“I'm not a jukebox; I don't play exactly what the crowd wants to hear -...” — Armin van Buuren Quote

I'm not a jukebox; I don't play exactly what the crowd wants to hear - that doesn't make sense. But, I do look at people requests. At the end of the day, they are the ticket payers and they are the ones that come to the show. If I played music that purely entertains me, I'd play very weird music.

I recommend everyone who DJ's to do it as a hobby and make sure you have a day job or are going to school. Only 100 DJ's in the world make a living doing this, by that I mean making a good, comfortable living.

I got into house music thanks to Dutch master mixer Ben Liebrand and my friends at school.

My stage name has always been 'Armin van Buuren.' When I really started DJ'ing professionally, I already had a few U.K. hits under my belt under the name 'Armin', so I couldn't really change that anymore.

In 2004, I went onstage for the first time. They put a mike in my hand and pushed me out the door into the crowd. I did the three songs I had recorded and got out. It was the worst day of my life.

I definitely like performing to a crowd that's there to see a female hero.

I've seen the Stones play for three hours, and the crowd knew every song. It's what you want in a headline slot at a festival.

While it is great to work in films, I am super duper excited to be a part of the Da-Bangg Tour yet again as we get instant reactions from the crowd and the amount of love and energy that they give you is great to experience.

I've been doing a lot of internet performances... it's really weird for me to not feel the crowd, to not feel the people in front of me.