Boiler Room is an online music broadcaster and club promoter based in London, United Kingdom. It hosts predominantly dance music events, focusing on underground genres, in locations internationally, with live streaming.
Since it was founded, it has organized more than 8,000 performances, with 5,000 at more than 200 cities.[1] Its music programming originally focused on dance music but eventually expanded to include others genres such as hip hop, jazz and classical.
History
2010–11: Foundation and expansion
The project started in 2010, when Blaise Bellville asked Thristian Richards to livestream a mix for a magazine.[2][3] Boiler Room's first session in March 2010 turned into a weekly show with local DJs,[3] becoming a Ustream channel.[4]
Later the same year, producer and DJ Floating Points played Boiler Room's second ever edition, the recording of which was subsequently lost.[5]
Early in 2011, the Rolling Stone magazine added Blaise to its list of "50 Most Important People In EDM".[3] Boiler Room founders started expanding the project to more cities, replicating their initial model in Berlin with local DJs, and then other cities like Los Angeles and São Paulo.[3]
On 27 and 28 February 2016, Boiler Room live streamed DJ EZ's 24-hour DJ set which raised over £60,000 on behalf of Cancer Research UK.[8] In May 2016, Boiler Room live streamed Skepta's launch party for the Konnichiwa album in Tokyo.[9]
In August 2016, Boiler Room live streams covered 42 hours of various soundsystems at the Notting Hill Carnival.[12]
Boiler Room's first full-length documentary, on Atlanta based collective Awful Records, launched in June 2016.[13] Boiler Room has since continued producing TV shows and documentaries aimed at telling stories tied to the people, artists and culture.[14] This includes shows like Gasworks, a 20-minute, grime-focused talk show starring Alhan Gençay & Poet.[14]
In 2018, Boiler Room launched '4:3', a platform for film, documentary and music videos, with Amar Ediriwira as its creative director.[citation needed] In 2019, the first 'Boiler Room Festival' was announced in Peckham, London. The event showcased a different underground scene each day, across contemporary jazz, rap, and dance genres.[15]
2021–24: Under DICE
In 2021, ticketing platform DICE bought Boiler Room for an undisclosed sum, after raising $122 million[16]
Charli XCX's February 2024 Boiler Room performance, titled "Partygirl" and held in Brooklyn, New York, received more than 25,000 RSVPs, the largest number in Boiler Room's history.[18]
The acquisition was received with criticism because of Superstruct's parent company, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), and its economic interests in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories. Several artists, including Ikonika, Beatrice M., Mia Koden, BasicDisarm, jtamul, DJ Sama' and 8ULENTINA canceled their appearances at Boiler Room over this. In March, Boiler Room released a statement, saying "we will always remain unapologetically pro-Palestine".[20]
Awards
Boiler Room and its projects have received a number of awards and nominations:
↑ Castillo, Arielle; Domanick, Andrea; Matos, Michaelangelo (17 March 2014). "50 Most Important People in EDM". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 30 September 2024.
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