2016 Most Important Song Yet?

One of the most important songs of 2016 dropped just last week and if you haven’t heard it yet, your new music game is clearly lacking. It is common for artists to sing, rap, and produce a lot of the same content or similar lyrics. An obvious example of this is rappers being continually criticized for rapping about money, drugs and girls. But in the music world it is very rare for artists to speak out and speak up on the injustices of the world. Some reasons for the rarity of this are obvious; they are scared of criticism, backlash, loss of fan base, etc. One artist, who is no newcomer to RisingMusicTalent, has put all those fears behind him and put out the music he believes in. Stephen gets very sincere in his newest must listen track, Sincerely.

As I said previously, Stephen has been a big focus of this blog when we first wrote about the massive Electric Forest lineup that he landed a spot on. If you are a regular here on the site, you might have caught the post about Electric Forest Alcohol Ban, if you didn’t read up here. Stephen was our first feature on our Artist Watch List here at RisingMusicTalent. We knew Stephen has something very special that may be because he isn’t afraid to do things his own way. Regardless, keep your eyes on this kid for the rest of 2016; he is going to be making some big, big moves.

Apple Music Streaming Service

The rise of music streaming service has been apparent over the past couple of years. We have watched Spotify grow from their purpose of just streaming music to getting involved in an assortment of industries and soring to unimaginable heights. But I think Spotify has finally been one upped, compliments of Apple Music. When comparing Apple Music to Spotify there are some clear differences on both ends and it isn’t surprising that Apple Music is coming out on top. With Apple Music you have access to over 30 million songs for the price of $9.99 a month, but you can test it out for 3 months for free here. Apple Music went after something most streaming services didn’t put too much thought into – fans connecting to artists. With their “Connect” feature artists choose to post what they want, unreleased music, videos, etc., and fans are able to connect with artists on a deeper level by having access to that material and liking or adding their two sense in with a comment. Another area where Apple Music is proving to be a strong competitor is their artist curated radio station. Apple music gives fan the most recent music, interviews and industry discussion through their ‘Beats 1’ radio station. But that’s not all; the radio station is curated and hosted by Zane Lowe. Hand picked artist selections and playlist by one of the greatest is enough to do it for me, if you haven’t yet I suggest you check out Apple Music.

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Review: Illenium 'Ashes to Ashes'

            Illeniumhas proven to be a key player in the melodic bass game over the past year. He started slowly gaining traction by remixing big name artists that ultimately grew the majority of his fan base. Once Illenium started putting out his own original music, that’s when the heads really started to turn. A couple of months ago Illenium released his second Ashes to Ashes hour long mix that came very close to incredible. 10 days ago he released his official ten-track album, ‘Ashes’, to his fans for free. Now this album is nothing short of incredible all the way through. A couple of the tracks on the album have been previously released but the majority is all brand new material. Illenium teams up with plenty of talented vocalists such as Joni Fatora and Quinn XCII, which really pull this whole album together. The melodic bass scene is sort of niche right now but with players like Illenium continuously putting out material like ‘Ashes’ I can definitely see the market growing. You can already see the scene evolving, producers jumping on these trends trying to get in the game at the right time to blow up. Illenium did it the right way, put in his time, developed music that he believed in and now he is one of the biggest names in this style of EDM. If you haven’t hear “Ashes’ yet grab the download below for FREE, and I bet you won’t take it off repeat for a couple days. Enjoy!

NEWS: Tomorrowland Releases First 2 MASSIVE Headliners for 2016

Some huge news regarding the worlds best EDM music festival, Tomorrowland,  hit Twitter this morning and it’s breaking the Internet. Two of the biggest names in progressive house, Eric Prydz and Deadmau5, will be headlining the event which is incredible, but that’s not all. They will be performing together, yes at the same time, on the same stage as a "mau5trap vs. Pryda" style battle for their fans. This is a first for Tomorrowland, but not for Prydz or Deadmau5 as they performed the same type battle at Hard Day of the Dead in 2014. Social media has been exploding all day about this announcement and I can see it pouring into the rest of the week as more blogs and fans pick it up. Eric Prydz recently dropped his new album, which is nothing short of extraordinary. Deadmau5 has also been in the news lately, no surprise for the notorious troll, but mainly talks about him headlining the ASOT stage at UMF in Miami coming up in March. For those of you that have never heard or been to Tomorrowland, it is definitely the most talked about and most impressive festival experience ever created (see 2015 after movie below). If you ever get the opportunity to make your way out to Belgium for the most hyped festival of the season, DO IT no hesitation. It seems Prydz and Deadmau5 are off to an awesome start in the 2016 season and as far as Tomorrowland, they deserve an award for making this epic event come to life.  

Electric Forest Alcohol Ban

Live for Live Music covered the topic about a recent backlash from Electric Forest fans on their site, including Michigan state legislation that can be seen here. A couple weeks ago rumors about Electric Forest banning alcohol spread across social media resulting in nothing but angered fans. The four-day festival is known for it’s camping experience where attendees can bring in their own alcohol inside the campgrounds. Camping is what makes Forest different than many of the festivals today and taking away the alcohol aspect would definitely deter fans from purchasing tickets. The festival sells alcohol inside of the festival gates but these rumors created a huge backlash from fans, the majority of complaints implying that Forest wants to increase their own alcohol sales. The Live for Live Music blog post illustrates exactly what people were thinking when they originally heard the news. Electric Forest did finally respond to the backlash via Facebook clarifying their alcohol policy (see post below) that does in fact allow patrons to bring in alcohol to the campgrounds. This policy is a lot different than previous years proving to be much more strict on inspection. With the growing popularity of Electric Forest year after year it is understandable that they need to put limits and restrictions on these types of issues. Coming out with the alcohol policy after the festival sold out probably wasn’t the best move PR wise on their part but at least they have clarified and apologized at this point.

Debunking Martin Garrix is Marshmello Rumor

    The other week EDM Chicago posted an article written by an anonymous blogger titled "Five Oddly Compelling Reasons Marshmello is Martin Garrix". For those of you living under a rock and haven't heard of Marshmello yet, he is a pretty talented producer who has been stirring up debate across blogs and social media for the past year. Marshmello wants to be judged for his music - not the person he is, so as a result he wears an all white outfit and a marshmallow headpiece while performing his sets. No denying he produces a lot of good music, but he is backed by some big names in the industry such as Skrillex and JAUZ, which have helped him gain popularity immensely. The rumors of who Marshmello actually is have been going on since his first release but after you look at some evidence it's pretty clear all roads lead to producer DotCom, not Martin Garrix. The "compelling reasons" that the article suggested Marshmello is Garrix consist of posture, logo design, tour dates, clothing styles and go-to hype phrase. Garrix and Marshmello’s non-conflicting tour dates would probably be the only valid reason to have some belief that Garrix could be Marshmello but the rest of the reasons are pretty subpar proof. On the other hand, there is some pretty valid evidence Marshmello could be DotCom. During Katie Couric’s interview with Skrillex (see interview below), Skrillex received a phone call from Marshemllo and said “Hi Chris” as he answered the phone - Dotcom’s real name is Chris Comsworth. Another piece of evidence that I personally came across was on my twitter feed where Prince Fox tweets “Aaand @iamDOTCOM and @MtEdenOfficial enter the building” and in under a minute ThisSongSlaps.com tweeted “Sunday Funday with @PrinceFoxMusic and friends live. @marshmellomusic in the room”(see tweet below). There is a lot of other pressing evidence that Dotcom is in fact Marshmello but those two pieces alone were enough for me. I don’t see Marshmello ever coming out and confirming identity solely because the amount of debate creates so much buzz for him it’s free marketing.

Skrillex and Katie Couric interview: 

Tweet from Prince Fox and ThisSongSlaps:

Top 5 EDM Artists That Will Break in 2016

Predicting who is next to blow up in the EDM scene is always a big topic of discussion when the New Year begins. After a lot of fans and people involved in the music scene disagreed with DJ Magazines top 100 artists from 2015, it is clear that this is a topic creates a lot of debate. Moving away from artists that are already well established, I have thrown together a list of artists in the EDM scene who are destined to blow up throughout 2016. Here are five artists that I guarantee if you haven’t heard their name already, you will be the end of the year.

1) NGHTMRE: Going from playing early set times on no name stages in 2015 to headlining major festivals coming up in 2016, NGHTMRE is a name you will hear constantly. One of the most innovative and talented rising producers from North Carolina is stacking up massive collaborations with big time artists.

2) Getter: If you don’t know who created the viral social media “Suh dude?” epidemic, here’s your man. This dude is signed to OWSLA, which makes it almost inevitable that he will blow up learning from the likes of king Skrillex.

3) RUFUS: This Australian trio recently just dropped his new album ‘Bloom’ which is just shy of incredible. Working with some of the best on Foreign Family Collective, don’t be surprised when these guys attract an Odesza level fan-base in 2016.

4) Illenium: Colorado producer Illenium has made some decent noise in the past year but after dropping his newest album ‘Ashes’, for free, he has turned a lot heads in the melodic bass game. There is no surprise that he is on almost every festival lineup for the 2016 season.

5) Marshmello: This unknown producer has been putting out music for about a year now but he has just recently gained a lot of popularity on his first tour. A major reason for his popularity has been the online debate on who is actually the face behind the music, with most of the evidence leading to Dotcom, but regardless 2016 will be a massive year for this producer.

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