Markus Schulz explains to his fans why he needs to create commercial vocal tracks
/Because commercial vocal tracks are played on the radio and more radio plays = local promoters will book you. That's what Markus Schulz told his fans on his own message board who were critical of the more commercial sounds coming from his new Album Scream.
Guys like Dash Berlin, Avicii...etc have all blown up seemingly overnight just because of radio play. Many of these "producer" type DJs are playing mainstage sets ONLY because of their radio presence. Whether or not they can even mix is irrelevant.
He also makes the point that the new album is 23 tracks long which gives a little something for everyone:
I realized that not every track will be for everyone. That is why I made an album diverse and with 23 tracks. most albums are 10 tracks. I am sure you guys can find 10 tracks on here you would put on your ipod and enjoy.
Markus gives us some added insight into the dog eat dog world of DJ bookings and how it feels as a DJ when he plays something that does not please the crowd:
If I do not have a big enough presence in the scene, you can forget about listening at home because the radio show will be cancelled. You can look at Sirius as the first example of that. They have cut the GDJB down to only the first hour to make room for guys who have radio hits right now. There is now big pressure to keep up or be pushed aside. The sad fact is 90% of the tunes I play on a normal GDJB (which are amazing), flop in a live set. When I say flop, I am talking nobody moving on the floor, people leaving, people flipping you off and yelling to play harder. I have seen it all. This is a pretty uncomfortable feeling when you have the promoter who books you standing in the booth with you. You either realize quickly that you better rock the club or you will not be booked back.
I sincerely hope that the Global DJ Broadcast will keep on playing on forever, if you must charge me for this opportunity I would gladly pay it because it's that good. Markus digs deeper than most Trance podcasts that I know of to bring us some fresh tunes to listen to every week. If that goes away I believe the Trance scene would actually suffer a major blow.
I have a thought.... Maybe Trance music is heading back underground? Just as long as I still have TATW-ASOT broadcast events and podcasts, and amazing clubs like Circus Afterhours, Guvernment, and Stereo then I'm good to go.
This is what I know, Markus Schulz tickets at Stereo Nightclub in Montreal were SOLD OUT at least a month in advance so that shows me that there is strong demand for his rabbit hole style sets.
Keep on doing what you're doing Markus, you have my full support.
(Source: Markus Schulz Message Board)