Plug.dj has rolled out its new look and expanded community based structure. I am wandering about its corridors, marveling at the sights. Here are six of the most well attended communities as of this weekend. All of them revel in various kinds of dubstep, electronica, and sampling based themes and sounds.
1. Monstercat + Tasty = #Tastycat. This community had over 550 participants at various points that I checked in (mostly Sunday morning Pacific Standard Time). It is a consortium of MonsterCat Media and the Tasty Network, which are both EDM record labels.
The plug.dj #tastycat community.
The theme of the room: “Any type of Electronic Dance Music is allowed here. Some genres include Dubstep, Electro, Electro-House, Complextro, House, Progressive House, Big-Room House, Drum and Bass, Drumstep, Liquid Drum and Bass, Trance, Trap, Glitch-Hop, Moombah, Hardstyle, Garage, and Breakbeat.”
Top five #Tastycat rules:
- Don’t complain. We are all here to have fun.
- Monstercat and Tasty Network artists have priority to the booth.
- Skips are decided by staff. Don’t ask for skips.
- Don’t play mixes.
- We remove AFK [away from keyboard] DJs from the stage. Talk in the chat to avoid being removed. If you are caught auto-typing to avoid being removed, you will be kicked.
Want to become a featured DJ on #Tastycat? You could be considered “if you produce awesome music that everyone enjoys! Managers can choose to promote you to Featured DJ if they feel it is the right choice. However, please don’t ask to be promoted.”
Very lively audience; hyper danceable music; tons of fun snarky comments from the audience. Wish I could keep up with all the genres: “complextro”???
2. [EDT] Electro,Dυbรтєρ & Techno ϟ. Well over 300 folks hung around this room on Sunday. I’m guessing from the “I [heart] Brazil” comments and the Portuguese rules that this community is a Brazilian project.
The “Temas permitidos” (permitted themes) include: Electro, Dubstep, Techno, Trap, and EDM. The room has a very active Facebook page. A lot of interesting hybrid sounds come from this community—some of them slower paced and subtly flavored with tangoesque rhythms and harmonies. Definitely worth a visit.
Around 250 folks gravitate around this community. Approved genres:
Party, chill, dance, electro, house, and dubstep. No-nos: “[NO RAP jumpstyle ir hardstyle PLACE].” When I visited, somebody was playing Biffguyz’s hit Бум-бум-бум. I can’t tell where these folks are from, but I picked up Lithuanian and Maltese comments on the chat line, so I’m guessing some kind of Eastern/Southern European hub. In any event, very nice energy from the room.
4. Absolut Lithuania. Welcome message:
“Sveiki atvykę į mūsų nuostabų kambarį” or: “Welcome to our amazing room!” Here are the rules:
1. Dont ask for fans, the message will be automatically deleted.
2. Dont ask for permissions from the staff, we decide it.
3. If song gets 25 MEHs, It will be skipped by admin.
4. Advertising isnt permitted.
5. Dont flood, or you will be muted in the chat.
6. Dont put songs more than 6 minutes.
7. This room dont allow porno and violent videos.
For the uninitiated, wikipedia defines “meh” as “an expression of indifference or boredom.” 25 mehs suggests an openness to a wide variety of formats, since that number would represent a fifth of the whole community. I pick up a sense of humor in this room. They were playing Serebro’s funny song “Mi Mi Mi” when I arrived.
5. Micaretinha.
Kudos to this Portuguese language based room for rule number three: “3 – No more videos showing sexual parts. Remember, there are kids here, physically or mentally.” When I visited they were playing 24 AVASSALADORES. I couldn’t figure out much else about this community except that the sounds are nice and it toggles between the third and seventh most popular site on plug.dj.
Just a chill room plays, as you’ve probably already guessed, nice chill music. This is a refreshing break from the hyperfrenetic Woooooooooooo!!!! atmosphere you get in so many other plug.dj communities. The room has a good help graphic map for beginners, too. Just a chill’s appreciative crowd often propels it to number three on the plug.dj community list.
This is only a small sampling of what’s going on at plug.dj. Most of the venues hottest sites don’t hail from the United States. Almost everybody appears to me to be very, very young. Next week I’ll tour some of plug.dj’s less traveled but equally cool communities. If you want me to know about yours, contact me at matthew@radiosurvivor.com. Full disclosure: if I drop by your community, my plug.dj avatar is “gazoink.”
We cover social music sharing communities every Monday in our Internet DJ feature.
