Advice on a promotiontal house mix targeting top 40 club owners

[djnrs]

What types of structure / mixing techniques do you think work best?

I am putting together a new mix that displays the progressive/electro/house that I spin. I am struggling finding a way to structure it to get whoever club owner/promoter that listens to it, that might make them stop and think, hmm maybe house music can work here.

[djchriswoods.co.uk]

if they are filling the venue every night with top 40 your fighting a losing battle.

might be a good idea to pop down, ask what their least busy night is and plan around that. suggest a change in music policy on that night etc....

[Filterkat]

if they are filling the venue every night with top 40 your fighting a losing battle.

might be a good idea to pop down, ask what their least busy night is and plan around that. suggest a change in music policy on that night etc....

+1 on that

or if your really keen to get your own night started, save up some cash, hire the club for the night, do some promo, hire another DJ or 2, and put on your own night, and you take all the money from the door takings... if you do it properly, you can quite easily double or tripple the money you invested, and if it works well, sometimes the club owners ask you to do it as a regular thing... best way to get a residency in my experience as well. It shows you have initiative, you believe in yourself (because your investing your own money into it) and it shows the club owners that you can do more than just DJ. Plus if you hire the club for the night, no need to show them your mixtape, youll be the one listening to mixtapes of other DJ's wanting to get in on your night. Its also a good way to quickly build relations in the nightclub industry.

All that said though, you have to risk investing a lot of time and your money doing it though, Usually about a grand or 2 for a small to medium sized venue in my experience. You have to promote the hell out of it too. But say you get a medium sized venue for a grand or so, and charge 10 bucks at the door, and you get 4 or 500 people come... well, do the math, you make descent money.

Your basically allways guaranteed that the "club regulars" will still go to the club, plus youll still get a descent amount of walk ins no matter what. But to really make the most of it, promote the hell out of it, try and get as many people there as possible. If you pull it off, the club owners will be impressed and most likely give you a regular gig.

[djnrs]

The primary question is, How do we present house music in a sense that generic top40 club owner would like it for his own club. Im not worried about getting the nights.


Thanks for the ideas. What I specifically meant was these club / bar owners are interested in the fact that I spin house. But house music in its nature is very different than top 40 in how its presented/spun live. Top 40 being constant mix to mix, house being up and down with build ups ect.ect.

My question was, what is the best way and type of songs to put on a promotional mix tape that would appeal to them.


For example, I am avoiding having any long breakdowns, my mixing is either cutting in the electro portion (electro is pretty easy to replicate a hip hop dj), but my progressive big synth house music is much more difficult, im typically mixing over 8 bars right into the song B's buildup,break.

Song A intro/chorus/build/break mixing into sound B buildup>break, than another build break, than another build break, than slowing it down to bring in another intro/chourus. Hope this makes sense.

[patient 267]

Also electro/progressive house remixes of top 40 songs will always suffice, and there are some really sweet ones as well, like Chuckies remix of Bumpy Ride, or most Sidney Samson remixes. The audience will this way still reckognize the lyrics and you get to play something you might not dislike as much.

[djnrs]

Ugh, to be honest I think I hate that more. Nothing worse than hearing a top 40 DJ play One and Miami to Ibiza with rapping over top.

I understand the need to appease a crowd, but this is not my living, so all I want to play is house for house fans. Maybe i should just move to ibiza!

[patient 267]

Well maybe then you need to find another venue, because the top40 people will always go to the top40 club. Most people don't know anything about whos behind the decks, they just go where they always go and they might get pissed and you might get annoyed when they tell you to play what they know.