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| Mixify offers a virtual concert hall with a lot of social interaction |
Mixify helps artists experiment with new sounds and share new music.
The artists on Mixify are almost exclusively DJs and EDM (electric dance music) producers. Electric Dance Music has been gaining a lot of popularity over the last couple of years, with huge concerts like Ultra Music Festival, Electric Zoo, and Electric Daisy Carnival selling out venues and making millions for both themselves and the cities they are held in. Many concerts stream their shows on their websites like UMFTV (Ultra Music Festival TV). The genre is truly unique because since it is all created with online programs and sampling, the music never has to actually leave the internet and it is easy for fans to download. Many artists, like Armin Van Buuren and his ASOT (A State of Trance) series, use podcasts to get their new music out weekly so fans can always hear new music. Mixify takes that idea to a different level by allowing the DJ to not only share his music freely and easily, but simulate an actual concert and use background effects to match the music. The background effects give you the effect that you are at an actual concert and make the show considerably better. Often when I listen to music online, I wish that there was some video attached to it or something going on. The DJ also doesn't have to use their best and most known songs but rather can sample new sounds and experiment without real ridicule. DJs can test out songs and sounds they want to try at concerts but aren't sure how it would be perceived, in a concert setting. The fans then can give feedback and tell them what they liked and didn't like or have conversations with fellow concertgoers. Mixify has held their own online music festivals like their RISE Festival which had over 70,000 virtual concertgoers from 143 different countries tune in to see big acts like Knife Party, R3hab and Adrian Lux perform on their computer screen. When asked about Mixify's place in the Music Industry, Spektrem's Mike Gold says:
Music Festivals use Mixify to find new acts.
Mixify may have really found their niche in the music festival circuit. Labels and music festivals are always looking for the next big thing while upcoming artists are still trying to make some money and gain notoriety. Mixify lets the two groups meet, in a very smart public relations move, when they hold contests to find new artists for live festivals. At the same time it is public relations for both Mixify and the Festival because they both mention each other and their pursuit to help artists get bigger. For example, when the Meltdown Music Festival, held in Dallas with headliners Justice and Flux Pavilion, was looking for opening acts it relied on Mixify to find new upcoming artists for them. By seeing how many people would actually attend an online concert of the artist it allowed the concert to gauge how many would show up to an actual concert of them. Labels and the Festival were able to also see what fans had to say about them and made it relatively easy to pick winners and bring on new artists. Before this site finding opening acts was difficult and inefficient, this website allows the Festival to see exactly what the fans think. There is the possibility that these artists could even have their major breakthrough through this site. Gold recalls his experience with the Mixify contest as:
Mixify has started to do well but is still looking for more popularity.
While Mixify is a great idea and many EDM fans are starting to tune in, it is still relatively new and as Mike Gold said needs to become more popular in order to ensure its long term success. It will really start to gain popularity as more and more upcoming artists start to get their big break through the site, but this will take time. It has also just released a mobile app so that they can further integrate themselves into peoples lives and allow people to know what Mixify is doing while spreading new music on the go. It has also created a format for DJs to sell merchandise or raise money for charity on the site. University of Maryland Student Will Fleming had this to say about Mixify when asked in a Word on the Street interview:
