A bit of a change to our normal interviews, but still keeping on a music trend, we decided to link up with owner of Maxumi magazine for our latest feature. Maxumi is an online magazine focussed on the dance music and underground scenes in both the UK and abroad so we caught up with Michael to hear not only about his site, but his views on the music industry as well.

Hi Michael, can you give us an introduction to your site, what you focus on, how long it has been running etc

The idea came about after I was reading Mixmag and DJmag online. They're the two big names when it comes to dance music publications, but both websites weren't really up to scratch. Mixmag is very garish, it's bright colours everywhere, and the vast majority of their online content is festival updates, there's rarely any album reviews or articles, they keep all that for the magazine. At the time, DJmags website had better content but wasn't a very good site - though to be fair they've since updated it.

So I felt there was possibly a market for something a bit nicer to look at and with good quality content. I love writing and I'm a web and graphic designer by trade, so I had the skills necessary to get it going. It's been running for 5 months now and although sometimes progress is slow, I'm getting more traffic and I'm always adding more content so hopefully the site will continue to grow! I've previously worked with a friend as a nightclub promoter, we put on student DNB/dubstep/Breaks nights at clubs in Brighton including Honey Club, Jam/Water Margin, Kuku and the now sadly defunct Ocean Rooms. So that passion for the industry has always been there - my site is now my way of letting it out.

Website link : http://www.maxumi.co.uk

What styles of music do you regularly feature on your site?

Initially it started off as predominantly Trance, but as time goes on I've become more willing to expand into other genres, even outside of dance music. As long as the music is good and there's something interesting about it then it deserves a spot. I'm also quite keen to give some balanced exposure to the underground scene, there's a lot of people working in the industry that get virtually no coverage in Mixmag/DJmag. Recently I did an album review of a compilation by a local Dubstep label - definitely worth checking out!

What can we expect to see in the future, do you have any developments you are working on at the moment?



I've recently finished putting together a neat iPlayer module that allows me to integrate any iPlayer radio or TV show in the sidebar, or anywhere on the site. If anyone wants to use it let me know. I'm also working on a page for radio, so people can have one page where they can listen to some quality dance music radio shows. Other than that I've working hard to build good connections with PR agencies, and adding more content.



I see you cover more mainstream genres of music as well as underground, what is your opinion on the music scene at the moment?



I think how good the music scene is depends on how much time you're willing to spend looking into things, finding music, scouring the internet for interesting artists. There's an unbelievable wealth of talent out there, but it's diluted. If you look for it you can find it, and in that case the music scene is arguably thriving, I definitely think people are more open minded these days. But if you don't put much effort in and your only dose of music is Radio 1, then you might think the music scene is a bit dry.

Its probably fair to say that Drum and Bass is one of the few genres still heavily using vinyl, do you see that as a good or bad thing for the genre?



I don't think it's really necessarily good or bad - the transition between technologies is always going to cause a stir but ultimately it's inevitable, if it wasn't, we'd all still be sitting around campfires bashing bits of wood together. I do think a DNB mix sounds a bit better when it's put together on vinyl, there's more skill involved I think, and watching a DJ push vinyl around platters is part of the whole performance. I don't get it when you go to a club and some guy is just standing there tapping a laptop - what's up with that? I personally think systems like Serato and Traktor Scratch are the way forward - you're maintaining the use of Vinyl and Decks, and that performance element, whilst allowing for the flexibility and control that a laptop can provide.



With the move of most mainstream genres to cds and mp3 downloads, that does vastly increase the simplicity of copying tunes. Can you explain (or do you know) how the industry has combatted piracy (if it has)?



Well, anyone who knows how can download a simple bit of software that allows you to rip off Youtube, and the tracks are uploaded so fast the second one is taken down, someone else has put it up. The sound quality of Youtube is already improving too, so distinguishing between legit copies and ripped copies is going to get increasingly difficult. I think some labels have decided to in a way embrace the technology to try and push people towards paying for their music. There's a lot of anger around at the moment surrounding piracy and producers having unreleased tracks being ripped and downloaded. 

Armada, Armin Van Buurens Record label, have got a great idea going on for Youtube. They upload high quality, full length tracks, but each video has a sort of "intro" track at the beginning & an "outro" at the end, that means if you rip the music the track is useless. You wouldn't want to keep listening to it with the intro/outro and you couldn't mix with it. Sure, you could use some software to cut that bit off....but I think the effort involved, and the links pointing to legit downloads, would put a lot of people off. What with tracks selling these days for as little as 99p it seems crazy anyone would want to go to those lengths.

An example would be something like you see on the right

Where do you see the music industry moving next? With more and more hand-held devices like the Iphone, Ipods and various other gadgets, what is going to be the next big development to hit the market?

I can't remember where I saw it, but I remember reading a story about a company that's developed an iPhone app that allows iPhone users to directly connect to the playlist and system of a club, and have an influence on the music played. This could potentially be awesome, imagine going to a club, wanting a track, and just clicking a few buttons and then it's on the DJs playlist. I can see it being dodgy too, there'd inevitably be people who choose rubbish nobody else wants to listen to. But any technology that bridges that gap between the DJ and the audience could be exciting. I'm also loving how much better sound systems are getting, the Funktion One in Digital Brighton is unbelievable. I've never felt sound actually flow through my body before.

Thanks Michael for being interviewed on the site for us, we hope to catch up again in the near future

Maxumi Magazine site : http://www.maxumi.co.uk