January Top 10 Unsigned Demos

Yeah Woho! - I Wanna Love You
Link: Myspace
Location: Sweden

Mikey Dalton & Ted Nilsson - Face The Fact
Link: Myspace Myspace
Location: UK
Flash Mode - Your Groove
Link: Myspace
Location: Australia

Andrey Inchakov - Get out of My House
Link: Myspace
Location: Russia

Kamei - Hot
Link: Myspace
Location: Brazil

Aquilaganja - Mc Wobbler
Link: Myspace
Location: UK


Prowley Burglars - You Like
Link: Myspace
Location: Netherlands

Nu Raverz - Get Your Groove
Link: Myspace
Location: UK

Bonn Lewis - Role Reversal
Link: Myspace
Location: UK

Angry Saw - Kung Foo
Link: Website
Location: Russia

Pro Showcase - It's Elementary, Mr Watson

We caught up with (currently London-based) South African purveyour of wibbly house groovers Kyle Watson for a quick chin wag in the latest in our "Pro Showcase" features.

We have a bunch of these ready to go live, so keep an eye on the blog and/or follow it in the right there!

As in most music "scenes", the Electro, Fidget, Jackin, whatever-you-wanna-call-it house scene has an element of "same same" about it; similar sounds, samples, synth presets etc.

The Kyle Watson style certainly does not fall into that bracket however, and it's that genuine originality that stands hm out from the crowd in my opinion.

So hi-fives and pats on the backs out the way, let's get down to bizniz....


Don - We'll start how we always start.... Describe your sound in 3 words?
Kyle Watson - Makes You Shuffle!

... sure does, and if you had one nugget of advice for unsigned dance music producers, what would it be?
Try from the start to focus on original works rather than making yourself available for endless remixes. Much more respect can be earned from songwriting from scratch than working from remix parts.

The question on everyone's lips (?!), what is your favourite VST Plugin?
I've really been experimenting a lot with Tone2's Gladiator, it's wicked for modulation and you can get pretty much any sound out of it that you want.

And who is(are) your tips for 2010? Which producers have your backing?
An artist that I met at a gig in Bristol called Eats Everything. He is making some really fresh stuff that's bouncy, techy and jacking all in one!

And what's next for you? What does the short-term future hold for Kyle Watson?
Release-wise I've got a three track EP lined up for release in January 2010 on Dandy Kid Records, as well as a collaboration EP that will be going out on Jack Union later this year. I'm booked to play the launch of Sketch Records at London's Ministry of Sound in early February, should be a good one.

Awesome, 2010 is waiting for you!

Catch up with Kyle, and sign up for his mailing list on his Myspace... and look out for him hitting this year where it hurts!

Until Next Time...




Don.

Dance Music Download Stores Market Share

If you are anything like me, and are interested in geeky stats relating to our wonderful scene, then you may find this post useful.

I thought I would compile a (sort of) definitive chart of market share for Digital Downloads. I say "sort of" definitive, because clearly it is only Venga Digital stats, and clearly therefore only a niche statistic range. But I would hazard a guess that you would get similar figures throughout the "Electro House" defined scene.

There has been much ado recently about the demise of some digital stores. DJDownload collapsed last year, and this year already there has been a few stores that have fallen.

It is my opinion (and my opinion only) that Beatport is the Daddy of Digital Download stores for Dance Music. They have a sizeable market share, and the figures you see below I would guess would ring true throughout all Dance Music genres. The Beatport Juggernaught shows no sign of stopping, and I often wonder how other stores survive on such a slim market share.

So on to the stats then. I have just realised that this post has no real "point" so forgive me for that, however it is demonstrating market share, and I have never seen such a pie chart, so I guess that counts for something. The sample by the way is large, and contains info on 18 months worth of statements in case you were wondering about skewed figures:

Digital Store	Percentage
Beatport	69.48%
Itunes	9.51%
DJDownload	8.74%
Juno	5.81%
Stompy	2.40%
Trackitdown	1.72%
Napster	0.59%
Emusic	0.42%
Xpressbeats	0.25%
Traxsource	0.22%
Amazon	0.15%
Dancetracks	0.13%
Wasabeat	0.10%
247	0.09%
Digitaltunes	0.09%
Gigacrate	0.07%
Beatsdigital	0.04%
Boomkat	0.04%
7Digital	0.04%

Alas... there is a point to this, I guess the point is there is more to life than Beatport alone. According to these figures you can increase revenue by 40% if you are distributing to other stores than just Beatport.

So all you guys that have distributors, stick with it - that 15% you pay to them you are earning back in increased royalties.

Please drop me a comment if you found this post of use... or whether you thought it was a bit too nerdy, and I would be interested to hear any stories that would backup the stats above!

Until then....



Don.