Too Long, Don’t Want To Read? Summary:
1) Don’t trust an article by its title, even if it says leaking or breaking news, etc… 
2) DJ Mag is not objective thus their ranking does not matter.
3) Media companies all operate the same way and seek profit before anything else.
4) Blogs should not hype an announcement prior to not fully understanding what they are releasing.
An interesting turn of events is the only series of words that can describe the very recent and still occurring debacle surrounding DJ Mag. Now if you are just tuning in, let’s turn back the clocks and give you a concise history lesson.
U.K. based DJ Magazine, also known as DJ Mag, has recently made a statement concerning the ‘blatant’ cheating by DJs worldwide on their Top 100 DJs ranking. The cheating in this specific case pertains to that of a recorded ability to purchase votes and boost rankings. In response to the alleged cheating, DJ Mag stated that it will track and denounce all the DJs involved, as the process of uncovering the perpetrators appears to be easy and quick. Now, fast forward about a week past that announcement. DJ Mag makes their first revelation and expulsion: Miss Diamond. After said press release, the Swiss star received more attention and time in the limelight than she ever had in her career, being on the headline spot of every blog in the scene. Among those blogs was EDM Snob, a young yet loud site that has the tendency of bringing up hot topics in their weekly releases. In the days following the denunciation, the only writer of the site, called The Snob, announced that he had acquired information concerning all of the DJs who had potentially cheated. Giving DJ Mag the chance of announcing the culprits, The Snob advertised that he will, if no action has been undertaken by DJ Mag, announce the full list of artists involved on today’s date, Monday August 13th.
Monday rolls around and no announcement has been made by DJ Mag, and thus, keeping true to his word, EDM Snob releases his post. But here comes the catch: his piece has absolutely nothing to do with the actual top 100 DJs ranking. It instead focuses on some documents that The Snob discovered pertaining to artists paying large sums of money–up to 13,000 pounds–to the magazine in exchange for advertising in the upcoming monthly issue. In the following issue, not only are there advertising pages dedicated to the artists who shelled out the large checks, but also included are some short featured articles that focus on said artists. Seeing this, The Snob decides to put to rest his old plans and solely deliver his assumption that the sums of money are for more than just advertisements.
There are multiple problems that sprung up from this due to his course of action. For one, these are assumptions based not on ‘secret’ documents but private invoices. These invoices are not secretive nor should they be considered as such; instead these invoices clearly state what they are intended for: advertisement. In addition, the type of advertisement package offered by DJ Mag in exchange for the payment is not stated in any way by The Snob and thus can be very well considered as including these featured articles.
I am not attempting to defend either party, but more so pointing out how this entire ordeal was poorly conducted. DJ Mag is disliked due to attempting to maintaining an image of objectivity while accepting payments for featured articles. On the other hand, this technique is one that is not solely used by the UK magazine, but is present throughout the music and media industry. It is not uncommon for artists’ management teams to pay for heightened advertising fees in exchange for preferred treatment and coverage. Now DJ Mag, claiming to host this objective top 100 DJs ranking, is seriously losing any credibility it might have remaining after this sudden exposure of practices, but on the other side, EDM Snob did not do much better by promising content and leaks that never occurred in exchange for juicy but poorly presented and orchestrated content.
Overall, what happened today showcases many faulty aspects of the industry, not only on the end of the marketers, media, and other corporations, but also on those of blogs and sites like EDM Snob. These sites are so eager to release any sort of content and embellish its content not unlike a tabloid, generally devaluing their credibility. So, in conclusion, this has been an overly hyped release, which, in the end, reinforced our distrust in DJ Mag by making us realize that they act in a similar fashion as every other big media company. Now, this is my opinion, and I realize that some might disagree, but please, let us know what your thoughts are in the comment section.
P.S.: DJ Mag has responded to EDM Snob’s accusation, click here to view the official statement
