This article was first published in the August 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Taking nightclubs online might seem counterintuitive, but not for Blaise Bellville. In 2010 the Londoner strapped a webcam to a wall in his Dalston studio to stream live sets by his DJ friends. Today, his startup Boiler Room broadcasts 30 gigs a month to more than a million people around the world -- from house in Hackney to LA hip-hop and psych-rock from South Korea. What Boiler Room loses in intimacy, he argues, it more than makes up for in reach. "Suddenly, a kid in Doncaster can access underground grime from London," says Bellville, 30.
Boiler Room has evolved from shows filmed on a laptop and broadcast on Vimeo (because "it was free"), to a bespoke video platform developed by an in-house team that includes hires from Google's Creative Lab. Sets are filmed in HD and edited live for broadcasts that have a fly-on-the-wall quality to them. "The artists don't feel like they're being filmed," says Bellville -- vital for performers more used to dingy clubs than primetime TV.
In five years, Boiler Room has gone from a mould-ridden studio ("We had to move out because everyone kept getting these weird coughs") to shows at leading festivals and even a 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre. That growth has brought seed funding from Vice Media, a partnership with YouTube to monetise its 600,000-plus subscribers and sponsorship from brands such as Red Bull, Ray-Ban and Adidas.
Boiler Room's next challenge: developing a content suggestion algorithm that challenges viewers' tastes, rather than pandering to them. Bellville says music discovery should be akin to having someone who shares your taste but will also play curveball records you wouldn't pick yourself -- he likens it to the type of sets performed by his favourite DJs. "You can't just play the bangers," he insists.
Rather than following up a deep house performance with a second set, its engine analyses the listening habits of a curated set of super-users to serve up anything from South African kwaito to Nordic disco. "It's like when you're in a record shop and something comes on that you listen to in a completely new way," says Bellville. An age-old approach to a modern music. boilerroom.tv
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
