As of this week, you are now able to download high quality MP3s or WAVs directly from the online music magazine.

Originally focused in Australia, Resident Advisor quickly grew to an international leader in their field. Starting with music news, event reviews, photo reports and an active forum, it soon added a podcast, DJ charts, even an event ticketing system, and has grown over the last 10 years to become one of the leading electronic music magazines. 2011 has seen it expand it’s reach further, hosting a series of 10 events across the globe (from London to Berlin to New York to Moscow and more), and now the announcement of direct in-site download sales.

Tracks are added to you RA shopping basket, which has previously been very effective in the sales of event tickets. The playable samples and track information is powered by UK retailer Juno, and the pricing structure is very similar, with mp3s priced from $1.45 to $1.89, moving up to $2.45 to $2.75 for full quality WAV files.There is also a ‘processing fee’ of $0.10 added to each transaction.

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So, what does this mean for the 2011 digital music fan? Well, each month, roughly 3000 DJs, from 80 countries chart 30,000 tracks. These are also compiled into a monthly Top 50. Alongside the aggregated and artists charts, Resident Advisor will begin adding music from top artists and labels with the aim of “giving the electronic music community a convenient channel through which to legally purchase music while browsing RA”. This equates to a lot of music out there, and some possible positive and negative affects for the RA community.

The Good

Resident Advisor is a place where people head to learn about new music. It is a logical step to involve an in-site system to purchase legal quality music downloads, and makes things easy for the music fan / consumer. Convenience is king, and being able to add a track to your cart whilst perusing the charts of your favorite DJs and live acts has an element of loyalty to the creators and taste-makers of underground music.

The Bad

Resident Advisor has always earned respect among electronic music enthusiasts for not being led by record label money or PR companies and the like. Whilst they have featured charts and podcasts, they are normally submitted and judged purely on artistic merit. Mixing in the factor of music sales means that another angle needs to be taken into account; offering a chart or podcast with 30 tracks and only one for sale can look lazy or incomplete, and so an artist could be encouraged (directly or indirectly) to submit ‘better known’ or ‘more readily available’ content.

The Result?

Seeing as the service only launched a few days ago, we’ll have to give it a bit of time to tell how it will affect consumer habits and the site itself. Will it dilute the current underground ‘premier’ content that made the site so well loved and popular? Perhaps it will persuade more DJs and music collectors to stick to the convenient legal ways to get their music fix of the next big hits.

by Lee Jarvis.

Electronic Dance Music has undergone something of a revolution over the last 15 years. Not least because music production and performance equipment has become cheaper to purchase, and the internet has opened up a heap of tutorials, forum advice and video demos. Being able to set up with an entire ‘software studio’ for a fraction of the price of a ‘traditional’ one, means that more producers are able to experiment and share their creations.

This may result in some under-par productions being out there, but luckily, it is still as easy as ever to tell good music from bad. As I am often working away to a soundtrack of 125bpm or so, I thought I would try and round up some of the biggest names in dance music and share them as a Music Jobs playlist. This is also something for fans of other styles, with modern artists pulling in youths and inspirations from Depeche Mode, Bowie, Disco and more.

Artists include: Fatboy Slim, Dennis Ferrer, Todd Terry, Mark Farina, Mike Monday, Jackson and His Computer Band and more… Go to http://www.myspace.com/usmusicjobs/music/playlists/electronic-1214353 to listen!

Lee Jarvis.

Well, here we go with the launch of the US Music Jobs blogs! We hope to make your visit to the Music Jobs website a bit more informative and enjoyable, with news, reviews, advice and gossip from around the world. My ‘specialist subject’ is discussing the digital music revolution, music 2.0, music marketing strategies, social networking and share music job finding tools.

Having said that, I aim to cover as much of the music world as possible. I love going to live gigs, so you’ll hear my rants on Dance, Jazz or Rock, and I’ll also bring you news from major labels and their latest troubles. I hope to cover these as completely as I can, and I expect a flurry of adulation / abuse as I attempt to do so. You guys may know more or feel different about what I write, so tell me so!  I enjoy the honest replies – blogs are supposed to be interactive, so please comment on anything you feel strongly about. I need to know what amuses and disgusts you so that I can delve deeper into the subjects that you all want to hear about. The Music Industry is a big ol’ world, and I only have two hands and one groggy brain to try and get it all across to you…. but bear with me, it’ll be a fun journey.

Lee Jarvis.