Paul van Dyk in DJmag’s Top 100 DJs 2008 poll!

Voting has now begun for the DJmag Top 100 DJs 2008 – the world’s best guide to the hottest DJs on the face of the planet.

It’s time to gear up for the biggest and most influential poll in dance music - it’s shaping up to be the hugest year yet with this year’s poll powered by trackitdown.net - which means a free download for everyone who votes!

Trackitdown.net’s Ed Real commented: “By offering each voter a free track to download from our catalogue of 350,000 titles from over 10,000 labels, we can demonstrate how easy it is to find your favourite electronic music legally. “We hope that the Top 100 DJs 2008 powered by Trackitdown.net will be the biggest international celebration of dance culture in the history of the poll.”

Since its inception in the early 1990s the Top 100 DJs poll has gone from strength to strength. Initially dominated by Brits, it’s grown into a genuine worldwide snapshot of the most popular DJs on the planet as the dance scene has mushroomed.

Last year’s Top 100 threw up plenty of surprises. Voting increased from 217,000 to 345,000 votes, with the third largest voting contingent coming from nascent clubbing destination China, after the US and the UK, with Germany and Russia close behind. And DJmag had a brand new ruler, too, in the form of adventurous trancer Armin van Buuren, who kept his favourite genre at the top of the shop.

But there was also a large musical shift evidenced in the poll, notably in the dominance of techno, which has crept up to become one of the biggest styles represented. Richie Hawtin was up 14 places, Sven Väth up 17 places, and there were healthy showings from Ricardo Villalobos, Anderson Noise, Jeff Mills, Magda and Laurent Garnier. 2007 was a good one too for the house heads too, with some relative newcomers performing particularly well. Fedde Le Grand was the highest entry, right in at No. 22 with a bullet.

The closing date is 24th September, so don’t forget to make your clicks for Paul van Dyk count!