| House music has always been pushed forward by | | | | new music really quickly - fresh and exclusive! All |
| DJ's wanting and craving new music. Music that | | | | went well with this new format until the mp3 |
| their peer's haven't yet heard let alone had the | | | | came along. Suddenly promotional music was |
| ability to own. Music that is upfront and rare. | | | | finding its way onto the file sharing sites like |
| As the volume of dance labels and artists | | | | Limewire and Soulseek. DJ's who had been sent |
| increased towards the end of the last millennium, | | | | music on CD or even emailed as mp3's began |
| mainly due to the ability to produce very highly | | | | sharing this music. The thought process behind |
| polished music on a simple pc, the sales quantity | | | | people doing this went against all that had gone |
| of each release decreased as the market did not | | | | before as most DJ's hide their secret weapons |
| increase with amount of new music flooding in. | | | | rather than sharing with anyone at all. This had a |
| With this change record companies needed to | | | | knock on by taking the control the labels had of |
| address costs to reflect these lower sales. Label's | | | | who had their product when and where away. |
| looked to technology to help cut the costs of | | | | Also potential revenue began being lost and to a |
| running their business. One major area where this | | | | section of the music industry where every sale |
| came to fruition was promotions. | | | | counts this was frustrating and hugely detrimental. |
| For years the DJ's choice and only option was | | | | Dance music releases usually only have a shelf life |
| vinyl, clubs only had vinyl turntables and in the odd | | | | of around 8 weeks. There are obvious exceptions |
| instance where they did have CD turntables they | | | | to this rule but 95% of releases are played in |
| were very poor. This changed with the launch of | | | | clubs and sell for this length of time and that's it. |
| the pioneer CDJ series. DJ's were suddenly able to | | | | File sharing screwed this up by both the sales and |
| do everything they could on vinyl turntables and | | | | also the structure of the chosen few influencing |
| more but using CD's. Labels had previously had | | | | bigger DJ's not having something they can fully |
| only one option to press a run of promotional | | | | get behind during the promotional stage of a |
| records to send out to DJ's. The cost of | | | | release. Therefore less people got to hear it, less |
| manufacture and shipping to DJ's was huge. | | | | are influenced and less potentially buy it. The |
| Overnight DJ's could use CD's. It's much cheaper | | | | industry has never really recovered from file |
| to manufacture and half the price to ship, an | | | | sharing but more recently the sale of mp3's and |
| added bonus was that music could be burnt | | | | specifically dance music mp3's has boomed and |
| straight from a pc where the track had been | | | | this has helped to a certain extent slow the |
| written and in a DJ's hands the following day being | | | | decline and with time the scene could once again |
| played to a packed club that evening. For labels | | | | flourish. The one problem dance music has |
| and producers this was a fantastic way to | | | | encountered with sales of mp3's is price but that |
| promote new music and for the DJ this was bliss | | | | is another story. |