Even the most perfect event can be hampered by unexpected circumstances. Today the weather decided to intervene and dump loads of rain. Alas, this will not affect the true party people.
We kicked off the day at the M3 Summit at a great panel called the Future of Music. The organizers smartly included an article on the Short Tail/Long Tail effect on the chairs as we entered the room as understanding that concept was a prerequisite for the discussion. Basically, the major labels focus on the short tail, ie the 20% of the biggest selling records that account for 80% of sales. With large expenses for marketing, promotion and production, the major labels have little interest in backcatalog and smaller releases or anything that sells under a million copies. The long tail is the back catalog and smaller releases - the depth and breadth of music that can be bought online without expenses for physical shipment or storeshelf space. This is the realm of independent and most dance music.
Several great points were raised during this informative panel. Through digital downloads the people who are not the cool underground kids are finding independent music. The people making money off digital music are the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and as soon as they start selling content, they will start restricting the person to person (P2P) file sharing. The average person buys a new mobile phone every 18 months which is a great way to introduce new technology. Thats just a brief listing of thing learned.
With all these thoughts in my head, I went out to the pool and watched Christian Alvarez demonstrate Traktor in the Beatport Tent while an interested Josh Wink seemed intrigued. Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden were signing covers of Remix Magazine when the rain started to fall. I hid under the Remix tent and Josh excitedly told me about their new album and single "Tracking Treasure Down." The whole time Christian Alvarez was still spinning despite the rain downfall and people were still dancing!
At this point, I started getting concerned for the Defected in the House party which was about to start at Nikki Beach - an outdoor venue. Last year the Defected party was hit by rain as well but managed to come back stronger. As I ventured into Nikki Beach around 5pm, all worries were erased as the room was filled with people frolicking to the wonderful house music of the finest international house DJs. Barbara Tucker was hosting from the DJ booth singing and chanting along - getting the party hyped as the ol skool would say. Needless to say I was in heaven and enjoyed five or six hours of quality house spun by Jay-J, Bob Sinclar, Martin Solveig, Copyright and more.
As much as I love Defected style house, I knew I had to venture out. First stop was Shine for the Frankie Knuckles/Shapeshifters dual album release party. The place was rocking as the UK duo were tagging. Frankie Knuckles had a big smile on his face as he took his turn on the decks. The crowd felt the same as they enjoy great sets from the house legend.
A trip back up Collins brought us to the Opium Garden for the Juicy party. Robbie Rivera hosted the massive event which really showcased great DJs. A very smiley Benny Benassi ended his energetic atonal set with a blinding mix of "Who's Your Daddy." Robbie pumped things up with a bouncey energy that the crowd was going mad for. Venturing upstairs, we happended on DJ Rap who was spinning her heart out. Thats an understatement as she is an amazing entertainer feeding off the crowd and giving the energy back. Without a doubt, that was one of the best DJ sets I have ever seen.
Since we were on First Avenue, we walked back to Nikki Beach to see what was going on at Defected. At 4am, the downstairs was still packed and Soul Heaven had the Pearl Room going as well.
Truly drained, I came back to the hotel room and passed out. Sorry for the delay in posting the writeup.