What You Need to Know About @justin3lau: Why 3LAU's Presence On the Steem Blockchain Changes Everything

Back in 2011 when I used to hang out on turntable.fm, I first discovered 3LAU (pronounced "Blau") because he used to come on to the platform as a virtual DJ to play his epic mashup tracks. I was a huge fan of his music right from the start, and it seemed like everyone else in the turntable.fm room was also always digging his music. It doesn't surprise me, then, that six years later he is easily becoming one of the biggest names in EDM.

Imagine my excitement, then, when I saw his post on Facebook mentioning that he had just joined Steemit! Actually, you don't have to imagine that, you can see it for yourself here (warning, fangirling mode was activated lol).

So, just who is @justin3lau?

To answer that question on the most basic level, I'll paste a section of the Wikipedia entry on him:

2011–12: First releases
In 2011, at the age of 20, he vacationed in Sweden, where he discovered electronic dance music. After returning to college he started producing mashups, "mainly because [he] didn't think anyone was doing a good job." He soon began mixing under the professional name 3LAU, and by June of that year was uploading mashups to YouTube.

3LAU gained recognition in the electronic music world in 2011 with his two bootlegs, "Girls Who Save the World" and "All Night Long". He also won a remix competition for his remix of Tiesto's "Work Hard, Play Hard".

Before 2012, 3LAU spent his days studying at Washington University in St. Louis and DJing at night. He has had remixes charts in the top 10 on both Beatport and Hype Machine.

2012–15: Singles, touring
In 2012, he focused on DJing and launched his 3LAU Your Mind tour. That same year, he released his second bootleg album, Dance Floor Filth. In 2012, the Las Vegas Review-Journal described him as "one of America's fastest-rising DJ-producers." In 2012 he released Dance Floor Filth 2, an album featuring his production.

In late 2013, he went on a short tour with Carnage called the Night Riot tour. Wrote Jonah Ollman of Sound of Boston about 3LAU's live performances in late 2013, "A nice balance of mashups, electro-house, poppy vocal samples, and a 90’s throwback here and there keep the young 20-something crowd going and constantly entertained."

In the summer of 2015, 3LAU did his first European tour visiting Barcelona, Germany and Ibiza. Later that fall, he went on his first Asian tour which included Bangkok, Jakarta, Tokyo and more.

But @justin3lau is so much more than just this basic information about his music career. He is one of the most kind-hearted, genuine human beings in the EDM world, and he is always doing work to help the community and help uplift people in the world who are less fortunate than many of us.

Take, for instance, how he raised $200,000 for charity by getting fans to stream his music on Spotify, which raises money that goes to charity every time one of his songs is listened to on the streaming platform.

Or that one time when he was supposed to play a show during the hurricane in Houston, but had to reschedule the show, so he instead donated all money from ticket sales to the Mayor's Hurricane Relief Fund.

Here, he talks about his not-for-profit dance music label, BLUME, and emphasizes how his fans had a real hand in helping people out just by listening to his music. This is significant because so many people wish they could help others out, but feel so powerless to do so a lot of the time. 3LAU empowers his fans and lets them take part in helping others just by listening to his music, and he makes sure that they know they played a huge part in it.

He even went to Guatemala to visit the people who his fans took a direct hand in helping, to show the direct impact that their combined efforts produced. In this case, the $200,000 raised helped to build schools!

When tragedy struck in Las Vegas earlier this year, 3LAU went down to a a blood donation center and showcased the true heart of the people of Las Vegas, and his video was even found by someone who said they worked for CNN and wanted permission to use it for a news broadcast.

Last month, he mentioned that all the profits from his song, "Star Crossed," would be donated to hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico and Houston.

One of his latest ventures is his #fckcancer charity show in February of next year.

Then, there's this instance of one of his fans reaching out to him through his Facebook page expressing her sadness about missing his show by 20 minutes and following up on his response to that incident. He replied promptly to her post and said he would message her directly! Such amazing loyalty and dedication to his fans.

As you can see, we have a real human being on the blockchain with @justin3lau, a famous one who has played shows around the world and has shared the power of music far and wide to help those in need. Someone who responds to his fans personally and donates the proceeds of his music to charity efforts. Someone who truly makes a difference in the world today. And we have been blessed to have him discover the Steem blockchain and bring all of that here to share with us!

Why is this huge? Why should you care? It's not just the fact that someone with such a huge celebrity status as 3LAU coming to the platform will bring much more value and mainstream recognition to this life-changing blockchain. Not only will he be bringing so many of his fans over to the Steem blockchain; according to his first post ever, he also plans to encourage more big influencers to come to the platform. In addition to this, he also took the time to write up his own personal guide to cryptocurrencies, in order to help his fans learn more about how all of this stuff is the future and how we should all be paying attention to it. He posts about his cryptocurrency moves often on his Facebook page.

I can totally see a future where more and more huge EDM artists have found a home on the Steem blockchain and are making moves on the platform and enjoying the true freedom that this amazing blockchain provides for artists to pursue their creative passions without any interference from anyone else. If you haven't followed him yet, you should totally consider going to his profile and hitting that Follow button! He hasn't made another post since his first post, but stay tuned, as I'm sure he will be coming back with a new post soon!

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Thank you for reading! If you liked learning about 3LAU, I hope you will consider upvoting and resteeming this post to help get the word out that such a huge influencer is on the Steem blockchain now! Also, now that I have my own EDM radio show on MSP Waves, be on the lookout for more frequent posts from The Dancing Dreamers! If you love Electronic Dance Music as much as I do, you'll love what I have planned for #TheDancingDreamers.

Until next time...
KAOZ, out.

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Check out some of my other posts!

Six Sites You Need to Know About as a New Steemian
How You Can Withdraw Your Steemit Earnings to USD
How to Use Tags to Maximize Visibility for Your Posts and Gain More Upvotes
How The Minnow Support Project Helps You Achieve Your Dreams on Steemit
How I Achieved 200 Followers in My First Month on Steemit
Why I Chose to Invest $100 in Steem
How To Set Up Your Steemit Profile
The Dawn of The Dancing Dreamers
The Dawn of Friendship In a New Age
I'm Just an Island Boy Living in Utah who Loves EDM

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!steemitworldmap 40.754539 lat -111.902618 long Salt Lake City, Utah local Steemian! d3scr