DJs Ride ‘Soul Train,’ Giving Fans Not Just Music, But Community Online

Angela Ramirez found her stable career in finance knocked off course by a merger that left her without a job. But she had pursued her interest in becoming a DJ for about a decade and was excited to take a break to seriously explore that path, as she lined up enough gigs abroad for a European tour.

Then COVID-19 hit. Yet she pivoted, and soon found herself online honing her craft and making the vital connections that have led to spots at Coachella and Bonnaroo and at clubs throughout Southern California, including Part Time Lover in North Park.

Now things are “just going full force,” said Ramirez, known as Spiñorita, as she spoke from a Los Angeles-area studio Wednesday after she had performed as part of Soul Train, a live music stream by more than a dozen DJs.

Many of the DJ’s came to Beatsource, a streaming service for the industry, from the West, but some flew in from across the country, including Atlanta and Baltimore. Others came from as far away as the U.K., including DJ Volatile, who launched the Soul Train online venture two years ago. 

The veteran DJ, like Ramirez, saw his calendar erased in 2020 as every club, venue and event shut down due to the pandemic.

He had been set to DJ at a wellness retreat in Jamaica, and when event organizers were forced to go virtual, they told him about the online platform Twitch. Could he use it to provide music for their event?

It turns out he could, and in so doing, like many DJs, Volatile – he prefers not to share his real name –  found his way onto Twitch, the Amazon-owned site perhaps best known for its use by gamers to broadcast and engage with other users.

But Volatile saw long-term possibilities in the platform, and as DJs quickly found each other via Twitch’s link-up options, Soul Train was born. “That really excited me, the possibility to send your audience to somebody else,” he said. “As we created these friendships, it made a lot of sense to do something where we could all help each other out.”

Soul Train, which focuses on decades worth of soul and rhythm and blues, has grown into a regular feature on Twitch, each Tuesday from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. PST. Nearly 110 DJs participate, broadcasting from all over the world; a rotating roster of 19 perform for an hour each.

And Soul Train has become successful enough to spawn two in-person events, the first in London last year, and the latest, in L.A. this week, as the DJs performed while also gathering for a mixer linked to NAMM, a music industry convention in Anaheim this weekend. The DJs will join again Thursday for a party in L.A.’s Koreatown.

Hundreds typically tune in to the streams, and viewership approached 600 during some Wednesday sets for the 14-hour special event.

The DJs acknowledge they are a niche part of Twitch – some gamer and talk show hosts regularly attract thousands of viewers – yet they commit to it post-pandemic because of the freedom they have to explore their favorite music, not just what club-goers or event hosts desire.

And though bars and clubs have long re-opened, they don’t want to lose the community that’s formed around them on Twitch, whether during their individual streams or as part of partnered broadcasts like Soul Train.

For Spiñorita, she has friends now across the country, upcoming gigs and the goal of becoming a DJ who can make a living taking her show on the road.

“Twitch has grown my career like I never thought it would,” Ramirez said.

Escala, 3451 W 6th St. in Los Angeles, will host the Soul Train meet up from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday. RSVP online to attend.