Ranking of the Best DJs of the Year According to DJ Mag

The British music magazine DJ Mag has published a ranking of the top 100 DJs in the world for 2008. The winners' podium was shared by Dutch DJs Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, and German Paul van Dyk. Also in the top ten were Above & Beyond, David Guetta, Ferry Corsten, Sasha, Markus Schulz, John Digweed, and Israeli electronic duo Infected Mushroom.

King of minimal techno Richie Hawtin landed in 15th place, his colleagues Sven Vath in 24th, Ricardo Villalobos in 36th, Magda in 76th, and Luciano in 109th.

In the third DJ decade, a Russian artist was noted, participating in the DJ Mag ranking since 2006 – Dmitry Almazov aka DJ Bobina. DJ Mag also included another domestic musician, St. Petersburg's Philip Belikov aka DJ Feel, in 55th place.

Dmitry Almazov commented on his entry into the chart in 28th place:

"I haven’t had the chance to closely study this chart yet, but I’m sure that some positions (including mine, of course) surprised people (and me personally), however, making it to the chart at 28 is very important to me in the context of Bobina’s project development beyond Russia, and I’m very glad that my fans provided such an opportunity.

The fact that 'trancers' eternally end up at the top can be easily explained by the audience that listens to such music being younger overall. They are constantly online, posting in forums, and voting – because they have the time for it. This year, once again, DJ Number 1 was Armin van Buuren, with Tiesto taking second place. Although if you look closely, Tiesto fills stadiums of 10,000 people in the UK, while Armin only fills clubs. This is yet another indicator of the conventions of such rankings, however, I am very happy for Armin – as what he plays is personally closer to me than Tiesto.

I’m also very happy for Philip; he has visually demonstrated to everyone that one can enter the world's top 100 DJs at 55th place without releases and performances in the West. This primarily tells me that in the coming years there will be even more Russians there. Personally, I see nothing bad in this, and whether it is fair or not – that is not for me to judge. The career of any DJ always consists of a combination of factors, and ratings, thankfully, do not rank first here."

Philip Belikov's comment: "For me, getting into DJ MAG was quite expected. I can’t say that I anticipated such a high place, but I was confident in our victory. It’s very cool not only for us as artists but also for the entire Russian industry – to show western colleagues that everything is developing very strongly in Russia, that there are interesting musicians and artists, that there is a club culture ready to compete with the western market.

I am releasing my authorial album in November. And the 55th place gives me more opportunities to present this disk to the world community. Several tracks from this disk have already been signed to foreign labels for release. This is very important for any artist. By the way, it will also include a track I recorded with public figure Vladimir Pozner - the anthem of the Dance4Life movement, a global movement against AIDS and drug addiction.

It’s great that this year has become very successful for Russia - both Eurovision and football and hockey, and now the world DJ ranking. And let there be those dissatisfied with the results - I am sure this only makes us stronger and our army of fans more united. Huge thanks to everyone who believed and hoped, who voted, who supported and worried."

The DJ Mag Top 100 ranking serves as an indicator of the popularity of DJs and their booking attractiveness for many promoters. For the musicians' careers, it is directly proportional to their fee sizes. It is assumed that the voting is based on the opinions of participants in electronic surveys from more than 220 countries. However, last year, the magazine's owner James Robertson stated that there were cases of falsification, where close friends of DJs created biased rotations by sending messages from the same IP addresses. Voting for the best DJs of 2008 – the eleventh in the magazine's history – opened on August 1 and concluded on September 24.