Sinisa Tamamovic tells us that success is more about marketing than music these days.

Hi Sinisa, tell us about you and where you’re based?

Sinisa Tamamovic: I’m a DJ and music producer originally from Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was based in London, United Kingdom for the last 5 years, but at the moment I’m back at my hometown for some time.

You’ve released an EP on Tronic this year and we spoke to Christian Smith recently admitted that he felt the scene is divided and elitist. Do you agree with the point Christian was making?

Sinisa Tamamovic: I completely agree with Christian’s thoughts about this. Now the scene is very divided, even within one genre now you have so many divided scenes, and what is more strange techno music remains pretty much into the same style more than ever. My goals and challenges were to always deliver music to all these big labels and create something different for the scene. And it’s true music has changed a lot and the scene in general as well and now it is time to create something new again but somehow keep within your style and re-brand your own signature sound. It sounds like a difficult quest but I think that’s what makes producing music exciting. It’s definitely different now, trying to make an entry into the scene these days than before. Before, it was more about the quality of music and DJing and now it is a package of everything including marketing, followers, networks and so on and less about music. I still believe that ‘Music Is The Answer’ and that’s the path I follow.

Are there any things that you’d like to call out that are pissing you off about the scene right now?

Sinisa Tamamovic: These days I keep noticing DJs social networking sites with numerous ‘fake’ or bought likes and those DJs that seem to be playing major events without hardly any released music under their name. In a way, you can see their success literally came over night. Unfortunately, you can buy anything these days and if you’ve got the cash you can even buy ‘fame’. It seems hard work is not always the best answer for success.

You’re the label boss of Night Light Records, what is your label doing differently and how is it helping new talent?

Sinisa Tamamovic: I used to choose clubbier tracks for Night Light Records, and I’ve always given priority to fat low end sound and basslines and those tracks which I felt would work in my sets. We featured a lot of new upcoming names and tried to present them as much as we can. Some of these guys are now releasing music for major labels and I’m really glad to have more than 150 releases on our imprint. This year we slowed down with releases and we are making small changes with artist selection and sound hopefully taking the label into a new direction.

Which emerging artists are you proud of nurturing/discovering? And how can people send you demos?

Sinisa Tamamovic: I have released music for so many upcoming artists and tried to present their name and music through our label. I’m proud to see many of them releasing music now on big labels such as Paride Saraceni, Alberto Ruiz, Gaga, Hollen, D-Deck, Alex Mine, Fabio Florido to name a few. These days we get a lot of demos and to be honest we don’t check all of them. I’m also requesting music from artists that I admire at the moment.

You’ve also the owner of the new promo platform CTRL Promo. How does it differ to major promo systems like Inflyte and Fatdrop plus which big clients are you using it at moment?

Sinisa Tamamovic: One of my projects is CTRL Promo in which I had an idea to build the most user friendly promo platform. We wanted to provide a simple, good-looking, clean design for users. I listened to a lot of promos from a lot of different platforms. Some of them do have nice features but with a design from the 90s or wait to them to an open account or even pay to set up your account and so on. I wanted to gather all these features onto one promo pool which works perfectly and automaticly. We offer clients to purchase campaigns per promo and also monthly packages. We are offering visibility of DJ feedback so the client can decide to show subscribers comments. Everyone can update their profile, biography and social networks and be seen via our Real Time Feed. We have developed a non-stop waveform player which plays constantly while you are browsing through your promos. Also we gather all promos into one place so once you open the promo from your email you can access all your promos without needing to go to a website and logging in separately. We are a start-up platform but already we have thousands of important users downloading music from our platform. Our platform is used by Umek’s label 1605, legendary Joey Negro’s Z Records, Sugarstar Traxx, Abzolut Records, Insert Coin and many more.

Amsterdam Dance Event starts soon, have you got any gigs lined up there?

Sinisa Tamamovic: Yep, we are going to have our Night Light Records Showcase on Friday 20th October in Club Prime on Rembrandt square. We are so happy and excited about this and we have on line up: DJ Boris, Oscar L, Matt Sassari, Mladen Tomic, Loco & Jam Minitech Project, Asio and me playing.

Can you tell us what other releases and tours do you have coming up?

Sinisa Tamamovic: This week I’m heading to Croatia, Rijeka playing in club Crkva (Church) then after that Amsterdam, Netherlands, Gotec Club in Karlsruhe, Germany, Banjaluka , Bosnia, Athens, Greece and Slovenia. We are confirming a South Africa tour for December and hopefully squeeze in Argentina before the end of 2017.