2024: It's A Wrap 🎉

Check out our end of year podcast reviewing the artists, songs and albums that had the biggest impact on us and the DJ world. Cream & Gary discuss their years and what to look for in 2025. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back and New Year Reflections
• 3:12 Highlights and Takeaways from 2024
• 6:19 Song of the Year Discussion
• 11:17 DJ Producer of the Year
• 13:38 Breakout Artists of 2024
• 16:14 New Artists to Watch
• 19:09 Favorite DJ Sets of the Year
• 23:55 Most Played Records of 2024
• 26:18 Editors and Remixers of the Year
• 31:23 Favorite Record Pools
• 32:23 Celebrating Influential Artists
• 33:48 Album of the Year Discussion
• 36:17 Major Music Trends of the Year
• 41:53 Emerging Trends in Nightlife
• 52:51 Spotlight on Rising DJs
• 58:17 Advice for DJs Heading into 2025

Transcript

0:42

All right, what's up guys? Welcome to the 171st episode of the Grow My DJ Business podcast brought to you by Grow My DJ Business, Discord, Parari Production Academy, and Digital Music Pool. My name's Kareem. The IW here. Dude, took me a second on an intro. It's been like three or four weeks since we recorded. I'm rusty. kind of wondering if you're going to pull that one off. I'm impressed. man. So Gary and I, you know, this is the first week of January here. Gary and I took a nice little break from not only the podcast, but a number of things we do, including DJing and some other stuff. And it was good to just sort of get a little refresh. Yeah, taking the last week or so off, but then I traveled the day after Christmas to go up there to work. off. Like, it's never truly off. Yeah, and then worked a bunch of gigs. Actually, probably the most I've done in a long time up there. did like nine and seven, something like that. Nine gigs in seven days. Yeah, came back, put my headphones on here and just realized that my one headphone's out. Got to love when that happens in the middle of a DJ set. That happened on New Year's Eve. I set up two monitors in our DJ booth and the one damn monitor went out. Simultaneously, my Headphone went out too. And I was like, this is going to set up for a real fantastic New Year's Eve, isn't it? it was 10 PM and all of this stuff happened. So I was like, you got to be kidding. adjusted. Welcome to the New Year's right. But yeah, I'm just happy to sit down and do this. our, yeah, we're gonna treat this as our rap podcast, 2024 rap podcast. I think last year, Gary and I sort of looked back and we kind of created a bunch of topics or categories, so to speak, and we just talked about, know, some people had really good years. We kind of reviewed our 2024 a little bit in the previous podcast before we finished, right? Yeah, we did. I think we'll touch on a couple, maybe highlights and things that we did well or things that maybe. let's start there. So let's just do a quick 2024 Gary W. rap and, you know, give us a couple of highlights and things you took away from the year. A lot of the stuff that I took away from the years probably we're going to touch upon in music for sure in the next 45 minutes to an hour here. But I really enjoyed my rooftop parties this year. I thought those were fantastic. I didn't DJ as much as I normally would have throughout the year, I think. like we said in the last episode, finding the places that I really loved to play and the sets that I really loved to play, even though maybe they weren't the greatest in crowd size or energy, but like I found a couple sets that I really enjoyed playing and found genres that I hadn't thought about in a very, very long time. So those are my highlights was rediscovering house music that I love that might not be quote unquote commercial, but something that I I had loved when I was a much younger DJ. So I think that was my big takeaway from the year, is just loving house music again. Nice. My takeaway, I would say would just be kind of sort of a continuation of just really what I've been trying to do over the last few years since COVID ended. And that's really just travel more, book more out of state shows, and really only book the stuff that really makes sense for me at home. And I'm just really trying to continue that and, you know, pull back even a little bit more and open up some more time for some things like networking and music production and the things that are super important to me that maybe I feel like I didn't necessarily do as much as I would have wanted in 2024. But yeah, I mean, I think Get Down grew as a business and I think, you know, sort of just becoming a better business owner is always something that I look back on and sort of realize and, you know, something you and I have talked about a lot lately is just What can we remove from our plates? What doesn't necessarily make the most sense for our goals and what we're trying to accomplish? And I think, you know, more of what's important, more of what gets me to my goals is really what I'm focused on right now. Yeah, I think the motto for me at least is just get back to basics for 2025. And I think whenever you get back to basics and get back to like, to use kind of a sports analogy, but to get back to fundamentals, sometimes it to what you're good at and what got you into this world in the first place, you know? Yeah, it's really a great way to grow pretty quickly. know, redefining, you know, just those basic things that made you good at what you do, you know. Yeah, love that. All right, let's get into these lists here. And, you know, we're not gonna give like awards for best of. Gary and I are just gonna throw out a category and we're gonna talk about the person or song or whatever that sort of moved us or strikes struck something with us. That's sort of how we're gonna do this. Yeah, I think it's good to give like our perspective on like, because you're, you know, what you were into is a lot different than what I was into, which is a lot different than what the overall overall general public would want to. So we could kind of we could kind of touch on a little bit of that stuff, because like, it's just going to vary for no matter who you talk to. And you could talk to me today and you could talk to me next week. And it probably change a little bit. But But no matter who you talk to, somebody's always gonna have an argument for these lists constantly. I was looking at a couple, just real quick, side note, I was looking at a couple albums of the year from Relics and then albums of the year from Rolling Stone and then another list as well. And they couldn't be more different. The number one on the one was number 20 on the other one and was number 25 on the other one. So like. at some of those lists and didn't even know the majority of the artists or albums. So I just stopped looking at the lists and I just went off of my own my own thought process. I think us as DJs, it varies for everybody. And it depends on your style and what you've been paying attention to. And your algorithm's different than my algorithm. And it's all going to be different, right? get into it. First category, Song of the Year. Song of the year. You want to kick us off with song of the year? Because I mean, mine's going to be so unpopular. I will give you, I'll give you a few. I did this last year, I'm gonna do the same thing. So, my songs of the year, I will say John Summett's Shiver, probably my number one. And it just worked in all my sets, it was popular, you know, people, the non-club goer would listen to that song and still enjoy it. So I think that was one. I'd say Adam Portmove is up there. Yeah, that was going to be one of mine. And then my third one will be Disclosure, She's Gone, Dance On. And I say that because I use that song in every set. And I love to use that song because it gave me a glimpse of will my audience go down this path with me? And most of the time they would. I played that song every set and have since it came out. I I love disclosure just as artists, like not even from a DJ standpoint. know, move, I didn't get into move until later on, until it became commercial, quote unquote. Which is weird because I mess with them a lot. Like, and I always have for a while, like all of those guys from Kind Music. So I was kind of. surprise that that that didn't make its way into my sets, but I think it had something to do with, you know, just the the energy of it, like, you know, good, good for an opener, but like not something that's going to like get me going. think with that one, I had a remix for every situation. You know, I have the Electro remix, I have the big Progressive remix, I have the original, I have the Tech House version. So I sort of collected a handful of versions that just worked in my different sets. And because I had those different versions, I rarely ever played the original. I always played a different version that just fit with where I was or what I was doing. Do you feel like when a song gets that big, is it important to play the original a couple times or are you always leaning into a remix? No, I think that original in the certain setting and environment, you had to play the original. If you're playing outside in the summer or on the beach or on a roof, like you're playing the original, because that's just what the vibe was. But in a dark nightclub where Kareem is playing my style of music, like that doesn't fit into my set. But I still want to use that vocal because it's a weapon, you know? The crowd knows it, can sing it and likes it. And if I could find a way to work it into my sets, I will. You know, one more, just one more to kind of cap this off. And this is a song from a couple years ago that just really worked and really got rooms going for me all the time is Brighter Days. The Mark Elis remix. What's that? Yeah. Yep. I mean, even though that was from like, I was from like 22, but like that, that remix is from 22, but like it still was extremely effective in many, many rooms, no matter. age group, matter like ethnicity or race or whatever it might be, it was just a banger in a lot of my sets. So. I'll throw a couple other ones out there, like hip hop for open format. think Sexy Red, Get It Sexy, and Kendrick, Not Like Us, even though I hate that song and I try not to play it, it was a huge one. Yeah, yeah, that was huge. That goes without saying. But, okay. You good? You've said your piece, we can go to the next? Alright, You know, DJ Producer of the Year, or DJ who made the biggest impact, or the best year, or however you want to categorize this. I think Kind Music had an incredible year. They had so much publicity across the board, whether that be good or bad, and we all know that that bad publicity will only make you more popular, and all that hate and everything. I think they just had a monster, monster year, and they did a great job just kind of capitalizing on the popularity, or the not- so popularity of it, however you want to say it. And I just think they had just a really huge year. can't really think of anybody else that stands out like that, that we're like polarizing. Yeah, I think that's a good one. I have two. I'm going to say Clooney and I'm going to say Knock2 slash Isonock. think they made a huge, both made a huge impact this year. think Knock2 and Isonock just with their very specific sound, their incredible like stage setup that they had. They were sort of owning a lot of this year and sort of exploded on the scene. Knock2 for me is a huge one. And then Clooney like Even more recently, he's got the Stephanie remix that's going pretty big, but I just feel like there was just constantly Clooney, Clooney, Clooney on all my socials and new music. that minimal tech sound isn't necessarily a sound that I can play in my sets or like that much, but I just feel like he made a big impact this year and I just saw him everywhere. I think 2025, he might be the, the, the guy. like he was also on my list of breakout artists. It kinda can go either way, but maybe recency biased, he's sort of taken the crown for me. Yeah, I think so as well because that Stephanie record's huge, but then led me down just a rabbit hole of just download everything Clooney, which is great, which obviously has been in the rotation now for a little bit, but I think he's gonna be humongous 2025, just catapulting off of that record alone. Let's go into breakout artists. Like who do you think? You just said yours. Do you think Clooney is going to be like the big breakout 2025? I think, well, do we want to maybe talk about who was kind of who surprised you a little bit in twenty twenty four. who do you think made a big jump? I think Dom Dalla had a huge year. think that you and I specifically have been big Dom Dalla guys, think for a while or were at least at one point. And it was nice to kind of see him finally break into like and play MSG. And I think that was really the turning point for me where it's like that made me notice that like I just kept hearing Dom Dalla, Dom Dalla, who do you listen to Dom Dalla everywhere? And I'm like, OK, you know, shit, he's great. But then when the MSG booking came around, I'm like, okay, there's a little bit of a like, there's a crossover into like way more popular. Yeah, I mean, he had Nelly Furtado come out and had the track together and they did a bunch of shows. He had a big, he had a lot of moments for sure. So he probably could also be in that, you know, best artist of the year convo. I guess it's sort of like a crossover. They both work with each other, but I love Dom. I love that answer. I'm going to go with Max Styler. And the reason why I say Max is because he was really a behind the scenes guy mostly where he was producing a lot of records for other people and helping other people on their projects. And I think in 2024, he focused on his own name and brand and putting out a ton of music. And I think he's on the rocket ship to like major stardom level here coming soon. Yeah, okay. His music is really good, man. It's just produced really well and it's just good. mean, you can't beat like really nice, tight, really good production. I mean, we see a lot of really great producers come out, right? But when you have some standouts, it's almost refreshing. Alright, how about like new artist or an artist to watch? I thought, like new artist, went kind of, I went into the pop world for this and I thought that, my gosh, I just blanked, because I'm just thinking about Charli XCX. Why am I blanking on her name? Chaperone, thank you, jeez, I just completely blanked on her name. Chaperone, obviously, like just biggest kind of surprise, huge. huge, huge, artists had really amazing festival circuit season and broke records for attendance in certain festivals and cities and just incredible. So much so that she had to put the brakes on a little bit. So just huge breakout artists. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great answer. I feel like we'll get into sort of some of the trends and talk about the girls and some of the pop records and artists. But, you know, I'm going to take this accremer out, as I always will. And I'm going to focus on some like lesser known artists, I guess. I think Leighton Jordani, who just played some big shows in New York City, and he's got some he put out some big records this year. And he's been around for a little bit, but I I think he's another one that can really explode here in 2025. And I like his music. He's a New York guy and I'm excited to see where he can sort of take it. But beyond that, just some smaller artists that I was really into and just played a ton of music this year. Prapa, I don't know if you're familiar with him, but he's got, he's been just remixing really good songs. Like. song selection on what he's been remixes has been so good. His work remix, the ASAP Ferg is kind of going viral right now. And he has a number number of records that are just very playable. So he's won SideQuest. If you're not familiar, go check those guys out. They just put out eight tracks in eight days for Christmas. They are kind of base house kind of moving into like the speeds techno. hard dance stuff, but again, great song selection, great remixes, very club playable. And then the last one is just Cashew, my guy from Croatia, he makes Bass House. I think he's starting to bubble a little bit, and you're gonna start seeing some of his records make it over into hopefully mainstream and just some bigger artists for sure playing his stuff. Love how these conversations really highlight the way we DJ, the way we go about our sets. Yeah, we take it. We had to take it, make it our own here, right? Right, exactly. Alright, let's see what else is next. What was your personal favorite DJ set of the year or DJ sets? Personal favorite, you know what? Are we gonna do party again? Are we gonna do like favorite party? Like traveling party maybe? Or we're not gonna get into that. Well, because it's gonna affect my answer here a little bit. I think personal DJ sets, I just loved the entire Glitterbox party and the energy that that brought to Ibiza and the different DJs that they were using. I kind of like that that traveled a lot and it traveled well. But I think favorite DJ, I think most impressive DJ set of the year was just the Sphere shows for New Year's Eve. I was sort leaning more towards like your Gary W stuff, but yeah. But yes, we can do that one first. Sphere, a thousand percent. We haven't really gotten a chance to talk about Anima at the Sphere yet, and like, I'm itching to talk about it. We'll save it for the next time we record, but. we will, but really quick, that was like my most anticipated once they announced that. And I was just so excited to see what it was going to look like. It seemed like it lived up to the hype. And I can't see why it wouldn't. You and I knew it was gonna be incredible. It looked fucking sick. It looked ridiculous. then ironically, the day before that they played their first show there, I got my tickets for opening night, dead in company at the sphere for in March. So I'm excited about that. Yeah. So, but yeah, but I, but I thought and we'll go into this, but I think that the what was done for, for the. For the DJ set in there, I think that that's what the spheres really made for, but we'll go, like we said, we'll go into that a different episode. As we were doing this, I'm like, man, I really didn't consume a ton of DJ sets. I didn't go seek out some of the big EDC sets or just like, you know, there are certain sets you hear about that were supposed to sound, were incredible or got great feedback and usually I go seek those out and I just didn't this year and I'm kind of upset about that. But I'm gonna say the Azure party that Luke Alexander and his team put together in Brooklyn, it was. It works because this was also on my list of my personal sets that I played this year that were my favorite. I just think what he was able to create out there and the experience and the vibe and the music and the DJs that he put on throughout the whole summer was really dope and Luke's killing it. And we're gonna have Luke on in one of these next couple podcasts that's locked in. So look forward to a little Luke Alexander podcast coming in the next few weeks. Amazing party amazing vibe. I said it when I did it, but I truly think that that's the best party in New York City and Yeah, I mean I'll say that and then a couple others my when I played trio the last few months trio Charlotte was an amazing Experience and then Darryl Valley and I did a boiler room 360 style set in November at Birch and Hoboken and it was just amazing like great time Yeah, that looked amazing. Personal DJ set, personal favorite DJ set. I know, I played a lot of like the same venues, so it's always tougher. One of those to be super standout, but I think that my 626 Pride set rooftop during Jersey City Pride, which was in August, I think that might be my number one top standout. It was incredible. Great energy, really, really packed. We had a great dancer that we worked with. Got to play a lot of the stuff that I really wanted to play. didn't lean super commercial that day, and I think that's what made it a lot of fun being outside under the sun and being able to play some real house music was great. Favorite sets are always the sets where you get to play what you really want to play, you know? When you really dig into the stuff that you're into and people re-a- respond and react to it. Like, that's always, to me, the best sets. Yeah, and that actually had set me off in, obviously I'm a resident there, so it has set me down this path of being able to play a lot of that style now to start my night off. And I can get away, I keep getting away with it a little more and a little more. Maybe it's an hour and then it's an hour and a half. Now it's two hours. And like the staff and everybody like, can you just keep playing this? Because it's different. It's different than what the next guy's gonna play. So. Alright, let's see where we want to go here. Do you want to go into some editors, remixes, record pool stuff? Or... Let's do that. Do you have a most played record from the year? from the year I didn't even really look. can look really quick, because I always stay pretty new as far as what my most played's gonna be. But do know yours offhand? I'm checking mine right now. Okay. shamelessly promote one of my own edits, but I did play it. It was my intro for many of my sets, and then I have like three different versions. It just always finds a way into my set, and it is an Empire State of Mind edit, the cream rattle edit. So I have a couple different versions. I also have an intro version, and it just always got played. So that's one. And then the second one was On My Mind, the Side Piece remix. It's like a tech house track that goes prior to the drop, there's like a four bar half beat or half measure like trap thing. And then it goes into the actual drop and it just always works. It always gets like a like every time. And it's just in all my sets. I, it looks like, I'm looking at like my peak and the Mr. Belt and Weasel, it's not right but it's okay. I played a ton, 46 times apparently. And if I only DJ'd 60 times and that came out in, I downloaded it in May, that's a lot. Yeah, I was playing that a lot. The Disclosure, she's gonna dance on, we just played a ton, played that 40 times. Gosh, Jake Terry and Will.i.am, Justin Bieber, That Power, Zach J., the music mashup, played that a lot. The Espresso Marquis edit, played that a bunch. Just to kind of round out a top five here, it'd be like Million Dollar Baby, Dudes, Twins remix, played that a ton as well. So like just poppy, just very poppy, that's exactly... You know, that's my peak hour. That's my pop peak hour. That's what I'm going. That's going to be my go to every time on a Friday night, Saturday. trying to look at my other stuff. let's do Editor of the Year. Oof. I have a number, I mean we don't have to pick one, we can pick a handful here, but I have a bunch. Okay. You want me to go first or you want to go? All right, mean, DeVille will be on my list for life pretty much. And I'm like, maybe I shouldn't pick DeVille again this year. But then I went into my music downloaded in 2024 and like he is by far the most downloaded editor of anybody, like not close. And DeVille creates weapons not just for like EDM, but also for hip hop. And I think that's kind of why Whenever I need something in that world, it's like DeVille is one of my go-tos also. So he kind of plays on the cream, house music side, and then also when I do play open format. So DeVille, Rick Wonder had an incredible year, super consistent, really high quality edits. You know what you're getting when you go see on Headliner that he posted two more and you just know what they're going to sound like. And many times they made it to my Serato. So. Rick Wonder, JD Live, another one. He was just on a Kareem and Friends pack. He had like 70 tracks make Serato this year. Like a ridiculous amount. Cheers. And then I'll just throw some other guys, all the band camp and Patreon guys that I subscribe to. So, Eccentric, Wookie, Burnout, like tons and tons of music from those guys that I played a lot, like a ton. So, shout to all those guys. kind of funny, like I don't play a ton of edits, like I'll play a lot of remixes, but like my edit, I've slowed down with my edit. I think there's just like a disheartening nature that I have for this past year with with edits. Maybe I'll get back into it in 2025. Well, could be a remixer, editor or remix. Like, Burnout and Wookiee make remixes, pretty much. mean, the Wookiee stuff's great. I liked Rick's stuff. I liked all of Rick's stuff. I'm gonna be very, very honest about this, but I didn't really play any of it because it was too big for places that I play. But if I was headlining shows like you were, he would be more of a go-to editor for me. I played a ton of Bonton this year. just like this dark dirty kind of, you know, a lot. I played, it was an OG, but put out a few remixes this year that I was just like going heavy with. I'm gonna be really boring here. I liked all, I liked and played a bunch of the James Hype edits and remixes, like anything that he touches. It just works because it works with, you know, he throws up. something familiar in there for people to know. it's never too much for the shows that I play. I know that's like the super boring, safe answer, but I've been so like on James Hype all year because of like the kind of the teaching content that he's been putting out online and like showing how he's certain edits and making edits on the plane to a show, you know, and doing things like that and like. Just being really interesting in what content he's putting out kind of made me more of a fan than I already was. Yeah, I love all his coaching, teaching videos. They're awesome. He does a great job with that. He's just great. He's just great. He's incredibly talented. Like he comes from open format background. He's paid his dues like he's just he's just a poster child of sort of the artist's journey and success story, you know. Yeah, yep, 100%. So big fan. I also want to shout out Armand Averu. He's just been another one so consistent on Digital Music Pool. So many edits, so many good edits, just very playable. not only that, was on DMP downloading before New Year's Eve and like he went in and did New Year's Eve edits of like 10 or 15 of his best edits of the year, which I thought was a really good idea and really awesome. So shout out to Armand Averu. And then just on a side note and a personal note, You know, I put out a bunch of Korean Friends edit packs this year and they were really successful and I got to showcase a ton of really, really, really talented producers and people that I look up to whose music I play all the time. So I just want to a huge shout out to all the artists that were a part of Korean Friends. You guys are the shit and I play all your music and I look up to you. So thank you. keep it going here in 2025. Because he did have some really good, good stuff there. record pool, not digital music pool. I always have to preface that. Favorite record pool Nazi MP. I like HMC. HMC, I use a good amount. I think they're probably my most, that's like my go-to. I really love Headliner. Just, there's great variety over there, honestly. And I feel like you kind of an idea of kind of what the West Coast sound is. from them as well, but then they've really grown into doing the EDM and house music edits and whatnot. There's just really good variety. You can get some Latin stuff there, you can get some pop stuff there, hip-hop's obviously prevalent there. And then I think the, I don't know if Rick got on there this year, was that this year or last year? of this year. Rick and cases. Kays is, I forgot to mention Kays is, that was horrible, because I think Kays is was probably the number one guy that I downloaded the most. Kays is put something out and I downloaded it. So I can't believe I didn't shout out Kays is on that one. But yeah, I think HMC. I'd agree. I sort of dabbled in a lot of record pools this year. I really wanted to kind of see what was going on. I think this hint hint might be another topic that we're going to talk about at length here in one of the next couple episodes. So we'll dive deeper for sure, but. a sleeper pool, I had a sleeper pool that I used a lot that I discovered this year, Track Source, which I know is like an old pool, but I rediscovered Track Source and a ton of music for what I like. So like real house music, soul house, things like that. That's all that's on there. like a beat port? Track source. Or is it more like a record pool where people are subscribing for monthly? Okay, cool. I don't think I've ever been on there. Weird. You have like, you know who I the guys that I like, so like Danny Krivett and like guys in that world and that like soul house world. But yeah. Alright, now we'll start getting into like the conversation pieces here, I think. Album of the year, you and I sort of prefaced this at the beginning. Go ahead, what was your album of the year? I mean, think for me, for me, it was brat. was just brat hat. There was brat parties. There was, you know, brat summer, all this stuff. Just like there was just so much music, so much great music, danceable music, playable music that came off of that album. And it was just the must play of the summer for sure. were that neon green color and how many brat parties were there? The album, you know, not only had music that was very playable in the club, like created this entire movement for the summer. Like brat summer was the theme of the entire summer, literally and beyond. was. It really was. I don't even think it was close. I mean, listen, some people might argue that the Beyonce Country album was big, but like, I don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, so, I mean, I had a couple, I had like a... I always have some weird ones though, like What's His Name had a really great album this year, country album. Luke Bryan, he had a huge, he had a big, big year, but like, it's not something you're gonna play out. anymore. And the reason why Brat to me is so far and beyond number one, it's because like it's the only one that I really think of as an album or like I had to have the whole thing because I knew it was gonna get requested all day. Right. Like the Kendrick album, you don't want to get me started there either. Tone set is gonna fight me when I say that. I haven't even, I I listened to it, it was good. you gotta think more about listening, right? It's not necessarily album for the club, I guess. I don't know, it's hard. It's tough. I'm sorry, I Luke Bryan, I Zach Bryan. like, as I listen to, like that's, I listen to that a ton, but like that's not what is gonna be my pick. Like obviously for all intents and purposes of what we do, like it's gonna, it's obviously gonna be Brad, right? So, let's put a bow on. from there into the biggest story in music because that definitely plays a role in the biggest story, right? What are some of the biggest stories this year? I know this is kind of umbrella and a little broad, but I think just girl pop being back and being so big, I think that was a huge story. I mean, we can talk about kind of music and Afro house being at the forefront of house music culture, you know, and that was a big story kind of wouldn't have predicted that. I don't think at the beginning of the year. huge, huge movement this year. huge yeah so they were huge movement but the I think that the girl pop movement was just because it was like Sabrina and and Charlie X and obviously Taylor Swift going on the second year of the air store and that just being a multi-billion dollar thing had her tour. Didn't she this year too? Or was that last year? They all have wrapped her tour this year. Those tours just go forever. Yeah. You know, so there were a lot of big stories, but I don't think nothing bigger than the the girl pop movement, in my opinion. I would agree with you there, Sabrina, Charli XCX, Chappell Rhone, like, biggest must play, gotta have the music, like, know, everyone, not just girls, people requesting those songs, and they made a lot of hits, man, like, you gotta give them credit, they gotta give them the credit. They were the pulse of much of this year. So, agree with you there. I think the Afro House movement is something that... was huge, was sort of started last year, I'd say, and carried over into this year, and you really saw it everywhere. And the people that were saying, I want Tulum vibes for my venue, were now saying, we want Afro House for our venue. Like, that was the thing that all the owners were asking for, for their playlists and stuff. Or for their like, we want like that good vibes. Like, it wasn't Tulum vibes, it was Afro House vibes now. Kind music vibes. yeah, it brought it to the forefront a little bit more. It's a kind of, you know, everyday life, so. And then the third one for me was Drake versus Kendrick. I just think we haven't had something like that in hip hop that got me excited as much as that did in a long time. When we first talked about this, I think we were sorta like, yeah, we think Kendrick's got it, and Kendrick clearly won that one, I'd say. But yeah, I think that was something exciting for hip hop that we haven't had too much of in the recent. years or recent times. So that was a big one too. Definitely, definitely. know we kind of start, you start to lose track, because that was back in March. And sometimes these types of review shows can get really recency biased, because it's hard to remember that, know, March was a long time ago at this point, feels, especially the way we consume information and the way music comes out so rapidly. It's... of the girls, like the pop girls, what song do you think was the biggest? I had a favorite. I liked the Charlie 365 track, and I know that might not have been the most popular, but I really leaned into it because I really liked the production of it. I just liked the song for DJ sets, especially kind of the places that I play. But I really did notice, even during the summer while I played them, it didn't go off like... You know, it definitely wasn't the biggest record to play. So. Yeah, I thought that I thought that was my that was my personal favorite. I'm gonna have to go with Sabrina Espresso. I just found myself playing that so much and I just liked it. I think that was my biggest one. But it's changed sort of with what people were excited about too, you know? Like I think you could argue that Hot to Go might have been the biggest one of all of them. And I hate that song. I would argue that that's the biggest one. People get real excited about it. It's got good energy. Yeah. Ugh, I just hate that song, man. And like, certain times I'll force myself to play it. It does allow you to kind of get to some different genres and some different stuff at that BPM and that style of track, but that one's just not necessarily for me. That's how I've been using it as more of a transition track. Pink Pony Club. I don't know. I think that's a good one too. But that's just like a personal. I feel like Pink Pony Club's kind of had a little like, not a resurgence, but I feel like it's kind of, not a. next single that got popular that's sort of most popular still of all that group. I don't know. right, right, right, right. But I thought genius, genius placement of when all those albums dropped over the summer, right in time for, you know, Pride in June and then festival season. And, you know, we talked about it on a podcast, but like, it was just like really well done across the board by the record labels and just how that was rolled out to the public was perfect. Alright, let's go to sort of what trended this year and what will trend, what kind of happened with the music, what happened in nightlife with the parties. Let's talk about some of that stuff. I think, I don't know, where do you want to start? Because there's multiple things we can talk about here. What trended? I I think we talked about what trended pretty extensively, right? Like, yeah, Afro House trended and Girl Pop trended. But within like DJ culture and nightlife, know, small pop-up events really trended big, right? These little coffee shops. things, these little like, let's have a party in a weird spot. You know, I know that R &B and ribs has been going on for a long time, but really, you know, I feel like shines this year. And I don't know if it's maybe that particular party that has spawned this movement, but I like, I would point to it as being, you know, one of the main parties that really, really took off. And it was a very local party that had now they're bringing in obviously DJs and artists from all over the place. you know, we saw Marty Rock, one of our guys here locally go out and play that event. And then that event came over to New York, you know, in the fall. like. I think those pop up events, that's kind of the trend in nightlife right now, and I'd like to see it continue just more concentrated as to what like the theming is or the the music style is. And I think it really affords the the consumer to really get a high quality version of a good party. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack with this, I think. It was a huge thing this year, not just the R &B and R.I.B. style parties where DJs were throwing parties, but that's definitely grown and that's what's successful right now. If you look around your market, I'm sure there's at least one of those parties that's been really, really popular and sells out every time that they do it. Like I mentioned the Azur party that was won by us this summer. Everyday people in New York is a huge one and has been a huge one, Shout to MoMA. And there's a lot more, there's a ton more. So not only those parties which are DJ, local DJ driven, but all the big artists, really, especially in EDM this year, like they'd have their MSG show and would do a little pop-up show in the bagel shop or the pizza store or on the street in New York or, you know, under the K bridge, which then turned into a venue. because of how amazing that one party was. it's just sort of become the norm now for the big artists too, because they get content, they can give back to their fans and do a free show. It's something that gets them possibly trending on socials. like, it's just sort of where our industry is now going. And with all these individual parties and specific parties, like the normal nightlife scene has not been as successful. The open the doors and get some promoters and get people in the door, like that doesn't really work. The bottle service where you're have the bunch of big spenders that make your money for the night, like that doesn't, isn't necessarily happening like it once was. The formula has been changing, but I think in 2024, like the door has been closed on that old formula. Creating experience, right? Everybody wants an experience. want something that they could post on socials. They want to be seen at these experiences. that's why that's such a, that's what's driving all of this, right? And then you can have that experience. And also it doesn't always need to involve alcohol, which 18 to 25 right now, there's a 26% dip in alcohol consumption. Then where we were 20, 10 years ago. That's a huge number in just over 10 years. So, obviously, trying to have these experiences without booze is a huge portion of it. What's driving, what's paying the rent at these big nightclubs is the alcohol sales. And when you take that away, these places have to figure out different ways to make an experience. I think that's a trend too, right? Less people drinking, less people going out to nightlife. It's just a trend that's sort of continued here in 2024. I say this to everybody. Anytime I get a chance to say it, how many venues across the country are in the green year over year? I'd say a very, very, very small percentage. 5%, 1%. I don't know what the number is, but very, in our market, 1. If it's not the new hotspot, right? If it's not the new hotspot and everybody needs to go there, then you're struggling because there needs to be a constant reinvention of yourself right now because it's just things are stale and nobody's going out to do those stale things. Customers want to know what they're getting into. So you have a million options. They want to spend their money at a place where they know what they're going to get. They want to go see Dom Dala because they know they're going to listen to Dom Dala music. They want to go to R &B and R.I.B.S. because they want to hear R &B music. They, you know, they go to Azure because they want to listen to Afro House and music while in a beautiful setting with a sunset like People just want to know what they're spending money on. The economy's not been the best, right? Like, people have less money to spend on this extra stuff. So if they are gonna spend it, it has to be worth their time and energy and money. Yeah, I think the money's there, honestly, because people are spending money on experiences, right? Whether they're traveling, you know, abroad or they're going to spend a decent amount of money on a festival ticket or on a ticket to see Dom Dahl at MSG or Black Coffee at MSG. They're still spending money. People have money to spend. They're just spending it on very specific experiences. instead of going to the local club every Saturday for a month, they'd rather spend their money on a John Summer ticket at Madison Square Garden and get a cooler, better experience. I don't blame them. I don't blame them. Not one bit. Nightlife and nightclubs have just sort of rested on their laurels and they just always think people are gonna come through the door and it's like, it's just not the case. You have to go get your customers. Like you have to and you have to figure out interesting, fun, unique ways to do it and most places are not doing that and it sucks. Yeah. What do you see? do you what do you see for 2025 as far as a trend, maybe a trend, maybe a genre? You can go into either of those things. one of the other trends that I wanted to talk about was just that music's gotten faster. And I just think that's probably gonna continue here with hard dance, techno, drum and bass. Like even the tech house stuff that was at 124 or 126 is now getting made at 128 or 130. I'm even finding myself pushing my BPMs up when I'm DJing like way faster than I've ever in my entire career. where 128 and 130 tracks, I'm playing sometimes 132, 134. And it just allows for a sort of a seamless transition between EDM, electro house, tech house, bass house, to hard dance, techno, Jersey club, like the faster 140, 150 stuff. And I love it. I'm really excited about where that is right now. It's just energy. last year. I hope, I think I said Afro House two years ago, I think I said drum and bass last year. I don't think I have one for this year, like a genre. Hard Dance? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great call because we have seen it emerge and we've seen, like you said, the BPMs get faster, so it just makes sense. People are gonna go and all the 126 tech house edits are now gonna be 140 hard dance edits. Here they come. Get ready. Yeah. I love it. I've been playing that way all year, but I love all like the just I know we always shout him out but big shout to Angela because I played a lot of his stuff that that is of that higher BPM. Angela's got a lot of records coming in that space. he's just really good at it, right? there's like one or two records that really stand out that he came out with like a year or two ago, and it's nice to know that he's gonna kinda lean into that a little. Because it's made for people to sing along to, at least the ones that he has put out already, right? And there's still some melody involved, and I think all of... I think whenever somebody's making a hard dance track like that, making sure that you have, you know, melody involved and vocals that people know, is it just a good starting point. And then you can get harder and harder as it gets more popular, right? But I think that's just like a, if you're just getting into that kind of sound, that's a really good starting point. I like it. It works. And I think it's a new way to play some older songs that might excite people too, which is cool. I've even been going back and re-editing certain songs to 140. Like a 126 to 140 and just making the edit so I have it. Hmm. Relatively easy or Yeah, it's simple. It's very simple. Like you're not changing any elements of the track, are you? Is what I'm asking. of like a club playable record, but like there are certain tracks that I find myself pushing the BPM up. So I'll just say to myself, why not just make this? Because I've been playing it at this BPM anyway. And I'll just make it to my taste where, you know, I cut out all the fluff and it just gets right to the point and it's quick. And that's just sort of, it's a quick edit and a BPM edit. And I could pump those out in 10 minutes, about five minutes. But those are like personal for my set type thing. right right right you know that's about All right, what else? Let's, I think that kind of covers our 2024, right? I think we sort of... talked about a lot of things we don't want talk about. Let's kind of close on a few things. Let's close on shouting out some of the get down guys and some of the guys that have grown a lot this year. So I'll let you jump into that. Yeah, think, well, we just spoke with him, so he's kind of front of mind right now, but big shout to Timmy Vooze really kind of stepped in to more of like a management role with us a little bit and being really involved with our social media and just being involved with us a little bit more. I love to see Timmy growing just not even just as a DJ, but like just as a professional, right? Yeah, for sure. it's been really, really nice to work with him. I think from a DJ perspective, Tony the Tiger kind of stands out, Tony El Tigre stands out to me a little bit. He's grown in leaps and bounds and playing some of our best venues. And it's been doing a bang up job for us. I think one of our newcomer DJs that's been kind of stepping up and doing well for us, OMG Parker. is kind of like a great newcomer of the year kind of a thing. He kind of stands out and just kind of stepping up playing a bunch of different rooms and testing out like his skill set in a lot of different places and doing a good job in many places. Gosh, mean, Two-Face is always doing a great job for us. Obviously, they've stepped up and they're helping us out with some Get Damn Radio stuff. But not only this year too, edits, originals, remixes. their edits, everything that they're doing is going in the right direction. Yeah, they stepped up in marketing and playing some bigger venues, not not just the get down spots with some of the other spots. I think Timo sort of fits in that same realm where he's kind of taken a step up and is playing a lot of the bigger rooms here in Jersey. I mean, it's we get shot so many of the guys out Dario Valley had a good year played a lot of bigger rooms put out a bunch of remixes. Who else? McReekin had a great year this year for sure. year. you know. of spearheaded the Fat Taco, which is a Latin party or Latin venue that they've probably had the best year of any venue that we work with. you know, Shout to McReekin and Tiger and who else is over there all the time? Nico and Casper and all the DJs from Fat Taco crushing it. Yeah, they're all having a great year because of that. They really have done a good job with that party and really, you we're talking about having these very genre specific parties and they've crushed the Latin genre over there and there's lines every week. It's phenomenal. Torso, been putting out his radio show. He has a very unique sound and sort of, he did great with us this year, not just as a DJ and a producer, but on some backend stuff. So shout to Torso. Man, if we didn't shout you out, we're super proud of everything that our team's accomplished this year. It's a really hard market, guys. It's a really hard time to be a DJ. everybody that's listening that is a full-time DJ or doing this as a big chunk of how they make their living, like you guys should be really proud because this is a hard time. It's the hardest that I can ever remember in this space. So if you're DJing regularly, you're getting paid to go be a DJ, right? Like be proud of that and be excited. And you know, we can be negative sometimes here and we can talk about how it's changed and different and whatever, but at the end of the day, We can't control that stuff, you know? You can only control what you do and how you react and how you position yourself. think about more so what can you do to help your situation and less so about, this market sucks and there's no venues and there's blah, blah. Don't say that. Be more positive and think about what you can do. Yeah, I still feel very lucky every time I get to go to work and DJ, you know, and I'll do doubles and triples every time I'm up there because I just love to be in the booth. Like I just love to play music for people. And when you think about it, you think about how lucky you are to be good enough that somebody wants to pay you money to play them music, right? It's it's just a really I don't know, I just feel very, I don't wanna say blessed, but I just feel very lucky, very, very lucky to be able to be a professional DJ. And there's a lot of other jobs out there that are a lot less glamorous and you're gonna go work a lot longer hours. And it's just a really great thing to be a DJ, especially in this climate, like you're saying. The nightlife climate's not great, but you still have to feel If you're one of the people, there's a million people trying to break in and be a DJ. There's a million people trying to do that. And to be able to go and play multiple gigs a weekend is an amazing thing. What is some advice that you can leave our listeners heading into 2025? mindset. I think if you lead everything with a positive mindset, it will change the way you look at every DJ gig you walk into. I'm talking about DJ gigs specifically. This happened to me last week where I thought in my mind, I'm like, I'm tired and I really don't want to go. And then I thought about the things I just said. How lucky am I to walk into a place they're going to pay me a decent amount of money to go play music that I want to go play. change your mindset and be positive about going into work. And if you can't, and you should be able to do it on a drop of a dime. And that might sound a little crazy, but like if you really love DJing and you love doing what you do, just checking yourself every once in a while and be like, I'm lucky to do this. And changing that mindset to a positive mindset, it will do. enormous things for not only your DJ set, but your mental health toward your job as well. So, so mindset. I love it. And guys, your crowd feeds off of your energy. So if you're bored and down and disinterested, your crowd is gonna feel that. So a lot of times, like Gary's saying, if you bring that positive energy and high energy and you're excited to go to work, people are gonna see that and feed off of that and you're gonna have a more fun DJ set. So I love that advice. Man, I had my advice and I sort of lost it as I said that those two cents. We've had a long day here. yeah, I'll bet. All right, my advice would be this. You guys need to do, you have to figure out a way to put your spin on everything you do. Instead of conforming to what the venue wants, what your market wants, what someone else wants, find a way to get those people to enjoy what you do as well. Put a little of you into every set that you DJ. You can find a small pocket, a small window, and that small window can sometimes start at five tracks. And then the next time you play there, maybe it's 10 tracks. The next time you're there, maybe it's 15 tracks. So find a way to be different. Find a way to impart some of you into every DJ set that you play. I think that's so important. It's a way to help you create your sound. It's a way for you to stand out from what the other DJs are doing in that same venue. I think it's super important. Yeah, like that's the Banton effect for me, right? I started with playing one track and then let it kind of get people used to it, get people used to it, right? And you get, and the more that you do that, the more that the people that you work for are going to appreciate you as a DJ, as an artist. If you look at yourself as an artist, as somebody who is, you know, a professional DJ, you have to have your own kind of spin on things. And I think that's great. advice for people because I think sometimes especially younger DJs you're afraid to kind of dip your toes in the water because you don't want to get in trouble or you don't want to get yelled at for playing a certain genre but like there be a DJ. a DJ. Read your room. Yeah. And even when you're not reading the room. Gary said, room seems like it's, this is probably the vibe of the room, be a DJ. Play what needs to be played for you to have a good night and for the venue to make money and for the overall night to be a success. Just because the Booker said, this is what it is, doesn't mean that the night and the time that you are there, that that's what it is. Generally, that's what it is. It doesn't mean that when you are there in that exact moment, that that's what you have to play. Take chances. if ownership or management doesn't like it, they'll come tell you to turn the shit off. That's the truth. I think that's one. And my other piece of advice is one that I'm trying to carry into 2025 is do less, do what matters most. Get rid of the fluff. Get rid of the stuff that you're doing that you don't have to be doing. Find someone to help you do the stuff that you don't have to be doing. We talked about this before, but this is seriously like what I'm going to tell myself every single day of 2025. And I think it's so important moving forward for anybody that's growing and trying to grow their business and we all are doing wearing multiple hats and have multiple jobs and it just is what it is. Love it. All right, we good? good. All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast all year. We thank you for the comments, likes, subscribes, all the love, and we look forward to bringing you guys more episodes and more guests and fun stuff in 2025. So thank you so, much. Alright guys. We'll talk to you next episode. Peace out. Peace guys.