2014 Top Earning DJs List

Calvin Harris: 'You could not buy me to remix one of your records.'
Forbes has officially released the 2014 list of the world’s highest paid DJs. Last year the list was topped by Calvin Harris at 46 million dollars. This year, Calvin Harris continues to remain in the number one spot- this time making 66 million dollars. Check out the list and compare it to last year’s edition that included Diplo, DJ Pauly D, and Swedish House Mafia, which are no longer on the list (SHM for the obvious reason of no longer being around). 

2014
1. Calvin Harris – $66million
2. David Guetta – $30million
3 & 4. Tiesto tied with Avicii – $28million
5. Steve Aoki – $23million
6. Afrojack – $22million
7. Zedd – $21million
8. Kaskade – $17million
9. Skrillex – $16.5million
10. Deadmau5 – $16million
11. Hardwell – $13million
12 & 13. Armin van Buuren tied with Steve Angello– $12million

2013
1. Calvin Harris – $46million
2. Tiesto – $32million
3. David Guetta – $30million
4. Swedish House Mafia – $25million
5. Deadmau5 – $21million
6. Avicii – $20million
7. Afrojack – $18million
8. Armin van Buuren – $17million
9 &10. Skrillex tied with Kaskade – $16million
11. Steve Aoki – $14million
12 & 13. DJ Pauly D tied with Diplo – $13million

Chicago Forgets the World with AFROJACK

Chicago display during AFROJACK's set

Chicago display during AFROJACK’s set

Independence day weekend Chicago hosted the one and only dutch dj Nick Van De Wall. You might know him better by his famous stage name AFROJACK. Doors opened for the outdoors event at 5pm on July 5th at the Grand Ballroom in Navy Pier. The outdoors event brought in over 6000 people of ALL AGES and from all around the chicagoland area.

The event was kicked off with a few hours of deep house brought to you by local dj and producer Statut3. Following his performance was the Chicago dj duo Milk N Cookies.  Chicago being the city that it is, brought some unexpected precipitation that could have delayed the outdoors show. Luckily a tent was pitched on top of the brothers causing no delay in their set. Milk N Cookies brought a variety of new and old songs that were definite crowd-pleasers. After their set Chicago could no longer wait for the renowned emmy-award winning dj and producer AFROJACK.

From the beginning of his set to the very last track Afrojack was no disappointment. He started out his set with “Bang Duck” which gave his audience a foresight into what kind of night it was going to be. There was no doubt that he would be playing his new hits from his new album such as “Ten Feet Tall”, “The Spark”, and “Freedom”. He also took Chicago back with his oldies like “Take Over Control”, “Rock The House”, and personal favorite “Can’t Stop Me”.  Nick van de Wall has played in Chicago four times in the last few years, and every single time he passes his previous performance in both energetic and theatrical aspects to performing live. Navy Pier sparked the Chicago backdrop by their fireworks display during one of 2014’s anthems “Tremor”. Other noticeable remixes he played were: Calvin Harris’s “Sweet Nothing”, David Guetta’s “Titanium”, Blasterjaxx’s “Fifteen”, and Showtek’s “Cannonball”.

Huge “Thank You!” from the Whysochi family and ALL of Chicago to Afrojack for making us forget the world and keeping our love alive with his music.

Fireworks at Navy Pier during Afrojack's set

Fireworks at Navy Pier during Afrojack’s set

Afrojack – Forget The World Review [2/4]

afrojack-album_0

Dutch Dj, Afrojack broke out into the scene nearly 4 years ago with his smash Hit “Take over Control” and in that short time not only did he gain a cult following but also graced some of the largest EDM Festivals in the world. That being said I have yet to see him bring his “A” game to Chicago  as even his headlining of 2012’s Spring Awakening Music Festival was a snooze. To no surprise his first studio album “Forget the World” also misses the mark in a big way. I will not penalize an artist for changing styles, but Afrojack has not been around long enough or at the Top for long enough to change things up now (unlike Tiesto and Srkillex). “Forget The World” is a mediocre Pop album at best,. The “hit” single “Spark” very well set the mood for the rest of the album and warns us that we will not enjoy what we hear. A select number of songs show potential and get you unnecessarily hyped up as the overload of soft lyrics kills any drop or melody you could rage to.  I give this album a very well deserved ¼
-Marcin

Afrojack to me was one of the first artists I’ve ever listened which got me into electronic music, along with Chuckle and Laidback Luke. A true inspiration in my life, and one of the main reasons I started Djing. This album though.it was kind of disappointing. Way too many lyrics, the track ‘Mexico’ threw me off completely. I’m all for new style of music, and change but this just did not seem like the typical Afrojack style per say. This was probably worse than Avicii’s attempt to mix country and electronic dance music. All in all I give these album 2/4 stars. Simply because I truly like the track ‘Keep Our Love Alive’. Other than that, true disappointment by Mr. Van Der Wall.
-Mario U

Why_So_Chi_neon_review 2 Afrojack:” Forget the World”? Seems more to me like “Forget Afrojack.” As I never really was a fan of Afrojack I did not have any high expectations of this album, but I found myself almost half asleep listening to this album. Afojack’s efforts at making  good songs by featuring Snoop Dog and not to mention Sting singing about homeless people seems quite ridiculous to me. I’ll give this album a 1/4. snoozeeee!
-Cathy

I actually like Afrojack’s new album. My favorite track I would have to say is ‘Ten Feet Tall’. It just sounds like a track that would get the crowd going and jumping, and everyone loves an EDM song you can sing along with. Also the track called ‘Born To Run’ is great. It sounds like it will be a big hit of the summer. The lyrics gives me the chills. Also, ‘Catch Tomorrow’ is a great track. Over all, I really enjoy his new album and am not considering seeing him this summer! 3/4
-Rachel

Grammy Award-winning DJ, Afrojack, released his first debut album “Forget the World. The Album includes popular songs like Ten Feet Tall and collabs with Sting, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, and Snoop Dogg. Afrojack’s fresh new tracks were made for dancing and will highlight the sets at music festivals this summer. Overall, the album deserves 3 out of 4 for experimental values with artists new to the EDM scene and the vibes it emits.
– Nina

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