quote:

A house hit can sell 15,000 singles. A trance hit is lucky to sell 4,000. Why? Because arguably 60-70% of those would be sales are lost to the click of a button.

It's one explanation, but I don't think it's the full story. Here's some more theories:

1) All the "rave" genres (thinking trance, dnb, hardcore, hardstyle and the like) generally make good event music precisely for the reasons why they make relatively poor club music. The rave slots get taken up by established names, and none of these genres fit warmup slots, so where do the newbie rave genre DJs play? Well, in most cases, they don't. A fledgling electro house DJ is a different matter - a club might give them a warmup slot.

2) In the early noughties a whole bunch of bedroom DJs worked out that they weren't going to get a guernsey and stopped buying vinyl. Distributors began to go bankrupt, and vinyl's future looked uncertain...but those club DJs were still buying house, so no wonder the sales figures look like they do.

3) Trance, dnb and happy hardcore are all "power" music, trying to slam a wall of harmonics at you, like classical or metal, as opposed to "groovey" music alluding to disco/funk/jazz as most club music attempts to be. All well and good. But "power" music has a lot worse consequences if stuffed up; if you don't know enough music theory and produce something cheesey (and let's face it, the vast majority of dance music producers are described by this), people will leave the dancefloor. DJs are left sorting through piles of drivel, and some of the drivel inevitably sneaks into their sets because there's so much of it. Stuff up "groovey" music like house and the worst that might happen is people get bored, and cheer at the introduction of a flipping high hat. "Groovey" stuff also has a veneer of sophistication, which enhances the credibility of the genre, and therefore it's fashionability (which affects journalism, whose opinions cascade down to promoters, DJs and punters).

Add all this together, and you can see why rave music is in the fix that it's in, even though it may be beloved by punters.

Last edited by rounser on Oct-16-2006 at 08:17

In my opinion, there are still some great trance tracks being produced. I think the A State Of Trance hit factory hasn't helped, its drowned trance with so much crap. John O'Callaghan and a few other poorly made vsti enhanced trance; kill the scene! Seems that if it is played on ASOT, it becomes automatically fashionable and people buy it no matter how rubbish it is!

I think that the current state of trance is a global phenomenon, evident in all genres of music.
I also try to see the big picture.
The whole "music industry" is going through huge changes mostly because of the advance of computer technology and internet. The big bosses are struggling to find a way to make big bucks like in the good old days.
But, those times won't come back soon. What we're seeing is an emphasis of a mix of arts produced by individual creators, bringing his/her own contributions to the media world consisting of multiple dimensions. The key is in cooperation and merging of media to create extraordinary content. Music, video, tactile technologies mixed to create unique environments.
It's hard to isolate just one aspect of art and talk about its demise. It's all connected nowadays, just like we're all connected through this forum and affect each other.
The real question is, what is it that you really want from the technology revolution that's happening right now?
I bet that most of you don't have an immediate answer.
Do you come to this forum to learn and become the next AvB just to be famous?
Is it the money that comes with the fame that is the real fuel?
Is it that you want to boost your ego and attract other people by bragging about your 'producer' status?
Is it a mix of all of these?
Or is it just a hobby that provides personal down time, satisfaction and pleasure?
Start by answering these questions honestly and then you might realize that it doesn't really matter what you create as long as you're satisfied and true to yourself in what you want to achieve...

Trance will never die. It goes and will continue to go through evolution whether we like it or not. So far the evolution has been dictated by sales and money. We can just hope that in the near future the trend will change and we will as smart individuals know how to recognize real art and separate if from trendiness and massive advertising brainwashing campaign.
Cheers

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Last edited by Effero on Oct-16-2006 at 20:02

Trance IS Dead.... I am a ZOMBIE

quote:

Originally posted by gr8ape Trance is waning GET READY FOR THE RISE OF PSY!!!!!! Making trance is relatively easy Making something new and unexpected....now that is hard

+1 psy all the way baby

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You can loose a lot of money chasing girls, but youll never loose girls chasing money

quote:

Originally posted by Lindo I <3 psytrance. IM, Skazi, and Shpongle are kings =D

uuuhhhh, IM and skazi is not psy, its shit pop music, and as for shpongle, ye there psy but more expiremental.

u want psy... check out astrix or talamasca

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You can loose a lot of money chasing girls, but youll never loose girls chasing money

fu. psy is pop music.

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https://soundcloud.com/ghostea stuff

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja fu. psy is class A music.

fixed

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Found Atlantis - Mixography [mix archive/mokumentary/my soul]?
i writed a song.

Skazi has always been pop. IM is crap now, but they used to be good (before deeply disturbed).

why does everybody act like psytrance is new? its been being created for quite a while. it was just called goa before.

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quote:

Originally posted by Idoru I'm cooler than you plus i give better head i swallow

It is easier for a man to destroy the light inside himself
than to defeat the darkness all around him
www.myspace.com/enigmaticecstasy

I've heard Astrix before, but not the other. IM's new stuff isn't as great but it seems as though all music going through a "let me make some money" phase so it'll suck.

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