Yesterday, word spread that a DJ by the name of ALOK played a YouTube rip of deamau5‘s unreleased track “Imaginary Friends” on the Tomorrowland Brasil main stage, which irked the mau5 to the point of posting a few incendiary tweets. Later that day, deadmau5 continued to critique not only ALOK, but the institutions of Tomorrowland and DJs themselves as he responded to fans’ tweets directed at his original criticisms.
Deadmau5 directly tweeted at ALOK and asked him to stop playing the Youtube rip of “Imaginary Friends,” to which ALOK directly replied by apologizing and promising to stop playing the unreleased track. When asked if DJs get paid to play other artist’s music, deadmau5 claimed that no DJ should get paid for exclusively playing others’ music.
Dear @alokoficial please stop "performing" my unreleased music. Especially when you're getting paid to do so.
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) April 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/alokoficial/status/724977442222424064
no they fuckin dont. and no they fucking shouldnt. NOBODY should get paid to play a fuckin CD of other peoples shit. https://t.co/SJN3RTde2x
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) April 25, 2016
Deadmau5 went on to satirize Tomorrowland for booking him for their flagship festival in Belgium and then airing ALOK playing mau5’s unreleased track on the festival’s live stream. When a Twitter user mentioned that deadmau5 played music from artists such as Maceo Plex and Stephan Bodzin at Ultra Music Festival, deadmau5 clarified that he purchases those tracks and “respects their release schedules.”
tomorrowland asks me to perform… cool. i agree. Tomorrowland books some asshat to play my music, then airs it. real fuckin classy shit.
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) April 25, 2016
i also realize that i support those artists by buying their work and respecting their release schedules. https://t.co/0rNDB50fUp
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) April 26, 2016
For more, head over to deadmau5’s Twitter page.
Image via Rukes
