Dancing Astronaut
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Dancing Astronaut is an American media platform founded in 2009 that primarily covers the electronic dance music industry. The website covers concerts and festivals, reports on entertainment news, reviews music, and publishes original content syndicated across on-demand audio platforms.


History

Dancing Astronaut was started in 2009 by Kevin Kaiser and Senthil Chidambaram as a platform for the emerging electronic dance music culture. As electronic dance music grew in popularity in the United States, Dancing Astronaut became known as the source of information that provided the youth audience with detailed insights into the expanding community. The company was incorporated in 2012 and has 6 founding members: Senthil Chidambaram, Kevin Kaiser, Zeyad Assaf, Tim Lim, Jacob Schulman, and David Giamanco. In 2012, Billboard Magazine referred to Dancing Astronaut as "The voice of the EDM generation." Profiling the notable companies in the rapidly expanding industry of electronic dance music, Billboard's article titled The Takeover of EDM also praised Dancing Astronaut for its "style that resonates with EDM’s young fan base" and as a "content company with a strong, recognizable brand already in place." Billboard positioned Dancing Astronaut as a valuable asset if it were to be acquired by Robert Sillerman's SFX Entertainment. In January 2014, Dancing Astronaut re-launched their website to "showcase interactive media in dynamic, innovative ways." Expanding beyond the original blogroll format, Dancing Astronaut introduced a new user experience to change the way its audience engaged with content, creating conversation around news and music. Later that year, Dancing Astronaut was named in the "Top 20 Most Influential Music Blogs" by Digital Music News. In 2015 it had been rumored that Dancing Astronaut had been acquired by a major event promoter, with speculative parent companies Live Nation, SFX Entertainment, or AEG. The New York Times reported that Dancing Astronaut was "in talks to be acquired by Insomniac, a dance promoter whose majority owner is Live Nation." Dancing Astronaut has been nominated for Best Music Media Resource at the International Dance Music Awards each year since 2014.


Radio

In January 2012, Dancing Astronaut launched their flagship podcast, Axis, hosting DJ mixes from guest artists on a weekly basis. Syndicated on iTunes and SoundCloud, each episode garners tens of thousands of listeners. Dancing Astronaut has produced over 180 episodes of Axis entering 2017, with guests including
Martin Garrix Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix and also as Ytram and GRX, is a Dutch disc jockey and music producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—201 ...
,
Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the Worl ...
, and others.


Brand partnerships

Dancing Astronaut has been the official media partner various music festivals across the globe including New York City's Electric Zoo,
TomorrowWorld TomorrowWorld was an electronic music festival, held in the Atlanta metropolitan area within the town of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. Held from 2013 to 2015, the festival was a spinoff of the Belgian festival Tomorrowland. The festival was ow ...
, Mysteryland (US) and Ultra Europe. P Diddy’s
Revolt Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
network partnered with Dancing Astronaut for their Summer Madness campaign in 2014 to further tap into the dance music audience. In 2014, Dancing Astronaut was a launch partner of Beats Music, one of the initial brands to serve as guest programmers to the streaming service, alongside outlets such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. Following Apple’s acquisition of Beats Music, Dancing Astronaut was again tapped as a featured curator of
Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Appl ...
upon its launch in 2015.


In popular culture


The mainstream discussion

On June 24, 2012, former Editor-in-Chief Jacob Schulman published an editorial entitled "Dance Music Has Gone Mainstream, But It Doesn’t Have to Sell Out" which addressed the controversy surrounding EDM's rising popularity. The article went viral, becoming Dancing Astronaut's most read article to date, opening the subject for discussion and examination from music critics and cultural experts around the world.


will.i.am controversy

On April 16, 2013, Dancing Astronaut published a report accusing famed producer will.i.am of stealing from the production of " Rebound" by Arty and Mat Zo for his own single, " Let's Go" featuring Chris Brown. The article provoked instant responses from Chris Brown, who tweeted his defense of participation on the song. Dancing Astronaut's findings were picked up by major US news outlets and became the center of controversy that questioned will.i.am's ethics, ultimately leading to the producer's admission later that month.


Breaking Daft Punk's return

On January 26, 2013, Dancing Astronaut broke the news in the United States that
Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...
would be leaving their longtime record label EMI to sign with Sony's Columbia Records for the release of their fourth studio album. The break lead to mainstream news outlets reporting on Daft Punk's future plans, as well as an imminent confirmation.


References


External links

*{{official, http://dancingastronaut.com American music websites Internet properties established in 2009