It was a BIG surprise for me - but the numbers are telling a different story. And these are based on sales (should be pretty accurate..). Just saying, maybe you should have a trance track ready-steady, just in case you want to make some bucks..



Edit: I have different explanation (only they know though)
Armin 1999 top track "Communication" - "OUT-DATED"

Armin 2017 (currently No. 2 Beatport trance chart) - "UP-DATED"

Mind different sounds (borrowed from other genres, hybrid-fm-ish, vocals..) and this is club-mix. There is the "original" which is of course more popular.

Now, what's better - you be the judge..

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2017

Good music is timeless period! that was their nice way of telling you they thought the track sucked or they simply didn't like it. another thing to consider is they were looking for a specific sound and it wasn't yours.

 

yes that is correct, i had to do it (mix and mastering) by myself! There are no more labels in my opinion that will need trance tracks! I hope this will change one day! As i can not change my style of music! I tried but i didnt like it! ( if you dont like it you can't work on it) this is my conclusion! My last hope is Silk the only label that cares about their producers but they don't accept tracks over 130 bpm! sorry for my grammar...

 

Hi Peter! You have had the answer for a while. Since there are no more labels that will need trance tracks AND you can not change your style of music, what you need to do is to: OPEN YOUR OWN TRANCE MUSIC LABEL. You already have finished products to release but you can also release OTHER producers' trance tracks. No t only would you keep the genre alive but would be compensated while doing what you seem to enjoy the most. DO IT! Dont look back...AND a year from now thank me for this piece of advice.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2017

i can help with production Peter... if you like old trance stuff, i think i can help ...i also quit sending stuff to labels because of the same reason as you ...my last atempt was this one; /watch?v=qYXlqsLa6vw ...obviously not my best but was there, well mixed, mastered and it failed ...have lots of projects unfinished because of that but one day i dream at a label to pay its artists the way it should be ...if not ill make one; through net someone was speculating you need at least 4000£ to begin with ...

 

@ tonyg0499 Hi, in this forum there is section Collaborations i will try to find someone there..I am not making music for money, i still have a lot to learn myself! But great idea! Thank you!

 

Look, I don't want to sound rude because I wish you for you quite the opposite, so here me out: if you can't produce anything else than trance, your are not a true producer and you will not be able to produce proper trance. Trance is just a production finish layered over regular music. House is a different wardrobe, techno is another and so on... Take any theme in any genre and play it on piano and you'll see that all genres have the same structural foundation. You have to see these layers if you want to be able to develop yourself over the genre that you fell in love with 20 years ago.

Music was and always be about change (from classical to jazz to pop/electronic dance music). And if you can't feel the change and don't want to change you'll become obsolete. Of course, there are big producers that actually created genres and they stick a little longer with said genres. But the rest (even bloody Skrillex), must adjust our style year by year.

Last year on a different forum a guy posted a track for feedback, the text was something like this "hey guys, 2 years ago I started a track, I worked one year to make it, then came here and asked for feedback then used the feedback and now one year later I am back with the final feedback". Useless to say that it's impossible for that song to be ever released or used by a DJ - a song made with the sound and concepts 2 years old.

Some tracks may be timeless but it's a lottery. Better play the real lottery, most likely the chances to win are greater than to make a "timeless". Does anyone thinks that Robert Mile's Children was made with "ooo, this is gonna be a timeless" mindset? No. That guy made dozens of songs.

Bottom end: be a pro and you're ok.

I always compare cases like yours (producers hooked on a single genre) with a rally course: You can drive at low speeds and enjoy the ride, the landscape and smoothly drive over each corner. Or you can drive like a champion, without enjoying the landscape, cutting corners and living only on adrenaline. Champion gets the prize, tourist gets some experience. Which one do you want to be, as there is no middle?

PS: I remember when music started rolling genres faster after the 2000s, so many progressive producers dissapeared (King Unique, John Creamer, & Stephane K, Narcotic Thrust to name just a few) - all because they couldn't conceive that progressive will die (and get replaced in clubs by electro house, then minimal house etc etc). Then producers started to realise and changed styles when necessary. You may believe that we are sellouts. No, we just love music and we love paying the bills with what we like the most. Things never stop.

- much love & respect -

 

Hey Jay, I have to disagree with your statement that if Peter "can't produce anything else than trance, [he] is not a true producer." Many of the biggest producers in the world found a style they liked, added their own flavor to it and made millions...of course they could not or simply did not want to "readapt" to any "new genre" and start producing it. If the genre he knows and loves is trance he should stick with it.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2017

There have been albums that took more than a decade to be made and I am talking about electronic music. Others have taken 2-3 years. I am sure you know it .. you never know, there might be people out there that have something new or what they are producing now (even if it is not a new concept) can resonate with future needs. Certain genres revive every now and again...with production that fits our days of course.
Metta

 

Take any prolific producer, search for his/hers albums and see for yourself that not all tracks are the genre that made said producer famous. You will find chilled tracks, or more abstract ones - proof that these producers know how to make music in general, not a single genre.

Tiesto stopped at trance (actually I don't think he plays trance since 10 years ago) because it had success with it, not because he was so keen to play trance no matter what. And when times changed, he changed with the times. Really there's no other way to remain relevant. Think about why you loved the genre in the first place: it was new, it was something not everyone was listening to, it was special. New generations want the same feelings and new music will deliver.

Also, trance was nothing but a twist on a older electronica style. It's impossible not to evolve at some point as any genre is just a phase in music evolution.

To be honest, I have no knowledge of electronic albums that took so much to make but I can see how this can happen: an artist launches a new album 10 years after the previous one and for marketing says "it took a decade to make". Translation: 9 years I did stuff and I recorded last year.

But let's say that was common back in the days - 20-30 years ago when producers had to rent studios (and wait for the booking time - and book & wait several times a year) then it was the sampling era, when making samples was taking forever (listen thousands of vinyl, recording, testing, replacing - all this process was not a simple cut & paste in those days) - etc etc. We don't live those times anymore. Blondie recorded their latest album 4-5 years ago with band's members in separate studios around the world, Skype sessions and stems in the clouds. I only can imagine how the big guys work today.

Off-quote-topic: Given the fact that bigroom just ended it's mainstream presence (the closest relevant genre to trance) I don't think trance will come back anytime soon.

No doubt there are. Are you willing to step exclusively in those shoes? To write a new genre and not knowing it will gain popularity in one year or 5 or never? What are you doing till then? This is why a professional producer can go in parallel, making stuff that market asks for today while experimenting either for the next market iteration of a genre either to train in quickly making "that new hot sound".

I can understand that what I say is hard to swallow but as soon as you have clients asking for various kinks and observe what's happening around you, you will all agree that these exceptions you give (big artists, single genres) are exactly what not to do if one wants to actually earn a living from making music.

If someone wants to stay "true to it's cause" better stay true to making music, not a genre.

 

does this hold up?

 

i think armin made only 1 Track that meets this genre

 

i agree but
while it may be more underground today means not its small or non existent

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2017

there is something conflicting in melody, but dude thats great stuff, respect!

(edit) your link does not work, not everyone will find the vid ;)

 

For the benefit of myself and the community, could you (and/or others) give us some more examples of both? Not trying to be a smart-ass; I genuinely want to know because I'm out of touch with what's current.

 

I feel you. I had a similar experience last year. I worked on a track with the A&R of a significant label and after he said ok, this is the version, let's do it, just before signing I recieved the message "yeah, ok, so I gave it another listen, and it's too old school, we can't do it, sorry." After the fifth edit or so which he supervised from the get-go. As you can imagine, I was so incredibly mad at the motherfucker, I didn't know what to do. Especially given the fact that this was the third track he did this spiel with me.
But from a more distant perspective there were some core learnings for me:

1. He was right. There is no other way to put it, I was not there yet.
2. The reason why I sounded outdated was because I wanted to get onto certain labels, took tracks of mine that could fit the roster and emulated the label's sound. And yeah, how else should that have sounded than outdated?
3. During the time I worked with that guy I made progress I could not have done without him. That brutally honest feedback helped me a lot to both grow musically and swallow my ego.

So, what is there to learn for you, @Peter Krav?
First of all, you can be grateful that somebody listened to your demo, and even more that somebody got back to you. You cannot imagine how many demos remain unheard. I would say about 97% of them.
Of all the demos that guy recieved, he took the time to listen to yours and give you feedback. Be thankful for that. Plus, you now have somebody you can send your demos to and know they will be heard. That is worth something.
Do not try to recreate a certain sound as you will always sound like yesterday. Analyze the genres. What are elements that surmount the boundaries of the genres? That is it what you need to adopt.
2017 is about sounding big, kinda wall-of-sound like, with as few elements as possible but still have a big and dense sound. And this cannot be done in mixing and mastering, it starts with sound design. Dare the gap, both in timing and in frequency. Isolated kick drum with donk bass and nothing else in pop music? Unthinkable 10 years ago, now all over the place. And so on...


edit: ok, tbh, adventurous genres like techno kinda already moved on from that sound characteristic.

 

When a genre is born, it will last forever. Two factors make them toe-curled. 1-Bad producers, 2- Bird-brained listeners' vacuous tastes. Fuck both.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2017

Any music can be outdated as soon as someone decides it is outdated.
If we should listen to those who decide what is in and what is out, there are so many musics which should be abandonned.