You may not be familiar with Beatport. It's an American DJ portal and arguably the most influential electronic dance music site for DJs in the world.
Although they have a huge catalogue of songs for download, if you go there and look up Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson or Lady Gaga, you'll draw a blank. That's not what they're about.
Beatport specialises in the kind of music I love. Probably 75% of my playlist comes from stuff I've found here. The site is divided into genres and each genre has its own chart. The streaming is really fast and you can get a good two minute sample of any song. What's more, there's a great free Iphone app for Beatport which lets me shop for songs even when I'm on the go.
You can find the site at
And the app is in the Itunes store under Beatport.
Beatport have just celebrated their Seventh Annual Beatport Music Awards. Top tracks by genre were determined entirely by sales. These were the tunes that Beatport's community singled out as the most important, far-reaching tracks of the year. They also created a new award, Beatport Breakthrough Artist, to recognize the top-selling artist who was new to Beatport in 2010.
I've added their newsletter to this post so you can get a feel of where the worldwide DJ community's head is at.
For those who are unsure, Deadmau5 is pronounced Deadmouse! Maybe I'll get a chance to spin One by Swedish House Mafia at the next Freedom party.
I'd like to finish this post with a hats off to Lady Gaga, whose Born This Way single was recently banned on Malaysian Radio. Her dignified and articulate response to this earned my respect. She's a very talented artist and clearly, a very clever and focused woman. I just wish people didn't overplay her in clubs!
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| ARTIST OF THE YEAR | TRACK OF THE YEAR |
| Deadmau5 | One |
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| TOP TRACK | TOP REMIXER | TOP DJ MIX |
| Tarantula | Manuel De La Mare | Structures - 2 |
 |  |  |
| BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST |
| Wynter Gordon |
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| TOP TRACKS |
| Breaks | Chill Out | Deep House |
 | M.A.D. (Elite Force Remix) Stanton Warriors, J... U&A |  | You Wish Nightmares On Wax Warp Records |  | The Voice Thyladomid Off |
| Drum & Bass | Dubstep | Electro House |
 | Incoming... (Taku Remix) Ajapai, Taku Ajapai |  | Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites Skrillex mau5trap |  | Animal Rights Deadmau5, Wolfgan... mau5trap |
| Electronica | Hard Dance | Hardcore/Hard Techno |
 | Wait For Me (Paul Kalkbrenner Remix) Moby, Paul Kalkbr... Little Idiot |  | We No Speak Americano (Friday N... Yolanda Be Cool, D... Xelon |  | Magnet The Advent, Industr... CodeWorks |
| House | Indie Dance/Nu Disco | Minimal |
 | We No Speak Americano Yolanda Be Cool, D... Sweat It Out! |  | Hello (Club Edit) Martin Solveig, Drag... Mixture |  | Under Control Roberto Procaccini Empro Music |
| Progressive | Psy-Trance | Tech House |
 | One Swedish House Mafia Size Records |  | Leave Me Alone Neelix Spin Twist Records |  | Tarantula Pleasurekraft Eklektisch |
| Techno | Trance |
 | The Secret Joris Voorn Cocoon Recordings |  | Remember Love Armin Van Buurin, Pa... Armada Music |
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| ARTIST OF THE YEAR | TRACK OF THE YEAR |
| Umek | Without You |
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| LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD |
| Carl Craig |
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I watched the google interview of lady gaga, when she commented on the Malaysian ban of her song. I admire her courage and honesty. She talked about the need to express oneself as an artist, instead of being molded by social norms or other regulations, or simply pleasing everyone. With this in mind, she is a true artist.
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