Once upon a time, if you wanted to hear one of my DJ Mixes you could go to Mixcrate. Mixcrate was a site where hundreds of DJ’s posted their mixes and fans listened, liked, left comments and shared the mixes with friends. If you listen to The Afterglow you will hear me point you to mixcrate in every single episode. I had over 50 mixes posted there – including all of the DJ Mixes from The Afterglow. Unfortunately, a few years ago Mixcrate abruptly shut down. They posted a brief explanation on their site which included the following: "Unfortunately, Mixcrate received a letter from a respected entity in the record industry. While Mixcrate does not believe the site violates any laws, we do not have the means to operate under current conditions. It's with deep regret that we must shut down the website." - but we weren’t given any notice. That always bothered me a bit. They could have at least given us a heads up and a few days to figure out some options. A lot of DJ’s completely lost their entire body of work. But, oh well, no hard feelings from me. I only very recently discovered that their existence mirrored that of The Afterglow with an almost eerie precision. Their site began in the spring of 2010. I posted show #1 of The Afterglow in May of 2010. Mixcrate shut down on October 20, 2016. I posted the final show (#52) of The Afterglow on October 19, 2016. Kinda crazy!
Well anyway, that left me and several hundred other DJ’s with the same dilemma – where do I upload my mixes? There are quite a few sites around that perform the same function, but we had to wonder how many of them will face the same fate as mixcrate? Or will anybody be listening on this site? Many of you may not realize that things got a little ugly between 2016 & 2017 for DJ’s uploading mixes. The industry was still hammering out how the licensing agreements were supposed to work for all of the sites that hosted the music. Quite a few DJ’s - several of them well known - had their mixes pulled down from soundcloud and other prominent sites. I had a few mixes blocked on mixcloud & soundcloud. Fortunately, sometime in 2017, some agreements were made and things loosened up.
The thing is, this happened during a time when I was no longer actively posting mixes so I never really made up my mind about what to do. Mixcloud is a viable option. I already have over 20 episodes of The Afterglow and another 12 mixes on my page there. The problem is, I’ve never been able to build much of an audience there.
Maybe it’s because I’m a little old, but it has taken me a while to fully grasp and embrace just how much people use YouTube for music. I see a ton of DJ Mixes posted there with a lot of views and subscribers. So… last week I began uploading my DJ Mixes to my YouTube page. This will be the new home for my DJ Mixes. I will start with mixes from The Afterglow, but ultimately, I plan to have my entire body of work as a DJ on my page. Of course, many of these mixes are also available in the MUSIC section on my website (you can also download from there if you want to). Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube page and bookmark this playlist. Hopefully, as I upload my back catalog it will help me build an audience and momentum for when I start posting new mixes in the near future. And for later in the year when The Afterglow returns!
Side note: One of my publicly stated goals for 2020 was to “upload at least 6 DJ Mixes”. Uploading my back catalog doesn’t count. My goal is 6 NEW mixes.