we’ve teamed up with the best 2012Off Sonar parties and our friends at East Ender Festival Barcelona to give away 52 Club Tickets and 2 VIP Festival Passes for our 13 favorite events.
Here are our party recommendations picked by our editors.
HOW TO WIN – 2 VIP Festival Passes (valid for 4 days)
1.) Like the Play.fm Facebook page 2.) Send us an email to win@play.fm using the subject “OFF Sonar Giveaway” and include your full name & the name/date of the one party you want to win tickets for.
Note: Only 1 mail per person. You cannot enter for multiple parties, choose your favourite! Giveaway ends June 10th.
WIN 2×2 Tickets for LOUD pres. Next Wave
Wednesday June 13th @ Centric Club
Line-Up Highlights: Vera, Valentino Kanzyani, Cassy, Binh, …
WIN 2×2 Tickets for Digital Delight & Mexa Showcase
Wednesday June 13th @ Poble Espanyol
Line-Up Highlights: Death on the Balcony, Damian Uzabiaga, Miguel Puente, …
WIN 2×2 Tickets for Upon.You meets Serialism
Wednesday June 13th @ Hotel Omm
Line-Up Highlights: Marco Resmann, Cesare vs. Disorder, Onno, Sierra Sam, …
– Thursday June 14th –
WIN 2×2 Tickets for Mobilee & Friends Pool Session
Thursday June 14th @ Piscinas Municipales Montjuic
Line Up Highlights: Slam, Anja Schneider, Dan Curtin, …
WIN 5×2 Tickets for One Illusion
Thursday June 14th @ Casa del Cris Mansion
Line-Up Highlights: Burnski, Subb-an, H Foundation, Bloody Mary, …
– Friday June 15th –
WIN 2×2 Tickets for LOUD pres. Esperanza Showcase
Friday June 15th @ ZT Hotel Villa Olímpic & Suites
Line-Up Highlights: Dorian Paic, Federico Molinari, Damian Schwartz, …
WIN 2×2 Tickets for Olympic OFF Marathon – Final Lap
Friday June 15th @ Piscinas Municipales Montjuic
Line-Up Highlights: Jennifer Cardini, Christian Smith, Marco Bailey, …
– Saturday June 16th –
WIN 2×2 Tickets for Harry Klein vs. Resolute NYC vs. Just Wax
Saturday June 16th @ Centric Club
Line-Up Highlights: DJ T, Tobi Neumann, Jeremy P. Caulfield, Dario Zenker, …
WIN 2×2 Tickets for FACT Music Pool pres. It’s a fucking Poolparty
Saturday June 16th @ Piscinas Municipales Montjuic
Line-Up Highlights: Guy Gerber, Seth Troxler, Behroux, Footprintz, …
– Sunday June 17th –
WIN 2×2 Tickets for Get Physical Pool Party
Sunday June 17th @ Piscinas Municipales Montjuic
Line-Up Highlights: Smash TV, Booka Shade, M.A.N.D.Y., Catz n Dogz, …
—–
Make sure to check our Off Sonar Festival Page. Our best party recordings can be found there shortly after the festival.
In Volume 5 of our “Meet The Team” series we introduce the founder and CEO of Play.fm, Georg:
How did you come up with the idea for Play.fm?
To understand how the idea developed I need to go back in time. I´ve been listening to internet radio since the mid 90ies, eg interFACE Pirate Radio (http://www.pirate-radio.org/) and beta Lounge (http://www.betalounge.com/) and later also Samurai.fm (http://samurai.fm/). At that time there were no filesharing platforms or download shops established yet, not even mp3 files were available (only realtime streams) and I was still recording radio shows from FM4 (an Austrian FM station) on cassettes.
Then, at the beginning of the millennium, I started DJing and organising parties with the Melt crew. We thought it would be cool to record our parties and make the recordings available on our party website. At the same time FM4´s focus became more and more indie/alternative during the day and electronic music shows were moved to a few spots in the late evenings – not enough space to present the great variety of music enthusiasts, DJs, labels and promoters Vienna (and Austria) had to offer. The idea of Play.fm was born (2003).
Describe the beginning of the project and all it’s difficulties.
Haha, all the difficulties would fill a fat book. More important to mention is that without the help of so many people working for the project or supporting it somehow it wouldn´t have been possible. In April of 2004 we moved into a small room at Museumsquartier Vienna which served as an office as well as a radio studio. With the help of the Melt crew we set up a mini website on some university server, and soon we were joined by other people who wanted to work with us, programmers, server admins, graphic designers, DJs and many other helping hands. I remember that we only had money to pay the rent for two months when we moved in, so everyone had to work for free and all other costs could be covered by selling beer (and some public funding we received later). First, we began recording parties in Vienna and published the recordings on the site. End of 2004, with the launch of a new website, we also started a daily live programme produced by Viennese DJs, promoters and label owners in our studio. Soon, hundreds of mixes and radio shows were available in the database and could be listened to on demand.
How did Play.fm change over time?
Quite a lot I´d say. As more and more DJs asked us to publish their mixes on our website and our editors had to do that for them manually, the work load for our team increased steadily. We had to think about another model to finance the whole project, so we made a concept for a new web 2.0 website (the current), applied for public funding, founded a company in 2008 and launched the new site in March 2009. Many people who had worked with us at the beginning had to finish university, got new jobs or founded a family, so the team had changed over the years. Also, when our contract for the studio at Museumsquartier ended in 2009 and we couldn´t find a similarily cool place, eventually we stopped the live programme and focused on developing the website.
What is your job at Play.fm?
I´m mainly responsible for strategic and business development, the further development of the website and our mobile apps. But as the founder I like to be involved in everything a bit.
What did you do before Play.fm?
After school I went to Tijuana/Mexico to work with kids in a slum, studied Business Administration and Economics in Vienna and Mexico City, worked as a research assistant for knowledge management at ECDPM in Maastricht, worked for an elearning company that went bankrupt in the dot-com crisis, tried my luck with party promotion and eventually used the time of unemployment to build up Play.fm.
What are you currently working on, are there any special projects?
I (and the whole team) am working on the relaunch of the user dashboard and the user profiles. They will be so much better and more social than the old ones, that´s why we can´t wait seeing you use them on the live site.
What are the near future plans for Play.fm?
Not so near maybe but one of the top plans is to rebuild the whole system with new technology. When we started building the site in 2008 we had to build a lot of stuff by ourselves that can now be replaced by better working open source technology. The big plan is to make the site simpler and faster.
What is the feature you like the most on Play.fm?
The new userprofile :)
What is your favourite mix on Play.fm?
If we had the new user profile ready I´d say “go and have a look”. But let me give you three (still not representative for all the genres I like):
Sorry folks, I have favorite DJs, favorite Sets and love the music that these DJs play. I like most of the tracks they play, but I cannot identify any favorite artists/producers. When I was a drum and bass DJ I had some favorite producers, eg Kemal & Rob Data, Marcus Intalex, Influx Datum, Total Science, Digital and many more. And I still love the old records I have, most of them from 1998-2005.
Best club you’ve ever been to?
The one with best (and most) memories: Flex/Vienna. But times change.
And I have particular great memories about a club I played in Moscow called Beafeater, not because of the location but the people that went totally crazy with the Spanish MC we had with us. That was insane.
…and the best live performance?
Prince @ Stadthalle/Vienna 1987
Can you remember which was the first album you ever bought?
Prince: Sign o´the Times
Tell us the most embarrassing tune of your youth you still like?
Steve Miller Band: Abracadabra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QyoRzZrF00
What makes you go mad?
go mad: people making excuses
go sad: DJs who give a shit about beatmatching
go to bed: a bad soundsystem
What are you doing on your day off?
Go and say hello to mother nature. Rivers, lakes, woods, mountains & the sea – I would die without.
What would we find in your refrigerator right now?
There´s always a stoli. And about 100 different jams I never finish.
Give us five of your all time favourite tracks.
Some all time favorites from my record collection…
Kemal & Rob Data: The Encripter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HqOYrz_EEA
Marcus Intalex & ST Files: How you make me feel (Photek Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBqwanLiuWE
Count Basic / The Kruder & Dorfmeister Session: Speechless (DnB)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAZPPY6Rp0M
Rhythm & Sound w/ Jennifer Lara: Queen in my Empire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaROjQLZ7_0
Mika: Tomorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iblMTNdLiQM
How did you come up with the idea for Play.fm?
To understand how the idea developed I need to go back in time. I´ve been listening to internet radio since the mid 90ies, eg interFACE Pirate Radio and Beta Lounge and later also Samurai.fm. At that time there were no filesharing platforms or download shops established yet, not even mp3 files were available (only realtime streams) and I was still recording radio shows from FM4 (an Austrian FM station) on cassettes.
Then, at the beginning of the millennium, I started DJing and organising parties with the Melt crew. We thought it would be cool to record our parties and make the recordings available on our party website. At the same time FM4´s focus became more and more indie/alternative during the day and electronic music shows were moved to a few spots in the late evenings – not enough space to present the great variety of music enthusiasts,DJs, labels and promoters Vienna (and Austria) had to offer. The idea of Play.fm was born (2003).
Describe the beginning of the project and all it’s difficulties.
Haha, all the difficulties would fill a fat book. More important to mention is that without the help of so many people working for the project or supporting it somehow it wouldn´t have been possible. In April 2004 we moved into a small room at Museumsquartier Vienna which served as an office as well as a radio studio. With the help of the Melt crew we set up a mini website on some university server, and soon we were joined by other people who wanted to work with us, programmers, server admins, graphic designers, DJs and many other helping hands. I remember that we only had money to pay the rent for two months when we moved in, so everyone had to work for free and all other costs could be covered by selling beer (and some public funding we received later). First, we began recording parties in Vienna and published the recordings on the site. End of 2004, with the launch of a new website, we also started a daily live programme produced by Viennese DJs, promoters and label owners in our studio. Soon, hundreds of mixes and radio shows were available in the database and could be listened to on demand.
We’ve digged into our photo archive and found some old pics from back in the days…
How did Play.fm change over time?
Quite a lot I´d say. As more and more DJs asked us to publish their mixes on our website and our editors had to do that for them manually, the work load for our team increased steadily. We had to think about another model to finance the whole project, so we made a concept for a new web 2.0 website (the current), applied for public funding, founded a company in 2008 and launched the new site in March 2009. Many people who had worked with us at the beginning had to finish university, got new jobs or founded a family, so the team had changed over the years. Also, when our contract for the studio at Museumsquartier ended in 2009 and we couldn´t find a similarily cool place, eventually we stopped the live programme and focused on developing the website.
In Volume 4 of our “Meet The Team” series we introduce our new marketing intern at the Play.fm office, Matthias:
See what he says in the following Question & Answer:
What is your job as an intern at Play.fm?
As an intern, the Play.fm team tries to involve me into their work routine as much as they can. So I am assisting them on bigger projects as well as on daily tasks. My work here includes the assistance in establishing partnerships, research work in all kinds of fields and working on marketing related concepts. At the moment I started research on potential partners (Clubs, Artists, Labels,..) in Sweden, since I spent a longer period of time there and therefore am quite familiar with its music scene. Other bigger projects I m currently involved in include the planning of a DJ competition, the development of a concept for the upcoming Ambassadors Program and the improvement of Play.fm’s social media integration.
Why did you apply for an internship at Play.fm?
I graduated in December with a Bachelor’s degree in Business and I have to wait till June to start my Master’s Program. Since I can’t sit on my ass for almost half a year I was looking for internships on the Internet. Eventually I came across an ad for a marketing internship at Play.fm. I had been listening to sets on Play.fm for quite some time so I was already familiar with the brand and also had a very positive attitude towards it. Additionally, my Master’s Program will be in Creative Production and Arts Management, which made the whole music industry aspect of Play.fm a main factor in applying for the internship. For that reason and also because I specialized in marketing in my previous studies, I thought of it as the perfect opportunity to get some practical experience in the field I am planning to work in and to fill the gap between my studies.
In Volume 3 of our “Meet The Team” series we introduce our new business & marketing internat the Play.fm office, Roman:
See what he says in the following Question & Answer:
What is your job at Play.fm?
As a marketing and business intern I am working on different special projects as well as on daily routine jobs. I do the research and concept for a possible Play.fm desktop app. Besides that I am working on an exploitation strategy for our Augmented Reality research project. Keeping in touch with our Slovenian and Croatian content partners is also an important part of my work and since I speak Slovenian and Croatian fluently it’s also good fun for me.
Last but not least I am mentoring and analyzing the download and sales figures of the Play.fm Apps.
Why did you apply for an internship at Play.fm?
As Business Management student at the Carinthian University for Applied Sciences (CUAS) I have to do a 3 month internship. I was never a fan of huge companies and I never wanted to do my internship in a company with a strict hierarchy and a 2000 m² office. I prefer to work in smaller companies with creative teams. During my research for an interesting internship I listened to some DJ-Sets on Play.fm and after I searched for a few hours I thought “Play.fm would be the perfect place for my internship”. I checked their website and found out that Play.fm offers some interesting internships. I transmitted my letter of application and since 2 months I am here in Vienna.
In Volume 2 of our “Meet The Team” series we introduce Esi, founder member of Play.fm and Chief Editor.
See what she says in the following Question & Answer:
What is your job at Play.fm?
I’m Chief Editor and responsible for all editorial content featured on the website and our social media channels. I’m also taking care of all cooperations with festivals, labels, artists & clubs around the globe. Additionally I’m doing the graphic design for the website and all upcoming new features.
How do you choose your features, like the “Set of the Day” on Facebook or the website frontpage features?
It’s hard to choose the perfect set each day. I’m constantly going through our archives and look out for what our partners upload on Play.fm. I would say the key is to keep balance between well known DJs and more unknown newcomers. I’m trying to vary musical genres and most importantly go beyond my personal musical preferences.
You can also send me “Set of the Day” recommendations to office@play.fm
What are you currently working on, are there any special projects?
I’m currently working on planning our Festival Season 2012 which means I’m deciding with which festivals we’re going to team up with to record the best performances for you.
I’m also planning our Social Media activities together with my intern Fabian for the upcoming months. We’re always trying to keep you guys entertained by posting interesting stories, competitions, and videos on our Facebook page or blog.
Lastly I’m finishing up the screen design for some exciting new website features (get yourself prepared for an all new dashboard and user profile) that will be released soon.
There’s always a lot to do, my job never gets boring.
Whats the Play.fm feature you like the most?
Something super simple – I actually really like our genre tag cloud because of the immediate access to sets from a certain genre.
Your favourite mix on Play.fm?
Can’t really decide on one favourite mix. I do like the whole No More Pop Series a lot, though.
Is there a special memory concerning Play.fm you can share with us?
There was that one night at the 2009 Miami Winter Music Conference. We were invited to a private Gigolo Records party at a club called Goldrush which surprisingly turned out to be a 1000 square feet strip club. We ended up having the biggest fun in between tons of naked women and some friends from the industry while DJ Hell, Peter Kruder and Christian Prommer played some fantastic sets.
Icing on the cake was the clubs “host”, a 60 year old beardy trucker guy who worked as some sort of moderator/MC and introduced all guests to the girls stepping on/off stage and announced “lap dance happy hours” while the Djs where playing.
We recorded some parts of the night but unfortunately weren’t allowed to put the recordings online afterwards. Nevertheless here’s an one hour snippet including the trucker host doing his “thing”.
