MIAMI – Miami-based DJ-producer, George Acosta, has been a professional DJ since 1988 and a producer since 1992. Although he is widely known as being a trance DJ, Acosta also plays progressive, techno, breakbeat, electro and other styles of electronic dance music. His latest release is All Rights Reserved (Moist Music), a double-disc compilation that includes five original Acosta tracks including the international hits, “Mellodrama” and “The Other Side,” both featuring vocalist, Truth (an artist Acosta himself discovered and developed.)

As a dance music producer, Acosta is among the most skilled. Technically savvy and meticulous in the recording studio, Acosta is no stranger to music production’s ever-evolving technology. As a result, he is continually invited to lecture at audio engineering academies throughout Miami and New York City.

In 1996, Acosta had a Platinum-selling record as part of Planet Soul with the single, “Set U Free,” which sold over 1.2 million copies, a number virtually unheard of in today’s climate. Acosta’s earlier mix CDs included Awake, Release: AM and PM, Trance Nation America and History Of Trance. With each release, Acosta helped shape the sound of trance and to this day he continues to be one of the genre’s staunchest ambassadors.

A decade after “Set U Free” went Platinum, Acosta performs as a DJ to packed dancefloors in some of the biggest clubs and festivals around the world, including: Berlin’s Love Parade, Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, Bang! Music Festival and Global Gathering Festival, as well as Denver’s Red Rocks. Although he is currently based in Miami, Florida, Acosta spends most of his time traveling, and he can be heard DJing at clubs across the United States at venues like Glow in Washington, DC and Eleven50 in Atlanta, Georgia. Internationally, Acosta DJs at clubs including: Space, El Divino, Café Del Mar and Privilege in Ibiza, Spain (the latter venue notorious as being the “biggest club in the world” with a capacity of 10,000 people), Techno Club in Frankfurt, Germany, Helikanos (considered the largest outdoor nightclub in Europe) in Bodrum, Greece, and at Parkorman in Istanbul, Turkey. He also plays at clubs throughout South America – in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil – as well as in St. Petersburg, Russia and in London, the UK. He continues to play in Lebanon…and Israel. Acosta has circled the globe more times than he can count, and there is no stopping in sight.

In the early days of Acosta’s career, he came-up DJing warehouse parties in Miami and later went on to produce original tracks, such as Planet Soul’s “Set U Free.” For a period, he owned a record store called Grooveman Music in Miami. It was during this time that Acosta established a residency at Miami’s Shadow Lounge, a venue where he remained for three years, honing his craft and breaking some of the trance records migrating to the States from Europe. Acosta’s first mix CD, Awake, soon became the definitive sound of South Beach and it helped propel Acosta onto the world stage. Growing-up, the most important influence on the young Acosta was his father, the owner of a restaurant/bar in Cuba, who would set-up a reel-to-reel and play disco for patrons. “Dad would always play Donna Summer, Barry White, old-school. That’s how my love for electronic music came about. I’ve always had that disco thing in me and that’s electronic. I’ve never been into the soulful thing; I’ve always been into the technological thing. My first gig as a DJ was in Germany when I was 17-years-old, and I got really into techno from there.” Other early musical influences included Masters At Work.

Emboldened and flush with success from his residency at Shadow Lounge, Acosta embarked upon the world with record case and headphones in hand and set about playing some of the biggest parties in the world. His second mix CD, Release: AM and PM, was an ambitious double-disc representative of his increasingly popular all-night sets. His style became synonymous with euphoric, soaring, melodic trance levied with searing tech-house rhythms sure to shatter the dancefloors he ruled. Acosta’s next mix CDs, Trance Nation America (Ministry Of Sound) and History Of Trance (Ultra Records), appeared in his evolving repertoire of uplifting music, and his latest release – All Rights Reserved (Moist Music) – is the label’s best-selling dance title to-date.

“Traveling to different clubs and countries each week and playing for so many enthusiastic people…makes me want to play exciting new tracks,” says Acosta. “As the scene evolves, I find myself wanting to play more intimate, melodic stuff. But I also play tracks that are techier and harder during my sets. Nevertheless, all the records I play mean something to me. I have a connection to the records I play because, first and foremost, I am a great fan of this music myself.”

Among the many current projects that bring Acosta around the world, perhaps the most exciting is his Mint Musik Digital music distribution company. As the advancement of digital technology speeds faster and faster, only those who embrace the digital age will survive. New artists and records are being signed to Mint Musik Digital in exclusive distribution deals, with news being announced soon.