First Thread: Starting a Local Scene

[Dj Noriddim]

I started a EDM night in my country and I can tell you how I did it.

First off if your starting a scene or night just to play music you like and have some place to play you are going about starting a club night all wrong. Sounds weird but hear me out.
If you are doing this you are going to make the night about yourself, not the public and miss the market.

Know your market. Who likes the music you play which clubs or bars play this type of music what crowd does the bar want to attract?
When I started my EDM night I went to a bar where a lot of tourist and some locals frequented. They would play mix CD’s before the DJ came in so I gave one to the bartender who played it. The bar started to get filled with tourist earlier expecting the Dj to play those tunes and mix like the CD. He didn’t. The crowd would leave and go to the larger venue where the only house DJ on the island would play. I did this for two weeks . Soon the owner took noticed and would ask hey who makes these CD’s . I was handing them to the bartender right at that moment. I negotiated my night which I was planning for weeks. Needless to say I stepped on a few toes to get my night going but I did and in the process I created a scene and made other DJ’s step up there mix game all things I set out to change. (They mix Song A to B by playing a fog horn Sample then cut to B).

Remember this clubs/bars usually want a certain crowd coming there to spend their money if you can create a niche for yourself while attracting that crowd and making that bar tons of money with your night you will be in good hands. Also try reading up some articles on Digital Dj Tips they have tons of great advice on stuff like this.

[Bassline Brine]

Also, keep in mind Beltek for the end of the summer. I'll be hitting up 3 festivals this year (maybe more, but these I'm pretty well set on), Starscape (Baltimore, MD), Beltek (Belmont, ME), and WEMF (Outside Toronto, Canada).

http://www.facebook.com/events/396723243688950 is the event listing for Beltek, and worth hooking up with those guys to see if you can help out or anything.

Maine is a silly place, I lived up there for close on a year before coming back down to Mass lol. Up in the lakes region, not the populated areas of Maine.

Seriously though, it's all about cross-promotion and getting people from all over.

Also, not scheduling events on the same night locally, and working with people about getting acts on a different night. By that I mean, say Feed Me (just for an example) is spinning in Providence on Thursday night. Friday night he might be spinning up in Boston. Why not jump on that and get him up to Maine on Saturday or Sunday night? That's my though on the matter really, and I'm surprised there isn't more of this heading north.

The NH crews are trying to do big things, but they've not delivered with big names yet. I'm a regular (partier, not DJ yet) up at Symmetry/Control at the Junkyard in Nashua NH, and they are working on it. Booked Porter Robinson but his flight got cancelled. But I'm expecting some bigger things out of those guys, and I've met a bunch of kids coming from all over to get there because there really is not a lot going on in Northern New England.

Especially in Portland, the scene is ripe. It's just a matter of finding the people who are doing shows and getting to know them and what they are doing and where they are going with it, and then taking a look to see if you either want to help them out or do your own thing. Everyone knows everyone here in New England, which I don't know if that's the case in other parts of the country (or world) but it's a pretty tight community for the people actually throwing shows.

I've come to terms with the fact that I love New England, and it's really starting to pick back up again like it was back in the early 2000's as far as EDM is concerned.

[frequencym]

I've come to terms with the fact that I love New England, and it's really starting to pick back up again like it was back in the early 2000's as far as EDM is concerned.

EDM back in New England? Surely hell must be freezing over!