Top 10 YouTube EDM Channels - TopX Ep.27
#10: Tasty
youtube.com/TastyNetwork
- No this isn’t a holdover from our Food Channels list, at #10 we have the channel that serves up delicious beats…the Tasty Network.
- Tasty is a electronic record label who claim to be dedicated to supporting and bringing forth the latest and hottest up and coming artists from around the world, according to their about page.
- If there’s one thing that I could say to describe tasty’s channel is uniformity. The thumbnails are all done in the same slick artistic style, giving the whole channel a very organized feel and stylish feeling.
- A personal favorite artist of mine that you can find on their channel is TheFatRat – who’s got a distinctly video-gamy sound mixed into his club bangers.
#9: Ultra Music
youtube.com/UltraRecords
- Out of all the channels we’ll see today, it’s probably Ultra Music that’s got the most artists you’ve already heard of if you’re not deep into the EDM scene. Steve Aoki, Deadmaus and (shudder) Pitbull all call Ultra their home.
- Although they were founded in 1995, Ultra really hit the big time when they merged with Sony Music in 2013. Those of you that follow the EDM scene will probably be familiar with the Ultra Music festival, which is in fact NOT directly related to the Ultra label. However, they two companies did partner together in August of 2012 for promotional purposes, but the big shindig that goes down in Miami every year is not their doing.
- One thing that can be said about the type of music you’ll find on the Ultra channel is that it’s a bit more lyrical than some of the other stuff we’ll see today – often the hooks of the most popular tracks are performed by big name artist, making the songs…dare I say it…more radio friendly?
#8: UKF
youtube.com/UKFMusic
- Not just a channel but a number of channels, no countdown of the best EDM on Youtube would be complete without a mention of UKF music.
- As I said, UKF is not just a single channel. Although they started with just UKF Dubstep and UKF Drum and Bass, they now have blossomed into 5 separate channels – adding UKF Music, UKF Mixes and UKF Live into the mix.
- If you’re into the EDM scene in the UK, chances are that none of this is news to you. UKF organizes events, sells merchandise and even has their own ticketing platform.
- One thing you’ll quickly notice is that these channels often include a mix of full production music videos and bare bones audio tracks – but, they’ve conveniently labeled the stills for the audio only clips with the UKF Audio watermark – so if you’re looking for something to watch as well as listen to, you don’t have to open every one to find out.
#7: Spinnin' Records
youtube.com/SpinninRec
- Back from an appearance on our Top 10 Most Popular Channels of 2014 is the self proclaimed #1 Dance Music Channel on YouTube. We’ll let you be the judge of that in terms of quality, but when it comes to pure #s, no one outpaces these guys.
- Spinning Records is an independent, Dutch record label that specializes in progressive house, electro house and big room house. Or just, techno if you grew up in the 90s and stopped following music 15 years ago. Even though they’re technically an indie label, they boast some pretty big acts, like Calvin Harris and Tiesto. Remember that Barbara Streisand song from 2010 that you probably just couldn’t get out of your head? Ya that’s them.
- If you don’t know where to start or if you wanna just put something on and forget about it, they have a weekly radio show called spinnin’ sessions, and, naturally, a ton of playlists curated by the staff.
#6: ENM
youtube.com/EpicNetworkMusic
- Often when we’re counting down these different YouTube channels, we look for an overarching theme that unifies each one. For this next entry, Epic Network, I’d have to say that theme has to be happiness and positivity, something that’s sometimes hard to come by in an over serious scene.
- Immediately upon loading this channel you’ll notice that all the thumbnails are cutsie little anime stills. Whether this is clickbait or not is definitely arguable, but it definitely helps to support the friendly, upbeat image the brand is going for.
- Somewhat like what UKF does with their thumbnails, Epic has a pretty ingenious labeling system for their thumbnail pictures. Each is labeled by genre in the bottom left corner, making it easy to pick out Dubstep, Nu Disco or Just and Relaxed tracks by simply scanning through the pictures. Of course, they have playlists for that too, but ain’t nobody got time for that!
#5: Majestic Casual
youtube.com/majesticcasual
- Just as EDM is an all-encompassing term that’s hard to definite, so to is the type of music you’ll find on Majestic. According to their own page, they feature a bit of everything: deep house, experimental, hip-hop, indie, pop and more. Basically, if you made it in Pro-tools, it can be featured here.
- Image is pretty much everything in music, aside from the music of course, and the people at Majestic clearly understand this. All of the stills are…well, for lack of a better term, very hipster-ish, and almost categorically feature stylish young ladies. It’s still sorta clickbait, but it’s clickbait for people who find regular clickbait too mainstream.
- That said, you’ll also find a remixes by big name acts here. Kendrick Lamar, Ellie Goulding and the XX are all mixed into some of the most popular tracks.
- Majestic is definitely a kind of Set-it-and-forget-it kind of channel. They DO have playlists, but each one is merely a block of 200 hundred tracks with no particular order, the type of thing you put on in the background while you’re at work and just let run. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve caught some of the watchmojo staff playing one of their compilations while they do their work.
#4: GalaxyMusic
youtube.com/UDUBSTEPHD
- Many of the channel’s we’ve seen today are Labels that publish their own music. Galaxy, along with another couple of channels we’ve seen, represent the other side of the YouTube EDM scene – the audio-blog kind.
- Essentially, this channel promotes the music that’s been submitted to them. In fact, if you want to have your own stuff promoted on their channel, all you have to do is email it to them and cross your fingers. Of course, you have to have permission to use any copyrighted material, but I guess that goes without saying.
- For those of you, like me, who have no idea where to start, Galaxy is one of those channels that’s been nice enough to separate their playlists into genres, so you can binge large collections of only dubstep, drum & bass or Glitch Hop to name just a few.
#3: MrSuicideSheep
youtube.com/MrSuicideSheep
- No they didn’t pick their name cause their users are sheep and the music makes you want to kill yourself. Here to help you feel the music is MrSuicideSheep.
- Another audio-blog curator type of channel, MrSuicideSheeps stated goal is to find the best and most enjoyable electronic music. Again, you’re free to submit your own stuff to his channel, so long as you don’t mind it being monetized.
- Like a lot of well organized channels like to do, Suicide Sheep is has kindly been organized into playlists by genre – which is a good thing since the channel features over a thousand different tracks.
- Fun fact, currently the two most popular videos on the channel are remixes by fellow Montrealers Adventure Club
#2: xKito Music
youtube.com/nyuualiaslucy
- At first glance, xKito is very similar to a bunch of channels we’ve seen today – which is true. They have a watermark in their thumbnails that label the genre of their tracks. They use cutsie little anime stills for their thumbnails. They’re primarily a curator channel, one that hosts content for up and coming artists. It’s true that we’ve seen a lot of these elements before, but that’s not to say the xKito does it all very well, if not better than it’s pears.
- One thing that’s certainly noteworthy of this channel is the genres certain clips are labeled as have very specific subgenres that you don’t see on other channels– genres like melodic dubstep, future bass and happy hardcore. Of course, this is a two way street, as some clips are simply labeled “EDM”.
- Another thing that I feel I should mention is that while there are anime type thumbnails that represent each track, a-la-Epic Network, they’re less clickbaity and are clearly selected to fit the feel of the song. While this may seem trivial, it means that you can’t blame the channel’s runaway popularity on a cheap marketing gimic.
Before we mix into our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions
HM1 Liquicity
youtube.com/Liquicity
HM2 Trap City
youtube.com/OfficialTrapCity
HM3 Monstercat
youtube.com/MonstercatMedia
HM4 Proximity
youtube.com/PandoraMuslc
HM5 MA Music
youtube.com/MADubstep
HM6 Nik Cooper
youtube.com/MusicVVawe
#1: Mr.Revillz
youtube.com/MrRevillz
- Well, it’s been trip, but it’s time to come down and mellow out with our #1 pick. Topping off our list is Mr. Revillz, the modern king of EDM curation.
- What’s great about this channel is that while you may not have heard of the remixing artist in question, the song that they’re using are often by artists you will be familiar with. For example, my personal favorite is a remix of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual healing by Kygo (Kai-go or Ki-go up for debate). How they’ve avoided a lawsuit is anybody’s guess, but damn is it ever catchy.
- Instead of dividing his playlists by genre, clips are grouped by feeling or mood. While there are only a handful of these lists, they also fall into that “set it and forget it” sort of category – the type of thing you can put on in the background to suit your mood and just let it play.
- Also, I hate to harp on thumbnails, but clearly Mr. Revillz, or whoever makes his thumbnail pictures, went to the same some art school as whoever does em for Majestic. I’m not sure who’s ripping off who here, but they’ve all got that fresh from H&M’s Instagram account look.