Contrary to what some people would have you believe, Ears To The House sympathises with those talented individuals trying to break into today’s dance music world. Just look at the nonsense they’ve got to put up with – legacy artists who refuse to support new talent, promoters who only seem to care about social media numbers, and a dance music press that just doesn’t care.

Back in the vinyl era, artists like Masters At Work would create songs with numerous different mixes. Full vocal constructions, dub mixes, instrumentals, and even acapellas were often provided – and remixes weren’t in short supply either.

But there was one major difference between now and then – more often than not, DJs had to buy several different versions at the same time. What was on the vinyl was what you got – a total contrast to today’s market, where people expect to be able to pick and choose what mixes they want to stream or download.

This was a point thar Claptone – a German DJ whose real name is unknown – made at a recent appearance during the Amsterdam Dance Event. He was talking about his view on making albums as a dance artist – something he described as “completely unnecessary”.

Upon being asked how he felt about all this, he said…

“Terrible. I’m a vinyl collector, so it just breaks my heart, you know? No B-sides, no albums anymore. Not even real 45s (45” records) anymore, you know. You’re forced to just produce one mix for Beatport that then makes the charts because if you do three different mixes they’ll cannibalise sales, and you need to push that one into the charts.”

Coming from someone whose most popular hit in recent years is an utterly pointless new version of Rune Reilly Kølsch’s 2003 hit “Calabria”, this might be a little hard to swallow – but it doesn’t totally invalidate his comments. Releasing several different versions of a track does reduce its odds of getting into the Beatport and Traxsource charts.

But what about his comments on albums? Ears To The House reached out to a dance artist who still releases albums to this day – and he goes “I kind of understand where Claptone is coming from. If high chart positions are what you’re looking for, an album doesn’t get you there too often, but it does get you noticed by press and you’re creating something which is going to last longer. In the long term, some of my album tracks have done very well, better than a lot of individual tracks.”

“I want to be annoyed about this and say Claptone is talking s***, but he’s not totally wrong here. I just think he has a more commercial minded focus, which I’m guessing works for him.”.

Then again, perhaps Claptone makes money in different ways – his website currently sells his own branded gin at £36 per bottle…