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Boiler Room (music broadcaster)

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Boiler Room
IndustryMusic & Entertainment
FoundedMarch 2010
FounderBlaise Bellville
Thristian Richards[1]
HeadquartersLondon, England
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Blaise Bellville (CEO)
Thristian Richards (host)[2]
ParentDICE
Websiteboilerroom.tv

Boiler Room is an online music broadcaster and club promoter based in London, United Kingdom. It hosts predominantly dance music events, focusing on underground genres, in locations internationally, and broadcasts the shows live over the internet.

It has regular operations in London, Amsterdam, New York City, Berlin, Lisbon, São Paulo, Mexico City, Tokyo, Sydney, Lima, and Los Angeles and produces about 30 to 35 new shows each month.[3][4] By 2016, Boiler Room had hosted shows in around 100 cities worldwide.[5][6] Its music programming originally focused on dance music such as garage, house, techno, dub but eventually expanded to include grime, hip hop, classical, and jazz.[7][8][9]

History

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Conception & birth

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In March 2010 Blaise Bellville asked Thristian "Thris Tian" Richards and Femi Adeyemi, the founder of NTS Radio, to record a mixtape for his online magazine platform. This led to the creation of Boiler Room.[10][11][12] The name 'Boiler Room' and initial idea came about from an overheard conversation in a bar in Hoxton Square. The first Boiler Room session was recorded using a webcam duct taped to the wall of a disused boiler room, and the session was broadcast live online on Ustream.[13][14]

During this period, Boiler Room developed their format of filming a DJ facing the camera, a projected visual backdrop of the Boiler Room logo overlaid on old rave video footage, with Time Out noting: "the artists are, after all, the sole attraction at Boiler Room: attendees are positioned behind the decks in a bedroom DJ style set-up so that the selector is always the main figure in view."[15]

2010–11: Expansion

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Boiler Room's first session in March 2010 turned into a weekly show, becoming a Ustream "Supported Channel" and getting widespread press recognition, with coverage from the BBC, Fader, Time Out, Hypetrak, and Dummy Magazine, who noted that "from a small room in Dalston to a globe-spanning brand, in just over a year Boiler Room has emerged as one of the most important broadcasters in underground music."[16][17][18][19]

In its first year in 2010, Boiler Room featured performances from mostly electronic musicians and DJs including Theo Parrish, Jamie xx, SBTRKT, Hudson Mohawke, Jamie Woon, Mount Kimbie, Falty DL, James Blake, and Ben UFO.[19][20][21][22][23][24] London based record labels Young Turks and Hessle Audio, as well as hip-hop collective Livin' Proof, hosted Boiler Room takeovers in 2010.[20][23][25] Radiohead hosted a Boiler Room takeover in October 2011, featuring sets by Thom Yorke, Jamie xx, Caribou, Lone, and Illum Sphere.[26]

Boiler Room first began international shows in August 2011 with a run hosted in Germany by Michail Stangl, a Russian-born music curator and DJ.[27][28][29][30] Shortly thereafter, Boiler Room expanded in the United States, starting with broadcasts in Los Angeles headed up by Sofie Fatouretchi Royer,[31][32][33][34] an Austro-Iranian artist and musician.

Present day

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The early focus on the underground music scene and electronic music in London has broadened. It has hip hop, jazz, experimental, classical, world music and talk-based podcast formats.[35][36]

2014 was defined by a push into classical music, launched with German prepared pianist Hauschka,[37] and followed by broadcasts from St. John's Church in Hackney featured Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Julia Holter.[38] A broadcast within the Pula Arena in Croatia[39] saw Nils Frahm perform.[40]

Boiler Room has partnered with music festivals including SXSW, Sónar, Dimensions, Dekmantel and Nuits Sonores.[41][42][43]

Boiler Room launched in China with a show in Beijing in April 2016 followed by a show in Shanghai with Disclosure in May 2016.[44]

Boiler Room's first full-length documentary, on Atlanta based collective Awful Records, launched in June 2016.[45] Boiler Room has since continued producing TV shows and documentaries aimed at telling stories tied to the people, artists and culture.[46] This includes shows like Gasworks, a 20-minute, grime-focused talk show starring Alhan Gençay & Poet.[46]

In 2018, Boiler Room launched '4:3', a platform for film, documentary and music videos, with Amar Ediriwira as its creative director. In 2019, the first 'Boiler Room Festival' was announced in Peckham, London. [47] The event showcased a different underground scene each day, across contemporary jazz, rap, and dance genres.[48]

Despite posting a net operating loss of £6,633,752 in 2018 and a loss of £1,299,656 in 2019,[49] Boiler Room received £791,652 from Arts Council England via the Culture Recovery Fund scheme in October, 2020.[50]

In 2021, ticketing platform DICE bought Boiler Room for an undisclosed sum, after raising $122 million.[51][52]

Awards

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In 2018, Boiler Room received a number of award wins and nominations:

4:3

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  • Gold Lovies – Best Music and Culture Platform[53]
  • People's Choice Lovies – Best Music and Culture Platform[53]
  • Digiday Media Awards – Best New Vertical[54]
  • The Drum DADI Awards – Best Digital Strategy[55]
  • The Drum DADI Awards – Best News Media Website[55]
  • Webbys – Best Music Website[56]

System and Migrant Sound

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  • Webbys – Social Content Series & Campaigns – Migrant Sounds[57]
  • The Drum Content Awards – Best News Marketing Strategy – System – Highly Commended[58]
  • Drum Marketing Awards – Best Music and Entertainment Campaign – System[59]
  • The Drum Awards – Best Media Content Marketing Campaign – System[55]

Contemporary Scenes

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  • Webbys – General Social-Music for Social – Contemporary Scenes[57]

Individual and team awards

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  • The Drum Digerati – Stephen Mai (Top 100 in Digital)[60]
  • Campaign's Power 100 – Stephen Mai (Top 100 in Marketing)[61]
  • Jodie Nicholson – Alternative Power 100 Music List[62]
  • Video Team of the Year – Digiday Media Awards[54]

Notable events

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A number of notable musicians and cultural organisations have worked with Boiler Room to celebrate key releases and other one-off events.

Boiler Room broadcast Run the Jewels live in 360° format December 2015 before the technology was widely available.

DJ EZ's 24-hour DJ set on the 27 and 28 February 2016 which raised over £60,000 on behalf of Cancer Research UK was also broadcast live on Boiler Room.[63][64][65][66]

Skepta celebrated the release of album Konnichiwa with an album launch party arranged with and streamed by Boiler Room live from Tokyo in May 2016.[67][68][69][70]

Notting Hill Carnival's Rampage, Deviation, Aba Shanti-I, Channel One, Nasty Love, Saxon Sound, King Tubbys, Gladdy Wax and Disya Jeneration soundsystems were broadcast live by Boiler Room in August 2016, totalling 42 hours video coverage. Part of the live coverage was also broadcast by partners The Guardian, Time Out, Noisey, Thump, SB.TV, NTS Radio, and the Deviation and Rampage soundsystems.[71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]

In January 2024, Boiler Room held their first event in the Pacific with a show in Rarotonga - organised in collaboration with DJ Lady Shaka and her Pacific music collective Pulotu Underworld. Boiler Room has stated that this event is the first in a series of events based in the Pacific.[81]

Charli XCX's February 2024 Boiler Room performance, titled "Partygirl", held in a 400-person cap venue in Brooklyn, New York, received approximately 37,000 RSVPs,[82] the largest in Boiler Room's history. The set featured guest DJs A. G. Cook, Doss, Easyfun, George Daniel of The 1975, and was attended by celebrities such as Julia Fox, Dasha Nekrasova, Aquaria, and Addison Rae, among others. The event was covered in various publications, including Paper, V, NME and GQ.[83][84][85][86]

References

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  2. ^ "Boiler Room Company Profile: Valuation & Investors | PitchBook". pitchbook.com.
  3. ^ "building a music empire with boiler room's blaise and sofie | read | i-D". i-D. 12 February 2015. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
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  5. ^ "Cities Archive". Boiler Room. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Boiler Room Is Going to China for the First Time | Thump". Thump. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  7. ^ "Sergei Prokofiev 'would support classical music and younger audiences'". London Evening Standard. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  8. ^ Reidy, Tess (4 October 2014). "Classical music breaks out and joins the youth underground". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  9. ^ "jazz plus picks | 02.03.16 – jazz plus". jazzplus.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  10. ^ "BNTL – Inside Boiler Room". Vimeo. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  11. ^ "Thristian Richards and Blaise Bellville, Boiler Room". Rolling Stone. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  12. ^ Ruth Saxelby. "The rise and rise of NTS Radio". Dummymag.com. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  13. ^ "Red Bull Music Academy". daily.redbullmusicacademy.com. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  14. ^ McQuaid, Ian (30 November 2015). "Stream team: how Boiler Room changed the face of live music". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  15. ^ "Welcome to the Boiler Room – Clubs". Time Out London. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  16. ^ Scott Wright. "Dollars to Pounds: Boiler Room". The Fader. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
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  33. ^ "Sofie's Mailout 001". 25 August 2015.
  34. ^ "Crate Diggers: Sofie Fatouretchi". 3 March 2017.
  35. ^ Tess Reidy (4 October 2014). "Classical music breaks out and joins the youth underground". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  36. ^ "In Stereo: Gnawa Special". Boiler Room. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  37. ^ "Hauschka Discusses Prepared Piano Techniques in New Videos". XLR8R. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  38. ^ "The Quietus – News – TONIGHT: Julia Holter & More At St John". The Quietus. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
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  41. ^ "Ray-Ban SXSW Performances". Boiler Room. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  42. ^ "Sonar and RBMA join forces with Boiler Room for the online videocast of SonarDôme stage". Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  43. ^ "10 Reasons We Loved the Dekmantel Festival". XLR8R. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
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  47. ^ "Boiler Room Festival 2019". Boiler Room Festival 2019.
  48. ^ "Boiler Room has announced its first ever music festival". Evening Standard. 31 May 2019.
  49. ^ "BOILER ROOM (UK) LIMITED UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2020". Companies House. 15 October 2021.
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  54. ^ a b Hayes, Melissa (21 March 2019). "Hearst UK and Jungle Creations lead the Digiday Media Awards nominations".
  55. ^ a b c "DADI 2018". The Drum Awards. 29 March 2018.
  56. ^ "NEW Webby Gallery + Index". NEW Webby Gallery + Index.
  57. ^ a b "NEW Webby Gallery + Index". NEW Webby Gallery + Index.
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  59. ^ "Marketing Awards 2019". The Drum Awards. 13 November 2018.
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  61. ^ "Power 100 2019: Stephen Mai". www.campaignlive.co.uk.
  62. ^ "Alt List 2019 Nominations". shesaid.so.
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  64. ^ JustGiving. "Read DJ's story". justgiving.com. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  65. ^ stagedoor (27 February 2016). "Live stream: DJ EZ's 24 hour charity DJ set". Stagedoor FM. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
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  70. ^ "Listen to Skepta's new album Konnichiwa now". Crack Magazine. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
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  73. ^ Ch, Abigail; Metro.co.uk, ler for (18 August 2016). "Notting Hill Carnival 2016: Your guide to the sound systems". Metro. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
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  79. ^ "Live Stream Boiler Room from Notting Hill Carnival". 29 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  80. ^ "Boiler Room at Carnival: stream if you wanna go harder". 22 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  81. ^ "Boiler Room Pacific Islands: Rarotonga". Boiler Room. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
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  83. ^ Moran, Justin (23 February 2024). "Charli XCX Throws the Best Parties". Paper. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  84. ^ Cox, Alyson (25 February 2024). "Here's What Happened at Charli XCX's Viral Boiler Room Set". V.
  85. ^ Aubrey, Elizabeth (24 February 2024). "Charli XCX hints that new album is a dance record following Boiler Room appearance". NME.
  86. ^ Rips, Nicolaia (23 February 2024). "25,000 People RSVP'd For Charli XCX's Boiler Room DJ Set. 400 People Got In. Here's What It Was Like Inside".
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