van Buuren has always had his own studio and worked alone in the beginning of his career. Since the release of his third studio album Imagine from 2008 he has been working with Benno de Goeij of Rank 1 on all solo productions and remixes. He is well known for his annual "Year Mix" which incorporates clips and custom mashups from the year's most popular trance tracks. Each year-mix consists of about 85 individual releases, edited into a 2 hour mix which is released on double CD as well as aired on his weekly radio show at the end of each year. According to van Buuren, each year-mix takes several months to make, including thousands of digital audio edits and hundreds of audio plugins.
