If there’s one thing which can always be said of the dance music press, it’s that they show a lack of self-awareness which is staggering – even by the levels typically seen in this industry. We’re not quite sure exactly why this is, other than to speculate this form of mirroring endears them to equally incognizant cousins elsewhere in the dance music world.

This week, Mixmag ran a sponsored article – is there any other kind in Mixmag these days? – all about the pieces of hardware producers apparently simply must buy. It starts with Reverb’s Fess Grandiose proving how apt his surname is, proclaiming “When you’re producing on the computer you’re using the same thing you make calls on, write emails or check your social media. As it turns out, those things can be distractors towards your creative process.”.

Grandiose might not be aware of this, but the internet connections on laptops, tablets, phones and the rest can be turned off by simply switching the wi-fi connection off. There – no more distraction from things such as Facebook or say, sponsored articles such as this one.

Then we get to the crux of the article – Reverb is an online marketplace for people to sell their old hardware. Whilst Ears To The House admits this is a noble idea stopping perfectly good equipment from ending up rotting in landfill sites, there’s no denying what we’re seeing here – an excuse to try and sell gullible music producers lots of new equipment.

Expensive equipment, too – if you purchased all five of the suggested pieces of hardware, it would cost you £1476.95. In other words, they expect you to spend nearly £1500 on hardware. Which you’d need to spend 743 copies at £1.99 each to get your investment back – and that’s assuming you were getting 100% of each sale, which you aren’t on any digital sales platform.

And the worst thing about this? There are plenty of music producers who will fall for it…