DJs Bash Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike For Manipulating DJ Mag Top 100 Voters

Last year when I attended Tomorrowland in Belgium for the very first time, we were greeted by girls with iPads asking us to vote for Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. It was rather strange that DJs were stooping to this level but what had really caught me off guard was that it seemed to be allowed by Tomorrowland.

As the voting for DJ Mag’s Top 100 has began, Hardwell and Dannic decided to call out Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike for their sneaky promo team maneuvers. Hardwell wrote “Let the music do the talking,” while Dannic wrote “don’t vote because someone in the streets with an iPad asks you to.”

DJ's with iPad promo teams begging for dj mag votes in the streets, really? Let the music do the talking!

— Hardwell (@HARDWELL) August 19, 2015

If you're voting for your fav dj, don't vote because someone in the streets with an iPad askes you to…

— Dannic (@dannic) August 19, 2015

What’s your thoughts on this marketing techniques?

The criticism didn’t stay confined to Twitter, either. Multiple outlets reported that Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’s promo team had been sending paid workers out to solicit votes in person, including outside schools, which is what fueled a lot of the backlash from fellow DJs who felt the poll was supposed to be a straightforward popularity measure rather than a street-canvassing contest.

Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’s camp didn’t stay quiet for long. Their management, in comments given to press, acknowledged that the duo had run promotional campaigns but pushed back on the idea that this amounted to manipulation, arguing that all of the top-ranked DJs run some form of promotion and that Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’s position reflected their touring success and sold-out shows rather than any unfair advantage. It’s worth noting that street canvassing for votes, iPads and all, isn’t technically against DJ Mag’s rules, which is part of why this kind of debate tends to resurface every voting season without a clear resolution.

The timing of all this only raised the stakes. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike went on to claim the #1 spot on that year’s DJ Mag Top 100, a result that reignited the exact same arguments Hardwell and Dannic were making here, with critics pointing to the aggressive promo tactics as evidence the poll doesn’t always reflect artistry or popularity in the way it claims to, and supporters pointing to the brothers’ relentless touring schedule and packed festival sets as proof the win was earned the hard way.

Either way, this whole saga is a good reminder of just how much weight that annual ranking carries in the scene, enough that DJs are willing to publicly call each other out over how the votes get won. Where you land on it probably depends on whether you think a popularity poll should reward the best marketing team or the best set.