DJ Mag’s Top 100: The Best Clubs in the World

Music is international. It transcends borders and brings people together. All over the world, great clubs connect those people with the music they love, and that’s why we care so much about them. Clubs are the places where we hear new songs and listen to old ones, they’re the places where we celebrate the greatest artists of our time, and they’re the places where we come together to dance the night away.

DJ Mag’s Top 100 Clubs is an annual poll in which readers around the globe vote on their favorite club. Every year, hundreds of thousands of readers take part, and the result is a list of the hundred best clubs in the world.

What is DJ Mag?
DJ Magazine is a monthly magazine covering everything from the wide world of EDM. Initially founded in the ’80s as Disc Jockey Magazine, they have been a core component in international music journalism for decades.

Perhaps most famous is their Top 100 DJ poll, which, in 2015, became the most prominent music poll ever when over a million votes were collected. However, the Top 100 DJ poll is not only important because of what it represents to the musicians who appear on it. For many in the industry, it is an essential resource for judging an artist’s popularity. In 2006, the magazine began its Top 100 Clubs poll, which functions similarly to judge the best clubs on the scene.

Shifting Demographics
In their recent announcement that the 2022 voting polls were now open for their Top 100 Clubs, DJ Mag mentioned that “clubs in North America and Asia gained places at the expense of European clubs in 2021–two-thirds of North American clubs went up while 77% of Asian clubs were up or new to the poll.” So what do these shifting demographics mean for the industry?

Europe has been seen as a hub for EDM ever since its inception, with markets such as Germany and Sweden giving rise to many influential artists and techniques. In recent years, however, this has begun to change.

While it’s mostly speculation, this demographic shift in the votes for Top Club could be part of a broader demographic shift within the genre. As international markets grow in popularity and more clubs than ever are competing for the top spot, could the days of Europe being positioned front and center as the face of EDM be coming to an end?

How to Get Involve
As we said earlier, the polls for 2022 voting are now open, and we know that many of you will be eager to show some love for your favorite club. So if you want to take part in this year’s poll, you can do so by going to vote.djmag.com, signing in, and giving them your top five clubs.

Not sure which clubs you can pick? Don’t worry about it! Last year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, DJ Mag relaxed their rules and opened voting up to any club globally, including those unable to open due to the pandemic. So even if your favorite club has been shut for the last twelve months–which would have disqualified it under the old rules–you’ll still be able to vote for them.

Polls like this one matter a lot for the industry, not just because they create a healthy sense of competition but also because they give music lovers a chance to share their favorite places