interview with "TRAXSOURCE" OWNER Brian Tappert and Marc Pomeroy

[cruelsummer]

Deli talks to the founders & owners of Traxsource.com, Marc Pomeroy and Brian Tappert, about the development of Level 3g, the digital download phenomenon and what's in store in the coming months.

What does Level 3g mean?

MP: Level 3g means it's our 3rd generation, plus it coincides with our 3rd year in existence. We took it from the early days to something totally new. The new functionality speaks for itself. Everybody does Version, 2, Version 3, Version Whatever, but Traxsource is not everybody.

Why did you decide to introduce Genres three years into launching Traxsource?

BT: Over the years, not having Genres was the biggest criticism we received. Marc and I both being old school in mentality have always been against it, so we held off until recently. It's mainly because our customer base and content has really grown and now Genres make sense. There's a lot of stuff on the site. Now, with 3g it's much easier to find the music you love.

What advances and improvement does Level 3g bring to its users?

MP: The biggest advance is the Genre Functionality, which took most of the development time. Now, users can not only browse but also filter by Genre in key areas of the site.  Another big thing is the Improved Navigation. It's now much easier to get around and it makes a lot more sense. We re-vamped the search engine not only to put the most relevant results but also the newest stuff on top. This was something a lot of customers requested. We listened to them and are now bringing them what they need. There's also the updated News Section to tell people what's going on. Our updated Label Page now displays a lot of labels at once, which makes it so much easier to find a label. Not only that, but also the Favorite (Labels) Section allows customers to add labels to their favorites. In that way, users can make Traxsource only show content from their Favorite Labels. We even made a lot of performance tweaks to make the site quicker and more efficient

BT: The top right hand section of the site is now the nerve center. Everywhere you want to go on Traxsource is right there. We also re-organized and expanded our DJ Tools...for example if you're looking for Accapellas you'll find hundreds of results...It's the same with Producer Packs.

Tell us about the development process for Level 3g

BT: It's a very long and drawn out process of trial and error, to say the least.  We spend a lot of time listening to customers, discussing ideas, and putting things on the drawing board...it's kinda boring.  Basically Marc and one other guy is our entire development team. The rest of our team all has input in the various functionalities, but when it comes to the actual coding, I give all the credit to Marc. 

MP: It's a lot of blood sweat n tears. We don't have a huge team. But the good thing is that we have developers that love our style of music, they're not just everyday programmers. This is exactly what we wanted. Part of that love is actually going into the code. It just takes us a bit longer. In fact, we love hearing things about the site, good and bad...that's how we make our improvements.

Traxsource now offers all those Genres from House to Jackin, Classic House and so on. There's also a Genre called Deep/Tech, a term that Traxsource coined. Tell us more

BT: If you've been following House for the last year or so, something is obvious. A lot of Deep guys are making their version of Tech House, and a lot of Minimal/Techno guys are making Deep House. There is a whole new underground brewing for this sound and it made sense for us to embrace it and create a button for it. If you go to our Deep/Tech section you will see what we're talking about sound-wise.

Does this mean there will now be less focus on Soulful House?

BT: Absolutely not. Our site oozes Soulful House. But at the same time we carry a lot of other styles of music. We always have, it's not a new thing. We all think it s important to be diverse...In the end it's about making it easy to find what you want. And if you find something you like, the site now shows you a whole load of other stuff you may also like.

What do you see for the future of digital music?

MP: We see a lot of technology opening up, there are new things every week it seems. We like it, it's amazing to see the evolution. We want to start following some of these things and even be the leader with some of them. There's for example Mobile Technology. We're thinking about doing an entire mobile site so you can get tracks on your phone.

BT: There's also education of the younger generation...that's the biggest thing we all face right now. The young guys need to learn that music is not free. They need to be taught by the older generation that it's the right thing to BUY music. It's an educational process.

The Traxsource Top 10 seems to be one of the most important charts in House Music nowadays. How does it work?

MP: We pull from the download records every day, in fact many times throughout the day. It is exact, true and actual data. A lot of people think we move the chart around and do our thing to it - We don't! The chart is important to us, we see what people are doing, what they re downloading.

Traxsource has a new motto 'We Are House'. What does it mean?

BT: This new motto expresses the vibe that we all have. Traxsource was a labor of love from the beginning and it continues to be. We live and breathe the scene, that's how we got where we are. 3, 4 years ago when we launched, Traxsource was the future of House, but now it is here...so We Are House!

After Level 3g, what is the next move?

MP: There's a big list....one of the things we did in the last few months was a massive infrastructure upgrade so we can serve our customers more efficiently. The next big thing would be the implementation of WAV files. We're getting a lot of requests, so we'll do it. We're also developing a new player, which can be used externally as well as internally. There will be new features on the site for the player, like users being able to play an entire page or an entire release. This could be an affiliate system for sales, etc. The list goes on...

Tell us about the team behind Traxsource

BT: I have to say, pound for pound, we have the best team in the world. We have 14 full time people including Marc and myself, plus a series of interns and people from around the world that log on and help in various ways. It takes a lot of effort day after day to move Traxsource forward. It's turned into a bit of a monster...

MP: It's quite a madhouse over here

Any shout-outs?

BT: Big thanks to all of our team, they work very hard day in and day out and we have a lot of respect for them. Of course our labels, customers, DJs, promoters and the radio stations supporting the show. Marc and I also want to thank you Deli, for our Radio Show. We really enjoy listening to it every week!

[downey]

Thanks infonya 
Iya traxsource udah ke level 3g

Tapi sayangnya, indonesia udah ngga bisa beli dari traxsource lagi..di banned
Atau udah bisa lagi?
Ada yang pernah coba?

[lesli]

clickgroove.com juga okeh....