DJ Mag Pay to Play Scandal

What happened to dance music? Where did the times go when all that was important was going out and dancing until the sun rises? When did this industry become a place where a DJ can’t handle a bad review or have hire staff to help cheat to get in DJ Mag top 100 list.

In another example of the increasing attention that’s being paid to the EDM industry resulting in controversy, there is now an online kerfuffle stemming from claims that DJ’s and managers have been paying large fees to DJ Magazine in exchange for positive coverage and exposure. This story has been published by a blog by the name EDM Snob who claims an insider with financial documents has approached them.

EDM Snob has posted an invoice that was billed to Trance DJ star, Ferry Corsten, just before September for 13000 pounds. The following month Ferry Corsten had a large amount of coverage in the issue including a feature on page 14 & mentions on three additional pages. EDM Snob has also discovered many other payments from Gareth Emry, Max Vangeli, Erick Morillo, and Paul Van Dyk. EDM Snob stressed that there is a difference between paying for an ad vs. paying for a good review.

DJ Mag has posted an official statement to EDM Snob:

“In response to recent postings by EDM Snob, DJ Mag would like to clarify that the invoices that have been published are for legitimate advertising and CD covermount deals. This can easily be verified by checking the magazine issues mentioned. They are not “secret documents” but are confidential company invoices and have been obtained without our consent. We cannot stress enough that as guardians of the Top 100 DJs Poll we take the integrity of the Poll extremely seriously. This stunt simply looks like an attempt to drive traffic and interest in EDM Snob’s blog, and divert attention away from our ongoing investigation into cheating in this year’s Poll. We view the obtaining of these invoices as a criminal matter and have contacted the police”

Once again we are all left confused and with questions? This could be a great publicity stunt for EDM Snob or is this the cold reality of what the music industry truly has become…

EDM Snob's article

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