Feature someone who isn't minimal techno, pls.

[TheNobleNemesis]

Sometimes I get the feeling that the only people Ableton feature on their site are all minimal techno producers. I've been here for a while (maybe not YEARS, but you know..) and i've never seen Ableton feature anyone from house, or trance, or dubstep, or drum-n-bass, or big room, or anything other than what's popular in Berlin... In my opinion Ableton should start featuring artists who aren't either from Kompakt or in minimal techno music. I think it's a far more sound marketing strategy to market to a broader range of musicians than just one genre, and it'd be really closed-minded to shut out all the other genres just because it's locally popular relative to Ableton HQ.
/rant

[TomViolenz]

I wasn't even aware of this, but I don't follow the artist presents section.
I'll give you a +1 on your rant for diversity, even though Minimal is actually my prefered Techno.

BTW, just curious, where are you from that you know that Minimal is big in Berlin?
Or is this somehow common knowledge?

[TheNobleNemesis]

It's not necessarily that i'm from Germany that I know this, but do a little research and you'll find that their equivalent to labels such as Spinnin' Records or Dim Mak (some of the United States' biggest record labels that specialize in big-room style house music) are labels such as Kompakt, which are hugely popular in Germany, and specialize in minimal techno music. I just found that it was all too convenient that Ableton likes to prop up artists from a genre that's popular in the same area as their headquarters. It's only natural, if Ableton was headquartered in London, you'd probably see lots of features from labels such as Never Say Die Records or No Tomorrow Recordings, or in other words lots of dubstep artists. All i'm trying to say is that Ableton needs to be aware of the fact that they're tunnel-visioning on a global scale, and i'm not saying "never feature minimal techno artists", all i'm trying to say is maybe they should broaden their horizons a bit.

[leisuremuffin]

i don't know, man, the artists area of the blog looks pretty diverse to me.

[TomViolenz]

It's not necessarily that i'm from Germany that I know this, but do a little research and you'll find that their equivalent to labels such as Spinnin' Records or Dim Mak (some of the United States' biggest record labels that specialize in big-room style house music) are labels such as Kompakt, which are hugely popular in Germany, and specialize in minimal techno music. I just found that it was all too convenient that Ableton likes to prop up artists from a genre that's popular in the same area as their headquarters. It's only natural, if Ableton was headquartered in London, you'd probably see lots of features from labels such as Never Say Die Records or No Tomorrow Recordings, or in other words lots of dubstep artists. All i'm trying to say is that Ableton needs to be aware of the fact that they're tunnel-visioning on a global scale, and i'm not saying "never feature minimal techno artists", all i'm trying to say is maybe they should broaden their horizons a bit.

No you misunderstood. I'm actually from Berlin, I just wondered how the world seems to know about Minimal being big here.
So you are German as well?!

[TheNobleNemesis]

Tom, my apologies for my poorly phrased response. I'm from the United States.

And Funk N. Furter, why can't that change? I see no reason for Ableton's blog features to be exclusionary.

[TomViolenz]

Tom, my apologies for my poorly phrased response. I'm from the United States.

And Funk N. Furter, why can't that change? I see no reason for Ableton's blog features to be exclusionary.

So then let me ask you again: Is it somehow common knowledge globaly that Minimal is big in Berlin?
How do people find that out (given they didn't visit)?

I mean I kind of know that DubStep is big in the States, whereas Techno leads more of a niche existence, but then people on the forum here mention this all of the time.

[beats me]

So you want musician diversity and by that you mean different variants of House or DnB? I know the differences but I wouldn’t say they are wildly different from each other and wouldn't exactly show users or potential users the diverse music possibilites.

Here's a bunch of tracks by Live users posted this month.

viewtopic.php?f=40&t=200017

I don't think there's even one electronica dance track in there.

[102455]

I found this today...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDbdEpj9Ars

Look out for the Push featured early in the video

[regretfullySaid]

Tom I think anyone who is a fan of a genre is going to look into where a lot of the artists are from.

With US and dubstep, as usual the american version is a bastardized version, more akin to the aggressive dubstep/brostep mixed with electro sounds compared to the older spacious/atmospheric chillax dubstep from the UK. Not that skrillex started aggressive dubstep, (I'd call it brostep, not hatin), for example listen to Rusko's bbc essential mix....actually I guess it's not as exhausting as I remember.
In accordance to OP, maybe awhile I could see it, but seems pretty varied for awhile.

[Galt]

why can't that change? I see no reason for Ableton's blog features to be exclusionary.

Ableton David runs the blog as far as I know. Does that answer your question?


The blog has never featured MacAbleton, after it has produced 150 pages of unique, exclusive free Ableton Live tutorials, reviews, news, interviews, competitions etc.

I interviewed a producer who uses Live, who has 45,000 followers on Facebook. That is a lot more than most of the Ableton Blog regulars, some of whom are feature almost every day. A lot more!

But did it get a mention? No chance.

I ran a competition for the same prize as a competition featured on the blog, only mine ran for 3 weeks and the featured one only 24 hours! Did mine get a mention? No chance.

I have a competition coming up to win an 8 hour video tutorial, how to master in the box in Ableton Live. There is ZERO CHANCE it will get mentioned.

Maybe they don't care about you. No biggie, move on, plenty of other things to obsess about.

[TomViolenz]

Tom I think anyone who is a fan of a genre is going to look into where a lot of the artists are from.

I didn't have the impression that TheNobleNemesis is a Minimal fan.
But in any case I was just curious, how knowledge like this spreads.
And if Berlin is somehow synonymous with Minimal for many.

[regretfullySaid]

It wouldn't surprise me but dark techno is the first thing I would think of but that's only because any of the dark techno I like is from ze germans.
Actually it could be called minimal techno dub for all i know.

[TomViolenz]

It wouldn't surprise me but dark techno is the first thing I would think of but that's only because any of the dark techno I like is from ze germans.

I mean the impression is true! Germany in general is still Techno and Berlin is mostly Minimal and something they call Electro. But so many things have been called Electro, that I don't think that actually says much.

Oh and in general the music in Berlins clubs is pretty shit (and I don't say that, because I dislike Minimal, because I don't). It's all about local well known names, playing the same uncreative stuff very loud, every body taking Speed like fools and talking the whole time about how good the music/Speed is and how cool they are that they get past the bouncer.
Oh and sexual acts of ugly drugged people in the toilettes...

If you care about music, you wait for summer and the open air festivals.

[regretfullySaid]

You could say the same thing here except some few clubs can have certain dj's not playing mainstream crap along with some inter/national artists but it's easier to go to loft and warehouse parties because that's where the selekta's and music lovers go for good stuff.

Festivals, there's been more of them so apart from the big ones you can find a decent selection. Most of the one's I'd prefer to go to are in Europe though...Sonar always seems to be choice. I suppose you could say the Lollapaloozas here are the Glastonburys of the UK and I avoid those like the plague.