Music startup 22tracks expands to London

On March 22nd, the DJ curated music startup 22tracks will launch its London edition. Several carefully chosen selectors will be playing in the British capital tonight, to kick off what may become a UK success story.

The website, which streams the 22 best new tracks within 22 playlists, launched late 2009 in Amsterdam. Every playlist is managed by a specialist in a certain genre, usually a DJ, who functions as a guide in an extremely crowded musical landscape. 22tracks has already proven itself as a welcome addition to the online music industry. Drawing around 50.000 daily listeners in such a short space of time, has led to sponsored creative collaborations with many major brands and festivals. On Facebook they’re among the largest Dutch brands.

After attention in many newspapers, magazines and television shows, 22tracks was also voted Startup of the Year 2011. Record labels are grateful for the exposure and artists are honored for the stamp of approval that 22tracks gives them. The 22tracks iPhone app is one of the most popular and highest rated apps in the Netherlands. Now, after the launch of 22tracks Brussels in the summer of 2011, it’s time to conquer the rest of Europe.

Starting with London, where the heart of the music industry is located, 30 DJs are ready to show which music is currently hot and happening. The DJs are mainly known from their work for radio stations like the BBC, Rinse FM and Kiss FM, or are well respected artists in the London club scene. 22tracks is also specifically tailored by genre to cater to the diverse metropolis with almost fourteen million inhabitants. Thus, in addition to special attention for electronic and alternative genres, 22tracks London will also include playlists that focus on African, Asian and Caribbean music.

Expect selectors like Roska, Plastician, Robbo Ranx, Edu, DJ Pioneer, Standard Place, Elijah & Skilliam, the Panjabi Hit Squad and Boiler Room’s Thristian. All teaming up to show you what’s happening in the world of music. Discover the complete roster over here: 22tracks.com/ldn.

Last.fm scrobbling

Great news for those of you with a Last.fm profile: It is now possible to automatically scrobble your listening behavior on 22tracks.

Have a look in the My22 settings menu (in the top right corner of 22tracks.com after logging in) and connect to your Last.fm account safely and easily. After hooking up your profile, any track you listen to will be automatically added to your personal statistics on Last.fm.

22Wallpaper

Customize your desktop with this lovely 22tracks wallpaper! Download it here.

The new and improved iPhone app is here!

Our completely redesigned iPhone app is now available in the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg App Store! We’ve also improved the sound quality, added a pause button, provide information about the artist (in landscape view), added a great lock screen view and fixed some minor bugs. Airplay is still found next to the volume slider.

Our iPhone and Android app will be available in the UK early 2012. More countries will follow as soon as possible. Development by FONKmobile, design by Niek Dekker. Enjoy the music!

Belgians do My22

We’ve recently launched our My22 function, for those who want to collect their favorite tracks from all genres in both Amsterdam and Brussels in one list. We were curious about the taste of some interesting Belgians and asked them to share their My22 list with us. Take a look!

My22 by: Christophe Lefrog (Libertine Supersport / Jojo Project)
My22 by: Julien Mourlon (Laid Back Radio)
My22 by: Jef Neve (JefNeve.be)
My22 by: Fredo (Avenue L)
My22 by: Bobby Ewing (Discobar Galaxie / Dj Bobby Ewing)
My22 by: Rick Shiver (Libertine Supersport)
My22 by: Deejay Kwak (Strictly Niceness)
My22 by: Sam De Bruyn (Studio Brussel / Samtex)
My22 by: Kirsten Lemaire (Studio Brussel / Canvas)
My22 by: Stijn Maris (Studio Brussel / Beats and Bleepz)
My22 by: Ben Van Alboom (Studio Brussel / Strictly Personal)

Haven’t got a My22 profile yet? Register one right now! Click the ‘login’ button in the top right on our website. Add tracks to your personal My22 by clicking the heart icons infront of any track in any genre.

Android is here! My22 is back!

Finally! Our Android App has arrived and is now available in the Android Market. We decided to release the app for free for a short period of time. In a couple of weeks it’ll cost €1,59, just like our iPhone app, so be sure to get it now. You can submit any problems and errors you encounter over here. The 22tracks Android and iPhone apps are available in The Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg. The United Kingdom will follow this winter, other countries in 2012. The Android app is developed by FONKMobile, design by Niek Dekker.

My22 is back! We’ve totally rebuilt this great way of collecting gems from all genres in Amsterdam and Brussels into one nifty favorites playlist, your personal My22. You can login via Facebook, Twitter or Google. Try it! Or dive into the current favorites of the Amsterdam and Brussels Chiefs Venz and Koen to see how it works. They’ve selected 22 favorites within the 22 genres of their city. Since My22 is a pretty straightforward functionality we decided not to create a huge how-to guide. Be sure to collect and share your own favorites right now by clicking the heart icon in front of any track!

222 beta Android apps are waiting for you!

To all the 22tracks supporters owning an Android device: we’re almost there! Today, on our second anniversary, we’re happy to finally enter the world of Android. Before the official release of the app in the coming week – in the Benelux only, for now – we’d like to invite 222 listeners to test our app.

Update: We got 222 testers! If you didn’t sign up don’t worry, we’ll release the app soon officially in the Android Market!

Update from Brussels: award, press & nightlife

It’s been almost four months since we started 22tracks.com in Brussels. Things are going very well here in our little Belgium, although we weren’t able to qualify for the next European Championship. But if it were DJs instead of football players battling at the EURO 2012, we would be so there! If you listen regularly to the weekly updates by our 22 DJ’s on 22tracks.com/bru you know what I mean. The discoveries our DJs give you on a daily basis are amazing.  So keep on watching them, cause you don’t wanna miss anything of it.

Because of the DJs hard work, the response is amazing. We were rapidly discoverd by a crowd of music lovers, colleague DJs and first adapters who started spreading the word. We got featured by national media such as De Morgen and Focus Knack and by many digital blogs and magazines. We got nominated for the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards, in the category ‘Best Media’. Don’t need to mention how great news that is. If you have a couple of minutes spare time, feel free to vote for us and for some of our nominated DJs  (Sound Of Stereo, Lefto, Onda Sonora’s Our Party, Murdock’s Breakdown, On-Point, Nosedrip) as well. Last week we were invited by national radio Studio Brussel to go and chat about the website. Stubru’s DJ Kirsten Lemaire and I had a nice chat and listened to three tracks I selected from 22Bru. You can listen to the full interview (in Dutch) over here or check out this first part:

Since 22tracks.com is a streaming website centered around cities, we like to link up with various events and organizations in Brussels. I want to mention the engagement of two nice initiatives with whom we already teamed up in our short history. First there is the nice venue Bar Du Matin, where our Afro Heat selector DJ Reedoo is full time promotor. Not only did they open their cosy bar for us to launch our website in June, they also invite one of our DJs to play there all night every first saturday of the month. And last but not least, Bar Du Matin is the first bar ever to only play 22tracks.com music, every day of the week, every hour of the day. How cool is that? Also worth a mention is ‘Het Kampioenschap van Brussel’, a local music concours for unsigned bands. They invited several of our DJs to be in the jury and even named their different qualification rounds after our genres. You should check and try to go to one of their events, the next big Brussels thing will definitly appear on their stage.

To end this update I would like to warm you up for the first 22tracks party that is coming up  on December 9th. Where and when will soon be communicated, but it will be thé perfect venue, in the centre of Brussels of course.

PS: check out the nice Legacy Music Belgium branded playlist online now. If you would be interested in a branded playlist for your organization, event, band, website, product or brand, feel free to contact me.

Branded playlists? Android app?!

What, Radio538 on 22tracks? Dutch folk music by Buma NL? Malibu’s best cocktail hits? We’ve seen some surprised reactions in the past months, so we felt the need to clear something up. The homepage, the so called branded playlists, might not always be what you expect (or like). Yes, Radio538 is the biggest commercial station in The Netherlands. And yes, they focus more on mainstream music than we tend to do. But instead of seeing 22tracks as an competitor, and doing all they can to ignore us and keep us down, they advertise.

Advertisers make it possible for 22tracks to exist: free for everyone, without subscribing, without obnoxious popover banners and without commercials between tracks. Brands and festivals that advertise, support our business model. And for the first time ever, it’s even enjoyable! Lots of you tell friends about a playlist by Nike, Reebok, Converse Bacardi, Jameson, North Sea Jazz, Rabat or other great brands and festivals we’ve been working with by using our Twitter and/or Facebook share function. Thanks to these playlists 22tracks is able to pay for the huge costs to offer 22 genres filled with the best new music per city for free!

In other news: since everybody keeps on asking (thanks for that!), our Android app is now in development (by FONK) and will see the light on our second anniversary: October 22nd. A completely improved iPhone app will follow shortly after, and who knows what 2012 will bring on iPad and Blackberry?

A new website, a new city, a new start

Oh yes, we’re so excited and happy with our new website! Our Flash version, built by great Rotterdam collective Venour, was amazing. But we had to move on: we needed to be ready for the future, be more flexible in growing and gaining more statistical information. It’s essential for our future to give record labels and copyrighting societies the best data possible about what’s being played and where exactly. We have to have more control over our branded playlists, to do more amazing stuff and be able to offer more service to advertisers. These brands and festivals keep our website alive, thanks to them we can pay our licenses and hostings costs.

We want you to be able to share your My22 favorites lists, that’s why we had to rebuild the complete system. In July you’ll be able to enjoy the new and improved My22. And what about our artist information block? We’re learning more and more everyday about hundreds of artists, thanks to this feature. But the most important reason of all: we weren’t able to add a city in our previous website. Now we are, and it’s incredible how much people from Belgium and all around the world love the Brussels selections. We hope to add more cities in the coming year. One day, we hope to expand to 22 cities and become the number one global music platform for new music. Thanks for being a listener already!

Of course, a new website brings in some bugs. You’ve got tons of different browsers and browser versions. We’re fixing them one by one. Not our huge 22tracks team, but our one man technical team: Larix. Our hero! With the help of graphic designer Niek Dekker, he created this great new version. But as you all notice: since a new country (Belgium) massively visits us, our server slowed down. We’re adding a new server as we speak with the help of our greats friends at De Hosting Firma and Nedzone. And yes, an Android and iPad app will soon arrive. But just know, that unlike services like Spotify (with 100+ million funding) or Soundcloud (10+ million funding) we’re a self funded start-up. A couple of music lovers and 44 wonderful DJ’s from Amsterdam and Brussels, changing the music industry a bit. Or 22 bits. Amazing bits.

Visit this page if you’d like to let us know which bug(s) you’re encountering. Check out Facebook or Twitter to get all the updates about the music and the website.