Remix service
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A Remix service is a service (company or organization) that that provides remixed music to disc jockeys.
The disco craze of the late 1970's led to the release of extended "disco" versions of songs, most of which were released on 12" vinyl singles. Many of these were not friendly to beatmix with, so DJ's started to laboriously edit songs by splicing reel-to-reel tape copies, making their own exclusive versions that were better structured. Beginning in 1977 with Disconet, the remix service was born. These companies gathered DJs and producers together to create monthly promotional only compilation albums containing re-edits, remixes, or medleys to give DJ's an advantage.
Over the years the mixes have varied from simple edits, adding a mixable intro and outro to a song, to full fledged digital multi-track remixes that barely resemble the original track. Some remix services have focused on a specific style of music (say hip-hop or rock) or type of remix (such as house mixes of pop hits). As of 2006 there have been over 50 official remix services worldwide with at least as many spinoffs, although most of these companies (including Disconet) have long since folded due to financial or legal reasons. All remix services are required to get the original record label or artists permission to edit and release a track, but many bootleg services exist that do not (On-USound, Go Girl!, Blank).
As most of these companies required a DJ subscription agreement to buy the records or CD's and each issue is usually limited in quantity from 100 to several thousand, many of these compilations have become sought after collectors items. Once in a while a remix service version of a song is released commercially by the artist's record label, hence the occasional Ultimix on a CD or CD single, but 99% of remix service mixes are sold only to DJ's on the compilations.
Some of these companies helped launch the careers of well known remixers/producers. Chris Cox (formerly of Thunderpuss) worked for Hot Tracks, Armand Van Helden did mixes for Mega-Mixx and X-Mix, Markus Schulz, C. L. McSpadden and Aaron "The Pimp" Scofield did mixes for Powerhouse, and Ben Liebrand did tons of work for DMC. A few companies have also developed their own commercial record labels to release new tracks. It should also be noted that the UK based DMC remix service probably has the most members in the world, with offices in nearly every country, and that they sponsor the yearly World DJ Championships as well as releasing many commercial compilations.
Some of the better known remix services (all US based unless stated):
- Ace DJ -- Australia, closed
- Art of Mix and spinoffs -- closed
- Culture Shock and spinoffs (Retro Shock, 80's Vs. Y2K, 90's Shock, Mash-Ups) -- 1998 to present
- Disconet -- closed
- Discotech -- closed
- Disc Drive -- closed
- DMC (Disco Mix Club) -- UK, 1983 to present
- Eurotracks -- closed
- Future Mix -- closed
- Hit Mix -- closed
- Hot Tracks and spinoffs (Street Tracks, NRG for the 90's, Roadkill, Hot Classics, etc) -- 1982 to present
- M -- closed
- Mixx-It and spinoffs (Old School Mix, BackTraxx, Classixx Mixx) -- 1985 to present (www.mixxit.com)
- Mix Factor and spinoffs -- 2000 to present
- Method Mix and spinoff (Country Rhythm) -- 2004 to present
- Monster Mix -- closed
- Music Factory Mastermix -- UK, 1985 to present
- Powerhouse -- closed
- Pro Mix -- closed
- Prime Cuts -- closed
- Razormaid and many spinoffs -- 1983 to present
- Remixed Records -- Sweden, closed
- Rhythm Stick -- closed
- Select Mix and spinoffs -- 2004 to present
- Turbo Beat -- closed
- Ultimix and spinoffs (Funkymix, Looking Back, Rampage) -- 1985 to present
- Wicked Mix and spinoffs (N-10-CT, Wicked Classics) -- closed
- X-Mix and spinoffs (X-Mix Urban, Club Classics, etc) -- early 90's to present
Many remix services issues also contain megamixes. A megamix contains multiple songs mixed together, sometimes in rapid succession. They can consist of a single artist (just Madonna songs, etc) or multiple artists. Some may follow a theme as well (Christmas, only songs that have "queen" in the title, only David Morales mixes, etc). Often megamixes are also called medleys.
Ultimix is the most well-known for these, producing several megamixes every year based on popular songs of the year ("flashback medleys") as well as some single artists megamixes. Culture Shock also has the "Hit "AC" Megamixes" on their main series derived from their radio show, as well as a satellite series entitled "Use Alternative Routes" which contains Modern Rock megamixes. Similarly, the UK based DMC and Music Factory Mastermix remix services also do a lot of megamixes.
Megamixes are also commonly found on commercial releases, sometimes using the same mix previously released to DJ's on a remix service. The earlier Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers series of 50's and 60's megamixes were originally released on the Music Factory Mastermix service.
