The Origins of "DJ Bolivia"

I'm frequently asked why I'm referred to as "DJ Bolivia."  After all, I'm from Canada, not from Bolivia.   Here's the full story, for those who are curious.

It all began in approximately 2001.  It's hard to figure out exact dates, because most of the websites that I use now didn't exist at the time.  Back then, even sites that we now think of as the OG's of the internet just didn't exist.  In 2001, the internet was still a pretty wild place, without a lot of robust infrastructure.  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter hadn't been invented yet.  The only major sites that I can remember from back then were MySpace, AOL, eBay, and PayPal.  Amazon existed, but for most of us, the thought of buying something on the internet was revolutionary (and dangerous).  The popular apps that I can remember from back then were things like Usenet, ICQ, mIRC, WinAmp, and Napster.

 

One night, I was in my studio, having drinks with two of my good friends:  Drew Dudley and Marc Carnes.  We were listening to music, probably trying to sort out things that needed to be done for Conduct Becoming, and having some Jack Daniels & Corona on the side.

That particular night, we were talking about some potential upcoming shows for Marc. Marc was a well-known DJ in the Maritimes at that point, and had played at a number of parties in Halifax, Moncton, and Saint John.  We were discussing how to get Marc booked at more shows, because it was very difficult at the time to get booked as a DJ.  Marc was working full-time and was quite busy, so he wasn't sure that he had much of a future in DJ'ing.  Trying to self-promote or stand out from the crowd was very challenging and time-consuming.  He was a great DJ, but the promotional side of the equation was the problem.  My suggestion was to build an online presence.

The next three hours turned into a free-wheeling discussion about how that could be done:  The pros and cons of setting up a website, the technical challenges involved, and how to promote.  I was saying it would be easy, Drew was looking at me with a raised eyebrow wondering exactly how I would go about everything, and Marc was playing the Devil's Advocate.

At some point in the argument, I said something along the lines of, "I bet that if you gave me five years, I could turn ANYONE with some basic talent into a world-famous international DJ and recognized name brand."  This, of course, was a bold statement.  Drew agreed to take on my bet, and we decided that it would basically be a gentleman's wager, but we'd put a bottle of Jack Daniels on the line for the winner.

Marc wasn't convinced that he wanted to be a guinea pig for this project, so I said that I would be the subject of the bet.  I had already been DJ'ing for a number of years, but mostly at small parties around the university campus, or at the local campus Pub.  I was able to beat-mix vinyl records, although my skills were only at a hobby level at that point.  However, I had the equipment and records, and I knew how to hand-code websites in HTML.  My tree planting website, Replant.ca, had already been online for a couple years at that point, so I was pretty confident that what I didn't know, I could figure out.  I was the manager of the local campus nightclub at this point, and I also did all the updates and coding maintenance on that website.

Once the bet had been established, my first challenge was what to use as a stage name.  I didn't want to use my own name.  I'm not sure why.  I think it was because I didn't want my name associated with this endeavour, in case it turned out to be a complete disaster.  In retrospect, this was a terrible decision.  I should have used my own name.  Incidentally, I've considered changing my stage name to my real name at several points in the last few years, but it would be difficult to do that, since my web presence and online real estate is already so well established.

So I needed a stage name, and the bourbon & beer helped inspire me to take the process very seriously.  When I had named my dog (Dakota) several years before, I had gone through the same sort of challenge.  With Dakota, I had gone through several sets of lists, coming up with different ideas.  For instance, I went through a number of international cities.  Baghad was a strong choice for a while (thinking back to the Gulf War) but then I decided that it sounded too similar to "Bad Dog" and the dog might develop an inferiority complex.  With Dakota, I eventually moved from city names to US states, and when I got to North Dakota, I realized that Dakota was a great name.

Using the same concept that I had taken to figure out the dog's name, we eventually started going through countries in South America.  When we got to Bolivia, we thought, "Hey, this might work."

Before we had started considering various names, we had come up with a short list of qualifications.  This was that list:
1.  It had to be a name/word that was fairly well known to English speakers.
2.  It should also be a name/word that would be recognizable to Spanish speakers, if possible, since I spoke basic Spanish.  This requirement was designed to increase global marketability.
3.  The stage name had to be a single word, not a pair or words or phrase.  The logic behind this rule was that a lot of famous musicians were known by a single name:  Prince, Madonna, Bono, Cher, Sting, etc.
4.  The name had to roll off the tongue, and sound easy to produce.  It had to sound relatively cool.
5.  A good domain name had to be available, not a URL that was already taken.
6.  Most importantly, it had to be a stage name that did not appear to be in use yet.  I didn't want to be confused with an existing performer, nor to have an existing performer serve me a cease-and-desist order to stop using the name.  I had to make sure that I'd be able to put enough information on the internet to establish a "first use" precedent, to protect my stage name.

We ran "Bolivia" through that list of six rules, and it seemed to fit perfectly.  I ran into some minor problems when I tried to check for domain availability.  It's not possible to register any country's name as a domain name, so "bolivia.com" was not available.  The builders of the internet were smart like that, thinking about preventing domain-squatting.  After some discussion, we decided that "djbolivia.com" was adequate, because at least it clarified the purpose of the site.

Most importantly, at that time, there wasn't anybody using "DJ Bolivia" that I could find when I did searches on Google or Yahoo.  Incidentally, a year or so later, I discovered a "DJ Bolivia" from California who had an account on MySpace before I did, but my main website was established before his MySpace account, so I didn't worry about this "imposter."

We tried to think of any other reason why Bolivia wouldn't be a good stage name.  I realized that Bolivia was a country that I really wanted to visit, and that I probably wouldn't find a better choice.  That decided it.  I said, "It's official.  I have five years, and I'm going to win this bet."

So basically, that's the entire story of where "DJ Bolivia" came from.  I started working on a website almost immediately.  I also started practicing more diligently, with at least 2-3 hours on the decks several nights each week.  And I tried to figure out ways to distinguish myself from other DJ's.

My online presence really made a difference.  All of this happened at a perfect time.  The internet was just starting to explode in growth.  I decided to record some demo mixes and try to share them online.  At the time, there were literally NO websites or services that allowed a person to do this.  I did some research about the legality of it all, and discovered that under Canadian law, it seemed to be legal to share mixes if three conditions were met:

1.  The mix had to be free, non-commercial, and not creating any monetary gain for myself.

2.  There could be no full and complete isolated commercial songs in the download.  By mixing at least 60 seconds at the beginning or end of each song with another song, I was able to meet that rule.

3.  Any online distribution was not allowed to have a negative impact upon the distribution or sale of the original work.  This is a complicated one, but essentially, nobody was going to refrain from buying a vinyl copy of any of the individual tracks on my demo mixes simply because they had a digital copy of my mix available.  Remember, at the time, it was pretty much impossible to even buy digital copies of music.  The only service that I think was trying to go into legitimate digital music for online sales was MP3.com - which went bankrupt.  They were ahead of their time, unfortunately.

Putting demo mixes on my site was a game-changer.  At the time, almost nobody had "fast" internet.  I had just gotten one of the very first ADSL lines in New Brunswick a couple years before that.  Cable and ADSL were really only being introduced to a wider public in Atlantic Canada right around that time, and throughout the early years of my website, the vast majority of Canadians went online using dialup, if they were able to go online at all.  To download one of my earlier mixes, encoded as an MP3 that was only about 56 megabytes in size (128 kbps bit rate) often took people an entire hour hour.

At that point, almost nobody in the world had a site where it was legally possible to download a DJ mix.  My own site wasn't quite a pioneer in that respect, but it was  definitely in the "very early adopter" category.  I built an audience of fans from around the world, just because almost nobody else was doing what I was doing.  Some of those early fans (people like Dan Fernandez at MicroSoft, tProphet from 2600/Defcon, and half a dozen others) are still friends today.  They've all helped my hobby DJ'ing career in various and sometimes unintended ways.

So that's the full story about the origins of "DJ Bolivia" and of my website.  Drew graciously conceded defeat in our gentleman's bet after some gigs that I played at the San Jose Game Developer's Conference and a couple venues in Japan, even though that was technically more like six years after I had built my website, not five.

I'll leave you with a graphic that shows what the main page of my website first looked like back in 2002.  What's funny is that this is an image file that is just 70 kilobytes in size, but at the time, that took 15-20 seconds to display on a dialup connection!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Remix Contest: "Courage"

July 24th, 2016:  This remix contest is now closed.  Visit the following link to see the results:

     http://djbolivia.blogspot.ca/2016/07/courage-remix-contest-entries.html


 

Original Post of February 28th, 2016:

I recently finished producing a track with Urban Francis called "Courage."  The track was a progressive house track with a bit of an electro feel in some ways.  We filmed a series of tutorial videos about the track, which you can see at this link.

In addition, we posted the entire Ableton 9.5 project files online in my public dropbox account, and also posted a full set of stems there in a separate file.  Those are available as free downloads to anyone who wants to grab them to experiment with.

We are currently hosting a remix contest for this track.  I'm personally sponsoring the contest with a prize of $300 (in Canadian dollars) for the winning track.  That amount can be paid to the winner (in Canadian funds) as long as you have paypal.  If the winner is a Canadian resident, I'm also willing to mail a cheque if you don't use paypal.

In addition, a number of other randomly selected entries will be showcased on my website, in this blog post, on our SoundCloud accounts, and through other internet media, along with the contact info and/or a promo website for the producers of those remixes (if you want to share such info).

Before we get into the rules and info on how to enter, here's a link to our Instrumental and "Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer" versions of this track, in case you're not familiar with the track yet:

Rules & Terms & Conditions:

1.  You may share your remixes freely on any internet sites, in any file type(s), both before and after the closing date of the contest, as long as you name your remix according to the following convention:  Bolivia & Urban Francis (YOUR NAME Remix).

2.  You should not attempt to register your remix with a professional label or publisher (due to potential copyright content clashes, which I'll explain at the end of this post).  So if you share your remix with the world, you'll have to do it through your own personal publishing efforts.

3.  Your remix can be any genre at all, of your choosing.  Obviously, it will be easier to produce your remix in a style similar to the existing original, ie. some sort of house or techno derivative.

4.  You may submit up to two separate entries.

5.  There is no restriction on the length of your submission(s), although we expect that the majority of submissions will probably be between 4 and 8 minutes in length.  Having a submission that is shorter or longer than that range will not handicap you when it comes to judging.

6.  The deadline for entries is 11:59pm (Atlantic Standard Time Zone) on June 30th, 2016.  All judging will take place and winners will be announced within this post by July 15th, 2016.

7.  This contest is open worldwide where permitted, to entrants who have reached the age of majority in their country of residence.  Persons under the age of majority who create a remix may submit their entry through a parent or legal guardian as proxy.

8.  Notwithstanding the above, this contest is void in jurisdictions where prohibited by law.

9.  The prize for the contest winner will be $300 in Canadian dollars.  The Canadian dollar is currently weak, and is worth less than the US dollar.  This amount can be paid to the winner as long as you have Paypal or Interac Email Transfer capabilities.  If the winner is a Canadian resident, I'm also willing to mail a cheque if you don't use Paypal or Interac Email Banking.  I will not send a cheque or use any other type of money transfer service to non-Canadian residents.  The recipient of the winning prize is solely responsible for reporting and submitting any relevant income taxes that might apply to your prize money in your country of residence.  Canadian residents will not enjoy any preference in judging.  We want this to be a global contest.  Having said this, we do expect a number of Canadian entrants, so it's possible that the winner could be a Canadian.  Just rest assured that we definitely won't discriminate against non-Canadians!  The majority of the winners of our past remix contests have been non-Canadians.

10.  Judging will be done by a panel of judges including Urban Francis and other associate producer friends.  The judges' decision will be based upon the quality of music, production values used in making the remix, and possibly also on how innovative the remix is.  The judges' decision will be final, and the judges will not provide feedback on why they chose the specific winning track above any other specific track.

11.  You may share your remix publicly before the contest is over.  However, the popularity of any shared remixes will not influence the judges' decision.  The winner will be decided based upon the judges' perception of the quality of the submissions, not based upon a popularity contest.

12.  Your remix may include any of the vocal/sample material (Kelly's vocals, or the NASA samples) that you find in the remix or stems folders, or you may omit those materials.  You may produce an instrumental version if you want, or you can add new vocal/sample material of your own.  You may also include new sounds/instrumentation of your own.  However, please do not include ANY samples or vocals that have been copyrighted elsewhere by another artist.  Any entries containing someone else's copyrighted content will be disqualified.  Any new samples, loops, or other audio materials incorporated into your remix must be royalty-free or exclusively designed by the remixer.

13.  Musicians or producers who are under an exclusive contract with a record label are ineligible.

14.  No purchase is necessary to enter or win this contest.  In fact, there is nothing that you can buy.  However, by entering this promotion contest, you agree that any costs that you incur in creating your remix are solely your own responsibility.

15.  Any potential copyright or other intellectual property rights that may potentially vest in your remix will be granted to Bolivia (Jonathan Clark) and Urban Francis (Francis Cormier).  Note that this is simply to avoid legal complications, and we do not intend to attempt to sell copies of your remixes.

16.  It is expressly agreed that no payment is due to the participants for the production of your remixes.  Only one winner will receive a monetary prize.

17.  By providing your entry details to us, you confirm that you would like to enter the promotion contest and that you agree to be bound by these rules, terms, and conditions, ethics rules applicable on the internet, applicable laws and regulations, and all legislation applicable in your jurisdiction of residence.

18.  Your remix must not contain any illegal, obscene, racist, defamatory, or sexual material, or any material likely to offend any person or any material likely to infringe upon any person's rights of privacy.  The judges reserve the right to disqualify any entries based upon these or any other criteria.  Entrants represent and warrant that their comments or public publishing do not contain any harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content, or any other communications which might defame, disparage or reflect adversely upon the promoters or our goods/services.

19.  We reserve the right to disqualify any submissions that we believe to be the work of other producers.

20.  The winning prize is non-transferable.

21.  We accept no responsibility for entries lost, damaged or delayed, or for any inability to submit entries as a result of computer services, systems, software and/or server failure, error, interruption, defect or delay or any other technical malfunction, including problems with internet connectivity and/or filtering or content by any social media platform.  Entries which are late, incomplete, corrupt, garbled, inaccessible/blocked, bulk, automated, ineligible, suspected as fraudulent, do not comply with the rules & terms & conditions, or which in our sole discretion affect the validity or operation of this promotion contest will not be accepted and are void.

22.  Except to the extent that they may not be excluded by law, no representations, warranties, terms or conditions that are not expressly stated in these rules & terms & conditions apply to this promotion contest.  We share no liability for any injuries, loss, or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with participation in this promotion (including any damage to entrants' or to any other persons' computer relating to or resulting from participation in, or downloading of any materials or software in connection with this promotion contest), or acceptance, use, misuse, or non-use of any prizes.

23.  We reserve the right to edit and/or augment the rules & terms & conditions at any point throughout the duration of this contest, in case we think of something that we forgot to mention.

Phew.  That was exhausting.

To Enter:

1.  Send a link to your track via email to Urban Francis in an uncompressed audio format, ie. WAV or AIFF format.  The best way to do this is probably to put it into a Dropbox account (you can get one for free if you don't already have one) and share the link to the file with Urban Francis.  If this isn't possible, you can find other services that would allow you to host and share your file.  But to be honest, Dropbox is probably the best and easiest by far.  An alternative would be to get a free Soundcloud account (if you don't already have one) and upload the file there, and enable downloads, then send that link to Urban Francis.

2.  You should not send your project/session files.

3.  You can produce your remix in the DAW or Audio Editor of your choice.  We'd like to know which DAW you used, but that's mostly just out of curiousity.  Also, although we haven't decided this yet, we might pick a couple of especially good entries to feature in our public dropbox (your entire project files) IF you're willing to do that.  But you don't have to, and that won't affect how we judge the entries.  Again, don't send us your full project/session files.  For now, just tell us which editor you used.

4.  We must have the following information:
     - Your full name.
     - Your producer alias, if you have one.
     - What country you're from.
     - Your email address (if unspecified, we'll assume that it's the one that you use to enter).

5.  You can optionally include a photo with your entry.  This is not mandatory, and won't affect your chances of winning.  We'll only use this if you're the winner and if you happen to want a photo published.

6.  You can optionally include a background graphic with your entry.  This is not mandatory, and won't affect your chances of winning.  If you send one, we'll use this to embed in the audio in case we share your remix.  You don't have to do any graphics work with titling; we'll take care of all that.  And if your submission is one of the five non-winning submissions that we pick randomly to feature, we'll use that graphic in the mp3's, soundcloud links, and so on.  If you don't want to include a graphic, no problem - we'll pick one for you.  If you decide to include a graphic though, make sure it's at least 1200x1200 pixels in resolution.

7.  In the event that your submission is randomly selected to be shared by us to a wider distribution, it would be helpful for you to tell us (when you enter) whether or not you want to share any promotional details with your remix.  Details must be limited to one email address and/or up to four website links (soundcloud, facebook, etc.).

8.  Urban Francis will reply to all submissions to confirm that they have been received.  If you don't get a submission confirmation email, please send a second email which is TEXT ONLY to specify that you sent a submission.  That way, if your original email (with links and/or attachments) got redirected to spam/trash, we can look for it.


The email address to send entries to is:

fcormier27@gmail.com

Again, to find more information about the original track, plus links to all of the videos that we have on YouTube to explain our original Ableton 9.5 project files, visit the following link:

http://djbolivia.blogspot.ca/2016/01/progressive-house-music-production.html

Good luck with your remixing.  And if you can think of any remix or production-oriented message boards where you could share the link to this post, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks!



Note:  We have copyrighted and registered the original work with SOCAN, the Canadian music licensing agency.  Although we are not pursuing copyright claims if the content is posted online, you should be careful if you do a remix and give it to a label that tries to enforce copyright claims on your own remix.  Since we've already registered the work, we'd be able to prove that we hold the original copyright.  In other words, make sure you don't get into a situation where you sell your remix to a label who then tries to use content-matching algorithms at services such as YouTube and Soundcloud to monetize remixes of your remix.  If such a content-match occurred with our original track (which is on both of those services, and other services) then you'd have a lot of hassle trying to remove your track from the system.  However, this shouldn't be an issue if you share your own mixes freely on YouTube, Soundcloud, and other platforms.  It would only be if you tried to share through a label that was trying to collect publishing royalties that you'd run into an issue.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca