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Dispatches from 4 a.m. — underground techno and the wider electronic music scene.
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Dolly Parton Understood PLUR Better Than Most Ravers Ever Will Avicii's Final Set Just Surfaced in Full, 10 Years On. Play It Loud. Swedish House Mafia Got Rained Out, Then Gave Gothenburg a Free Show Tiësto on the Trance Purists: 'Very Hard to Please' — and He's Not Wrong A $20 Billion Hollywood Composer Just Started an EDM Project. Take It Seriously. GTA 6 Just Became the Most Powerful Tastemaker in Dance Music Artists Stopped Waiting for a Festival Slot. Now They're Building the Room. The Two Biggest Sets of the Weekend Were About Somebody Who Wasn't There Spotify Deleted 75 Million Songs. That's Not a Cleanup — It's an Admission. Festivals Don't Get Decided by Lineups Anymore. They Get Decided by Airspace. Kavinsky Made One Record That Outran Dance Music Completely
Avicii's Final Set Just Surfaced in Full, 10 Years On. Play It Loud.

Avicii's Final Set Just Surfaced in Full, 10 Years On. Play It Loud.

A decade after his last show at Ushuaïa, Avicii's complete final set is out for the first time, with unseen GoPro footage. It lands right as dance music is commercially bigger than ever — a full-circle moment.

· Sep 13, 2026
Swedish House Mafia Got Rained Out, Then Gave Gothenburg a Free Show

Swedish House Mafia Got Rained Out, Then Gave Gothenburg a Free Show

Severe weather killed SHM's massive Ullevi homecoming. Instead of sending everyone home, they played a free street-level set in Gothenburg — a masterclass in turning a cancellation into a moment.

· Sep 4, 2026
Tiësto on the Trance Purists: 'Very Hard to Please' — and He's Not Wrong

Tiësto on the Trance Purists: 'Very Hard to Please' — and He's Not Wrong

Ahead of a rumored trance-leaning album, Tiësto owns the gap between his genre-defining past and the pop path he took. It's an honest read on a fanbase that never forgave the pivot.

· Sep 4, 2026
A $20 Billion Hollywood Composer Just Started an EDM Project. Take It Seriously.

A $20 Billion Hollywood Composer Just Started an EDM Project. Take It Seriously.

Brian Tyler scored Iron Man 3 and half of Fast & Furious. His new alias Are We Dreaming isn't a vanity crossover — he's writing, directing, and cutting a full audio-visual universe himself.

· Sep 3, 2026
GTA 6 Just Became the Most Powerful Tastemaker in Dance Music

GTA 6 Just Became the Most Powerful Tastemaker in Dance Music

Rockstar closed a trailer with a three-year-old house record and sent its streams up 1,070% overnight. That's not a nostalgia bump — it's a new distribution machine every label is about to chase.

· Sep 3, 2026
Artists Stopped Waiting for a Festival Slot. Now They're Building the Room.

Artists Stopped Waiting for a Festival Slot. Now They're Building the Room.

Skrillex took two nights at Navy Pier with an open-to-close set. Knock2 and ISOxo pushed Niteharts to three days. Wax Motif booked Grand Park. Three announcements, one shift in who actually controls the calendar.

· Aug 7, 2026
The Two Biggest Sets of the Weekend Were About Somebody Who Wasn't There

The Two Biggest Sets of the Weekend Were About Somebody Who Wasn't There

Dimitri Vegas closed Tomorrowland's Mainstage without Like Mike. Chase & Status stopped mid-set at Let It Roll to say Lenzman's name. Two countries, two genres, same instinct — and it says something about where the scene is at right now.

· Aug 6, 2026
Spotify Deleted 75 Million Songs. That's Not a Cleanup — It's an Admission.

Spotify Deleted 75 Million Songs. That's Not a Cleanup — It's an Admission.

Spotify says it's not banning AI music, just gutting the bot-farmed junk gaming its royalty pool. The bigger story: it took 75 million fake tracks before anyone acted.

· Aug 6, 2026
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