How do you guys feel about GIVING AWAY TRACKS?

[Shane Says]

I agree with every post, but I know a guy that listen to 5000 songs weekly and focus on playing only the newest hits and so on.
And lives just doing it, and yes, he is living listening and playing to other people's song. Isn't that a work?
Yeah, the producers did all the work by making the tracks, but when we come to "professional musician" (using this term broadly, DJ is more a performer then a musician) is someone who lives from the music, pay taxes from it and so on.
Then yes, he is living through listening and playing other people's song.

And I never said that I don't and I won't give any song names. I play with Traktor, and anyone could see the name of the song that I'm playing. I just stated my opinion , didn't judged anyone here. Didn't said that is a foolish act to tell the name of songs. Didn't said that was a stupid move.

Playing, mixing are the final part of the DJing process. I listen, choose, pay, download, categorize, rate, organize and set the beatgrid before I even think of playing it. Playing it's the main part, obviously, but I doubt that someone here considers the time spent of searching music (even ASKING for music from others people) is throwing your time away. Organizing your library is a topic that always come back and forth on the DJTT blog.
Do not say that is "not a hard job to do". I often pass more than 2 hours on my library. It's not that joyful compared to mixing, but I have to do it. It's easier than producing music? Obviously. But is still a time well spent and will reward you in the future.

Agreed. I have two sides of me. One saying why not and the other reminds me of the hours of digging spent finding good tracks. Either way I wouldn't look down on a person for asking but also would understand if someone didn't want to share the info.

[squidot]

/thread

Best post, in any thread, on any forum, EVER.

wow i got a /thread from patch? that's awesome! i'm just glad there are other people that share the same passion on this topic.

one of the reasons i got into this hobby was to try and spread the word of skilled, lesser known artists as well as share the music i love. i've known some talented producers who were working at guitar center and video rental stores because music production wasn't making them enough to go full time. these people deserve some credit is all. if we choose to dig for and play these types of underground songs and keep them a secret, this is the type of person we are affecting negatively, when we should be trying to support them. it wouldn't really hurt deadmau5 if his track was not listed.

realistically is some lesser known dj not sharing track lists going to lose these artists money? most likely not, but every little bit can help in these situations. if i can get just 1 person to find a new track from an artist and start to support them, then that makes me incredibly happy. if that person happens to be a dj and they spread the word in one of their sets, even better. it can cause a snowball effect and everyone wins. these songs aren't made just for me to use and keep secret, they are songs made to share with everybody in the world who is interested.

[squidot]

I agree with every post, but I know a guy that listen to 5000 songs weekly and focus on playing only the newest hits and so on.
And lives just doing it, and yes, he is living listening and playing to other people's song. Isn't that a work?
Yeah, the producers did all the work by making the tracks, but when we come to "professional musician" (using this term broadly, DJ is more a performer then a musician) is someone who lives from the music, pay taxes from it and so on.
Then yes, he is living through listening and playing other people's song.

we may be getting into a bit of semantics here, but i still don't consider listening to music as work. most people do it every day as a way to relax and unwind. now, trying to find good tracks can surely be time consuming. i do it often and have been for a long time and it's by far the easiest step in the process. if i don't like a track i skip it, if i love it i make it mine. simple. it takes no skill and is purely subjective. it's just my opinion on this step as both a dj and a lover of music.

you speak of a pro that listens to ~14 full days worth of music every week who makes money and pays taxes on his gigs...that he gets from playing other people's music. to me that's all the more reason to credit the artists creating the songs he's playing. you ask if i consider it work. yes, if you lump the entire process together and include his playing of gigs, practicing, etc. i would consider the prep time as work as well, but each person will have their own level of how meticulous their prepping is. some will do almost no prep work while others will go ocd on their keying, cataloging, gridding, notes, etc.

And I never said that I don't and I won't give any song names. I play with Traktor, and anyone could see the name of the song that I'm playing. I just stated my opinion , didn't judged anyone here. Didn't said that is a foolish act to tell the name of songs. Didn't said that was a stupid move.

sure, and i never said that's what you do either but you did ask why someone should give away names of underground tracks they worked hard to find. i just gave my opinions on why they should and how i generally feel about the types of people who won't tell you a track when you ask.

Playing, mixing are the final part of the DJing process. I listen, choose, pay, download, categorize, rate, organize and set the beatgrid before I even think of playing it. Playing it's the main part, obviously, but I doubt that someone here considers the time spent of searching music (even ASKING for music from others people) is throwing your time away. Organizing your library is a topic that always come back and forth on the DJTT blog.
Do not say that is "not a hard job to do". I often pass more than 2 hours on my library. It's not that joyful compared to mixing, but I have to do it. It's easier than producing music? Obviously. But is still a time well spent and will reward you in the future.

i didn't say that organizing your library and prepping wasn't a hard job, but i will say that now. i don't think it's hard as much as it is repetitive and time consuming. it's just the same thing over and over again into eternity, so that work should become very easy to you in a short period of time. as i touched on above, each person has their own idea of what they want from their workflow and they balance that with how much time they are willing to prep compared to play, then decide what works best for them. i do more prep work than a lot of people, and i've started to discover i was going overboard so now i cut some of that part out to get into the real meat of djing for me.

i also don't think that anything anyone does as far as working on something they enjoy is throwing time away. in fact i would say that's the best possible thing you could do with your life and will be the most rewarding experience you can attain...which brings me back to the main point of this whole thread. when you can do something you love, such as djing, you should also be trying to openly share that love with as many people as possible. doing this will make those underground producers lives more rewarding as well, because without them there would be no such thing as djing.

[dj matt blaze]

There is 1 and only 1 reason a DJ wouldn't give out the name of a song or a track list and that is because that DJ is a snobby elitest who only cares about themself. This DJ doesn't care about the music, the artist, or the audience. One of the many highlights I have as a DJ is playing a song and having someone come up to me and ask me what that song is. This means I am doing my job right. I play to please my audience, so why wouldn't I tell them a song if they liked it?

This whole thing about listening and searching and digging for tracks is so much work is just nonsense. Some call it a passion, some may call it an obsession, and it can be hard and painstaking at times but its all done for the love of the music. If I put all this effort into finding a great track its because I wanted to do it, no one put a gun to my head and I already got the payoff, I found the track. SO why would I not want to share it if someone else liked it enough to ask me about it?

[Patch]

i'm sorry but i guess i don't consider finding and listening to music as work. i've been doing it my whole life, long before i ever became a dj. when i read people's comments who don't want to share song names because of their hard work, and not wanting to get ripped off, I can't help but to think they hold themselves in too high of a regard. not wanting to share that undermines the writers and producers, etc...the people who put in the real hard work for years to be able to make a good track. all you have to do is be on the computer for 30 mins and dig into the rabbit hole a little bit. i'm failing to see what's so hard about that. besides, most people are going to hate the underground track that you love, so why wouldn't you want to share it with people who actually care and have a love for that music too? plus, it's not only djs who are going to ask about tracks. are you really going to tell one of your few fans that you won't give them the name of a song because you worked so hard to find it? that seems like a pretty good way to lose a fan to me.

There is 1 and only 1 reason a DJ wouldn't give out the name of a song or a track list and that is because that DJ is a snobby elitest who only cares about themself. This DJ doesn't care about the music, the artist, or the audience. One of the many highlights I have as a DJ is playing a song and having someone come up to me and ask me what that song is. This means I am doing my job right. I play to please my audience, so why wouldn't I tell them a song if they liked it?

This whole thing about listening and searching and digging for tracks is so much work is just nonsense. Some call it a passion, some may call it an obsession, and it can be hard and painstaking at times but its all done for the love of the music. If I put all this effort into finding a great track its because I wanted to do it, no one put a gun to my head and I already got the payoff, I found the track. SO why would I not want to share it if someone else liked it enough to ask me about it?

These 2 posts say it all. Anyone who doesn't agree with every word of these posts are EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH THE SCENE. I'm certain that squidot and dj matt blaze will still be doing this in years to come - because they're doing it for all the right reasons. There are 2 things you need to be to be great DJ - humble, and hard working.

I salute you both.

[Cook]

Ive had people coming up to me and asking for the name of the tune and me just giving them the CD with it on it, whats 10p for a CD for a new fan? as long as you remember to re-burn it

[tokenasianguy]

I agree with every post, but I know a guy that listen to 5000 songs weekly and focus on playing only the newest hits and so on.
And lives just doing it, and yes, he is living listening and playing to other people's song. Isn't that a work?
Yeah, the producers did all the work by making the tracks, but when we come to "professional musician" (using this term broadly, DJ is more a performer then a musician) is someone who lives from the music, pay taxes from it and so on.
Then yes, he is living through listening and playing other people's song.

And I never said that I don't and I won't give any song names. I play with Traktor, and anyone could see the name of the song that I'm playing. I just stated my opinion , didn't judged anyone here. Didn't said that is a foolish act to tell the name of songs. Didn't said that was a stupid move.

Playing, mixing are the final part of the DJing process. I listen, choose, pay, download, categorize, rate, organize and set the beatgrid before I even think of playing it. Playing it's the main part, obviously, but I doubt that someone here considers the time spent of searching music (even ASKING for music from others people) is throwing your time away. Organizing your library is a topic that always come back and forth on the DJTT blog.
Do not say that is "not a hard job to do". I often pass more than 2 hours on my library. It's not that joyful compared to mixing, but I have to do it. It's easier than producing music? Obviously. But is still a time well spent and will reward you in the future.

If you think finding quality music is hard while using Traktor, just think about how much harder it was with vinyl. With Traktor you can find music from the comfort of your own home and it costs a fraction of what it cost on vinyl. With vinyl you had to actually leave your home and burn away countless hours and dollars to get them.

As I've said to a lot of people on this forum, I think you're being really superfluous when describing how much skill, talent, and work is takes to be a DJ...But to stay on point, there's a portion of an article I really like that sums up track selection perfectly:

COMPLIMENTS: One of the best things about DJing is when you play a really kickass song and people come up to you dancing, going "I love this song!" You get all proud and pretend you wrote it. You're like, "Thanks!" Yeah, I downloaded "Youth Gone Wild," I rule. It's like being told your air-guitar skills are fucking SICK.

And the source if you're interested in reading it: http://www.vice.com/read/hey-v11n5

[tokenasianguy]

There is 1 and only 1 reason a DJ wouldn't give out the name of a song or a track list and that is because that DJ is a snobby elitest who only cares about themself. This DJ doesn't care about the music, the artist, or the audience. One of the many highlights I have as a DJ is playing a song and having someone come up to me and ask me what that song is. This means I am doing my job right. I play to please my audience, so why wouldn't I tell them a song if they liked it?

This whole thing about listening and searching and digging for tracks is so much work is just nonsense. Some call it a passion, some may call it an obsession, and it can be hard and painstaking at times but its all done for the love of the music. If I put all this effort into finding a great track its because I wanted to do it, no one put a gun to my head and I already got the payoff, I found the track. SO why would I not want to share it if someone else liked it enough to ask me about it?

You're not lying either. I've seen your ENTIRE music library on your site :-P

I totally agree though. Hiding a track that you never created in the first place is like the guy that "discovers" a new bar and then brags about how he found it first. More annoying than anything else...

[squidot]

COMPLIMENTS: One of the best things about DJing is when you play a really kickass song and people come up to you dancing, going "I love this song!" You get all proud and pretend you wrote it. You're like, "Thanks!" Yeah, I downloaded "Youth Gone Wild," I rule. It's like being told your air-guitar skills are fucking SICK.

don't go bashing my mad air guitar skills bro. i bought a real guitar so i could murder the air version...the tennis racket just wasn't cutting it any more.

[squidot]

These 2 posts say it all. Anyone who doesn't agree with every word of these posts are EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH THE SCENE. I'm certain that squidot and dj matt blaze will still be doing this in years to come - because they're doing it for all the right reasons. There are 2 things you need to be to be great DJ - humble, and hard working.

I salute you both.

yes sir, i've been off and on this ride for about 12 years now and i don't ever see myself letting go. i've been through the physical vinyl digging at our only electronic dj shop when it was still open 10+ years ago. i've spent countless hours flipping through records, cds, and tracks in the digital realm and have found so many treasures on my journey. i've gotten $30+ cd imports from the collection of forever unsold units in the 25 cent shelves at my local tower records when it was still open years ago. i could see people getting excited as they saw my stack of 100+ cds i was getting for a quarter each every single day, only for them to thumb through for a few minutes and ask me if i recognize any of this garbage. it's surprising how most people won't even take a chance on something they've never heard of considering it's almost free.

There are 2 things you need to be to be great DJ - humble, and hard working.

being a musician and dj has given me a great respect for amazing artists who are humble and realize they still have a mountain of things to learn and will never be perfect. they are always striving for the unattainable and won't stop trying until they achieve it. i have a hard time listening to people who are blatantly full of themselves and their skill (i.e. deadmau5 and kanye west), when there are countless people who are better than them from a technical standpoint. humility is a quality i very much admire in people who create.