Top Dance Songs of 2018 pt. 2 - a podcast by Keith a.k.a. K j A M

As we count down the days to Christmas, Party Favorz is on a tear remembering the year that was in dance music. The Year In Dance 2018 part 2 keeps that promise by delivering even more of the BIGGEST club hits of the year!

Recently, one of our followers messaged me and asked if I used radio edits in my mixes. My canned response was a bit dismissive when I stated flatly "that I did not." The truth to that lies somewhere in the middle — to borrow a phrase from one of the biggest tracks of 2018; let me explain...

With the rise of streaming services, music is in the process of becoming Spotified — especially dance music. This started back in 2009 when Mariah Carey released her bomb "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" album. In an effort to save it, Sony commissioned Jump Smokers to remix the entire album, which resulted in a hit and miss collection of dance tracks that had no extended versions — basically radio edits. While the album was ultimately shelved, a couple of the tracks made it onto the internet, and much to the dismay of DJs were not mix friendly. Slowly but surely, the release of so-called "dance remixes" was more like edits without the intro and outro.

Fast-forward to 2018 and more than 1/3 of remixes are that way. Why? Because Spotify is nothing more than a glorified radio station on demand, without advertising. It's designed for quick listening and then moving on to the next track. Honestly, nobody wants to sit and listen to 2 minutes of intro and outro in a radio environment — so, in a way this makes sense.

The problem is that this leaves DJs with a dilemma. Either we serve up the music folks want to hear or abandon favorite songs strictly for mixing purposes. To be specific, it's tricky but workable. There are still many dance remixes that clock in longer than the average of 3:30 that can be matched up with the edits. It does kinda suck the joy out mixing, but you work with what you got.

Granted, this is not always the case and is more common in the commercial dance-club scene than say Underground House, Funky House, and Circuit-Tribal music.

The other issue I've noticed is that several labels have turned themselves into automated dance music manufacturing machines that go straight to Spotify or Apple Music. In other words, their business model is not based on selling music but the number of streams they can generate. I stumbled on this during the summer when some folks were streaming by the pool some really great dance tracks that I've never heard. When I asked what they were playing, they said it was a Spotify curated list of club music. As good as these tracks were, they will never be serviced to DJs for playback in clubs, which is a shame — but I wholeheartedly understand their reasoning.

If I had one complaint, it's that Spotify does not allow dance music podcast like Party Favorz onto their platform — even though, I provide something they clearly are not delivering. What I do competes with their carefully curated playlists. With new technology for them to be able to identify the artists, titles and music publishers from a non-stop podcast like this one, these folks could get an additional revenue stream and greater exposure while adding more value to Spotify's streaming user base. I personally think it's a win/win for everyone involved — but I digress.

As Party Favorz is about to embark on our 12th year of providing high-quality, carefully curated dance music podcasts, it would be nice to get a little recognition from the leading players in the streaming industry for the work that I do to bring this music to the broadest possible global audience. Especially after approximately 5 million streams o...

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