“If artists are lucky, we get in your ‘For You’ page”: Loco Dice on the harsh truth of modern music discovery

DJ Loco Dice

Loco Dice has played the biggest clubs in the world, collaborated with legends, and just dropped a new album packed with stars like Skrillex, Carl Cox and Marco Carola. But in 2025, even he’s at the mercy of the algorithm.

Speaking to Billboard about his latest project Purple Jam, the German DJ and producer shares how making great music is only half the battle – getting people to actually hear it is the real challenge.

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Asked what success for Purple Jam looks like, Dice says, “That a lot of people get this album. These days it’s not like you put it in the record store and people know… These days we are driven by algorithm, so we’re kind of screwed.”

“If we are lucky, we get in your ‘for you’ page. If we are not lucky, you find out a year later, or never.”

The harsh reality, Dice explains, is that even in front of a packed dance floor, the artist often goes unseen.

“[At live sets] maybe 20% of people know [who I am], but for sure 50% don’t care,” he says. “They just come because you’re a badass DJ, or because the party is great. So this is the difficulty, and that’s why, when you ask what is success for the album, it’s that everybody gets a chance to listen to and appreciate it.”

According to Loco, the deluge of new music across digital platforms has also made “finding good music” an uphill task.

“There’s too much music. I’m flooded with music on WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram here, there. I can’t follow up anymore,” says the DJ. “Then you spend like, four hours of your time and don’t find one track. It’s kind of demotivating.”

“Everybody’s trying to do the copy/paste or trying to pick up samples that you played live. It’s devastating. For me this is the most challenging part – finding the right artist, sent to me through the right channel, music that I can play it, release, or just get inspired by to make more music out of it.”