2003 – 2005
MaxDance (called MaxDance FM at the time) started as a hobby/idea back in 2003 by Juan (aka JJ), by late 2003 it had become reality, but far from the 24h service we have now back then we only operated between 3-4 hours in the evening, Monday to Friday and between 5 to 24h at weekend.
During this period we had grown not only in our broadcasting times but in our popularity and this led us to start to offer more exclusive content like artist interviews and exclusive material and so on.
Sadly towards the middle/end of 2005 it was decided to close the station and take it off air, this was a business decision as at the time it was the best option open to us, this left the fans, listeners and presenters in a difficult position.
2009 – TODAY
In February 2009 we started to do some test broadcasting witch was successful and this led to us on the 24th February 2009 to re-launch as MaxDance (minus the FM), with an automated playlist with user request service.
The new automated playlist and user request service has been a huge success in testing and we hope this second run will bring us much more success and that our listeners will continue to enjoy the best service possible from us.
On the 13th March we welcomed our first resident DJ mix show presented by none other than Peter Luts, the producer behind the chart topping dance acts Lasgo, Ian Van Dahl and now AnnaGrace!
In July 2009 MaxDance became part of Atlantis, guaranteeing essential web services (access to web hosting / web design) allowing the potential to continue to grow.
In August of the same year MaxDance listeners saw the first major change in the form of brand new imaging (better known as jingles/sweepers) with a female voice and clips of dance tracks mixed into the FX, this new image was received really well by listeners!
In November 2009 MaxDance was re-branded and re-designed with a new fresh logo and a new and fresh website design, in this change we have seen the launch of MDControl, that is the user based control system where any listener can request to add songs to the playlist with ease, and also a new MDPlayer, the web based player.
In April 2011 saw the launch of the second 128kbps stream to work alongside the current 128kbps stream, offering more connection spaces for listeners and catering for a larger audience number, also on 21st April the FIRST mobile application was launched, this was an application for the Apple AppStore and iOS devices, mainly iPhone and iPod touch devices but iPad compatible, offering live audio stream, full schedule, twitter feed, contact details, the station history and credits information.
In July 2011 a new brand image (logo) was launched, the re-brand saw the name change to maXdance, the capital X standing out with a web 2.0 style logo.
July 2011 also saw the release of the V2.0 mobile application for iPhone and iPod Touch (also compatible with iPad), the updated brand changes took place with a new design, a more refined navigation setup making it much more easy to navigate the content, V2.0 also saw the launch of the Interviews tab and featuring artists interviews starting with The Guru Project interview, the app was also released on the Google Android platform, same features and design as the iOS version.
In late October 2011 maXdance saw it’s largest change in it’s online branding, the new website was launched. The new website featured a much more improved navigation system, better content layout, the new website was built using the latest coding standards of HTML5, adding dynamic effects without using the rather outdated flash technology. The re-brand saw the return of artists interviews, launching the first interview with The Guru Project who are responsible for the club and commercial hit “Infinity 2008” (interview had previously been available on the iOS/Android application only) new and refreshed content. The new website is a completely new design/layout and new colours, a fresh new look to reflect the changes maXdance has encountered in it’s growth, and to show it’s ever growing user base.
In 2012 we saw the launch of the 3.0 mobile app version, with a fresh new look, featuring the main audio stream with background audio support alongside full schedule, artist interviews, twitter feed, about us, credits and contact us.
During 2012 we also saw the launch of our internet TV channel, however this has been in BETA mode and we suspended work on this while we plan a new method to deliver a more “on-demand” video experience rather than a “live stream” experience, we feel the on-demand option will work better for our listeners as they will be able to watch the videos they like when they like.
Also during 2012 we launched a new web player (mdPlayer) with our partners RadioLoyalty, where users can generate points to spend in the store and win competitions, this new player has been one of the best we have used to date, listeners seem to love it too!
We started 2013 off with the launch of our own on-demand service called “Demand-X”, starting with the support for 4 shows, those being shows by JES, Peter Luts, Jump Smokers & Laurent Wery. This allows listeners to catch up on radio shows after original broadcast for up to 30 days. The feedback has been great and we will continue to roll out support for more shows over the year.
maXdance continues to be operated by Juan J Arroyo (aka JJ) and continues to be non-profit and advertising free on-air, mainly supported by user/listener donations, popularity constantly growing as maXdance becomes the first choice internet radio for dance music listeners across the world.
Revision date: 28th February 2014, 00:57 GMT