There have been countless articles written about the techno scene in Berlin, for many people it’s the most prominent quality of the city since the 1990s. However, both the city and its world famous techno scene has been undergoing a significant change after the COVID-19 pandemic. "The terms 'rave' and 'techno' have become buzzwords on social media, often misrepresenting techno’s cultural origins in Black Music and marginalized communities. This current 'techno-hype' has accelerated the mainstreaming of the subculture more than ever before” (Universität der Künste Berlin, 2024). The sudden virality of established Berlin clubs on social media platforms such as TikTok, started to attract a crowd that has nothing to do with the original values of the techno scene that made it a sanctuary for so many people. Suddenly Berlin was taking in techno-tourists that only found the exclusivity side of these spaces appealing and just planned on getting extremely intoxicated. “Hard techno was already on the rise and through TikTok it became a phenomenon” HBM argues. While it outshadowed the local techno scene, it did not replace it. “It’s a huge scene but it's not the same audience and there's significantly more money and logistics involved on that side. It has the name techno in it, sure, but it’s something completely different. While it’s true that people dress a certain way, they are dancing to remixes of Britney Spears, Crazy Frog and Rihanna etc. That’s not what techno is about, in a way, it became the new EDM.”

Adapting to this change has been very profitable for some people and it spawned a new generation of DJs and producers. If the subject matter is surface level adaptation, it could be argued that it has never been easier to become a DJ or a producer. However, this also raises questions about ethics. Bohlman (1988) states that change in music depends on the people, not on the sound itself and its communicative character is based on its ability to adapt to the times. Hard techno became the background music for a new era of overconsumption and the commodification of counter-culture. Almost as if the current gentrification the city is going through has its own soundtrack. This also creates friction between producers, DJs and promoters. “There’s way less venues but way more demand which results in less opportunities. People are not really helping each other like they used to, everybody is jealous of each other.” However, the assumption that the techno scene never asked for a change is also false. Being also an event organiser, HBM is very familiar with the positive changes the scene went through during the late 2010s. “The scene was pretty much established and since there were not this many people involved meant that there was also more money going around but it was such a cis-male dominated scene, the same bunch of people were rotating around clubs and performing.” HBM argues. “Around 2017 with the MeToo movement, came a big change, before there was not a gender balance and women artists were not being taken seriously.” HBM’s label Art Bei Ton considers having a gender-balanced lineup as one of its main principles. "In carving out their own spaces for inclusion, through communities, collectives, and alternative spaces, women [and FLINTA* artists] made it possible for themselves and other minorities to thrive within electronic music, despite its male dominance. Solidarity was identified as a benefit of community that appeared unique to women, allowing them to perceive their role as a DJ as an inherently political act of visibility” (Thompson, 2024). It could be argued that finding your community is more important and realistic compared to only focusing on your art. “Event organising and label side of things came with the community I found for myself, I felt like I did not fit in first but the more like-minded people I met and the more time I spent with them everything became easier.”

Running an independent label and taking time to carefully listen to everything you get sent is no easy task, however it comes with the advantage of being able to distance yourself from the patriarchal corporate side of the music industry: “Their flexibility allows them to act more quickly on international opportunities. Rather than waiting for approval within a corporate hierarchy, independent labels can invest directly in territories where demand for their artists is strongest” (Dimitrieff & Masse, 2024). However, HBM argues that the abundance of music being sent these days is very noticeable compared to pre-COVID times. “I probably receive around 60 new releases/promos every day. If I cannot catch up it could add up to absurd amounts at the end of the month, but at the end of the day, discovering music and acts is the main part of my job in all aspects.” More and more people are resorting to self-advertising on social media in order to gain a following, however this also comes with significant disadvantages if artists find themselves growing extremely slowly compared to the time they spent advertising themselves. Many musicians believe that "the loss of live performance during the pandemic forced a shift into the 'content factory'—a state where constant social media engagement is required to maintain visibility, leading to increased occupational stress and burnout” (Musgrave et al., 2025) and “while over 100,000 new tracks are uploaded daily to platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, the 'shelf life' of new releases has shrunk to less than 48 hours” (Mulligan et al., 2025). A positive way to look at this would be to realise that this situation also creates an incentive for people to try different sounds, methods and experiment more. HBM also agrees with this statement: “Maybe it is not a curse, we have not had so many people experimenting with different things at once before” So how does one make it in the current competitive state of the industry? Finding a balance between not keeping your creations to yourself for too long and still keeping the industry standards in mind is very crucial. HBM agrees with this statement and believes that trying to release your stuff through different avenues and committing to a certain sound is very important. The rise of experimentation also created a demographic of listeners who are on the look out for different sounding works, which means that novelty is also a big advantage that new artists and producers have. "A newcomer's job is difficult, but I'd say they have more of an opportunity to use excitement to their advantage compared to someone like myself who has been in industry for a decade."

As of 08.03.2026, Hypnotic Black Magic released their first album “Ending the Curse” and on the 14th of May, Art Bei Ton will be celebrating their 8th year anniversary with SOLARYTHM, Blazej Malinowski, Toxido Mask and Hypnotic Black Magic in Berghain.

Works Cited:


Musgrave G, Carney D, Silver E and Tibber MS (2025) “Working in the content factory”: musicians’ social media use and mental health as seen through the lens of a transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural conceptualisation. Front. Psychol. 16:1542407. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542407

Spencer-Espinosa, C. (2022). Music and Social Change. Reflections on the Relationship between Sound and Society. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 53(1), 57–76. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48689101

Stapleton, Shauna Elizabeth (2024) Techno, turntables, and tokenism: A mixed-methods exploration into the experiences of female DJs in electronic dance music culture. PhD thesis, University of Leeds.

Mulligan, M., Cirisano, T., Gresham, P., & Qi, M. (2025). Global music forecasts 2025–2032: Recalibration. MIDiA Research. https://www.midiaresearch.com/reports/global-music-forecasts-2025-2032-recalibration

Dimitrieff, G., & Masse, C. (2024). Indie agility or major might: Evaluating the internationalisation strategies of Canadian recording artists in the early 2020s. University of Antwerp; Antwerp Management School.

University of the Arts Berlin [UdK]. (2024). Exploring the current issues of Berlin’s techno culture: From subcultural origins to digital mainstreaming. Berlin University of the Arts; Faculty of Music.

Bohlman, P. V. (1988). Traditional music and cultural identity: Persistent paradigm and evolving philosophy. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 20, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/768046