''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...

, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. ''RA''s editorial team provides news, music and event reviews, as well as films, features and interviews. The website also manages services that include event listings, ticket sales, club and promoter directories, photo galleries, artist and record label profiles, DJ charts, an online community, and the ''RA

Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

''. The company has its headquarters in London, with additional offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, Sydney and Tokyo. The website won a People's Voice award in the 12th Annual Webby Awards in 2008. In October 2020, following the negative impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

on British arts and culture organisations, ''RA'' received £750,000 from the Arts Council of England as part of the UK's Culture Recovery Fund initiative.

History

''Resident Advisor'' was founded in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

in 2001 by Paul Clement and Nick Sabine as a website for providing news and information relating to the Australian dance music scene. As ''Resident Advisor'' grew both Clement and Sabine initially kept their day jobs and hired staff to help with the site. In 2006, after Clement and Sabine had moved to the UK, they both began working full time on ''Resident Advisor'' and incorporated the company in the UK, with an office in Berlin opening 2007. ''RA Tickets'' was unveiled in 2008 to allow promoters of electronic music to sell tickets. ''RA Tickets'' launched a face-value ticket resale system. In January 2014, the first complete redesign in the site's history was announced, adding mobile support, responsive design, a new logo, full

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

integration on artist pages and other features. At that time, ''Resident Advisor'' started to have more than two million users per month. An article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', published in July 2015, cites the website's audience reaching 2.5 million

monthly active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...

. It mentions ''Resident Advisor'' as "one of the most influential E.D.M.-focused sites". The company launched its first consumer-focused iOS app in 2015. The ''RA Guide'', free in the

App Store (iOS) The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software D ...

, takes the site's listings for clubs, festivals and concerts to the mobile market. Apple featured ''RA'' as a curator, with the launch of

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Appl ...

, to contribute electronic music playlists to the streaming service. In October 2020, following criticism within the UK dance music community, ''RA'' was forced to defend receiving an Arts Council of England grant for £750,000. The award was part of a wider tranche of grants, made available via the Culture Recovery Fund, intended to aid arts organisations that were suffering economically as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. At the start of 2021, ''Resident Advisor'' launched a redesign of their existing website. The new design also coincided with a change to their domain name, migrating from residentadvisor.net to ra.co.

Other media

The ''RA Podcast'' is a weekly mix of electronic music from top producers and DJs. It launched on 6 March 2006 with a mix from Troy Pierce. In 2010, ''Resident Advisor'' started a second podcast series titled the ''RA Exchange''. The site defines the ''RA Exchange'' as a series of conversations with artists (e.g.,

Guy Gerber Guy Avraham Gerber (born 1974 in Holon, near Tel Aviv) is an Israeli electronic DJ/producer and musician who works in the underground techno scene. His projects range from collaborating with hip hop figure Puff Daddy, to starting a left-field ...

Morgan Geist Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer ...

, and New Order), labels (e.g., Defected Records, Future Classic, and Rush Hour), and promoters (e.g., Decibel, MUTEK, and

Sónar Sónar is a festival dedicated to music, creativity and technology, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. The festival has been divided into two parts since its inception: Sónar by Day and Sónar b ...

) shaping the electronic music landscape. In 2011, ''Resident Advisor'' produced a series of short documentaries titled ''Real Scenes''.

Annual polls

From 2006 to 2016 ''Resident Advisor'' conducted two annual voting polls at the end of each year under the name ''RA Poll''. The first polls the publications readers, who are asked to vote for their top 100 DJs and live acts of the year. ''Resident Advisor'' ceased the polls in 2017 due to concerns about diversity and their growing influence on the music industry.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Online music magazines published in the United Kingdom Dance music magazines published in England Magazines established in 2001 Magazines published in London 2001 establishments in Australia