SIRIUS still sucks
Back in March, I wrote a blog posting titled SIRIUS sucks where I laid bare my gripes about the SIRIUS satellite radio service, which are many, and still quite applicable.
This morning, I heard by e-mail from DJ JC Simon, one of the mixshow jocks whose work aired on SIRIUS. I happened to notice JC’s e-mail before the one I received from SIRIUS announcing a new channel line-up, and his e-mail prompted me to go investigate what had changed.
The bottom line is that SIRIUS, following their recent merger with XM, finally got around to realigning their programming and eliminating a lot of duplication. Fair enough; it’s precisely this sort of consolidation that delivers value (in theory) to stockholders in a merger situation. Several XM channels have been eliminated and replaced by existing programming from SIRIUS, and some SIRIUS channels were cut in favor of programming originating from XM.
Of note to JC is what’s happened with dance. The Beat, SIRIUS’ primary mainstream dance channel, got the axe, being replaced with (what I feel to be the superior) BPM, a channel originating out of XM. Frankly, I’m not shedding any tears about The Beat’s elimination. While the mixshow content was good, the day-to-day radio programming was never satisfactory to me, and as I noted in my last posting, hosts like Mr. Seth made as much sense being a radio personality, as Tabasco sauce makes sense being used as frosting for a lemon cake.
While I feel badly for DJ JC Simon, and I sure don’t like opportunities for fellow DJs being eliminated, frankly, I was “over” SIRIUS a year ago, and nothing about the new channel line-up is likely to change my mind. While I’m apt to give a listen to BPM in the office at my day job, to see if it’s as good as I remember from listening to it on the net, chances are excellent I won’t bother for long.
What I think is the real next wave here is streaming Internet radio. Sure, Internet radio has been around for years. First, it was a free-for-all, with thousands of kids in their basement playing whatever they wanted to whoever would listen. Then came the onerous royalty requirements from SoundExchange, and things are still in an uproar. Internet radio may not yet have a financial model that makes sense in most cases, but I have tremendous faith that it’ll all be sorted out, and that Internet radio is really the Next Big Thing (even as it seems old hat to many of us).
But who wants to be tethered to their PCs? You don’t have to be. I listen to streaming Internet radio on my BlackBerry every day. In my car. At the office. At home. At the gym. Sure, unlike SIRIUS I can’t listen to streams on my BlackBerry while tooling down I-70 in the middle of Kansas, but I have an iPod for that. iPhone users have the same capability, and the software to do it is free. That’s why we’re emphasizing this mode of listening at iDanceRadio.fm, the fledgling online radio station I’m a part of.
Honestly, I think THAT is where the future is headed. In another couple of years, G3 (or G4 or WiMax or whatever) mobile broadband is going to be so widespread that I probably will be able to listen to iDanceRadio.fm in the middle of Kansas.
So who really needs SIRIUS anyway? Not me, and frankly, I don’t want it.
5 comments November 12, 2008
Chart updated: 11/10/08 (and some other music news)
I was struck this evening by the fact that while I’m a dance DJ, and I love dance music, the truth is, I just love music, dance or otherwise. But before I get into that, and perhaps some of the surprises that go with it, I’ll briefly talk about the chart update.
This past week, Britney Spears ended-up at #1 with Womanizer. Say what you will about the woman, but her producers (and the various remixers on the project) sure know how to turn out good material. There are several terrific mixes floating around, and apparently I’m not the only one who’s digging them.
At #2 is my friend Jacinta, with her latest, Electric Universe, which I blogged about recently. The more I hear this song, the more I like it, and the more I’m enjoying some of ther mixes other than the Robert G. mix I initially fell for.
You can view the chart here for the rest, but one other notable is mid-chart… Milk & Sugar Presents MS2, with Stay Around. There’s a superb mix from Germany’s Spencer & Hill that I always play, and really, really enjoy. The production’s great, and I love the soulful vocal. A friend of mine commented, “Someone should buy that girl some more lyrics,” and yeah, I would agree it’s a bit redundant. But it’s nonetheless enjoyable to my ears.
OK, back to the music surprises.
I was listening to some DJ promos online tonight, and some of the promos are pop, alternative, country, etc. Normally I limit myself to dance (obviously), but I decided to preview some of the other tracks, including a new single from LeAnn Rimes, and it suddenly struck me… Yes, I love dance music, but as I said at the beginning of this post, I also just love music, period. No, I don’t spend much time listening to country. But what’s not to appreciate when you have a talent like LeAnn Rimes?
Two tracks really stood out that are deserving of mention.
First, Keane’s new single, The Lovers are Losing. Their notable hit single from a couple of years ago, Is it Any Wonder? was my ringtone for months, and Lovers has the same incredible hit potential. Great songwriting, great lyrics, and an incredible performance make this an almost surefire hit. For dance lovers like me, there were some great remixes of Wonder, and I hope that some might be made available soon for Lovers. In the meantime, this one’s finding a home on my iPod.
Second, Canadian Idol’s most recent winner, Theo Tams, offers-up Sing. As near as I can determine, this track is unavailable in the U.S., which is a shame. While Sing is the “winner’s song” written and selected for him by the show’s producers, it is nonetheless a pleasant, enjoyable, ballad with a nice piano foundation, and with great hit potential as well since it’s likely to crossover well between AC, AAA and other mainstream radio formats. Typical of the Idol franchise, anyone from the teen fans of Tams to someone like my mother could enjoy this track.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this brief break. Back to the dance music. 
Wes
2 comments November 11, 2008
Mixshow playlist for 11/7/08
Night before last (I’m a bit late in getting to this), I wrapped my third DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party mixshow on iDanceRadio.fm. (I didn’t do a show on Halloween.) As we work to fine-tune programming and formalize our scheduling, we decided to limit my show to two hours. Within the next few weeks, we’ll be adding more DJs to the mixshow line-up, and most or all of those will be one hour programs.
In any case, here’s the playlist from last Friday’s show:
BWO (Bodies Without Organs) - Sunshine In The Rain (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)
Brandy - Right Here (Departed) (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Club Mix)
Uniting Nations feat. Lucia Horn - Pressure Us (Extended Mix)
Jacinta - Electric Universe (Robert G Club Mix)
Dave Audé feat. Sisely Treasure - Grass Is Greener (Original Club Mix)
Kimberley Locke - Fall (Bimbo Jones Extended Mix [XMIX Edit by Ryan Foley])
Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Solasso Remix)
Katy Perry - Hot N Cold (Jason Nevins Club Mix)
Lisa Law - Wicked Ways (Soul Seekerz Remix)
Milk & Sugar Presents MS2 - Stay Around (Spencer & Hill Club Mix)
Jenny Bliss - All About Me (Extended Mix)
Manian feat. Aila - Turn The Tide (2-4 Grooves Club Mix)
Luvndreams feat. Elisa Rodriguez - Heaven Can Wait (Funky Junction & Antony Reale Extended Mix)
Janice Grace - Wanna Be Beautiful (Twisted Dee Club Mix)
Fragma - Memory (Club Mix)
Elle Scott - Take a Trip (DJ Manolo Club Mix)
Pink - So What (Bimbo Jones Remix)
Girls Aloud - The Promise (Dave Audé Club Mix)
Britney Spears - Womanizer (Lenny B Mixshow Edit [Str8 Bassline])
Verona - Stay With Me (Groove Mike Club Mix)
Kristy Kay - I Will Wait (Klubjumpers Club Mix)
Shaun Baker feat. Maloy - V.I.P. ‘08 (2-4 Grooves Club Mix)
See you next Friday!
Wes
Add comment November 9, 2008
An interesting observation about music
Many DJs these days have discovered the effectiveness of harmonic mixing: making sure that the track you’re mixing out of is harmonically compatible with the one you’re mixing into.
Most DJs I know don’t know jack about music, or more specifically, music theory. (For that matter, most composers of electronic music that I know don’t know jack about music.) For the most part, it’s not really necessary. We’ve all been around music long enough to know, by ear alone, what works and what doesn’t, and our love of music means we’re tuned-in to start with.
In any case, when you really pay attention to what works harmonically, one’s sets improve. But some transitions are harder than others, due to the fact that there aren’t many songs in particular keys you might otherwise need to pick from. I decided to go about counting the number of songs I have in each key, and the results were interesting.
To start with, as is typical of popular music, the vast majority of songs are in minor keys. So there’s a split. In fact, 88% of the songs in my collection are in minor keys; only 12% are in major ones.
The most popular key—by a lot, actually—is A minor. Not a huge surprise, given that on a keyboard, A minor can be played solely on the white keys (none of those scary black ones). ;-) Surprisingly, among major keys, F and G are tied for first place—each with a single black key in-use—not C, which also uses solely the white keys.
The rarest of the minor keys is A flat minor. This isn’t a surprise either, really, since every single note in the scale is flatted, and the only white keys you use are C flat and F flat. The rarest key period is F#, which largely has the reverse problem (everything but B is sharped).
You’d have to be a bit of a music geek to even understand this post, or actually, to particularly care about it. But I thought it was interesting to observe what was going on.
One of the reasons I find this fascinating is to see what if any difference there might be in whether a track gets played based on its key. If A flat minor is the rarest key, and a DJ needs to mix into A flat minor to maintain an energetic mix (harmonics and energy mixing are beyond the scope of this particular blog post), then would songs in that key get played more often—and/or are they more likely to get played in the first place? I don’t know the answer, but I will say that tends to be the case for me in those situations where I’m actively trying to build energy through harmonic choices.
Maybe if I’m really bored someday, I’ll start tracking the keys of songs that show-up in DJ charts and see if any patterns emerge. Or maybe I’ll leave the music geekdom to someone else. 
Wes
Add comment October 28, 2008
A new addition to the family
I’m a bit late in writing about this, but there’s a new addition to my family. Well, so to speak; no, I’m not a proud father of a bouncing baby, but rather, the proud owner of a shiny new Allen & Heath XONE:4D mixer/controller.
Last December, I acquired a XONE:3D, after lusting over the thing for most of 2007, and saving my pennies and nickels so I could afford to buy one. (It was a lot of pennies and nickels, so much saving was involved.)
Unfortunately, my ownership experience with the 3D wasn’t the best. Within the first month, I returned home from a gig to find most of the unit dead when I hooked it back up in my studio. Three weeks of being without it later (shipped off to get repaired), it was fine… For awhile, and then suddenly it started having a number of minor but annoying problems that slowly became more major over time.
Ordinarily, that might make me want to dump the thing and try something else. But most any digital DJ who’s tried a XONE:3D probably feels as I do: You’d have to pry this thing from my cold, dead fingers to get it away from me.
To make a long and sordid story a bit shorter, I actually did get rid of the XONE:3D, but not before using a replacement 3D for a few months, finding it perfectly reliable and robust, and making me even more confident that my original 3D was, simply, a lemon. It happens, even with the best of products I suppose.
I got rid of the 3D, yes. However, the day I did so was the day I got a new XONE:4D. The 4D addresses a number of the 3D’s technical shortcomings, and adds some great new capabilities, but otherwise retains everything I loved about the 3D. To get the 4D away from me, you’d not only have to pry off my cold, dead fingers, but figure out how to unchain it from my cold, dead body.
Honestly, I just can’t imagine DJ’ing any other way.
My full review of the XONE:4D and its improvements over the 3D is coming out in DJ Times in the November issue, which will hit newsstands and subscribers’ mailboxes in the next couple of weeks.
Add comment October 25, 2008
Mixshow playlist for 10/24/08
I just wrapped the second DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party mixshow for iDanceRadio.fm, and below is the playlist for the three hour program.
Next week, the show will be slightly different; while we simulcast each show inside of the Second Life virtual world, we normally do so at The Pavilion Nightclub. Next week, I ended-up with a scheduling snafu, so most (or all) of the show will be simulcast inside Second Life at the Fire Island, and we’ll start at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific (an hour earlier than normal). I’ll be taking care of some business on-air which will be mindnumbingly dull to our non-Second Life listeners, but maybe it’s a good reason to stop by secondlife.com and sign-up for a free account!
In any case, here’s the playlist:
Andrew Spencer & Lazard - Here Without You (2-4 Grooves Club Mix)
Cary August - Don’t You Forget About Me (Will Stuart Remix Extended Club Mix)
September - Cry for You (Extended Mix)
Raen - Honey (7th Heaven Club Mix)
Holmes Ives feat. Avalon Frost - 8 Letters (Starkillers Dirty Girl Remix)
Lucas Prata feat. Jeannie Ortega - A Girl Like That (Giuseppe D.’s Dance Mix)
Freemasons feat. Bailey Tzuke - Uninvited (Bailey And Rossko Remix)
Janice Grace - Wanna Be Beautiful (Dave Audé vs. Claude Le Gache Club Mix)
Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives ‘08 (Buzz Junkies Club Mix)
Ruff Loaderz - Fever (Club Mix)
Favretto feat. Kate - Get Down (F&A Factor Club Mix)
Martijn ten Velden - I Wish U Would (Bermudez & Preve Club Mix)
Keri Hilson - Energy (Wideboys Club Mix)
Chris Lake feat. Laura V - Changes (Dirty South Remix)
Alex Party feat. Shanie - Don’t Give Me Your Life ‘08 (Soul Seekerz Classic Club Mix)
Andrew Spencer & The Vamprockerz - Zombie (Dany Wild Club Remix)
Shaun Baker feat. Maloy - V.I.P. ‘08 (2-4 Grooves Club Mix)
Britney Spears - Womanizer (Lenny B Mixshow Edit)
Sunblind - For A Second (Extended Club Mix)
Daytone feat. Amanda Wilson - Good 4 Me (Bassmonkeys Club Mix)
Kim Sozzi - Feel Your Love (Extended Mix)
Worldwide Groove Corporation - You Still Give Me Butterflies (DJ Wesley Chill House Mix)
Kristy Kay - I Will Wait (Klubjumpers Club Mix)
Playhard feat. Kayjay - When I (Think of U) (Original Mix)
Nicola Fasano vs. Yoshimoto - Been a Long Time (Nicola Fasano Mix)
Giorgio Sainz - Get Up On Your Feet (Club Mix)
Sunfreakz - Drive Out (Bellatrax Club Mix)
Stefanie - You Never Said You Loved Me (Rev-Players Extended Mix)
Cyndi Lauper - Into the Nightlife (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)
Sylvia Tosun - Underlying Feeling (Soulshaker Club Mix)
Carol Hahn - Reach Out (Twisted Dee Club Mix)
Lisa Law - Wicked Ways (Soul Seekerz Remix)
Robyn - Dream On (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
Diego Donati & Franco Amato feat. Kelly Malbasa - Turning Point (Original Mix)
Kim Leoni - Medicine (Extended Mix)
AnnaGrace - You Make Me Feel (Extended Mix)
Ronski Speed feat. Aruna - All the Way (Jonas Steur Remix)
Global Playboyz - Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Club Mix)
The Young Punx - Fire (Solitaire Mix)
See you next Friday.
Wes
2 comments October 25, 2008
Some changes to the chart “buy” links
Those who’ve seen my weekly Top 25 Dance Chart are probably aware that I place “buy” links in the rightmost column for every entry I can. I do this for several reasons:
- To support the artists by making it easy to buy their material.
- As a service to listeners so they can know immediately that a track is available for sale, and can go buy it on-the-spot.
- To make a few pennies each time somebody buys something.
To that third point, believe me, I make about enough money each month to buy a snack at Taco Bell (but I think of you each time I do, of course).
Until today, I’ve been linking to iTunes and Beatport. These referral and commission systems are called “affiliate programs” in the web business, and for high-visibility, high-traffic web sites, they can be a real money maker for the site referring the traffic, and for the stores being referred to.
In any event, I’ve pulled the plug on Beatport, and replaced it with links to Amazon’s MP3 download store. Like Beatport, they sell MP3 files, free of DRM (copy protection), that can be loaded onto any portable music player, or played by virtually anything that can play digital music at all (cell phones, PCs, whatever).
But unlike Beatport, Amazon doesn’t play favorites with record labels, they don’t care about an affiliate’s sales volumes, and they don’t force customers to use a slick Flash-based web interface that looks sexy but otherwise inhibits usability. Beatport also seems to over-emphasize certain genres of dance and electronic, which is fine I suppose, but they honestly just don’t carry a lot of the stuff I play anyway.
Many people have told me they don’t like iTunes; others don’t seem to care. I have nothing against iTunes per se; I have an iPod (three of them, actually), so I shop there too from time to time. iTunes Plus certainly removes the DRM aspect from the discussion, but they still sell AAC files, not MP3s. And given that MP3 files will play on just about anything, I will probably start emphasizing Amazon links going forward.
In the end, I don’t really care much whether you click the links on my chart or not, or whether you prefer Amazon, or iTunes, or Masterbeat, or Beatport. The real thing for me is that music consumers support the music and the artists they love by buying their music instead of stealing it. Most musical artists make their money through live performances, not records, and that’s been true since before the music industry starting falling apart. But for dance artists, live performance opportunities are few, leaving music sales as the main revenue source. Hopefully you’ll ponder that a bit the next time you’re wanting the lastest dance track, and keep an already very small “industry” alive.
Wes
1 comment October 21, 2008
Looking back at the first mixshow
Last night was my first mixshow (the “DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party”), and I had a fantastic time doing it. If you tuned-in, I hope you enjoyed it; if you didn’t, I hope you’ll do so next Friday night. We’d planned for it to be two hours; I just kept going, and it ended-up being three and a half.
(See the previous blog post, or go to iDanceRadio.fm to tune-in next Friday night at 10:00 PM Eastern.)
For those who might be interested, here’s the playlist from last night’s show. I’ll try to remember to post these each week; if I forget to, and you’re interested in what you heard, just drop me a line by e-mail and I’ll be happy to post it.
Milk & Sugar Presents MS2 - Stay Around (Spencer & Hill Club Mix)
Verona - Stay With Me (Extended Mix)
Britney Spears - Womanizer (Lenny B Mixshow Edit [Groovy Bassline])
Ultra Naté - Automatic (Tikaro J. Louis & Ferran Remix 1.0.0)
Lindsay Lohan - Bossy (Josh Harris Club Mix)
Jacinta - Electric Universe (Robert G Club Mix)
Kim Leoni - Medicine (Extended Mix)
Velvet - Fix Me (Raul Rincon Vocal Mix)
Simone Denny - Sugar, Sugar Lovin’ (Josh Harris Club Mix)
Tony Moran feat. Martha Wash - Keep Your Body Working (Bassmonkeys Club Mix)
Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives ‘08 (Buzz Junkies Club Mix)
Sarah Whatmore - Smile (Bimbo Jones Vocal Mix)
DJ Analyzer vs. D-JMC - We Belong (Jason Matthew Club Remix)
Kristy Kay - I Will Wait (Klubjumpers Club Mix)
Drea - Overcome (Szeifert & Krash Extended Mix)
Kandystand - Everybody (Electro Mix)
Jennifer Carbonell - Time (Hernandez vs. DJ Tyo Club Mix)
Valeria feat. Aria - Girl I Told Ya (Dave Audé Mix)
Crystal Waters - Dancefloor (Bassmonkeys Club Mix)
Estelle - American Boy (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)
The Hoxtons - Make You a Star (The Hoxtons Main Vocal Mix)
Lisa Law - Wicked Ways (Soul Seekerz Remix)
Britney Spears - Gimme More (Junior Vasquez & Johnny Vicious Club Remix)
The Ting Tings - Be The One (Bimbo Jones Club Mix)
2-4 Grooves - Writing On The Wall (St. Elmos Fire) (Original Club Mix)
Jenny Bliss - All About Me (Club Mix)
Giorgio Sainz - Get Up On Your Feet (Club Mix)
Sunfreakz - Drive Out (Bellatrax Club Mix)
Fonseca vs. Lane - Afterparty (Warren Myers Remix)
Katy Perry - Hot N Cold (Jason Nevins Club Mix)
DJ Timbo & Friends - Go Go Girl (Twisted Dee Master Club Mix)
Cyndi Lauper - Into the Nightlife (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)
Vanessa Hudgens - Sneakernight (Albert Castillo Club Mix)
Mike Melange vs. 7th Heaven - Why Can’t We Live Together (7th Heaven Club Mix)
Robyn - Handle Me (Soul Seekerz Extended Mix)
PCD ‘The Pussycat Dolls’ - I Hate This Part (Moto Blanco Club Mix)
AnnaGrace - You Make Me Feel (Extended Mix)
Global Playboyz - Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Club Mix)
After 6 feat. Angela Dennis - Fast Car (Club Mix)
Destination X feat. Lisa Molina - Little Secret (Bassmonkeys Club Mix)
Anastacia - I Can Feel You (Max Sanna & Steve Pitron Club Mix)
Cyndi Lauper - Same Ol’ Fucking Story (Ralphi Rosario Vocal Mix)
Duffy - Mercy (Dunproofin Thankful Mix)
Avalon Superstar feat. Rita Campbell - So Alive (Playmaker Club Mix)
Loveless feat. Amanda Wilson - Found a Miracle (Simmons & Christopher Vocal Mix)
Degrees of Motion - Do You Want it Right Now (Haji & Emanuel Remix)
Shaun Baker feat. Maloy - V.I.P. ‘08 (2-4 Grooves Club Mix)
Kim Sozzi - Feel Your Love (Extended Mix)
Raen - Honey (7th Heaven Club Mix)
Alyson - Here With Me (Klubjumpers Club Mix)
See you again next Friday night!
Wes
Add comment October 18, 2008
Introducing the DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party
Starting tonight (Friday, October 17, 2008), I’ll be spinning a new mixshow on iDanceRadio.fm. We’re calling it The DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party, and that’s pretty much what it is… The best in progressive, electro, and some of your favorite mainstream club remixes.
Every Friday, I’ll be mixing live starting at 10:00 PM Eastern (7:00 PM Pacific), initially for two hours, although we might be expanding it to three fairly quickly. I want to emphasize that the show will be live, warts and all. (I’ll prerecord only if I’ll be on vacation, have a gig elsewhere, etc.) So for better or worse, you get to hear it as it’s happening.
Tonight’s show is a bit of a dry-run, so it’s entirely possible that some technical glitch will keep the show from going on as planned, but I’m not too worried. (Worst case, we’ll try again next week.)
The show is sponsored by CAPP Records, and I’m sure I’ll be featuring a few of the best CAPP has to offer.
I welcome your feedback, requests, comments, etc. Please send them by e-mail; contact information is on my web site at djwesley.com.
Finally, please be sure to let your friends know! It’s the perfect primer before you head out clubbing on a Friday night, or even if you’re just hangin’ out at home…
I hope you enjoy it!
Wes
Add comment October 17, 2008
Jacinta’s new single finally out
My friend Jacinta, who is a genuine sweetheart in addition to a truly talented songstress, has finally put her latest single and remix package in the can. Titled Electric Universe, she’s been performing it live for several months now, and I’ve been really anxious to hear the song myself. I’m pleased to report that she’s very likely got another hit on her hands.
I became familiar with Jacinta in 2006 when she released Destination, a song I still enjoy. Then came 2007’s Can’t Keep it a Secret, which was simply amazing.
As was the case with Secret, Jacinta and her production team brought a number of remixers to the table, cranking out a remix package that takes the song in a lot of different directions. Since I just got the promo today, I’ve not had a chance to listen to all of them in intimate detail just yet.
But one of the mixes stood out to me immediately: the “Robert G Club Mix.” Compared to a quick and dirty preview of the other mixes, it stood out as really adding a terrific kick to Jacinta’s energetic vocal, which seemed lacking a bit on the other mixes.
I’ll follow-up as soon as I have a chance to give the entire package a decent listen, but I encourage you to check it out on Perfect Beat. MasterBeat will be offering it for sale soon as well.
Wes
Add comment October 17, 2008
