It’s that time of the year again!
Trance fans around the world joyously celebrate the completion of yet another milestone moment in the run time of the legendary radio show, A State of Trance. While some of them make their way to Utrecht to celebrate at The Jaarbeurs, the rest of the world stays glued to the live stream or their social media channels to catch up on the action they are missing on.
To anyone having even the slightest affinity towards the genre, “A State Of Trance” literally forms the backbone of the currently accepted forms of the genre. With millions of viewers religiously tuning in to catch the broadcast on a weekly basis, the show went on to build a community of like minded fans across the globe.
Having started off as a small radio show, it went on to become a wide-ranging and far-reaching brand with many different spin-offs. ‘A State of Trance’ today is one of the world’s biggest and most popular dance music brands. Built from the ground up since the very first episode of Armin van Buuren’s radio show in 2001, ASOT now entails a globally acclaimed label and a breathtaking event series to boot, drawing tens of thousands of music lovers from all over!
Does A State Of Trance actually justify the genre? Well, that is an argument that will never really have a concrete answer. However, one can’t deny Armin Van Buuren the credit he deserves to have created something that resonated with people at such a deep level.
Today, apart from the radio show, the brand has gone on to spawn off celebratory tours, multiple related sub labels – the most well known one being the self named one, a compilation series, merchandise lines and much more!
Moreover, to have a run time of over 20 years and consistently put out music on a weekly basis is quite a feat. Looking at little bit of the history on the show and the spearheads behind the concept, Armin Van Buuren started off with the idea of hosting a weekly radio show that would not only showcase the best in trance, but also serve as as a platform for him to communicate and put out his thoughts about music with the listeners.
Having been offered a fixed 2 hour slot on ID&T, the show was first aired in 2001. Going from not having enough tracks to fill in the two hour slot, to today being flooded with enough demos and tracks to probably host a show for days, A State of Trance has definitely come a long way.
37 Facts That About “A State Of Trance” That Will Surprise You
From being the most easily identified yet most reliable source of quality trance (at least till episode 700) the show went on to complete 950 episodes and still remains unmatched in terms of a quality radio show. Over the years, multiple shows and podcasts have stemmed in, however, none of them have been as impactful as A State of Trance.
It also acted as a jumpstart for the careers of multiple artists. Since it gained the reputation of being such a trusted platform, it saw the audience and the consumers of the show heavily push and promote artists who’s tracks got featured on the show.
This not only boosted the careers of budding artists who needed the support, but also propagated the genre and the scene on the whole. Moreover, with A State of Trance, Armin van Buuren was somewhat successful in making trance music a household genre across most of Europe.
Each year sees the show complete 50 episodes. To celebrate this, Armin started to host “A State Of Trance” parties. Today, ASOT in the Jaarbeurs in the world biggest trance festival and it plays host to over 5 stages. With incomparable quality in music, production and overall experience, it went on to set a benchmark of how trance shows should look and be like.
Reflecting back on all this, does ASOT really make it to the mark of being Armin’s biggest achievement in his career? Maybe it does, because it not only built his profile to what it is today, it gave him the reputation of being one of the flag bearers of the genre, push and promote more artists, the genre on the whole. Is it his only achievement that has been this impactful? That is something only time can tell! Till then, we continue to celebrate A State of Trance with the same levels of excitement as we do every year. Here is to another 1000!
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