How Boiler Room Grew Into a Global Livestream Brand

Transcript

In 2010, two men changed the way underground dance music was heard around the world. They created Boiler Room, a livestream music experience that went on to launch DJ careers like Fred again and Yousuke Yukimatsu through millions of views on DJ sets, and host some of the craziest events that even DJs like James Hype can't get into. I got to the point where I accepted I wasn't going to get a Boiler Room. But why do people like Boiler Room so much? Especially when John Summit said this.

But in order to understand why Boiler Room was so popular, we need to go back to the beginning. Back in the early 2010s, watching music videos on television was dying out. MTV was once the center for new music videos, but it had been overtaken by celebrity gossip shows, and MTV left a gap in the music watching industry. At the same time, the internet was changing the way people discovered music. Instead of listening to all the new pop songs MTV was feeding them, people started diving into different niches like techno, grime, house, and dubstep. YouTube music videos were on the rise, and this is where we saw the birth of people monetizing music videos, like Vevo. MTV, once the biggest, most influential music broadcast network, was now replaced by YouTube. Watching music had gotten bigger than ever, as people were able to browse their favorite music instead of waiting for that same pop song on MTV.

But there was one huge problem: there was no home for quality music viewing. What I mean by that is there was no way to find and experience music in these niche genres that the internet had shown them. YouTube just wasn't niche enough, and people wanted to watch techno music videos the way they could watch pop on MTV or YouTube. That's where Blaise Bellville and Thristan Richards came in.

At the time, Blaise was running an online magazine called Platform, helping promote artists and DJs. But he had one problem: he knew tons of artists, DJs, and label heads in London's underground scene, but he had trouble promoting them on his magazine. Then Blaise thought of a great idea. He was managing an old warehouse space in East London, trying to refurbish it for cash. But there was one room they weren't touching, a literal boiler room complete with a heating furnace. So they turned it into a hangout, invited a couple friends, and set up some turntables.

Originally, they were going to use it just to record a mixtape, but at the last minute, they decided to tape a webcam to the wall, connect their computer, and start streaming their hangout on Ustream. The next morning, they woke up in shock. Even though only four people were there in person, hundreds had tuned in online. This was the beginning of the streaming era, so it was kind of confusing to them, but they decided to turn it into a hobby. Every Tuesday night, they ran a three to four hour set with just their friends hanging out, mixing. The camera faced the DJ, and all the people and friends were right behind them. That visual, the DJ in the middle and the crowd behind, became iconic. It was totally accidental, but they just went with it.

Eventually, in 2011, after a year of it just being a hobby, they decided to put all their focus into it. People in New York and Tokyo were watching what was happening in London's underground scene. They started seeing it as a gateway for people outside the UK to connect with the local underground talent of London. People all around the world could see what the music culture was like in other cities. Boiler Room had become a cultural bridge, a gateway into local scenes around the world, the kind of thing MTV never cared about.

They then began expanding to different cities, with each city featuring its own local artists to represent that scene. For the first time, someone in Brooklyn could feel the energy of a grime set in East London. A kid in Tokyo could witness Berlin techno in its rawest form. And you didn't need a plane ticket to explore underground music scenes, just a Wi-Fi connection. But people weren't just tuning in for the music, it was also for the people behind the DJ. The DJ was front-facing, but the party was right behind them. That meant you got to see the real reaction, the awkward dancing, and the locked-in fans. In 2013, one of the most watched yet confusing Boiler Room sets came out.

What people don't realize is that this is the exact reason Boiler Room is so popular. It's built on a raw and authentic foundation, like the Skream back-to-back Disclosure set. "The pillows out. Pillow time. Pillow vibes." "Good [...] idea that was. Get the pillows out." Or the most famous of all, one of Boiler Room's earliest breakout sets.

Boiler Room was focusing on the things TV couldn't touch: being raw and authentic, having a four-hour long broadcast, swearing, weed, booze. This all helped define the brand. Today we have artists like Yousuke Yukimatsu, who recently blew up and has been all over TikTok, and yes, lots of people find these sets on YouTube. But one of the biggest reasons Boiler Room has been blowing up recently is its expansion onto TikTok. You've probably seen most of these viral clips of Fred again, Yuki, another artist, or even Solomun on TikTok, because Boiler Room is the perfect video for TikTok: there's no language barrier, and their audience comes from all around the world.

Blaise, the founder, said, "It's completely exploded in short form. When we first started out, short form wasn't even a consideration. But now, with Instagram and TikTok in particular, a key thing for us has been the rise of these moments. You're seeing a lot of artists break from their moments, not necessarily from their broadcasts. TikTok has said to us that our format works very well because it's recognizable in the feed and it's audio-led."

The brand has become so popular that when Skrillex, Fred again, and Four Tet announced they'd be closing out Coachella 2023 with a show in the round, a lot of people thought they'd be doing it Boiler Room style. That just shows you how big the brand has become. And now Boiler Room has been bought by Superstruct, owned by KKR.