Posts filed under 'DJ Wesley Personal'
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
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
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
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
My screen acting debut
OK, so that’s an attention-grabbing headline. The truth is, I did make my screen acting debut, but it’s about 2 seconds or so in length.
The new music video for recording artist Rikah’s track, Everything is Changing, was released just yesterday. (You can view it on YouTube.) Assembled by some of the great folks at Import Sound and Vision in California, the video is set to the great Verano Remix of the song, and blends footage taken last October (2007) in Las Vegas, with some video shot here in Denver at Tracks Nightclub late last year. The Tracks footage includes some energetic dancing crowd shots, with my buddy DJ Brian Howe doing his thing. I had opened for Brian the night the video was taken, and was hanging out with him in the booth during the shoot. You’ll see my brief cameo toward the end of the video. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. 
Here’s a screen shot in case you do:
DJ Brian Howe and DJ Wesley at Tracks, in the Rikah video
I was surprised to learn that I was in the finished product, and I’m thrilled that it was associated with the amazing Rikah, who is one of the most amazing, most talented people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting—a rare gem of a person on every level. (Love ya, baby!)
Enjoy the video at the YouTube link (above), along with all the rest of the videos from recent CAPP Records releases.
Add comment September 19, 2008
New DJ Wesley web site
I finally got my new web site launched yesterday. You can, of course, get there at http://www.djwesley.com.
It probably won’t be winning any Webby awards, but I am particularly pleased to get the new logo rolled out on a web site design that is at least not embarrassing anymore.
As I mention on the home page of the new site, I’ll be better leveraging the blog moving forward. It’s a pain working with a regular web site when it comes to posting news, etc., and frankly, that’s really what a blog is for. So when there’s something timely to talk about, I’ll be putting it here, instead of a “news” page on the site.
There are still a few tweaks to come with the web site, so stay tuned.
Add comment May 1, 2008
Blog (sort of) moved
This blog is now functioning at a new URL: blog.djwesley.com. The old URL still works too, but it’s nice to have the site at a more appropriate address.
Add comment May 1, 2008
Well, crap…
The role of a DJ is multifaceted. We’re probably mostly “entertainers” providing “entertainment” to an audience. But another facet of being a DJ is promoting music, and I take that roll pretty seriously. In my online sets, I have the chance to talk about artists, tracks, and labels, and I do. I like making music personal and intimate; there’s a story behind every song, and when I know it, I like talking about it. And through this blog, my chart, and other avenues, I certainly talk a lot about what’s new, what I like and don’t like, and why.
In doing so, I try really hard to stick to objective aspects of the music. Is the production good? Are the vocals on-target? Is there too much compression? Are the lyrics redundant? But no matter how much you stick to supposed “facts,” at the end of the day, art is subjective. Some people like lots of compression, some don’t. Some people like redundant lyrics, and some don’t. And some people just plain like a song, and others just plain don’t.
Anyway, my friends have sort of come to depend on me to turn them on to good music, and I like that, too. But I was reminded only this morning of the flip side of all this: When a recommendation just doesn’t work out.
One of my good friends in Chicago recently decided to pick-up a copy of Above & Beyond’s Tri-State, which I’ve blogged about clear back in August of last year. While I’m really a house DJ, and that’s “my” music, Tri-State is a favorite from the trance realm. (You can read that blog posting for more about my thoughts on the album.)
In any case, my friend has heard me go on and on and on about Tri-State, so he finally broke down and ordered a copy of it. He got it yesterday, and I heard the news today: he was “underwhelmed,” and felt that only one track was really repeat-worthy. Well, crap…
Sure, I’m disappointed, especially since this particular friend is a real trance-head, and I figured it’d be right up his street. But music is deeply personal, and while we (as music fans) do collectively tend toward being a bit lemmingesque, blindly following one another like a herd (can you say “Billboard chart?”), what works for me just isn’t always going to work for you.
I guess I’m OK with that. I’d like to believe I have an ear for music in general, and dance music specifically. I think to be successful as a DJ, you have to. But I’m not always going to get it right.
So if you pick-up a copy of Tri-State, or anything else I talk-up for that matter, and you hate it, I’m sorry. I’ll try to make better recommendations next time. But you’re always welcome to comment back here, whether you agree with me—or not.
As for the friend in Chicago? I suggested he take it to a used CD store and get at least some of his money back… Or perhaps, white elephant gifting?
2 comments April 24, 2008
Label chic
As a designer wannabe, I’m a bit of a sucker for good visual design and well-executed branding. Such is the case with System Recordings, a dance label out of New York.
Honestly, I know next to nothing about these people aside from getting their promos and that I like some of the songs their artists are releasing these days. But one thing for sure: They have their design and branding act together. From their web site to their MySpace page to their online store, they sure seem to “got it going on.”
What prompted this post, frankly, is their t-shirt line-up in their online store here. They’ve taken their cool logo and done-up a couple of brand shirts that use it to good effect, especially the black one… What looks like a tire track across the front of the shirt is actually a mosaic of their logo. Pretty clever, and yeah, I ordered one just because I think it’s hot looking.
It’s sort of gotten me thinking that I need some DJ Wesley shirts once my new web site is up (speaking of branding and all that). Might be fun.
And speaking of branding, look for my all-new web site to be launched in the next week or two. I’m pretty stoked, but still a lot of work remains before it’s ready. Stay tuned…
Add comment April 21, 2008
Show notice: Tracks (Denver), Thursday, March 20
Hey everyone! Once again, I’ll be spinning at Tracks here in Denver ahead of headliner DJ Brian Howe (of XM Satellite Radio, among others) on Thursday, March 20th. As usual, doors open at 9:00 PM, and I would recommend getting there early. The first 50 people in the door get in for free!
Hope to see you there.
Add comment March 11, 2008
