For years dance music devotees have been streaming mixes from their favorite DJ sets via platforms such as Soundcloud, YouTube, Audius, and others, while seeking out larger platforms like Apple Music and Spotify for their favorite artists’ standalone tracks, EPs and albums. Now, Apple Music has risen up to yet another tier, using 2019’s iOS 14 Shazam identification advancement to contract and elevate specific songs, artists, event promoters, labels, and more from DJ mixes and sets.
The launch of this feature has several implications, not only for the consumer but for the broader industry. Most notably, music creators and distributors will now be compensated for their featured music within mixes. This new technology will also allow streamers to skip certain tracks within the mix, listen with lossless audio, and save them to their individual libraries. Not only that, but it will finally allow listeners to see which festival and which DJ the mix is from.
With Apple Music’s involvement casting an overwhelming 300 million streams of DJ mixes alone, the service has seen its previous engagement triple from just the year prior. With Apple mixes already spreading like wildfire from the likes of Tiësto, Carl Cox, and Charlotte De Witte.
Apple Music notes that they are working alongside producers and DJs and there are plenty more mixes in the works, following this year’s Black Music Month series. While we have yet to see user-generated mixes and content on Apple, of which dance music fans have honed so well on platforms like Soundcloud and Mixcloud, this news is certainly a step in the right direction for creators and artists, big and small.
Featured image: Ultra
