BRANDON VOSS | 5.7.2008
, the music is loud, and you're grinding and writhing with the cutie of your choice. From the look in his eyes, you like where this is going — like, perhaps, to your apartment. Damn, why didn't you clean up the joint first?
By night's end, the music overhead has become your personal anthem for another successful night out. After all, nothing says "true love" — or, you know, "momentary lust" — like a wailing diva over a hard, thumping beat.
But once you scour iTunes to buy some of the fierce tracks that you (vaguely) recall loving, you're met with disappointment. The dance music catalogue is as outdated as your grandfather's collection of disco vinyls, and its idea of chart-topping hits includes "Sandstorm" and "that annoying song about being Blue, da ba dee." How very… Class of '98.
What's a circuit boy, laptop DJ or average dance music fan to do?
Answer: Masterbeat.com, the online music store poised to bring the club scene mass appeal.
"For so long, the average consumer couldn't buy their favorite dance songs," says DJ Brett Henrichsen, founder and president of Masterbeat, a bona fide stud, and master of the mixes at WETbar on May 10 when his Masterbeat Tour swings through Atlanta.
Henrichsen intends to make sure the above fantasy comes true, and with his Masterbeat by your side, that the next morning will go better when you try and find his downloads.
You may have seen the ads: "Where do you Masterbeat?" with young mega-hotties plugged into their iPods in all manner of locations where you might, you know, uh, masterbeat.
But what is it?
compilation albums, Masterbeat went digital with the world's largest online store exclusively for dance music. Masterbeat.com is an effort to fill the gaping void left by other online music retailers who abandoned the genre, citing commercial viability (or lack thereof) even as they further damage its prospects.
"We're in the middle of another format change," Henrichsen says. "Just like CDs replaced cassettes, the internet is replacing CDs. We [the dance music industry] have to reinvent ourselves."
If reinvention is the point, consider Masterbeat's Blonde Ambition moment: artistically inspired, commercially successful, loaded with amazing dance-pop hits, and pretty well destined to make the gays go ga-ga.
The site grew exponentially since the launch of its Beta site at the start of the year. With limited label partnerships, the online storefront opened with 5,000 tracks, was closing in on 250,000 in March, and now features hundreds of labels and some 1 million tracks.
over years of frustration trying to find his own favorite dance tunes. As one of the world's hottest (literally and figuratively) DJs, he was blown away (alas, just figuratively) by how difficult it was to track down even the most popular tracks. Commercial singles were typically unavailable until weeks after songs became successful in clubs.
As a result, he says, dance music sales took a nosedive as illegal downloads and file sharing became the only option to score tracks at their peak of popularity.
The 'Where do you Masterbeat?' campaign offers a few bright ideas for your pleasuring yourself with music.
"Dance music has an incredibly short shelf-life," Henrichsen says. "When people go home from the club at night, they don't want to wait to get a track. If they heard the new Madonna or Kristine W, they want it right away."
If fans don't have immediate access, the genre's sales suffer. Masterbeat offers an innovative tech solution, a back-end interface (dubbed "Control") that lets record labels manage their own online catalogue: uploading new releases, providing artwork and full- track samples and more.
By letting labels self-administrate, Masterbeat ensures your immediate gratification — while you're still buzzed enough to blow your entire wad on Henrichsen's May 10 — or any DJ's — set list.
"The most common reaction is, 'Finally!'" says Henrichsen of Masterbeat's response. "People have been waiting for something like this for a long time."
Well, the wait is over, and Henrichsen is spreading the word in a big way. His Atlanta stop is part of a rapidly hatching plan for international events, circuit parties, and club nights to promote the site to its biggest fans: the clubbers.
Jumbo projections will even announce the song and artist playing, so you actually know what the hell you're dancing to.
"Bringing music to people has always been my passion," Henrichsen says.
And for Masterbeat, a grateful club crowd spanks him very, very much.
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