When I arrived at the event I was handed a pint and some cheese-less pizza (which is a good thing in my mind, all though I do miss dairy sometimes) and I caught up with some friends I have not seen in ages.  After things were settled down I set up my laptop rig: an Alienware 12" laptop, MOTU Traveler firewire interface and an X-Session USB controller.  Everything was running fine when I place my rig on the decks and grabbed the input RCA cable.  As I plugged the cable in I heard a loud pop and I just assumed the mixer level was up, but it was not.

No, what happened still boggles my mind.  Somehow, the act of plugging in the audio caused a short in my system and managed to fry both the laptop and the MOTU interface, and I mean fried.  You could smell the burnt chips in the air.  At that point it all came crashing down… I thought I had just lost all my data.  I tried to reboot the machine and it wouldn’t even post.

After about 3 attempts of rebooting, plugging, unplugging, removing the battery, etc. the machine posts and I actually get windows running.  I was stoked to have my data still and hardware can always be replaced.  Unfortunately all was not as well as it seemed.  When I got home the machine never booted again.  I called support and they walked me through a few simple things but as soon as I mentioned the smell of burnt circuits the issued a FedEx tag so I can ship it to them.

In the meantime I bought an external enclosure for the drive (thanks Steve for the advice) and I was successfully able to recover all my data last night.  So that is a huge, huge weight off my shoulders.  Interestingly enough, when I opened the panel in the laptop you can see all the fire damage on the Mobo where the Firewire jack is located, and yes the irony of the name of the jack is apparent to me.

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Looking back its amazing that I made it through the launch of the company and trying to work a full time job without losing all my sanity.  Its amazing how working 10 hour days at an office, to go home and either plan a business or code till the wee hours of the morning every day will eventually get to you.  As one entrepreneur I heard speak on NPR said "You have to be crazy to start your own company."  I totally understand what he means but it is a good kind of crazy if you are into it.

Unfortunately this burnout effect has impacted this blog and other projects (such as the FS podcast) but I feel like its time to throw my hat back in the ring.  One of my goals is to get back to blogging about the media industry or at least what is interesting right now.  I have been meeting a lot of really great people as of late and I am also getting back into the world of djing and producing electronic music so I will probalby ramble on about that too.  Anyway, to the three people that still have this in your feed…. hello!

(oh, I had to disable comments for a bit… the spam was killing me.  If you want to comment hit me up with an email and I will create you a comment account)

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At first this doesn’t seem to cause a divide because usually the audience going to a club is there to dance, drink, hang out with their friends, instead of seeing a specific musical act. The divide becomes painfully obvious when someone at the club hears a track that blows their mind and they want to have a copy of it for themselves. Let’s take a look at what this divide is and how it was created.

To start this off let’s create a scenario. Let’s say you are at a club with a DJ spinning breaks and we should also assume that you don’t know much about the dance music culture (record stores, distribution and such). You hear a track that is just amazing and you want to find out more about it. First, you need to like it enough to actually pursue the DJ and find out where he or she is. If you are at a bigger club they are often in a secure or hidden booth, or on stage. If this is the case then you are out of luck because this makes it almost impossible to talk to them and find out what the song is (unless you happen to know them or have some kind of access to them).

Okay, let’s say that this is a smaller club or a bar with a DJ where you can actually go up and talk to the DJ. This is where you run up against your next obstacle. Many people don’t realize that trainspotting (or the act of trying to find out what the DJ is playing) is considered a faux paux in DJ culture. Many DJs pride themselves in hiding their collection so that they are the only one that will play those killer tracks.

Personally, I think this is crap and most of the DJs I play with feel the same way. Let’s pretend that you get one of the nice DJs that will actually hand you the record sleeve when you ask what they are playing (I always try to do this). Now you have a sleeve, let’s hope that it’s not a white label with no information on it or some crazy information-less sleeve (which are out there).

You now have the name of the producer, and if you are wise you get the label’s name. What now, you ask? Well, if you go to Best Buy or some other major chain you probably won’t find the track or even the artist because most electronic music is only distributed by small indie labels in very limited runs (less then 1000 copies). This means you need to go to a special boutique record store that focuses on this kind of music. Hopefully you know one like BPM in San Francisco.

You go to BPM and you look for the vinyl (because this is probably the only way you are going to get it) and there is a really good chance they will be sold out. Most record stores only buy a handful of copies and unless the DJ just bought it that day and the store happened to have more then one copy and other DJs haven’t already grabbed all the copies, then you can get it.

As you can imagine most people give up at just talking to the DJ, but even if you go that far you have to know all the tips and tricks of the DJ culture to get it. The other option is that some DJ puts out a mix CD that has the track on it or some label puts out a comp with the track included. In most cases this is a dead end and the listener doesn’t get a copy of it.

So here we stand at this divide. I love the music but don’t know were to get it. Interestingly enough this fact is why a lot of DJs get there start. They start as active clubbers/ravers/scenesters that get so into the music they actually go out join the DJ world.

Overall, this divide is really frustrating, not only to the audience but to a lot of producers too. We want to get the music out there, that’s why we started producing in the first place, but due to distribution challenges, cost of vinyl pressings, mastering, etc. getting it out there can be really challenging. We are seeing a trend away from pure vinyl djing with more live acts and laptop MP3 DJs. This will help limit the divide but at the same time the separation of the audience and the producer still exists.

If you haven’t seen the movie “24 Hour Party People” go Netflix or rent it. It’s a great story about the Manchester scene and the eventual rise of the DJ as the focus of clubs and parties, that and it’s a great mockumentary too.