(BERLIN and MIAMI - November 18th, 2021) Beatport, the worldwide home of dance music for DJs, producers and their fans, announced today that it is teaming up with Microsoft Surface, the innovative laptop and 2-in-1 brand, to connect and empower musicians globally with the latest technology products and services. Each device in the Surface family has been uniquely designed to fuel people’s originality, to bring out creativity, ideas, and passions. Equally, Beatport has built a world-class platform that inspires and connects the landscape of creators, DJs, and fans.
To celebrate this partnership, Beatport and Surface are excited to launch Originals², a groundbreaking campaign that includes continent spanning collaborations and educational events with world famous DJs and newcomers to fuel the originality of the next generation of musicians.
Originals² kicks off on December 2nd at Art Basel with the launch of the new ‘Party Mode’ feature on the Beatport DJ app, optimized for touchscreen on Surface. Beatport Link and Surface will connect Jamie Jones at Art Basel in Miami, and Loco Dice in Berlin to perform the world’s first remote back-to-back set on the Beatport DJ app. Miami’s event will take place at the 1 Beach Club at 1 Hotel South Beach, featuring beautiful views of the ocean on the sandy strip. Berlin’s performance location will be announced soon. The juxtaposing locations will be brought together to viewers online through the virtual back and forth between Jamie Jones and Loco Dice; DJs who embody the ethos of the Surface tagline, Original by design.
"I’m excited to be pioneering the ‘party mode’ on Beatport DJ at Art Basel,” said Jamie Jones. “The fact that it will be a trans-Atlantic b2b with Loco Dice in Berlin and me in Miami is super cool."
Later in December, the partnership will launch its inaugural Originals² Academy, a two-day educational event for select creators, simultaneously hosted in Miami and Berlin’s top recording studios, linked via Microsoft Teams. The Originals² Academy is designed to empower the next generation of DJs and much of the program will be hosted online and streamed for a live audience. The Academy will be powered by the new Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio and Surface Pro 8, enabling Beatport’s select creators to experience the latest technology innovations from both Surface and Beatport. There will be a second Originals² Academy in 2022, which will center around a remix competition, sourcing the best emerging talent from around the world.
Beatport and Surface together empower creators of all kinds to collaborate side-by-side or separated by thousands of miles, in real-time through the power of a touchscreen. And while music is becoming increasingly global in nature, with creators collaborating on tracks from totally different cultures, Surface is the perfect tool to foster creativity in today’s music ecosystem.
“In a world where collaboration between music creators is accelerating online, it’s critical that technology hardware and software keep innovating with frictionless experiences. The new Surface Laptop Studio and Surface Pro 8, both with class-leading performance and PixelSense touchscreens, are the perfect creative tools for music production, empowering DJs and producers to work together in real-time from anywhere,” said Chris Beeby, Director, Integrated Marketing & Partnerships at Microsoft.
Ed Hill, VP of Beatport Media Group, said. “The music industry has adapted incredibly in reaction to the pandemic, which inspired us to build the new DJ Party Mode feature on our popular Beatport DJ web app to enable musicians to collaborate on DJ sets, no matter where they are in the world. Microsoft Surface has been a fantastic partner to optimize the experience for DJs with their innovative hardware and software.”
The December 2nd Originals² launch event marks the debut of Beatport’s DJ Party Mode feature. Seamlessly integrated into Beatport’s DJ web app streaming platform, Party Mode is simple to operate and enables up to four DJs to collaborate on real-time sets from different locations. Beatport’s Party Mode feature will be available to the public early 2022.
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