Monstercat

History

In July 2011, James Leusink, Mike Darlington, Monstercat's current CEO and Ari Paunonen, Monstercat's current COO, created the Monstercat YouTube channel as a medium for their friends to promote themselves and to share their music with each other. The two created compilation albums to provide artists with a method of releasing their music and to lessen the competitiveness between them. Monstercat's first compilation album, Launch Week, featured seven artists: Feint, Halo Nova (now known as Varien), Stephen Walking, Ephixa, Neilio, Arion and Going Quantum. During the first few months of 2014, Monstercat partnered with the electric family in aid of the Humane Society of Canada. In December 2014, Monstercat launched a 24-hour digital radio station, hosted on Twitch and YouTube. To this day, Monstercat continues to release compilation albums containing thirty songs and two mixes each.

2011

By the time 2011 had ended, Monstercat had signed with 12 artists, including now-popular artists Stephen Walking and Tristam.

2012

2012 proved to be a large year for signings, ending the year with 34 artists, nearly tripling the original number. Some of the noticeable names were Tut Tut Child, Pegboard Nerds, and Rogue, with all three currently being some of the most popular artists to date.

2013

The label's growth continued to surge in 2013, when they capped off the year with 49 artists total, although not all artists from the previous years were still producing for the label at that point. Some of the major artists from that year included Au5, Braken and PIXL.

2014

Growth slowed regarding signings this year, as 2014 ended with Monstercat's artist total at 53. Stonebank, Aero Chord, Nitro Fun, and Grabbitz were signed over the course of 2014, which proved to be one of Monstercat's largest years at the time.

2015

In 2015, Monstercat continued with the large amounts of signing, capping off the year's total with 65 artists. That year, Hyper Potions, Karma Fields, San Holo, and Jauz were all signed, and all contributed to the growth over 2015 as a whole.

2016

2016 is currently the label's largest YouTube subscriber growth year, starting January with 4.13 million subscribers, and as of early-December, the label has gained 1.5 million subscribers over the course of 2016. Monstercat ended 2016 with 73 artists. Tokyo Machine, Seven Lions, and Marshmello signed with the label, with Marshmello's music video for his song "Alone" being the most popular video on the YouTube channel, having gained 84 million views since July 2016 (as of 23 February 2017).

2017

As of February 2017, Monstercat has released songs produced by well-known newcomers and beloved returning artists on the label. Those include Gareth Emery, Dirty Audio, Dion Timmer, Aero Chord, Ephixa, and PYLOT. Monstercat has continued to release songs or tracks three times per week, and they are only a few songs away from releasing their thirtieth compilation album which is projected to be released in February. On January 30th, they released Gareth Emery's highly anticipated new single "Saving Light", a collaboration with trance producer Standerwick and vocalist Haliene. The song was launched in partnership with Ditch The Label, one of the largest anti-bullying non-profits in the world [1]. Within its first week, the song became the first trance single to reach number 1 on the top100 Beatport charts in 5 years and raised over $2,000 for the charity [2].

Current roster

The following is a list of all the artists that are included on Monstercat's current (2017) roster. Please note that not all artists who will release with Monstercat in 2017 are necessarily supposed to be on this list.

2016 Roster

The following is a list of all the artists that are included on Monstercat's 2016 roster. Please note that not all artists who released with Monstercat in 2016 are necessarily supposed to be on this list.

2015 Roster

The following is a list of all the artists that are included on Monstercat's 2015 roster. Please note that not all artists who released with Monstercat in 2015 are necessarily supposed to be on this list.