DWDD, the day after…

Yesterday evening Venz (aka Vincent Reinders) was invited in the biggest live TV show in The Netherlands ‘De Wereld Draait Door‘ (1.3 million viewers) to tell everything about 22tracks and our nomination for both ‘Best App’ & ‘Startup of the Year’ at the Dutch Startup Awards (you can still vote until 17:00 CET).

Around 20:15 CET we saw a huge increase in our traffic, which made our server unavailable. Even though we (with our hosting friends De Hosting Firma & Nedzone) prepared for 10 times the regular traffic, which is pretty massive already. Within an hour both website and iPhone app were up and running again. If you bought the app and it didn’t work immediately: it was because of this overload. It’ll work now, even though we’re still experiencing the biggest peak in traffic ever. Our tech guys have been working their asses off since last night making sure you will be able to keep on listening to the best new music, here at 22tracks.

Besides technical challenges, which are fun (ask our tech guys), we managed to take the #1 spot in the Dutch iTunes appstore! Thousands of 22tracks apps were installed last night, thousands are being installed today. Our app, which has been free for six months, reached 80.000 downloads last Monday. We already had this amount (aprox. 22% of the Dutch iPhone market) in mind to reach when we switched to an one time purchase priced app (€1,59). Compared to our big brother Spotify (€120 per year), it’s not that much either. We need to. Not only to pay our licensing costs and hosting but also to be able to develop other apps for the iPad & Android. In other words; to keep on going! By the way, our app is, since last Monday, also available in Belgium & Luxembourg.

And last, but surely not least, we reached 22.222 Facebook likes! Laurens Breure is Mr. 22.222 and receives a nice 22tracks goodie package! Be sure to like us as well on Facebook to receive daily notices on genre updates and other 22tracks related news.

Our website, iPhone app, Brussels launch & FREE stickers!

The website
It’s been a while since we updated you about what’s been happening behind the curtains at 22tracks. Again, we’ve been busy, what else is new. We’ve started rebuilding our website, making it more future proof. This includes adding new features like Last.fm scrobbling, Twitter and Facebook oAuth login, sharing your My22 with friends and lots of other cool stuff which we’ll tell you about further along the way in the upcoming months. The expected launch for this new version of our website is planned for June.

iPhone app from free to a one-time €1,59 purchase price
Our iPhone app is a huge succes! More than 80.000 downloads served already! From tomorrow, almost six months after its launch, we will go from free to a one-time purchase price of €1,59. Not that much right? But hey! It helps us pay the huge amounts of bills, besides us being able to further develop the app even more, adding new features and making it available for iPad and Android. If you install(ed) our app before tomorrow you won’t have to pay for future updates, of course.

Brussels here we come!
You might have already heard some rumours. And yes, it’s true. We’re going to launch 22tracks Brussels! This means that the best curators (DJs / journalists) from Brussels will let you hear what’s hot and happening in the Belgian music scene. From June you will be able to select which 22tracks you want to be listening to; Amsterdam or Brussels. To celebrate our upcoming start in Belgium we will launch the 22tracks iPhone app (Amsterdam version) also in Belgium and Luxembourg tomorrow – for a one-time purchase price of €1,59. We know lots of you have been waiting for this!

FREE stickers
So you’re quite the 22tracks fan, eh? Let’s see if you can help us spread the word! We’re giving away free stickers for everyone! Just enter your address details in the form below, and we’ll send you some free stickers asap!

(update 1 July: Sorry! We’re out of free stickers!)

22sessions: the results!

NRC, 1 April 2011 | PDF

Yesterday we were at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam as part of the World Minimal Music Festival. We had the honor to hang out with the legendary Steve Reich to present him five remixes that were created in our 22sessions by Full Crate (beats | soul), Gomes (dubstep), MPS Pilot (worldgroove), Individualism and Presk. They all created a unique and completely different remix. Our friends of VPRO Dorst recorded the whole session:

Electric Counterpoint remixes by: Full Crate, Gomes, Presk, Mps Pilot & Individualism

Also Djef (originals) and Job de Wit (disco | pop | rock) were there! Making sure the visitors of World Minimal Music Festival would enjoy some fresh tunes while the producers were busy remixing. Listen to both mixes here:

DJ-set Djef at WMMF

DJ-set Job de Wit at WMMF

Btw: we also shot video footage of the whole day, which we will add later to this blog! Stay tuned!

22sessions @ World Minimal Music Festival

This Thursday 22tracks and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam join forces as part of the World Minimal Music Festival for 22sessions: a day full of remixes. You might’ve heard of the WMMF since they were last week’s featured playlist and our contemporary section is curated by the Muziekgebouw’s general director. Headliner of the festival is Steve Reich, a Grammy winning composer described by The Guardian as one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history“. Minimal music is in essence a genre of experimental music in consonant harmony, steady pulse, gradual transformation and often reiteration of musical phrases. 22tracks invited six great producers who are going to create a remix on the spot, based on one famous Steve Reich piece.

Full Crate (beats | soul), Gomes (dubstep), Mindmapper (drum&bass) and MPS Pilot (worldgroove) are not only great 22tracks selectors, but also talented producers. Our friends Individualism and Presk are invited too to start remixing from 16.00 until 19.00. During the session Djef (originals) and Job de Wit (disco | pop | rock) will be providing the music for you. If you’d like to see how talented young producers work and want to be part of the action, be there! The host of the day will be Venz (hiphop | relax) who will also interview Steve Reich. The legend himself will be judging the remixes at the end of the day! Check out the full programme of the World Minimal Music Festival in the Muziekgebouw here.

Full Crate | http://soundcloud.com/fullcrate
Full Crate is a hiphop/soul producer with a dj background, well known for his soul and beats selection on 22tracks. Last year he teamed up with FS Green to release an album called Eggs and Pancakes and together with singer Mar he gave us the Conversations With Her EP.

Gomes | http://soundcloud.com/gomes-aka-g-man
Gomes has been one of the top players since the beginning of UK Garage and dubstep in Holland. His own dubstep party Oi! is the best and biggest in the country, his 22tracks dubstep selections with Brutuzz are sick and as a producer he worked with D-Double-E, Lyrical, Maikal X, Dio and Killah P.

MPS PILOT | http://soundcloud.com/mpspilot
MPS PILOT has traveled extensively through the Balkans, Spain, India, Turkey, Morocco, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and more. He has immersed himself in the cutting-edge world music scene, both as a producer and a dj, and gives a totally different view on world music in the 22tracks worldgroove playlist.

Mindmapper | http://soundcloud.com/mindmapper
Coming from a background of working with bands, playing electric guitar for many years and building his own studio, Mindmapper has got all the musical skills a producer might want. Combined with his education as an Audio Designer, Mindmapper is a musical mastermind whose style expands way beyond just drum & bass. Even though this is the genre we know and love him for over at 22tracks.

Individualism | http://soundcloud.com/individualism
This 17 year old producer is one of the biggest talents of the city. He already won the prestigious ‘Grote Prijs van Nederland’ as best Dance act. His music is a blend of different styles like broken beat, Detroit house and dubstep. Keeping Individualism‘s young age, and his big amount of musical talent and curiosity in mind, we can state that you might find yourself being surprised how far Individualism might go. This Thursday is a good start to see him live in action.

Presk | http://soundcloud.com/presk
Presk‘s music blurs the boundaries between house, garage, techno and dubstep. At the same time he manages to set himself apart by combining a strong dancefloor feeling with a keen eye for structure and detail. Presk’s liveset has proven to be something special. His steady rise has certainly not gone unnoticed, with Presk now being signed to several renowned UK labels, and releases coming out in the next few months.

22tracks @ Midem & Toko MC aftermovie

2011 started off great for 22tracks! We were a finalist at MidemNet Lab 2011 in Cannes where we got to present ourselves. Watch this presentation by Vincent Reinders (@venz_) 22tracks CEO & founder:

As you might have noticed we also threw a party to celebrate our victory at Eurosonic / Noorderslag before leaving to Cannes. Watch this beautiful video shot by Patrick Ebu-Mordi edited by Milo Alting Siberg, music by: AFTA-1:

22tracks @ Toko MC, the day after…

Wow! What a party! 22tracks @ Toko MC last night was the shit! We celebrated a new 22tracks year with an amazing line-up: Djef, Job de Wit, Individualism (live), MPS Pilot, Henzel & Disco Nova and Brutuzz at Toko MC. The DJs loved it, the crowd loved it, we loved it. Thanks for being there. And if you missed it, shame on you, here’s some of the livestream footage we managed to save before the fuses blew up and we had to move back to the other room:

Djef | Originals

Job de Wit | Disco

Individualism | Live performance

MPS Pilot | Worldgroove

Henzel & Disco Nova | Brutuzz (until the fuses blew up) Electro | Dubstep

22tracks in 2011

It looks like this is going to be another good year for 22tracks. January is only half way gone, and there is already enough to write about. A new genre, an exciting award, exclusive T-shirts and a 22tracks party @ Toko MC.

First of all we have welcomed a brand new brutal genre: Metal by Edwin Valent. A long time ago Edwin was frontman of metalband Short Fused. Until recently he hosted the radio and tv show ‘Bruut!’ on 3voor12 and was responsible for MTV Rockzone. All tracks on the new Metal list are 100% brutal and specially selected for the genuine Metal fans! We are extremely happy that we have added Edwin to our list of dj’s and we are absolutely confident that Metal will become a genre just as popular as any other on 22tracks.

Secondly we received the Company Award on Eurosonic / Noorderslag. Bandcamp and Mflow were the other nominated companies in this award which rewards the best legal initiative that promotes European music. After being honored to be nominated at all, we even managed to win the €5000, very welcome in our mission to pay our licenses.

And what better way to celebrate this prize, a new genre and a new year than with a new 22tracks party? On the 22nd of January, 22tracks will host a party @ Toko MC on the Westergasterrein in Amsterdam. Entrance is free and the doors will open at 21:00. Until 03:00 you can expect a special performance by 17-year old super talent Individualism and dj-sets by Henzel & Disco Nova, Job de Wit, Phil Horneman, Brutuzz, MPS Pilot, Djef and Venz.

Don’t know what to wear? Check out our new line of 22tracks T-shirts, for sale at T-Junk, designed by Venour. Your support would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all those good words, tweets, wall posts and most of all: hours spent inside our world of new music.

Electro: Henzel & Disco Nova summarize 2010

Henzel & Disco Nova created a mix of their favourite and most played tracks of this year. The result is a great mix of all the biggest and baddest electro tracks that have been featured in their 22tracks list in 2010 (playlist here). We’ll also launch the 22tracks 2010 playlist this week, with one favorite track in each genre. Enjoy and happy new year to all you good people!

On a personal note… Vincent Reinders (Venz)

I can’t believe it’s been 12 months already! I won’t talk too much about the incredible ride, Gilles already wrote enough about it last week. This little idea of mine has become an online jukebox with 22 genres and over 12,000 unique listeners, a number that continues to grow daily. I will take a moment to thank our DJs. They select great new music every week and make it ever so easy for the rest of us to discover it all.

We’ve been connecting with more and more labels, both majors and independents, to see how we can support each other. The music industry has learned a lot these past years and knows that it’s not helping anyone by killing a service like 22tracks, and I want to thank those labels for their patience to let us grow too. Several people have called us crazy: an online music startup! What were we thinking? What a dangerous world, what a hard way to earn money! Well, we’re not in it for the money. We just have to pay the rent, our server costs and licensing (a sum that’s not little at all, of course, but we think the artists and composers deserve it).

3,300 Twitter followers and 4,600 Facebook fans prove that we may be on to something. In an online world crowded with artists, songs and music services, selection is badly needed. Now let’s grow. We will continue to improve the website and will start with guest-playlists soon (where interesting people will have a one-week-special). Expect State Awards and Museumnacht (n8) specials in November. And let’s hope Apple approves our iPhone app any minute now, otherwise we will have to wait a little longer for that… (For those who don’t know: it’ll be a free app, available in the Netherlands only for now.)

I hope to see all you Dutch listeners this Friday when we celebrate 22tracks’ 1 Year Anniversary party at the Sugar Factory in Amsterdam. Ten 22tracks DJs will be spinning, I will be your host for the evening and Venour – who built our website – will be VJ’ing. The first 222 attendees will receive a goodiebag with an exclusive, brand new 22tracks T-shirt provided by Tjunk.com. Doors open at 19.00, be early!

On a personal note… Gilles de Smit

Wow. What a year! 22tracks launched at last year’s ADE and is still growing steady, every day, thanks to you. By spreading the word of good new music to your friends on Twitter, Facebook or face to face. We now welcome over 12,000 unique listeners each day, most of you from The Netherlands (liefde!).

Much has happened for me this last year—besides no longer having a steady income or any spare time. It all started with this little idea from Vincent Reinders (you might know him from the HipHop and Relax genres). This tall and very unhealthy living radio DJ guy had an idea after he got asked the same question over and over again: “Where do you find these tracks? Oh come on, send me some MP3s!”. The concept of playlists curated by expert DJs and journalists was born. Free, streamable genre-based playlists curated by experts, leading you through the thick forest straight to the new music gems. Legally, and with the utmost respect for artists and songwriters.

I joined this adventurous ride back in August/September of 2009, only shortly before 22tracks launched officially on the 22nd of October 2009. We started with next to nothing ready, and no money available for any kind of PR campaign. Vincent has made sure everything sounds and looks good while I’ve been working on the more commercial and legal side of the business. The DJs have been digging for fresh new music and finding the hottest tracks, while we have been convincing the music industry and at the same time hoping that you, the listener, would enjoy it all. Well, everybody did. Including our amazing partners and pro bono advisory board.

Now, nearly a year later, I can easily say that I’m pretty damn proud of what 22tracks has accomplished so far. Despite us having to delay the iPhone app, nothing has gone seriously wrong. We’ve managed to survive a full year! We’ve even won some awards! We are still independent, we are still having the same fun as when we started, we are still bringing you the best new music. We’re celebrating that!

These last two weeks, working towards this year’s ADE—where we’ll be hosting the 22tracks 1 Year Anniversary party on the 22nd of October at the Sugar Factory—have been, and still are insanely busy and nerve-wrecking at times. We will be announcing and launching a lot that day: the release of the highly anticipated 22tracks iPhone app (that has finally been submitted to Apple last Friday), new features for the website and a redesigned logo. Cool new DJ head shots have been made. In the coming week we will continue to work our asses off, making sure that everything is in check. It won’t be long anymore. Will we see you on October 22!?

P.S. Two things you should know about our upcoming 22tracks iPhone app release: (1) It is awaiting review by Apple, and our hope is that it will be accepted before the 22nd of October so that we can present it on our 1 Year Anniversary at ADE. (2) The app will be made available within The Netherlands and therefore in the Dutch App Store only (for now).

<3 new music!
Gilles