A State of Trance

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Scope

These unofficial guidelines cover the A State of Trance series of radio broadcasts.

This page is intended to be expressed in the same way as the official guidelines for Broadcast programs but with specific examples related to A State of Trance.

Guidelines

Release group type

The release group type should be set to "Broadcast" and "DJ-mix". If the show was recorded in front of a live audience[1], add "Live".

Release name

Follow this format: YYYY-MM-DD: A State of Trance #1234[, "Program Title"][: Location]

Only include Location if it is a live recording, or if the location of the recording changes often and is mentioned in the program or on the program's website. Don't add the location for most studio recordings. Location is of this syntax: [Venue, ]City, [State, ]Country

General Notes:

  • Some episodes - especially those that are live yearly concerts - can be split into multiple parts, these are denoted like #500.5.
  • The episode number may not be unique to the release group if the event has multiple stages.
  • The Program Title should only be used for episode that have a known title such as "Top 20 of 2001" and not be used to annotate guest mixes "Airwave Guest Mix".
  • Avoid using UTF-8 double quotes (angled) for the Program Title, use regular double quotes (").
  • Do not include "XXL" in the Program Title as this is descriptive but not actually part of the title.

Examples:

Artist credit

The artist credit should always include Armin van Buuren, along with any artists that have provided guest mixes.

Examples:

Track listings

Episodes can be distributed in a several forms, each version should be a different release within the release group.

Single MP3 (Bootleg)

In most cases this will be the full 2 hours, however, there are some cases where it may less or more (1 or 3 hours). It should contain a single track that is the same name as the release group:

This is a Bootleg and should not contain a release event, label or catalog number.

Multiple MP3 Parts (Bootleg)

Some older episodes are split into the episode sections. Each track should have the title of the section.

This is a Bootleg and should not contain a release event, label or catalog number.

Split/Individual Tracks (Bootleg)

This is the original episode split into tracks:

This is a Bootleg and should not contain a release event, label or catalog number.

Some tracks include an annotation like "Tune of the Week", "Future Favorite", "ASOT Classic", etc but these can be included in the track title but should not be included in the recording title.

Streaming Release (Official)

Episodes are now released on streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music. These follow the standard guidelines for official releases.

Spotify has almost all episodes dating back to #0. However, it's worth noting that many episodes have a different track list because some tracks have been removed (perhaps because of licensing issues). Furthermore, the same recent release on Spotify vs Apple Music can also have very different track lists.

Label

Bootleg versions are easily available for download from many sources. However, they were never available for download through any official or label-endorsed website so they should not be attributed to any label.

Streaming releases are official and follow the standard guidelines for labels.

Release date

Bootleg versions were never officially endorsed or released by any label, so they should never contain a release date.

According to this official blog post the episodes were available on Spotify from 2012-09-09 which would be 2012-09-13: A State of Trance #578, "Universal Religion Chapter Six Release Special" and beyond (which is also the episode shown on the same page). So I'll focus on all the episodes up there.

Cover art

There have been many fan-created artworks over the years. Some are included in the Bootleg releases. However, the Bootleg releases should never include artwork, even if the artwork was later present on streaming services.

Terminology

There are some words or phrases that popup a lot, but are generally not consistent or might be ambiguous:

  • b2b means back-to-back when 2 (or more) DJs will take turns selecting songs for the mix. Use the lower case b2b (not B2B) in artist names.
  • Mainstage instead of Main Stage because it is the primary stage, the stage itself is not called "Main"
  • Preparty and not Pre-party. It is a descriptive term for the set that appear either a day before or immediately before the official sets. This is sometimes be used a closed (invite only) party at a smaller location or live in the studio.
  • Takeover instead of TakeOver or Take Over. These more recent episodes have had another DJ host and provide the mix, such as Ferry Corsten.
  • Who's Afraid of 138?! with the ? before the !. This is sometimes abbreviated as WAO138 or similar. Unless the name says to use WAO138 specifically (like it's on a poster) you should use the fully expanded name.
  • Yearmix instead of Year Mix. This dates back to 2002 where it was always referred to as one word, only recently have some locations started separating it as two words.

Anti-patterns & Cleanup

Continuous Mixes

The previous version of this style guideline requests for the Single MP3 or Multiple MP3 Parts to use "Continuous Mix" in the title. These should be removed.

Guest Mixes in Titles

As mentioned above, any guest mixes are not part of the named title of the episode. The respective artists should be moved to the artist credits and removed from the title.

Other Notes

  1. Spotify was the earliest streaming service to host episodes starting 2012-09-09. The first episode was 2012-09-13: A State of Trance #578, "Universal Religion Chapter Six Release Special". So no release dates can exist before this.
  2. Streaming releases (older and newer) often have a totally different track list from the Bootleg version, and the releases can differ on each streaming platform. For example #1123 on Spotify is 43 tracks vs Apple Music is 28 tracks.
  3. In the first three episodes, the show was called "Into Trance". From Episode 4 onwards, it was called "A State Of Trance". Since "Into Trance" is never seen anywhere, we use the new show name for all episodes.
  4. On 1 June 2001 (a Friday), #1 was broadcast through ID&T Radio, and continuing its broadcast weekly until #182 that was the last to air on ID&T Radio. The show was canceled unexpectedly after the station decided to change its music policy.
  5. #183 was aired a month later, through the Internet radio station ETN.fm and from #185 onward, the show went from ETN.fm to DI.FM and began to synchronize on many national radio stations.
  6. To better adapt to an international audience, Armin went from presenting in Dutch to presenting in English starting #183.
  7. Since #500, "A State of Trance's" annual episodic celebrations have effectively replaced Trance Energy (later simply called Energy, focusing on electro house instead of trance) as the main trance event in the Netherlands, where every year the biggest of these celebrations takes place.
  8. From #800 Part 2, the show began to broadcast in video through YouTube from a new studio in Amsterdam. In addition, the Dutch DJ and producer Ruben de Ronde began to co-host the program with Armin van Buuren.
  9. For most episodes beginning with #922 different DJs are invited to mix during parts of the show. Armin is absent from some episode occasionally and other DJs, such as Ferry Corsten, present those episodes.
  10. In #972, Ferry Corsten's monthly residency on the show is announced.
  11. The label A State of Trance was formed in 2003 as a sub-label to its Dutch parent company Armada Music.
  12. ASOT is broadcast as a 2-hour livestream with some stations re-airing the entire stream. However, several of its radio affiliates omit the second hour, and other stations format the show into two 58-minute segments to make time for local advertising and station branding.
  13. Each regular broadcast features five songs selected as:
    1. The Tune of the Week is selected by Armin van Buuren as his personal choice of best new tune in the show.
    2. The Future Favorite is voted for by listeners from a list of new tunes from the previous week's show. This section began in #90. The poll takes place at Future Favorite.
    3. For Service for Dreamers, Armin asks the listeners of A State of Trance to submit original suggestions for a trance track that has had a meaningful impact in their lives. During #248 and #769, when it was known as ASOT Radio Classic (and between #770 and #799 as Armin's Oldskool Classic), Armin would select a track from past years and briefly describe what made the track a classic. Armin also played a classic track on each of the first 16 episodes in the early days of the radio show. These tracks were productions from the 1990s and showcased some of the very earliest pioneers of the Trance genre.
    4. The Trending Track is the most discussed track from last week's show. This section began in #706.
    5. The Progressive Pick is a segment for a featured new progressive trance track. This segment began in #717.

Links & Resources

  1. Download episodes from trancepodcasts.com.
  2. Find cue sheets (track lists with timings) from cuenation.com
  1. The original style guideline refers to "live studio studio" audience, but that doesn't really apply to these broadcasts, so this is interpreted as episodes that were recorded in front of a live audience.