RA interview: Tiësto responds to sellout critics and underground purists

Jungalism · Aug 22, 2026

It's not that complicated or deep. You establish yourself a high level of fame, social standing and income that you want to, at a minimum, maintain. You observe, like everyone else, that Trance's quality and popularity is starting to significantly fall, so you have two choices: A - stick with the underground and go down with that sinking ship, regressing socially and financially or B - Make career choices that allow you to continue living and operating a top tier life you've built and enjoy, that your entire family and friends benefit from. 95% of us will make choice B, in any life or career situation.

Dreamless · Aug 23, 2026

Above is the correct answer. Doesn't mean you never gave a fuck about the underground. In my opinion he clearly loved it, how can you do what he did and not. But career and passion don't always have the opportunity to intersect, and there's barely an underground Trance scene today anyway. It's not like he'd be playing UTE records, even if he was a trillionaire.

Julian Del Agranda · Aug 24, 2026

He could be more thankful though. It sounds cool to ‘attack the hater’ but he’s a millionaire because of these people. We bought vinyl, cds, event tickets, etc. The 17 year old ‘Dua lipa fan’ Tomorrowland visitor has a very different way of consuming music.

On the other hand, at least Tiësto was pretty clear in 2009 when he said he would go for something else. Unlike Armin who in my opinion kept trance hostile for a very long time now, while doing more damage than good to it….

dmgtz96 · Aug 24, 2026

Super-Frog Saves Tokyo said:
Perhaps Tiesto saw the current state of streaming and the lack of money involved as he reached the pinnacle of his career and took a career move to get as much cash as possible before it all went tits up??!

Honestly, yeah. He likely saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship to whatever could continue sustaining his lifestyle.
Everyone on this forum who boycotts Spotify or other streaming platforms wants to be back to the 90s with strong vinyl and CD sales. Things don’t work that way anymore and every artist here (hobbyist or professional) should internalize that.

dmgtz96 · Aug 24, 2026

Narel said:
My issue here is I have always assumed people get into underground music because they love it and want to contribute to it and the culture. That’s why I cant understand Tiesto moving from trance/prog trance/tech trance to whatever the fuck it is he has played for years. I can’t see how that passion can transition to the commercial shite that is EDM. Unfortunately, as several have said on this thread, the most plausible explanation is that he never gave a shit about the underground and played to what was popular. It’s simply that trance was the big thing when he achieved his first success.
I feel like an arse for posting this as I’ve met him twice (years ago, but…) and he’s the nicest dude. But I don’t get it.

The underground isn’t entitled to an artist’s musical or creative output

dmgtz96 · Aug 24, 2026

Julian Del Agranda said:
He could be more thankful though. It sounds cool to ‘attack the hater’ but he’s a millionaire because of these people. We bought vinyl, cds, event tickets, etc. The 17 year old ‘Dua lipa fan’ Tomorrowland visitor has a very different way of consuming music.

On the other hand, at least Tiësto was pretty clear in 2009 when he said he would go for something else. Unlike Armin who in my opinion kept trance hostile for a very long time now, while doing more damage than good to it….

Honestly I would just combine my previous two responses and it would be a pretty accurate response to this comment as well

I don’t even *care* about Tiesto or listen to his music, but come on, it feels like I’m the only one making any sense here

Narel · Aug 24, 2026

dmgtz96 said:
The underground isn’t entitled to an artist’s musical or creative output

@facade1984 has told me similar, and thats not my point. Supplant 'underground' with integrity and thats clearer. Yeah I'm a purist, I give a sh1t about the music and the culture, and I hate when these things get overriden by money.
Why does this wind me up? I found this music and its culture when it was a counter culture, it was new, inspiring and exciting and I had found 'my people'. When the commercial element began to creep in my overwhelming feeling was 'just leave us alone, let us have this'. That doesn't infer any gatekeeping or elitism, only that the influence of commercial drivers is always negative for something that is driven by arists etc who are developing and maintaining the culture around it.
It would be more palatable if he had moved to producing the EDM rubbish under a pseudonym (or not....) but kept producing what I had assumed he loved. Being overt about wanting to maintain a lifestyle with earnings from the EDM crap but continuing to pursue the genres that have that integrity is understandable and defensible. In my personal circumstances if faced with the opportunity to earn $ to get rid of the mortgage etc, this would be my choice, because as others have said it would be foolish not to. But I think it can be done while still contributing to the 'underground' culture. It's a matter of if a person cares enough about it, or ever did.

facade1984 · Aug 24, 2026

I agree with you @dmgtz96 I can't understand why an artist once being relatively underground means they can't ever leave (or at least that they should be stigmatised) and the people who stayed there feel like they're owed something. Isn't it a good thing that somebody was able to transcend beyond that? I dunno why it would bring a person's integrity into question either, I'm sorry I just can't understand the jump right there. Tiesto obviously cares about music too, it's just different music to what we like. Every fandom is a community in one way or another

dmgtz96 · Aug 24, 2026

Narel said:
@facade1984 has told me similar, and thats not my point. Supplant 'underground' with integrity and thats clearer. Yeah I'm a purist, I give a sh1t about the music and the culture, and I hate when these things get overriden by money.
Why does this wind me up? I found this music and its culture when it was a counter culture, it was new, inspiring and exciting and I had found 'my people'. When the commercial element began to creep in my overwhelming feeling was 'just leave us alone, let us have this'. That doesn't infer any gatekeeping or elitism, only that the influence of commercial drivers is always negative for something that is driven by arists etc who are developing and maintaining the culture around it.
It would be more palatable if he had moved to producing the EDM rubbish under a pseudonym (or not....) but kept producing what I had assumed he loved. Being overt about wanting to maintain a lifestyle with earnings from the EDM crap but continuing to pursue the genres that have that integrity is understandable and defensible. In my personal circumstances if faced with the opportunity to earn $ to get rid of the mortgage etc, this would be my choice, because as others have said it would be foolish not to. But I think it can be done while still contributing to the 'underground' culture. It's a matter of if a person cares enough about it, or ever did.

Are you saying Tiesto should have continued producing trance while he was actively pursuing new genres and collaborations with newer artists?
I’d like you to think from Tiesto’s perspective. There’s no reason he should do that instead of simply focusing on his new direction

Narel · Aug 24, 2026

dmgtz96 said:
Are you saying Tiesto should have continued producing trance while he was actively pursuing new genres and collaborations with newer artists?
I’d like you to think from Tiesto’s perspective. There’s no reason he should do that instead of simply focusing on his new direction

Exactly that, and I do not think that is what he wanted to do, which is my issue with it. We're back to him either:
1. abandoning something he once was a champion of to go for the $
2. never caring about music with integrity in the first place and just riding the wave of what was popular and moving with it.

I think it is 1. and thats what I don't get. There seems to be a dissonance between making music you care about and making what is commercially popular. If the opportunity was presented to me, I'd stick to making what I loved for that reason, while making money from the other; either overtly or as a ghost producer. It wouldn't be that palatable but I accept the need to make $ to live, as we all need to and in his situation that was a music career.
There are so few examples of where retaining musical integrity translates into commercial success; the example I cite is Pink Floyd. They should not have been a commercial success as it was very much not what the 'pop' mainstream sounded like, but they were. But.... if you ask Syd Barrett era fans what they think of David Gilmour era, they'd mostly say it was shite and Pink Floyd sold out. Similar to Gabriel era vs Collins era Genesis fans.
Look, I'm saying this from the position of someone who has a professional career that pays the bills and a hobby that became something a bit more 20 odd years ago. I acknowledge I'm able to hold my positions on this as those two are separate things. If someone chucked $10,000,000 in front of me and said 'you get this over 5 years if you make EDM, but you have to abandon what you make now AND quit your existing career', I would of course do it. But if the option was to earn that and still make what I do now, I would because I love the music so much. That's the crux of what I don't understand with his choice, the abandoning of the sound he was so influential in developing and that I assumed he got into for the same reasons I did. I haven't heard an answer for that yet.
The exists another angle here too. I'm guessing he was already a squillionair by the time he decided to go the EDM route, so the argument of sustaining a lifestyle is probably moot, as he could do that anyway.

facade1984 · Aug 24, 2026

Narel said:
Exactly that, and I do not think that is what he wanted to do, which is my issue with it. We're back to him either:
1. abandoning something he once was a champion of to go for the $
2. never caring about music with integrity in the first place and just riding the wave of what was popular and moving with it.

I think it is 1. and thats what I don't get. There seems to be a dissonance between making music you care about and making what is commercially popular. If the opportunity was presented to me, I'd stick to making what I loved for that reason, while making money from the other; either overtly or as a ghost producer. It wouldn't be that palatable but I accept the need to make $ to live, as we all need to and in his situation that was a music career.
There are so few examples of where retaining musical integrity translates into commercial success; the example I cite is Pink Floyd. They should not have been a commercial success as it was very much not what the 'pop' mainstream sounded like, but they were. But.... if you ask Syd Barrett era fans what they think of David Gilmour era, they'd mostly say it was shite and Pink Floyd sold out. Similar to Gabriel era vs Collins era Genesis fans.
Look, I'm saying this from the position of someone who has a professional career that pays the bills and a hobby that became something a bit more 20 odd years ago. I acknowledge I'm able to hold my positions on this as those two are separate things. If someone chucked $10,000,000 in front of me and said 'you get this over 5 years if you make EDM, but you have to abandon what you make now AND quit your existing career', I would of course do it. But if the option was to earn that and still make what I do now, I would because I love the music so much. That's the crux of what I don't understand with his choice, the abandoning of the sound he was so influential in developing and that I assumed he got into for the same reasons I did. I haven't heard an answer for that yet.
The exists another angle here too. I'm guessing he was already a squillionair byt the time the decided to go the EDM route, so the argument of sustaining a lifestyle is probably moot, as he could do that anyway.

Stfu nerd

dmgtz96 · Aug 24, 2026

Narel said:
Exactly that, and I do not think that is what he wanted to do, which is my issue with it. We're back to him either:
1. abandoning something he once was a champion of to go for the $
2. never caring about music with integrity in the first place and just riding the wave of what was popular and moving with it.

I think it is 1. and thats what I don't get. There seems to be a dissonance between making music you care about and making what is commercially popular. If the opportunity was presented to me, I'd stick to making what I loved for that reason, while making money from the other; either overtly or as a ghost producer. It wouldn't be that palatable but I accept the need to make $ to live, as we all need to and in his situation that was a music career.
There are so few examples of where retaining musical integrity translates into commercial success; the example I cite is Pink Floyd. They should not have been a commercial success as it was very much not what the 'pop' mainstream sounded like, but they were. But.... if you ask Syd Barrett era fans what they think of David Gilmour era, they'd mostly say it was shite and Pink Floyd sold out. Similar to Gabriel era vs Collins era Genesis fans.
Look, I'm saying this from the position of someone who has a professional career that pays the bills and a hobby that became something a bit more 20 odd years ago. I acknowledge I'm able to hold my positions on this as those two are separate things. If someone chucked $10,000,000 in front of me and said 'you get this over 5 years if you make EDM, but you have to abandon what you make now AND quit your existing career', I would of course do it. But if the option was to earn that and still make what I do now, I would because I love the music so much. That's the crux of what I don't understand with his choice, the abandoning of the sound he was so influential in developing and that I assumed he got into for the same reasons I did. I haven't heard an answer for that yet.
The exists another angle here too. I'm guessing he was already a squillionair by the time he decided to go the EDM route, so the argument of sustaining a lifestyle is probably moot, as he could do that anyway.

I think you’re severely underestimating how much time Tiesto’s new direction needed. I’m not saying that I know, but come on, he likely needed to network with all the younger producers and establish connections with everyone needed to make those collabs happen. And, maybe he simply wanted to balance his new direction with his personal time. Expecting him to work on multiple genres is unreasonable.

Narel · Aug 24, 2026

dmgtz96 said:
I think you’re severely underestimating how much time Tiesto’s new direction needed. I’m not saying that I know, but come on, he likely needed to network with all the younger producers and establish connections with everyone needed to make those collabs happen. And, maybe he simply wanted to balance his new direction with his personal time. Expecting him to work on multiple genres is unreasonable.

Is it? I manage it with a bunch of old VA’s, a laptop, some select plugins and a shoestring budget.
BT released albums of pop trance and borderline EDM followed by several albums of excellent experimental and ambient, while also scoring films. Ferry did cheesy stuff while re-starting Gouryella and releasing ambient as FERR. Countless other producers make multiple genres; but you think someone with the experience, connections and resources of Tiesto is not capable of it?
It’s not about capability or time, it’s about the desire to, and he obviously didn’t; the $$$$$ won.
If we credit him with some foresight of where trance would go i.e. cookie cutter, and he wanted out, why go to EDM? EDM epitomises everything that the worst of trance is. And we’re back to chasing $ again.

Archon · Aug 24, 2026

I can't even imagine myself listening mostly to trance for 20-30 years, let alone produce it. And I have no issue whatsoever with anyone who feels the same (or doesn't), for whatever reason.

dmgtz96 · Aug 24, 2026

Narel said:
Is it? I manage it with a bunch of old VA’s, a laptop, some select plugins and a shoestring budget.
BT released albums of pop trance and borderline EDM followed by several albums of excellent experimental and ambient, while also scoring films. Ferry did cheesy stuff while re-starting Gouryella and releasing ambient as FERR. Countless other producers make multiple genres; but you think someone with the experience, connections and resources of Tiesto is not capable of it?
It’s not about capability or time, it’s about the desire to, and he obviously didn’t; the $$$$$ won.
If we credit him with some foresight of where trance would go i.e. cookie cutter, and he wanted out, why go to EDM? EDM epitomises everything that the worst of trance is. And we’re back to chasing $ again.

We’re jumping into some wild conclusions here.
Ferry, BT, etc. were all much younger during that time. They probably weren’t getting much sleep.
Trance’s heyday was probably a big sprint for them. But they also needed to slow down.

Narel · Aug 25, 2026

dmgtz96 said:
We’re jumping into some wild conclusions here.
Ferry, BT, etc. were all much younger during that time. They probably weren’t getting much sleep.
Trance’s heyday was probably a big sprint for them. But they also needed to slow down.

I don't think they are wild, this is what those guys have actually done but I agree it is conjecture to apply it as an option Tiestos considered. Meh, we'll never really know and that interview doesn't put it to bed for me. Anyway, good chat : )

Homer S · Aug 31, 2026

Progrez said:
Its not about being unique. I personally want him to play stuff thats quality and that appeals to EVERYONE. Trance and house were already mainstream back in the 90s. I want to hear hits

This true too. But for me when artist says that they are tired of style that made them famous they should do experiments. Ferry could do this, even Armin did this with his Moons of Jupiter album.

Progrez · Aug 31, 2026

Homer S said:
This true too. But for me when artist says that they are tired of style that made them famous they should do experiments. Ferry could do this, even Armin did this with his Moons of Jupiter album.

Not the same quality still lacking the quality in them or them being future classics.

TRANCEBLASTER · Sep 10, 2026

here is another new one where he talks more about Trance

as for his attitude .. back in 2005, I also thought I’d never listen to Trance music again.. around 2006, I still visited the trance.nu forum from time to time, to see what was happening, but I always ended up disappointed. between 2010 and 2015, it wouldn't even cross my mind to play my old trancey all-time favorites. but things have completely changed, and look at where I am now.) 'Tiesto' is basically 8 years behind me now, but I understand that he's sitting up there at the top where he can't really see what's happening in the small club scenes. I honestly don't think he even has a clue that Trance is actually doing well on vinyl again..

Mosquito · Sep 11, 2026

I know it might be hard to imagine if you're not that type of person yourself, but... yes, it's entirely possible to care about both the underground and more "commercial" sides of music.

It's like you can watch both Tarkovsky and superhero movies. You can play both $5 indie games with pixel graphics and PlayStation exclusives with budgets rivaling some countries. They're very different experiences - at times almost like entirely different forms of art - but you can absolutely enjoy them exactly for what they are.

And I do believe Tijs when he says he did what he loved ALL these years. I can't really imagine him just doing it for money for 15 years straight. Yes, the money certainly didn't hurt, and it must've been a big factor in his decision making (no surprise and no judgement there), but it was hardly the only thing that mattered.

FFS, his gabber stuff is even mentioned in the RA interview. If you've ever listened to it out of curiosity, it would never surprise you that he was able to freely move on from one genre to another.

P.S. Just watched the beFesti interview as well. I like how he seems to genuinely want to deliver something special with his next album. I half-expected him to not care that much after so many years on the scene.

RA interview: Tiësto responds to sellout critics and underground purists

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