DJ Mag


DJ Magazine is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Latin America, China, South Korea, Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

History

An earlier version of the magazine appeared towards the end of the 1980s when it was then known as Disc Jockey Magazine the name was then changed to Jocks Magazine however this name was quickly dropped and the publication underwent re-branding. After this process the first issue of DJ Magazine or DJ Mag launched in the middle of 1991: it was initially produced as weekly publication with Chris Mellor as its first editor. The magazine at this point was already the UK's top-selling disc jockey magazine.
The first edition featured artists such as Frankie Knuckles and the Ragga Twins. In 1992 the magazine decided to switch to bi-weekly publishing due to increasing workload which would remain in place till 2008. During its first two years the editorial staff of the magazine voted for their DJ of the Year: initially this was a short list, however this was later expanded to become a Top 100 list that first appeared in the magazine's 100th edition on 21 October 1993.
In 1994 the band Underworld featured on the cover due in part to their breakthrough album. Other artists featured that year included established names like Armand van Helden, Erick Morillo, but also breakthrough DJs such as DJ Rap. By the summer of 1995, the magazine began to regularly feature Ibiza due its increasing popularity as a clubbing destination; the magazine also set-up stall at the Winter Music Conference held in Miami, United States. In 1997, the magazine featured new British house duo Basement Jaxx on its front page. Artists appearing on the cover of the magazine towards the end of the 1990s included the likes of Jeff Mills, Deep Dish, Orbital, Laurent Garnier, and Danny Tenaglia.
In 1999, the magazine would feature DJs on its front page exploring the rise of Trance Music. The publication wrote extensively about the use of drugs and their prevalence within the dance music scene.
Beginning in late 2000, the magazine launched its first pilot website. By November 2000, Highbury House Communications had bought Nexus, the magazine's publisher, and the magazine moved its editorial offices to Kentish Town, North London. In 2001 dance music journalist Lesley Wright, who was then editor of Scottish dance publication M8 magazine was hired to replace Chris Mellor as Editor-in-Chief after 10 years running the editorial staff.
In 2002 Fatboy Slim was featured in the July issue after his free event held in Brighton, England attracted approximately 250,000 clubbers. In 2003 the parent company of the publication merged with the magazine publisher WVIP. From 2005 the magazine started to expand its publication overseas to include places like Central and South America, Germany, France and Spain. In 2006 the magazine was sold to Future plc, one of the largest UK media companies. Since 2008 the title has been owned and operated by independent publishing company Thrust Publishing Ltd.
In 2011 the magazine was launched in the USA. After 10 years at the helm of the magazine, editor Lesley Wright left and was replaced by Carl Loben. In 2012 the publication switched production to a monthly format. Currently the owners of the publication are looking to expand into new markets through licensing deals in the Middle East, Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and China.
The current format for the magazine includes sections on dance music industry news, regular features, reviews covering clubs, EDM/dance music, technical equipment; it also includes current Top 100 lists as well as coverage of up and coming EDM events. DJ Mag runs a number of awards including its Top 100 DJ Poll, Top 100 Club Poll, Top 100 Festivals Poll, Best of British Awards and its Tech Awards.

Current components

DJ Magazine currently includes:
The magazine's biggest property is a list of the World's most popular DJs, called Top 100 DJs. The poll attracted over one million votes in 2015, making it the World's biggest music poll. Danny Rampling was the first winner named as the number one DJ in the world by the magazines journalists in 1991. In 1992 Smokin Jo was named the number one DJ by the magazine editors and she is still the only female DJ to have ever won DJ Magazines highly coveted DJ of the Year award. In 1993 to celebrate the 100th edition of DJ Magazine. The magazine introduced a Top 100 list that was still compiled by its staff until 1996 for the previous five years the system for nominee selection and then voting to determine the winners was similar to that of current Grammy Awards and the Brit Awards in that dance music industry specialists decided on who was nominated and who won the award. However, in 1997 the decision was taken by the publication to let the readers of the magazine decide who they thought was the worlds top DJ and in 1997 British DJ Carl Cox was the first winner of the Top 100 DJs Award by public vote. As of 2017, Fergie holds the record for the highest new entry in the poll's history, achieved when he placed 8th in 2000. Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren currently holds the record of most overall wins with five and a record four consecutively.
The awards party for the poll was traditionally hosted at the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London. For the 2011 poll, the event was hosted outside of the UK for the first time in its history, being staged at the 2011's edition of the Amsterdam dance event. The 2012 and 2013 award shows were both held on 19 October at the same event. Up until 2002, the top three had consisted of at least one British DJ, since the next year at least two Dutch DJ's have featured in the top three. In 2015 the Top 100 DJs Awards Party took place as the headline moment of the Amsterdam Music Festival. Over 40,000 guests witnessed the crowning of 2015's winner's Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Following the Amsterdam event, the winning DJs were flown to London, where they performed to a sold out Brixton Academy for the Top 100 DJs London show.
Top 100 DJs is considered to be hugely important to DJs as an influencer of booking fees and their current level of popularity. DJs regularly campaign for votes, a process which is allowed by the magazine. Dutch DJ Hardwell once did a skydive as part of his campaign video; David Guetta regularly creates animated videos as part of his voting campaign; Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike released an exclusive mix to their fans as part of their 2015 campaign. However, due to the weight that is placed on Top 100 DJs ranking by bookers worldwide, there have been criticisms of the poll.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the 2020 DJ poll will be delivered virtually regardless of if Amsterdam Music Festival 2020 goes ahead or is cancelled.

Criticisms

Top 100 DJs has been criticised as being heavily influenced by the marketing power of DJs, rather than their skill or ability. An article that appeared on the US section of the Huffington Post in July 2013, entitled "DJMag Top 100 DJs", explores this claim. Its author, Kevin Yu, stated that "Over the past few years, DJ Mag has been criticized that the list is not a true representation of their skills, but instead the amount of money they can put towards marketing". Yu asked, "Has the DJMag list transformed into a popularity contest or is it still a resemblance of the DJs talent?".
The list has also been criticized for not including a more balanced reflection of artists from other Electronic dance music styles and showing rankings based on less commercial mainstream DJs. A feature in The Guardian in 2010 by the journalist Ben Child entitled "What does DJ Mag's top 100 poll tell us about UK dance music? Not much" explores this further, noting that:
What's surprising, at least to those of us who don't enjoy the more mainstream genres, is the paucity of artists from outside the house and trance scenes in the top 100. This has pretty much always been the case, with the odd Drum 'N' Bass or Breakbeat acts occasionally making it into the lower reaches in years gone by, but this year's situation is particularly extreme. There is just one artist Andy C whose music is not based on the standard four-to-the-floor beat pattern adopted by mainstream dance music in the top 100 - and he has been around for more than a decade and a half.

Results

DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs is an annual poll run by DJ Magazine to decide the worlds number one DJ. The poll started in 1991 and for first two years the magazine's journalists selected their top 100 DJ's of the year 1993 saw the poll expand to a top 100 poll where the journalists would decide their top 100 DJs in the world. In 1997 the magazine opened the top 100 list to a public vote which has remained the used format to this day.

1991–1996

1997–present

Statistics

''Top 100 Clubs''

DJ Magazine also runs an annual poll called Top 100 Clubs used to decide the worlds number one club which began in 2006.

Results

Statistics

''Top 100 Festivals''

From 2015, the voters of the DJ Magazine's top one hundred clubs have also voted on the world's number one festival. No poll was held in 2018. However, in 2019 however the DJs themselves voted on their favourite festival in a top 50 format similar to the DJ and club poll run by the magazine. In 2020 the format was changed to a 20% DJ vote and 80% Public vote, and was increased to a top 100 format.

Results

2015–2017

2019–present

Statistics

''Best of British'' Awards

The Best Of British Awards were launched by DJ Mag in 2007 to celebrate dance music talent and platforms within Great Britain.

Best DJ

Best Breakthrough DJ

Awards for ''DJ Mag''

DJ Awards

The DJ Awards organizes the annual electronic music DJ awards event it is the only international ceremony for DJs and also the oldest, the awards are held once a year at Pacha club in Ibiza, Spain it is one of the most important accolades.
YearCategoryWorkResult
2005Outstanding Dedication AwardDJ Magazine

International Dance Music Awards

The IDMAs is a major event which is part of the Winter Music Conference, a weeklong electronic music conference, held every March since 1985 in Miami Beach, Florida, United States. DJ Magazine has won the award for Best Music Publication 14 times, winning every year this category has been awarded.
YearCategoryWorkResult
2003Best Dance Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2004Best Dance Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2005Best Dance Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2006Best Dance Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2007Best Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2008Best Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2009Best Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2010Best Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2011Best Music PublicationDJ Magazine
2012Best Music Media ResourceDJ Magazine
2013Best Music Media ResourceDJ Magazine
2014Best Music Media ResourceDJ Magazine
2015Best Music Media ResourceDJ Magazine
2016Best Music Media ResourceDJ Magazine