The party we weren’t ready for until now: BMAT turned 20

On an otherwise uneventful Barcelona evening in January 2026, more than 330 people filled La Paloma, a ballroom older than most tech companies and far more accustomed to sardanes and waltzes than to music data infrastructures, to celebrate BMAT’s 20+ years of existence.

The night acted as the closing act for our Together Week, a gathering that had already bent geography to its will. 227 BMATers travelled from 29 countries and 86 cities, taking 258 flights and 42 train trips to make it to the city we call home, but we didn’t stop there.

After 20 years, even the world’s legendary bands can’t resist a reunion gig. Neither could we, so we extended the invitation to former BMATers with the ambition of having everyone in the same place, at the same time once more.

This must be the place

The venue choice was more symbolic than logistical. More conventional spaces would have worked, but we wanted something a little more distinctive for this occasion.

A Versailles-inspired venue, established in 1903 by 3 friends and named La Paloma, with its red-velvet balconies and theatrical flair, sounded about right.

Early arrivals drifted around the ballroom easing into conversation while wristbands were being fastened. It usually takes time for a room to feel like itself, but not this one. The laughter stopped sounding polite and started sounding proprietary almost instantly. After all, we go way back.

We built this System on Rock & Roll

The evening started with a 2006 playlist rewind, back to what we, or at least those early on, were listening to as they laid the foundations of what we now call the Music Operating System.

Then Àlex Loscos, one of the foundational BMATers, took the mic for a minute. You had to be there, but it landed somewhere along these lines: BMAT, he said, is the result of billions of random events happening at the right tempo. 

He also reiterated that everyone and everything counts, as BMAT is the outcome of a humongous deep neural network in which each of us there that night was a node. 

There was a thank-you in it too addressed to everyone who has contributed, in their own way, to our story, followed by an invitation to never underestimate the fun factor of what we’re doing, and to keep the journey constantly stimulating, or amusing, even, but we’ll stop here before we share too much.

That’s entertainment, ahh

Karaoke has long been a BMAT tradition. It started years ago when someone showed up at the BMAT House with random instruments and an impromptu jam session took over. That moment eventually evolved into what we now call the Instrumental Room, proof that if you leave BMATers unattended, they will build some kind of music infrastructure.

With so many in-house music aficionados, several of them fully professional musicians, including our CEO, Iñigo Ugarteburu, we usually produce our own backing tracks. 

This time, we brought reinforcements. 

La Fucktoria delivered the ultimate live karaoke experience so everyone could stay on the dancefloor rather than hiding behind guitars and technical excuses. All BMAT karaoke classics made the setlist, good times were had, questionable notes were hit, and we’re now patiently waiting to see if anyone from that stage signs up for The Voice next season. 

After karaoke, AKA INU took over. The dancefloor began exerting gravitational pull and, with those tracks, resistance levels were low. It was a mix of many genres, tastes and dance moves, just like us. No one was in a hurry to leave, and when the lights came on, there was mild but audible protest.

Tomorrow never knows, or does it

One could argue that the most revealing moments happened away from the dancefloor. Not all, because this crowd knows how to party.

Over the past 2 decades, we’ve accurately predicted a fair share of music trends and technologies, but never our personal fortunes. Which is why we brought in a tarot reader to conduct readings throughout the night.

Guests queued, some sincerely and others playfully, to turn and face the future or the strange, or at least according to esoteric theory.

Downstairs, we’ve converted a bathroom into a fully functional audio booth. Inside, we placed a retro tape recorder for guests to leave voice messages, memos to the future, sing, or make random sounds.

The physical tapes now exist, but their future use remains yet undisclosed. Early proposals include archival preservation, audio fingerprinting, trap sampling or destruction. 

20 years in, we can still dance

We can still party until morning and deal with the consequences later. We’ve just become more intentional and strategic about how we get there and also back home.

It has taken us 20 years to become what we are today, and we believe this is our best moment yet. We’ll likely say the same next year and the year after, because confidence and hope, like infrastructure, must scale to stand the test of time.

Music has moments. Systems have timelines. The Long Play lives somewhere in between. 

Nights like this are part of it, because it’s all built and sustained by people, at least for now. People who occasionally need a hug, a dancefloor, a karaoke mic, and a good enough reason to be in the same place at the same time once more.

To everyone who showed up, in any form and in any way, whether for one crazy night of partying at La Paloma or for the past 2 decades to contribute to what BMAT is today, we say thank you.

Long live the Long Play.

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