

In order to get noticed we recommend you spend the majority of your time inside the synthesizer of your choice to produce all of the sounds in the remix to the best of your ability. We’d rather you send
in something a month after the contest is over than send something you aren’t 100% confident in. Feel free to take this remix to another genre, or combine genres. We are open to hearing anything from
literally any genre. Drum and Bass to Electro House, Dubstep, Drumstep, chilled out music or any tempo you want. You have over a month to complete this remix, so experiment and have fun with it.

Do NOT make your submission down-loadable or listenable to the general public. (This is for promotional purposes if you win) Please submit privately via Soundcloud to the Excision Soundcloud account.

The winning remix will be released on Rottun Recordings, and we’ll probably ask you to do an EP for us as well. Do not be discouraged if your best friend has just completed the best remix known to man, we
may release two remixes or we may sign an artist for a future EP based on their submission regardless of them being the winner or not!

Deadline: February 1st, 2011

Get the Remix Stems for Get to the Point Here
Get Remix Stems for Subsonic Here

Music download store Trackitdown.net team up with sample pack creators Prime Loops for Remix Addict! An exclusive download pack and remix competition that will see a winning track chosen by none other than MJ Cole, D. Ramirez and Crissy Criss.

The free Remix Addict download pack gives you 15 selected loops from the Addict Trilogy series that are completely royalty free, and can be used in all your projects and releases as well as the Remix Addict Competition. Any style of music can be submitted for the contest.

Winner to receive:
1 x Propellerheads Reason 4 & Propellerheads Record Music Software (Mac and Windows)
1 x IK Multimedia T-Racks Deluxe Mastering Bundle (Mac and Windows)
1 x 10 free Sample Packs from Prime Loops
1 x £100 Download Voucher from Trackitdown.net
1 x 12 Month Subscription for Computer Music Magazine
1 x Digital Music Distribution Package for 1 Track by Zimbalam & Believe Digital

Plus a huge range of merchandise from Prime Loops, Trackitdown and your favourite labels and artists.

The judges will be looking out for: no clashing keys and notes, perfect beat syncing, good track structure, the appearance of a hook line (either lead synth, bass or vocals), clean and well balanced mix down, intelligent editing of loops and of course, something that represents your production style – whatever the genre! Additional use of royalty free samples and original sounds are encouraged but submissions featuring uncleared copyrighted material will not be accepted.

Get the Sample Pack

Contest ends June 1, 2010.

We have a couple of passes for one lucky reader in the UK who wants to attend a night at Together. Just post in the comments and we will randomly choose one reader next week to receive the passes.

Together Season One kicks off on Friday 12th March for a series of events at the Coronet Theatre with an amazing lineup over the next few months.

Full Info on Together: (more…)

With over 3000 entries in the NGDJ competition spanning 3 months and garnering almost 200,000 votes the winner was just announced. Congrats to May Vanya from New Zealand via Coatia. The winner was chosen based on not only mixing and track selection but also music production, visual presentation and general artist potential. It seems like the 3 winners definitely lean more towards a deeper housey kinda vibe. Hopefully next year we can see a bit more genre variety with the winners.

According to the jury, Croatian sister duo Maya Vanya “are intriguing in a ’what‘s next?‘ way” and “have proven themselves by mixing their own masterfully laid out edits” with “a big room friendly tech house sound ready for next generation dancefloors everywhere.”

You can check out Maya Vanya’s winning mix here.

NGDJ runner-ups, including Jeremy G and Adeline Supreme.

via: LetsMix

Talenthouse.com has a couple of new contest up that might be of interest to some of you out there. First is a remix contest for Scott Hardkiss‘ new track “Beat Freak” where the winner gets their remix released on Scott’s “God Within” label. The finialists will be picked with a vote and the final winner will be picked by Scott himself. There is no limit to genre so grab the samples and upload a mix then come back here and post a link to your track so we can listen/vote for your mix. Give Beat Freak a listen on the video below.

Go Remix

Talenthouse also has a contest to work with Ryan Leslie who also happens to be a Harvard Graduate. I hadn’t heard of him before but I checked out the YouTube video below and was impressed by this guy’s talent. He is kinda cheesy dancing around but that’s probably because he has a camera on him and his music kinda sounds like Trance from 1995. This contest is to make a video of yourself creating a new track and to upload it. The winner will work with Ryan in the studio and get credit on a track. Be sure to post a link in the comments if you submit a video.

Check out the video below and then head over to TalentHouse and Get Recording