Ok so eeeevery year it's the same thing: A shitload of people think they know what the best song is, they vote, and in the end nobody is happy. Well that's the way the world works, but anyway: I thought I might be a cool idea, instead of playing the 'best' episode again 2 weeks later, to let Armin make a mix of his personal top 20 (in a certain order or not, that doesn't matter) of 2008 this time. I think it would be rather cool to see what he would pick (it's still his show!), and who knows, 2 mixes might satisfy more people. And then I really mean the tracks that gave Armin shivers (woot, album-name alert), not what he thinks the people would like (like often in a DJ-set).

Well obviously it's Armin's call, but what do you people think about it?

Blasphemy! This is denying the interactive nature of the www today!
Well, if you go down that path, one might also ask for Armin's top 20 trance, top 20 progressive, top 20 Seinfeld episodes etc. Of course I'd like those, too, but right now he's doing a damn good job with the Yearmixes, the listeners' top 20 (really, interaction is very important) and why not, even the classics.
For me, that's more than enough!

Ah yeah, closer to the end of the year we are getting. As pretty much all Top whatever is, the most wellknown anthems, overplayed and overhyped tracks will be in there. Same as people voting for the wellknown names and tracks cause they can relate to them, no matter which artist/track it is. I'll vote for my personal Top 5, but probably won't see those tracks back in the Top 20.

Would be nice for a change to hear Armin's personal Top 20 back in random order of tracks he really likes and not the tracks he plays cause the crowd likes them. Think that'll be a complete different Top 20. For the rest there's the yearmix as well, which I'm looking forward to every year.

I think this discussion pops up every year. You're quite early this time

Anyway I don't think it will change soon, as Armin seems to be quite fond of the "audience participation" factor of his show and therefore of the current style yearly Top-20 vote. For the same reasons why he is still doing shout outs probably.

Personally I think Armin and ASOT have gotten too big for this. Contrary to a few years back the majority of people listening to the show nowadays are not that much into the music that they can by heart name their 5 favorite tunes of the year. So what they do is read through the list and vote for the 5 tunes they recognize, including Tiesto tunes that weren't even played on the show. Well we've seen the results of that before and it's usually disappointing for the people that are really into it. Similar thing goes for the shout outs. For every 5 people he pleases with that every week he probably disappoints 495 others who's shout wasn't read. At some point it has all gotten too big for these things, but Armin seems to see that differently.

So to answer your question: yeah I would be all in favor of an Armin's Top-20 at the end of the year instead of the current one. But is it gonna happen? I doubt it.

Hmno that's not what I said. But maybe I wasn't clear enough:
I'm talking about the the same concept as the top 20, but the only voter is Armin. Once again, it's his show. I don't need them divided by subgenre or tv show, just his favourite EDM records of 2008. And yes he's doing a good job, and it's only if he would like it too. Now I know he likes interacting with the people, also when it concerns his show, but I could imagine him wanting to show what tracks gave him goosebumps this year, all in one episode. Again, it's always his call, so if he doesn't care we'll drop the whole thing, but I just wanted to do the suggestion.
And I'll rephrase my question in the first post.

@ Ericc: Thanks for actually answering the question I meant to ask ^^ Well I'm not sure it's going to happen either, but since it might be important to change some small things in the organization of the end of year mayhem, I thought I'd make this one early. If I start 2 days before the voting closes, the chances would be quite small.

And I really don't like listening to some random episode being played again tbh :S

@ both Freezel and Ericc: Yes, I think it would be completely different too, that's the main reason behind my suggestion

I've already started making my personal top 20 btw Certainly going to make a mix of that.

Theres a thread about this in the shoutout/questions section and I agree, I would love to hear an episode of Armin's personal top 20 of the year. Your always going to get the peoples top 20 and thats ok even though it will be filled with what Freezel has already said and I too prob wouldnt even see my personal top 5 in the 20. Ideally I would love to see Armin play his top 20 one week, and then the peoples most voted top 20 the next week (or vice versa) Again, like Freezel, I can't wait for the Yearmix coz thats when Armin jams all the great tracks into one killer mix.

Good point

Well, I also admitted I'd like to hear that, I'm just not sure if there won't be too many Tops out there (can there be too many? ). I even recall him posting his favourite top 10 of 2007, after the "scandal" with the listeners' vote in 2007.
So, to answer you question again, I think it's a good idea (i.e.: I'd love to hear a mix/episode with his personal top 20 tunes of 2008).
Hopefully Armin will share his view on your topic when he comes around here.

Yep, and out of that 10 only 1 of them made the listeners top 20 which is why I think this is such a great idea, to have both his top 20 played and then the listeners top 20 because they will be quite different.

We had this discussion before I think. I also would like to see Armin personal top 20. There are so much tunes you can vote for and not everyone knows that tune. People will vote for tracks which are often played on ASOT. I think if possible they should have some sort of preview of every track.

I would like to see armins personal top 20 instead of the listeners.

That could actually be an interesting business opportunity for Armin.

He could have Beatport or Audiojelly sponsor his Top-20 voting site and put little icons behind every tune in the list that offer a "preview" and a "buy this track" option. I'm sure those portals support direct interfaces to make that technically possible.

We def have, and extensively.

This is a subject i have STRONG feelings about as I, among many others, have wanted Armin to do his own personal Top 20 instead of voted for YEARS now.


My argument is always the same and can't be touched :
leave it to the professional...not the countless uneducated edm-listeners that make up the VAST majority of the votes

Yeap, great idea with the preview...not only a great business opportunity, as Ericc said, but also a great help to the voters. I can bet anything that last year's #20 spot was voted only because some people remembered the name of the track, but didn't in fact listen to it (it was a remix, not the original which won in 2006).
Even I didn't know all the titles there in the long song list (although I'm sure I knew the actual songs), so yeah, this might be a great idea.

I gotta agree Ericc's idea is a real good one

It was actually Trancefreak's idea, I just expanded on the commercial opportunities

Heh sorry...didnt mean to give credit where its not due

I agree. My opinion is that if he mixed his favorite tunes from this year, his tracklist would blow any listener-based ones out of the water. He could mix something that more people consider "amazing", "melodic", "flowing", "flawless", etc. compared to what we get from the votes.

But I don't believe he's going to do that, because he seems more concerned with the listeners of the show than his personal interests/favorites. Sure, that is very selfless, but some intelligent listeners/DJs/producers might not like the "lame" tracklist that the world comes up with. lol

idk, it's up to him I guess...Maybe he's got a comment on this...

He has multiple times...specifically last yr leading into the voted Top 20 and he said he doesn't want to take the listeners out of it.
He finds it interesting to see what the people have to say...

He even suggested the possibility of doing a listener Top 10 or 20 and his own as well...but in the end he didn't, prolly coz it woulda taken to much air time for the both of them

Hence the suggestion to not rerun the voters favorite episode in the first week of January but to use that time slot for Amin's personal top 20. That wouldn't interfere with the more commercial aspects of the end of the year shows (voters top-20 and yearmix).

I think the ASOT year mix isnt necessarily for me because the whole mix will be also available on CD. Its either armins personal top 20 or the listeners top 20. Not both of them......

Armin's top 20 will disappoint even more people. Then they will start bashing about how unfair the top 20 is, because their fav tracks are not there. Many of them will try to understand why that happened by opening new topics in every section of the forum. Others who started listening to ASOT this summer or listened to TATW will register and express THO about how A&B's top 20 was much better than armins. Cadence will read all those topics and comments -> get angry for no reason and then open up "general chat 2" topic. at the end no one will be happy and new ways for next year's top 20 will have to be found.

Thats so feking true

News at eleven

LOL!
And probably very, very true....

if armin thinks tunes like sunchaser, elektra, la guittara, spring breeze, lost, crash & burn, perfect blue , 6am and those kinda tunes then you're speaking my language

You didn't read what I wrote. You just read the title and made something out of it. I suggest you read the post first. It's people's vote for one episode AND Armin's fav for another, which comes instead of just repeating an episode.

I think bebo very much agrees with your points. He just has his own special way of expressing that

Best post ^5

this is the only reason why i'm still here :-)

Lol. Well I'm fine with that I'm satisfied anyway. There's been some discussion, there's been some opinions, now I'm just eager to know what's going to be done with it by Armin But first: ASOT 08!!