Best online platforms that promote underground electronic music

Discover the most active online platforms that promote underground electronic music, with a deep focus on micROhouse and ROminimal.

For many years, we‘ve been following a series of amazing online platforms to discover new and interesting music, emergent artists and underground labels. Feeling the same passion for music and sharing, we were curious to learn more about this fantastic and super dedicated people behind the projects and find what keeps them motivated.

This article aims to present some of the most active and leading platforms that cover the underground electronic music scene, such as Half is enough, Meoko, Nightclubber, Rayzeh, Storytellers, UFO Beats & Verzila.

Read their inspiring answers and dive deep into the abyssal universe of the underground electronic music scene.

Half Is Enough

“The holy trinity: online radio, webzine, record label.”

“Old cassette tapes and records with Boney M, Abba, Elvis, Modern Talking and Bee Gees. Then in the mid-90s’ I had a pirate radio broadcasting death metal and doom metal. Then came MTV Amp, which gave me the electronic music baptism.

Sharing is caring, I guess. Whatever track puts me in a certain state of mind, regardless of the emotions it triggers, I am pretty sure there are at least 10 people out there that feel the same. Apparently, there are more, around 8000 monthly, listening to Half Is Enough Radio.”

– Vixi

Active since: 2010

Team: Vixi (me, myself and Irene)

Country: Romania 🇷🇴

Content: an average of 0.2 track & podcasts / week. Total: around 1 article every 5 weeks

Frequent labels: Driftwood, Perlon, Dial

Frequent artists: Half Is Enough is not about artists but about house music

Platform: halfisenough.com

Social: sc / fb / ig

Meoko

“MEOKO, a global electronic music platform now in our 10th year – Since 2011 promoting forward-thinking underground music, industry culture and events around the world. MEOKO is a multi-global platform, a creative community and a respected source for like-minded heads. The platform acts as a hub for everything music and industry-related. MEOKO is proud to have remained authentic to its identity. We are and always will be 100% exclusive to our readers. Our growth has always been organic, and we always endeavour to embody our ethos: quality NOT quantity.”

“That’s a long story, I would need to write a book

Words are not enough, the music seems to do the talking.

All love. ❤️”

– Nicole Venter

Active since: 2011

Team: Our team consists of a group of talented creatives that live, sleep and breathe electronic music. Our head office is in the United Kingdom however, our team comes from all around the world, Berlin, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, South America and beyond.

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Content: Our output varies, we strongly follow our ethos of Quality therefore each week changes depending.

Frequent artists: Vlad Caia, Enrico Mantini, Nima Gorji, Floog, Guti, Yaya, Marlie… there so many, we have something like 600 podcasts, but some of the artists mentioned have done 3, 4 or even 5 podcasts for the 
platform.

Platform: meoko.net

Social: sc / fb / ig

Nightclubber.ro

“Nightclubber.ro was established in 2008 and has since grown to become one of electronic music’s best online portals. Specialising in discerning electronic music, its roots lie in Romanian sounds, though it’s equally inspired by music from much further afield. Relaunched in 2020, the site hosts relevant news and music features and attracts a clued-in, knowledgable music-obsessed reader.”

“I have a strong passion for electronic music itself. It’s my hobby, but I take it very seriously. I respect all the labels and all the artists because I know there is a lot of hard work behind a good release/mix. What makes me promote this music is the unique vibe I get when I listen to a good record. I’ve always felt like my mission is to cheer up the people around me, so I found a way to do it with music. I’m addicted to music, and I can’t call it a day if I don’t listen to at least one record.”

– Matei

Active since: 2008 / Relaunched in: 2020

Team: Right now, there are two of us. I (Matei) am in charge of social media and Soundcloud direction and both myself and Stephen work on the editorial side (news, interviews) etc. 

Country: Romania 🇷🇴

Content: This varies on what’s happening, but generally 1-2 news pieces and a minimum of 1 interview per week. Nightclubber has around 150 mixes, and around 100 tracks premiered on Soundcloud until now. The best is yet to come.

Frequent labels: Inwave, MixCult Records, Totoyov, Seaweed Rhythm, Bosom LTD, Tzinah Records, Rockets Audio, RAWSTREET, Saraw.

Frequent artists: Dubphone, Root, Silverlining, (not that much because mostly I talk to labels and PRs so there is no direct contact with the artist)

Platform: nightclubber.ro

Social: sc / fb / ig

Rayzeh

“Rayzeh is about vibration… about life, energy and the power of providing delightful sound experiences… For us every track that we choose is special because every track is a part of us. Its a beautiful feeling to know that our selections are being listened to and also discovered by other musical maniacs like us.”

A couple of years ago, Luka saw a facebook post showing a Romanian minimal track, and he instantly fell in love with it… from there, he started digging every day this kind of music style and artists. After some time, he decided to create a YouTube channel and share his findings… it’s beautiful to share your emotions and feelings with other people, and it’s a unique feeling when you see people appreciate your music taste.

A beautiful journey started back in 2019 when the founder of Rayzeh, Luka meets one of the most unknown and underrated producers from Romania called Mulov.
For almost one year they shared their favourite tracks, their favourite artists and their favourite feelings… it’s beautiful how our electronic Romanian scene brought them together. 

After some time Mulov decided to create his own label being much easier to release and provide the people with some beautiful musical sensations.
With the help of Luka, they successfully upload the 1st wonderground album on his channel and the response was very positive from the public.

Trying to be as selective as possible they decided that together they are a much stronger force than on their own so they unified since 2020 and they promise to provide you with a captivating next level sound experience.

– Rayzeh

Active since: 2018

Team: Luka Pivk, Bucsa Sebastian 

Country: Slovenia 🇸🇮, Romania 🇷🇴

Content: 10-15 tracks a week, 1487 in total. 6 podcast in total.

Frequent labels: wonderground, Bondage Records, Unknown Milano, nonymous, Not Allowed 

Frequent artists: Etzu Mahkayah, Alineat, Sebasstian, Jyoel, sEmoa

Platform: youtube.com/c/Rayzehh

Social: bandcamp / sc / fb / fb group

Storytellers

“Me (Bogdan Dobre) and Andrei Luca started Storytellers in November 2016, Cosmin Adrian (dot13) joined the crew during last year. 

Back then, we were going to a lot of parties, and we recorded the best moments in the sets to keep those joyful moments alive. In time, we uploaded some of those recordings on Youtube. Among the first posts was a snippet from a party with Barac. To our surprise, many individuals and labels reacted very well and liked that our uploads had emotion and a story behind them. That’s how the name for our channel came naturally: Storytellers!

In time, we have created a label and a solid community that shares our love for music and constantly supports us.”

Even if we are not DJs or producers, we were always two music lovers and true diggers. In our search for good and unique sounds, we have been going to events for years, and we have spent a lot of time looking for music and records. For someone passionate about electronic music, the take-off of a project like Storytellers was very organic.

We are motivated to see artists evolve and watch our community grow. One of the most motivating chapters for us is yet to start, growing our label as much as we grow our channel. 

– Storytellers 

Active since: 2016

Team: Bogdan Dobre, Andrei Luca, Cosmin Adrian (dot13)

Country: Romania 🇷🇴

Content: On Storytellers, we focus on sharing and promoting underground electronic music based on a personal selection. With the support of our close collaborators and friends, we have around 1300 videos uploaded with a frequency of 30-40 videos per month. During the pandemic, we noticed that the music scene required a lot more support, so we have made an effort to publish more than usual and try to help as much as possible. 

Recently we wanted to diversify our content and to make it more engaging. That’s why we added 30 podcasts and a brand new section of recorded video sets called „Rewired Story”. Rewired sets are particularly interesting because once people play them, they can recreate the party mood in their homes. It really becomes a gateway for lots of people who miss socializing and enjoying music, especially during these tough times.

Frequent artists & labels: We have artists and labels that we collaborate with regularly, and for many of them, our channel became their home. Despite this, we try to stay open to new artists and influences as long as they are aligned with our taste and standards. We encourage our listeners to go and discover these talented artists in our playlists.

Platform: youtube.com/c/storytellerssounds

Social: bandcamp / sc / fb / ig

UFO Beats

“UFO Beats is a YouTube platform that was launched in 2015. and have since uploaded numerous great tracks and releases, thus supporting various independent artists and labels over the years and becoming an important actor for the minimal/deep house music scene worldwide. It mostly relies on the only vinyl releases and independent digital music.”

“Mislav is the founder. He is a digger and collector, a passionate listener. Marcel and Josip, aka Bronski, are well-known DJs in Croatia. Both of them tend to play minimal/deep house most of the time. It is pretty simple actually, all of us have a deep passion for digging and selecting quality music, then we like to promote it via our channel, and later on play the music in the clubs and festivals. .”

– UFO Beats

Active since: 2015

Team: Mislav Rastović, Marcel de Privitellio, Josip Bajić 

Country: Croatia 🇭🇷

Content: 10-15 uploads / week. Total: 4.336 uploads

Frequent labels: Various, hard to name a few

Frequent artists: Various, hard to name a few

Platform: youtube.com/c/UFOBeats

Social: sc / fb / ig

Verzila

“Verzila YouTube channel created from passion and love for this genre of music on 17 February 2008 to have my favourite music remote everywhere. The channel was growing its audience in the past years, but I still ignore it and use it as a remote music player.

After a few transformations in the past years, the final form of the channel was around 2016, where I implemented the request uploads by email. It worked in the same way in those days, but in 2020 I added the SoundCloud premieres, and I also post everything I upload on my Instagram page.

The Channel is not monetized, It’s all about sharing good music and promoting talented artists. All tracks are uploaded upon agreement with the owners for promotional purposes only.

“One of the oldest techno music channels still active in helping artists with slightly louder names in the technical music techno.”

– Verzila

Active since: 2008 / Relaunched in: 2016

Team: Verzila

Country: Romania 🇷🇴

Content: 3 uploads / day. Total: 5.357 uploads

Frequent labels & artists: I’m not very interested in the name as much as the work itself. I sort out requests that I think are worth promoting. A more understandable answer would be: there is no exclusivity on the Verzila channel. It doesn’t matter how good the artist’s or label’s name is or not. If the music is good, it deserves to reach the ears of other listeners.

Platform: youtube.com/c/Verzila

Social: sc / fb / ig

Let us know what are your favourite releases this year, and what do you think we should add to this list.

Words by Cristina Popa (random) & Andrei Racovițan (ubic)