I want to start on a positive note. Things I’m excited for in 2014:

New Madeon tracks.

Someone hopefully coming up with an alternative to Facebook pages for building a fanbase.

The Beatport top 10 being inhabited by non-big room house tracks (I know, I dream big).

People raising the production bar even higher! In 2013 the “standard” level for production reached an all-time high as more producers began to release really high quality tracks at levels that were previously only occupied by Noisia. For example, it used to be Noisia > All. It still is IMO, but the gap between Noisia and other top producers has definitely been closed down to become minimal now! I’m looking forward to seeing the boundaries continuing to be pushed this year!

People getting a Beatport release and not turning into obnoxious dicks. *crosses fingers*

Less Doge.

More Koven.

Hardwell banging someone’s sister.

Now time to vent a few of the things that have bothered me already this year.

It seems fitting to start on the Jacob Wolf fiasco. I think it needs to be put to bed now, but in everything that has been posted about it, no one really said what I thought needed to be said, so here are my 2 cents on the whole thing:

@Jacob. If I was a young producer/aspiring music enthusiast, I would hate you with every fibre of my being. You have single handedly wrecked the reputation of young people in the scene, meaning that a demographic who already had a negative stereotype to overcome will now struggle even more to be taken seriously.

You claim that you and Brendan were misled by an unnamed 3rd party… well if that’s true, then that is unfortunate, but at the same time, this mysterious 3rd party didn’t put a fucking gun to your head and force you to delete Brendan’s Soundcloud did they? The bit that really got to me was when I saw you try and excuse your actions by playing the ‘I’m young’ card. You’ve played that card far too many times now- please realise that the responsibility lies with you. Initially you accepted that but then backtracked and tried to pass it off as something out of your control. As you yourself said, there is no excuse for what you did. I can only hope it has taught you a valuable lesson to act a lot more professionally going forward and that I never have to mention you on here again.

Next on my shitlist so far, are people who pester big name artists with their tracks, then when the artists listens to it and gives feedback, they take that as ‘big name support’ and post ‘Support from <insert big name> ‘. Although I would not class myself as a “big name”, I’ve seen someone do this after I gave them feedback on a very lacklustre track and it was extremely awkward as I really didn’t want to be associated with their music.

Also, the ego some of these people develop as a result of talking to big names is just ridiculous! Acting like you’re a big deal won’t get you respect. If you can release decent music whilst remaining a decent person, that is how you get the serious respect. It might sound impossible but people like Rameses B, xKore, Kev Willow, Dodge & Fuski and Veela are all people who I consider to be examples of how it can be done. I swear if half the producers on my news feed gained a following with the dedication of Veela’s mini-army, they would lose their shit and try and walk on water. Bottom line is, the music should be your focus, not the fame.

Page spam. Why? Why do you do this? On the fake account I made to manage the Phantom’s Facebook page I have added ONLY “music people”. When I log in I usually have around 30 notifications, of which 29 will be page invites, some of which are from people who really don’t need to be inviting people to like their page. Word to the wise- seeing as the organic reach of your Facebook pages is getting reduced more and more, you want to make sure that the people who see your posts are genuine fans who will hopefully be interested in what you’re reaching out to them with- if you try and spam your page to people, all you’ll do is saturate your fanbase with people who don’t give a shit, meaning you won’t reach as many of your actual fans with your posts. You’re only damaging yourself by spamming invites.

Oh, and the other notification of the 30 I mentioned will be to an event that is in a different fucking continent on the off chance I’m in the area that night…

Of the hundreds of people I’ve added and that have added me, only 2 have actually then followed it up with a message. This friend-spam that the music scene is plagued with is really damaging. It means that if I needed to add a producer to actually talk to him, chances are he’d just ignore the request and assume it was another spam add. Please only add people if you have a reason to!

Oneupsmanship. This really gets to me and is very prevalent in the online community at the moment. Seeing people post about their own accomplishments on a post someone else has posted to celebrate one of their own is beyond arrogant. You may as well print out a photo of their smiling face and send them a Snapchat of you taking a shit on it. If we all support each-others’ success, the community will be a much more rewarding place to participate in.

I really don’t want this blog to consistently “hate” on the same people, because that wasn’t my aim in starting this, but Ryan Biankowski, you really don’t help me out here… One last comment on you and then I’m done, so here it is:

I’ve noticed you’ve started posting the same old generic motivational bullshit again… you’ve even begun RE-USING old posts which makes my gears grind TWICE as hard. Here’s a life tip for you: stop posting fucktard advice that sounds like something every guy who has ever smoked weed has said. Get yourself some of those “motivational” picture posters and leave it at that!

Also, PLEASE, stop using words you don’t know the meaning or spelling of. I saw you write ‘per say’ the other day in completely the wrong context (it’s “per se” btw). This might seem pedantic, in fact it probably is, but hey, google is your friend, OK? If you’re dyslexic then I of course apologise for this.

Some final musings to conclude this post:

Who the fuck is James Lippett?

Stahp with the genre arguments- no one wins.

Fuck you Mark Zuckerberg for limiting the reach of our Facebook pages.

Apparently I am Muzzy.

Plot twist: I’m actually Erin.

JK, I’m Burial.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my rants. Stay classy.

-The Phantom-

https://www.facebook.com/doesitoffendyoum8