Some time ago, our member toothpick, opened a post called "The Justin Biebers of EDM." I quote a paragraph he wrote of an encounter he had with them and has relation with this news:

And today, I read this:

Adventure Club Produced “#Selfie,” But Was It Ghost Producing?​

​

As if the ubiquitous song “#Selfie,” the single that skyrocketed The Chainsmokers into superstardom- including two million-dollar deals with Sony/ATV and Republic Records, as well as getting them a cringe-worthy guest appearance on American Idol- couldn’t get any more viral, lo and behold, it ups the ante.

Yesterday, Djoybeat published an interview with Adventure Club that revealed how Adventure Club were the ones who originally produced “#Selfie.” When the news broke, droves of people became excited about what, at face value, seems like an egregious exposé of ghost-producing, a dark and enthralling topic to talk about in the dance music world. But when you really look at it, how unseemly is it?

When Leighton James told Djoybeat “on the off the record” about their involvement and original conception of “#Selfie,” he mentioned how he and Christian Srigley felt the song was too cheesy for their tastes. The minute-by-minute details aren’t known, but with a feasible song being produced, The Chainsmokers, whom were friends with Adventure Club, expressed interest in the song, and instead of letting it sit in their hard drive collecting proverbial dust for eternity, Adventure Club agreed to let The Chainsmokers have it. Of course, it’s not as simple as “here, you can have this song.”

Though Adventure Club and The Chainsmokers may have been friends at the time, business is still business. Clearly, contracts were signed for usage of this song that Adventure Club had originally produced, and though we don’t know exactly how the money divvies up between The Chainsmokers, Dim Mak, and Adventure Club, James mentioned that “all of the sales and all of that actually comes into our pockets,” so in terms of the financial aspect, Adventure Club are being properly compensated; though James duly mentioned that this has created a rift of resentment between the two duos.

So we know that “#Selfie” was originally produced by Adventure Club, and we know that after deals were made, The Chainsmokers would be the ones to release it as their track, with Adventure Club receiving money from its sales. Yes, the unspun fact remains that The Chainsmokers did not originally create “#Selfie,” but is this truly a case of ghost-production caught red-handed? No.

Ghost production is where a DJ/producer (add in air-quotes at your own discretion) pays another producer to make a song for that DJ to release as his own; the ghost producer gets to take no credit for making that track under breach of contract. For popular DJs that spend the majority of their time jet-setting around to play shows, ghost production ends up being a convenient way to keep releasing music while still focusing their time on touring, which is more fiscally rewarding than making and selling music today. In the past couple of years, there has been a fascination with ghost producing, both with who does it/has done it (like Hardwell, Martin Garrix and Gareth Emery) and who uses it (like the fingers that point at David Guetta, who allegedly uses Joachim Garraud as a ghost producer, and DVBBS, who allegedly use Maarten Vorwerk as a ghost producer). Whether reading true facts or outlandish myths, it’s still extremely interesting to hear about and hypothesize who may be a fake producer and who may be the real deal.

But with the case of “#Selfie,” one thing is certain: The Chainsmokers did not pay Adventure Club to make a song for them. Yes, “#Selfie” was originally created by Adventure Club, and yes, this information was kept in the dark, because it would be strange to see on Beatport, “#Selfie, by Adventure Club, presented by The Chainsmokers” (and also a mouthful to say), but Adventure Club showed no interest in pulling the trigger on releasing it themselves. Hyperbolic assumptions may lead one to believe that The Chainsmokers were the ones that begged to have the track for their use, but Adventure Club could have been the ones to solicit The Chainsmokers to use it for the right price. Hell, it’s more likely that Adventure Club’s management reached out to Dim Mak with this track that Adventure Club didn’t want to release but still wanted to make some money with in the interest of not letting a song go to waste. Also, we don’t know if The Chainsmokers and Dim Mak released “#Selfie” exactly how Adventure Club produced it, or if they re-tooled it and made adjustments that better fit their preferences before releasing it; which would be better than if The Chainsmokers had absolutely no part in the production of the song.

Much to the disappointment of controversial news junkies, this isn’t an example of ghost production that one can point to and say how this is ruining the dance music scene. This ordeal seems pretty amicable: Adventure Club weren’t being used as production slaves for The Chainsmokers’ benefit or anything like that. However, anyone that wants to berate The Chainsmokers for getting famous with a song they did not originally produce has every right to – but then again, was “#Selfie” ever a song that deserved utmost respect for its compositional integrity?

--

Add: This was published in www.edmsauce.com but has already been deleted. I do not know the motive, the last thing that I have read was Drew's comment in which he wrote: "are you serious.." A little time after this comment, this has been eliminated.


What is your opinion about this? Personally, I do not know if it is true or false, but my mind says this is real and I'm not surprised..Unfortunately, the EDM is full of ghost-producers..Now, it seems that the most important not is your talent, now the most important is your money.

If you want to appear on the Beatport number 1, only have to do 3 steps:

1- Call Maarten Vorwerk. (Ghost producer of: Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike, Danny Avila, Jacob Van Hage, Yves V, Sandro Silva, Quintino..)
2- Pay your money.
3- Get it published your track on Spinnin Records.

Fuck yeah! Now you are a DJ superstar! You're play this year on Ultra mainstage!


And finally, I leave you with the 2 best DJ's of the world in the same image:



PD. Sorry, but I'm not sure if this image should go in the humor section..

 

I heard that also Spinnin Records asks for ghost production as a contract condition, so if you wanna sign with them and you're a good producer, you're bound to be available for any ghost production tasks.

 

VSAN!!! How are you?

 

Damn...

 

I think it is becoming more and more apparent that just like a lot of other pop artists, DJs and DJ duos are not always writing and producing their own music. There's big money in EDM. People are trying to capitalize on the latest pop music trend. People's integrity seems to decrease exponentially in relation to the amount of money there is to be made. And soooo, you have songs like #SELFIE....

Anyways, I heard the track for Selfie months before they released it with the infamous vocals. Drew was a big TJR fan and was trying to do something like Ode To Oi, with that same Melbourne Bounce type of sound. The vocals for Selfie were done by one of Alex's friends. As far as someone else ghost producing the record, I think what's more likely, is that they bought or were given the concept for Selfie by this other production group. Maybe they already had reference vocals recorded? Who knows, maybe the record I heard Drew play was a track that someone else made. I kind of doubt it. He's a pretty talented producer. He's not pushing the envelope by any means but he can put together solid records fast. They're both bright, ambitious, smart kids as well. They're not going anywhere. Get used to more pop EDM from those two.

Their next single is called Kanye.... Kanye is the 10th most searched word on google. So when people search Kanye, their record will pop up. Same viral strategy as Selfie. Plus the have Sony backing them now. They're gonna be here for a while folks, pissing people off and making lots of money in the process.

 

You're giving this guys way too much importance.
Who care what's goin' on in EDM hype ?
Don't you think the overhyped / overrated thing affect all music style ?
Youtube, twitter and such just make it a bit more obvious, as the "aim market" is mostly active on such social circle and networks.

Just live and let die. They don't need you, you don't need them.

 

Taste in music is subjective, remember that.

And also, the today EDM it was once a way more emotional genre, around 10 years ago... Now is all about "Bangers"... but i can't say that i like it nor i dislike it. It's not my job to dislike others's taste in music. Some people (tens of millions around the globe) are going crazy after EDM, if you look at the most biggest festivals in the world and also on the fans number of the actual artists. We can't call tens of millions of people "stupid and crazy" just because they love a certain musical genre which we don't agree with. And about those DJs, they seem to be the new "rockstars" of today... and i say that because they also sell their records well, something which must people would say "wait, what??? Today music is not selling anymore because of the internet!" oh... but wait, those "DJs" do really defy the actual "internet" reality through a virtual platform called Beatport.

Once upon a time, there was no rock, there was no Pop and there was no R&B, not even the "retro" ones... It was only classical or folk music. What happened when the newer genres started to appear a few decades ago? Does the classical guys started to bash the new genres the way you do with the "EDM" right now? I don't think so... or at least... maybe they didn't had internet to express their distaste.

Really now... Music is changing over time... Rather you adapt to it or rather you are left behind and you start listening only on the genres you loved the most, hating absolutely every other "brand new" genre which sounds unfamiliar to you. When it happens for you to be a famous artist, if you don't adapt to music's changes... then it's bad. Not extremely bad, but you would decrease your actual success rather than taking it higher than before.