In the not so distant past, a DJ’s skill behind the decks was everything. Tune selection, technical ability and the art of crafting a set – guiding dancefloors through a journey of epic peaks and deep valleys. ailing the trifecta earned respect, elevated status and fueled demand. The only numbers that mattered were the BPMs.
Today, a different numbers game dictates the narrative. Before a single track is played, the first question isn’t about the music – it’s about the metrics. Followers. Engagement. Reach. Across the electronic dance music industry, social media has become a gatekeeper to bookings, coverage and opportunity.
Stories abound of clubs and festivals insisting emerging artists hit a certain follower threshold before they’ll even be considered. Record labels check Instagram before they check demos. Even dance music media outlets – once proud champions of discovery – are swayed by visibility over sound.
Music once led. Now decisions are made long before the first beat lands. Not based on skill, but on stats. Followers trump fundamentals. Engagement eclipses experience. Craft is sidelined, visibility validated. The tail is wagging the dog.
That shift isn’t subtle – and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last year, a Pete Tong DJ Academy survey found that 61% of emerging DJs and producers believe social media metrics matter more than musical ability.
For many, it isn’t just noticeable – it’s downright uncomfortable. Across continents and genres, professional DJs are decrying how their art is being devalued. Dave Clarke, long regarded as ‘the Baron of Techno’, goes so far as to call it “cultural appropriation”. He sees dancefloors being “harvested” for content by acts for whom “the buck is worth more than the beat.”
In DJ communities, the frustration is palpable: promoters prioritise numbers over skill; influencer ‘DJs’ are stepping behind the decks; and feeds are flooded with “show-pony” drop clips – engineered for an algorithm that favours repetition over depth.
This isn’t nostalgia. Or generational friction. It’s genuine concern about what this shift is doing to the culture – flat- tening it, diluting it, hollowing it out.
You’ve got businessmen involved who have no idea about music – it’s all about making money. They’re looking at the metrics, not the connections on the dancefloor or choose life-changing moments.
“It’s a strange time,” says Danny Whittle, a key Ibiza figure and co-founder of the International Music Summit. “It’s become such big business. You’ve got businessmen involved who have no idea about music – it’s all about making money. They’re looking at the metrics, not the connections on the dancefloor or those life-changing moments. It’s business techno. A lot of new club owners simply want a quick return on investment.”
“The sidelining of properly skilled artist began as spectacle took over, accelerating with the industry’s fixation on social numbers,” believes Simon Shackleton, a DJ and producer with over 30 years’ experience. “Social media thrives on the lowest common denominator. If the industry rewards the most visible artists rather than the most interesting ones, what does that mean for the culture long-term? Will a whole era of proper DJ craftsmanship die out? It’s a sobering thought.”
Indeed. If this is where we are now, where are we headed next? Are all the dissenting voices just shouting into the void? Not necessarily. Revered as a DJ’s DJ, François Kevorkian tells Nativ we could be at a turning point. A cue to challenge the status quo. “When something is commoditised and becomes a utility – like tap water – maybe it’s a sign that those ho are truly creative need to move on to other pastures.”
Whittle, musical director at Club Chinois, is more pointed. He claims: “Social media is already eating itself.” It’s an interesting theory – a system so saturated it cannibalises its own impact. The cracks are already beginning to show. In a report for the UK’s Financial Times, research analysis firm GWI revealed social media usage has dropped by 10 percent since its 2022 peak. Research conducted by Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology also shows “rising frustration, declining trust, and growing disengagement across platforms”.
For Dutch media theorist Geert Lovink, the real question is “Which group or subculture will be identified as revolutionary agents of change? Put down their phones, delete all the socials, and do their own thing.” A professor of Network Cultures at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Lovink adds: “Working closely with Gen Z, I do not see them ready to take up this task. They are aware, but still too implicated. We’re waiting for a rebellion against the corporate depression.”
And that’s where the spark catches. Dance music is founded on rebellion – the same instinct that defined places like Ibiza long before metrics entered the equation. We need more of that spirit now. So, as the summer unfolds, back the DJs who move you, not just those who reach you. Because not everything meaningful can be quantified. And not everything that counts can be counted.
