Ever since clubs closed their doors and festivals started to get canceled one by one, live streams have been popping up like mushrooms. To help you navigate throughout these endless oceans, we made a guide with some of the recurring streams as well as upcoming one-off ventures and archived treasures we recommend diving into.
United We Stream is a streaming initiative that takes place in various clubs several days a week. The listeners are encouraged to donate via a fundraising platform, profit from which goes to a rescue fund to support clubs and nightlife organizations in difficulty. For more info, check United We Stream Berlin website or its Dutch sister, the result of a collaboration between 3voor12 and Amsterdam's night mayor.
Boiler Room has launched its Streaming From Isolation series directly from artists' homes and private spaces. These fundraising transmissions are aimed to support Global FoodBanking Network, whose mission is to alleviate global hunger by providing emergency food and support to people locked in poverty. Watch back living room rave of Helena Hauff, industrial treatment from VTSS, Four Tet's broadcast from an isolated woodland retreat or spaced out 3D environment of Dixon's Transmoderna.
Virtually Nowadays is a live stream from the Ridgewood club that is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They stream live every night from 2:00 CET via their website and some of the invited guests so far included artists such as DJ Marcelle, Shanti Celeste, and Ben UFO. For those willing - and capable - to support the initiative, the virtual club offers various membership options, which offer access to the database of their previous streams. Take a look at this week's top-notch schedule below.
In times when real-life gatherings are out of the question, Parasite Label started to host virtual raves inside of social game and metaverse IMVU. Those who prefer to spare themselves the hassle can also stream it on Twitch. All donations during the stream will go to the artists.
T4T LUV NRG's Eris Drew and Octo Octa don't waste their time in isolation. They have already dished out several live streams and radio shows, such as their lovely Forest Throwdown and their first BBC residency dedicated to the faster music genres. Most of their recent streams take place on their Twitch account.
Another stream that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face is the Peach’s nostalgia in the quar mix: a gentle yet fierce ride through the 90s & early 2000s RnB hosted by Maricas. The Barcelona based LGBTQ party has created a digital platform called House of Maricas dedicated to the art of staying at home and will be sharing live streamings, digital content, virtual exhibitions, challenges, poetry, and interviews during the quarantine. Check out the talk hosted by Is Burning on the impact of COVID-19 on the Dutch electronic music scene.
Dr Rubinstein is acing the streaming game with her Quarantine FM living room sessions. You can join her for an hour of positive vibes and dancing every Wednesday evening at 20:00 CET via her Facebook page, YouTube or Twitch.
Elias Mazian has been doing a great job keeping us in a good mood. Each Thursday around 11:00 CET you can join him for a two-hour-long session of vibing to his heart-warming record collection via his Twitch account. All the previous mixes can also be fount on the artist's SoundCloud page. Follow Elias on Instagram to stay up to date with the times and dates of the next Private Hearts episodes.
Club Q is a queer online party - or rather a massive virtual hangout - that takes place every night of the quarantine. Some of the guests so far included Charli XCX, LYZZA, and Caroline Polachek. You can join them via the Zoom App or website with the code they drop each night in their Instagram bio before the stream at 3:00 CET (00:00 on Saturdays).
Club Cringe is a virtual club and a community that stands out from the rest, to say the least. The platform is suggested to be a nerdy take on clubbing and offers whole gameplay reminding the one of League of Legends, only with characters holding Aphex Twin umbrellas and busting crazy moves in constantly changing settings. The stream takes place every Friday at 1:00 CET on Twitch and Discord.
Octopus Agents showcase their broad artist roster through a variety of spontaneous streams on their Facebook page. There, you can also find the archived live set of Gesloten Cirkel, and living room sessions of KI/KI, Legowelt, and Tammo Hesselink.
Radio Radio is a small club in Amsterdam, built out of love for sharing music. Their on-point selection of invited guests included many prominent up-and-coming artists as well as established DJs. We suggest watching back the streams of Amsterdam's own Jasmín, Carista, and RDS, Lisbon's naive label boss Violet and - maybe one of the most exciting names we've witnessed in the past years - Kenyan Slikback. Follow Radio Radio on Instagram to stay up to date.
Every now and then Amsterdam's turntablist legend DJ Marcelle uploads videos on her YouTube channel. The videos are just as unusual as the artist herself - her approach and her selection - and are definitely fun to watch. Each episode has its own theme with collages of the DJ playing the impeccably diverse music from her record collection, random shots filmed around her house or more distant places like New York. In today's MUB DUB show, she walks us through her international mug collection in alphabetical order, set to the sound of an avant-garde dub set.
This Berlin's online radio station has got something to offer for any taste and preference every evening. Follow them on Facebook or YouTube and browse through the catalog of fluorescent videos of artists such as Blawan, Victor, and Claudio PRC or listen to the older sets on SoundCloud. Tune in tonight at 20:00 for a groovy techno session from Berlin's Mareena and Dustin Zahn.
The Warehouse Project has streamed the live performance of Aphex Twin accompanied by idiosyncratic visuals from his storied collaborator, Weirdcore. The recording was made during the event he curated last September.