Face2Face: John Acquaviva on Techno’s Past, Digital Futures, and Industry Truths
From co-founding Beatport and championing fair digital pricing to calling out ghost production, AI shortcuts, and industry exploitation, John Acquaviva reflects on four decades at the forefront of electronic music culture and why creative integrity still matters most.
Cameron Holbrook
Face2Face is an interview series spotlighting artists, labels, promoters, and key voices across the global electronic community. Each session goes beyond the headlines, unpacking creative process, cultural impact, industry realities, and the ideas shaping dance music’s future.
In this edition of Face2Face, Beatport's head of curation Raphael Pujol (aka The Checkup) sits down with John Acquaviva, the legendary Italian-Canadian DJ/producer and founder of Plus 8 Records and Definitive Recordings whose journey through electronic music has helped shape the sound and spirit of our scene.
Throughout their conversation, Acquaviva dives into his role in helping found and launch Beatport.com, reflecting on the early 2000s shift from vinyl to digital and why he pushed for sustainable pricing models and higher-quality downloads at a time when the industry was racing toward 99-cent tracks and free file sharing. He also speaks candidly on artist royalties, ghost production, AI-generated music, social media inflation, and the importance of originality, credit, and creative integrity in an industry he believes must do better by its creators.
