From Topdeejays to Viberate

I get asked quite a lot in my interviews how the whole Viberate story began. Long story short — no one else wanted to do it, so we had to.

I’m a member of the older DJ generation. Back in the nineties I was taking shopping buses to Munich to buy vinyl records. I was constantly perfecting my mixing skills and ended up playing live sets on four decks simultaneously. Something I’m still known for.

My generation didn’t have social media and streaming sites to help us get the spotlight. It was all skills and being on the right place at the right time. I was fortunate enough to nail it.

Then came the digitalization and with it social media. We had to ride that wave and we invested heavily into my social media presence. But there was no way for us to see how ad campaigns, new releases or long months of touring pay off. It was impossible to compare myself with other fellow DJs to see who’s got a more loyal and growing fan base.

So we set up a website called Topdeejays.com. We put together a simple social media analytics service that measured some basic stats such as the number of likes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram followers and even how many friends an artist has on MySpace (it was a while ago, yes). The service took off immediately and after being online for only a year, we ended up with 30 thousand user-generated DJ profiles.

We knew we found something interesting and that people love what we do. So we renamed the service into Viberate (name comes from “rating the vibe”) and spread our focus to all genres, not just electronic music.

Now we’re here. I’m proud to see what we have achieved and every morning before I get out of my bed, I check which act claimed their profile or added a new one.

Now, when we’re implementing the blockchain technology into our service, I’m more convinced than ever that we are going to change the world. We’re one of those people who do that for a living. Changing the world. Watch us go!