John Acquaviva (born in 1963 in Orsara di Puglia) is an Italian-born Canadian dj, producer artists and musical entrepreneur.
John began his international career in 1989 with Richie Hawtin by founding one of the world's best known and influential techno labels, Plus 8 Records. The founding of plus 8 records put John Acquaviva and Richie Hawtin at the Vanguard of the emerging international electronic music movement and dj culture. In 1993, Acquaviva and Hawtin also founded Definitive Recordings and the label is now celebrating 20 years of legendary club and underground anthems. An acknowledged pioneer of new music and ideas, John was one of the first people to take notice and embrace electronic music’s digital future at the dawn of 2000 by championing Final Scratch. And following that success, John took another enormous step to help found and launch Beatport.com, the largest and most important dance-music download site in the world.
He currently runs Definitive Recordings, a label that he began in 1993 with Richie Hawtin and Karl Kowalski. After the label's hiatus in the late 1990s, Acquaviva relaunched Definitive Recordings in 2005 with an entertainment attorney, Mark Quail. Since then, the label has carved out a name with its distinctive, driving but funky tech house sound and more than 6 number #1 tunes on Beatport.com
Not satisfied with just his own work, John started fostering new artists for his Definitive label, DJs and producers such as Olivier Gaicomotto, Simon Doti, Damon Jee, DJ Tonio, Jan Van Lier and Dan Diamon, to mention but a few.
Having been on the international dj circuit since the founding of Plus 8 in 1990 and on perpetual world touring ever since, John achieved his commercial pinnacle In 2006, with Acquaviva reaching #22 on the DJ Mag 2006 list. His international career has spanned well over 2 decades at the very highest level now, throughout thousands of parties with millions of people having heard him play and dance the night and day away keeping him in high demand. John has had, both personally and with his label, 6 number ones and narrowly missed a 7th when his track Sofa King, made together with Olivier Giacomotto, peaked at number 2 overall beatport chart.
In December John Acquaviva released an Official Music Video for the underground track "Good Music" made together with Alex D'elia, Nihil Young and the USA based singer Dan Diamond. Official Music Video For Good Music His international career has spanned 2 decades now,having played for millions of people and in high demand as ever