Crate Digging vs. Net Digging - Your Impressions

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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Crate Digging vs. Net Digging - Your Impressions

Not really a question but rather a commentary to stir dialogue.

For those of you who used to crate dig religiously…

Coming from Toronto, I used to enjoy doing the rounds at Starsound and Carnival records… Thursday afternoons (new shipments) back in the late 80’s through to the early 90’s.

By the mid 90’s I was lucky enough to have a bin where the manager would leave 1 each of the new stuff for me to listen to. Anything I didn’t want would go on the rack for sale.

These bins were usually reserved for local DJs with club residencies… it was nice to be able to break a new song at the club because there may have only been 4 or 5 copies in the entire city. This was the “edge” some DJs enjoyed for quite some time. (there was a bit of DJ snobbery going on too, but that’s a topic for another day). The “hard to find” songs would eventually turn into anthems, but for the short time this would be a “secret weapon” at peak time.

Today, with new releases on vinyl being so scarce, I can’t help but think sites like Juno and Beatport have somewhat leveled the playing field.

As far as selection goes, how does a digital DJ get that “secret weapon” in an age of dwindling vinyl supplies? Is it a matter of…

  1. “I bought it online as soon as it became available”?
  2. “I know a producer who gives me digital promos”? (which has prob. been going on even during vinyl’s hey day.)
  3. “I spend hours searching the tracks beyond the site’s listed top 10”?
  4. “I track other DJ’s charts”?

I suppose for folks that are just now entering the scene, there is no “old way”. It really seems like old rules no longer apply in the digital age.

thoughts?

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I do my secret weapons myself (even when they’re just copies from another track no one can get).

Another good option is to get in touch with producers itself.

The internet also gives you the chance to find pretty unknown stuff because of the sheer amount of remixes/edits no one can handle these days.
Today I can still play Barbara Streisand without people yawning at me, because Ziggy Stardust did a remix hardly anyone knows, which is very good though.

I’ve got a good friend who owns like 30k vinyls. If I need exclusive stuff I go to him.

So you see, there are still enough viable options for you to get secret weapons.

All the software-help we got may even help you turning a normal song into a weapon of dancefloor mass-desctruction.
Look at Eskei83 performing a live-edit from Empire State of Mind here:

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I think DJ’s and dance music labels still like to hold on to some form of “exclusivity” when releasing new tracks. While the internet makes it easier to see what’s out there and rising to the top, it’s also a lot harder to weed through the abundance of stuff out there.

There’s still no good substitute for the “buzz” that builds around tracks. No amount of banner adds or email spam can make up for a solid track that catches on. How that song catches on may be what has changed most on the internet though. It may take one blog posting the track, or a youtube video with the song in it that goes crazy viral, or a Levi’s add that uses the track. In a lot of ways these new ways of aggregating good stuff are similar to DJ’s picking tracks out of the record bin. It still takes a taste maker to feature that song in their blog, youtube channel, or commercial to expose it to the public.

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^yeah you pretty much covered it.

net digging is interesting because although it may seem like it has leveled the playing field, it really has just made things even more complex and interesting.

in addition to digging in online music stores and getting promo material from other djs + producers, it’s also worth mentioning the importance of digging via social networking websites and blogs.

i think this challenges djs to work much harder to have an edge than ever before. this means to stand out we need to have deeper crates, or more advanced technical skills on the decks, or other skills such as producing and marketing - because being the first person to have a new song that their favorite stores get in just doesn’t exactly cut it these days.

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Something that has always amazed me…

Given the amount of time I spend digging (thinking I’ve exhausted every possible avenue), there is always that one person that will drop a track title on me and although I don’t have it… I write it down and then search for it… only to find out that it is a bomb of a track.

leaving me wondering where they found it.

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I spend time going through daily new releases and never buy from DJ charts. I haven’t spent enough time really doing this lately though. One of the benefits of digital though is that some of the older stuff that would never have been repressed is available now. This probably doesn’t pertain so much to EDM as it does to a lot of the soul/funk/jazz I buy though. you can literally find some undiscovered funk song that tears it up that maybe only had 1000 copies made in the 70’s.

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^good point..

I now find myself buying tracks that I already have on vinyl, only because my time seems to be more valuable these days…

The amount of music that is available is actually quite staggering.

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  1. This seems to be the how most of us get a hold of tracks.
  2. I know a lot of people who have Dropbox soundcloud accounts or something similar that get tracks ahead of street date. This is usually reserved for well known DJs. Either well known in there own particular scene or more so.
  3. There a some gems to be found but they are few and far between sadly. I do try to go past even the top 100. I follow about 20 DJ’s/Producers and check out everything they put out and a lot of times they’ll do a remix of an artist I’ve never heard of so I start checking there back catalog.
  4. I find DJ charts mainly on site like beatport to be more promotion tools for them then what they really think to be there top 10. Now there are some DJs I’m sure that do post what they think is there top 10 at the time but most just post what there most recent label releases are.

I find DJs to be a lot like magicians in that they are very secretive of there Bombs and hidden gems. Some DJs wont release it publicly for months even years. Just look at KNAS. That was an alright track but he held off releasing it for about a year and it built up this hype. He more than likely sold more than if he had just released it when it was done. Not to mention only he and the people he may have given it to could play it. It’s the ultimate DJ snobbery.

While I think sites like beatport have helped the average DJ get better, I think it takes out some critical human element where you could interact with shop owners and other DJs. DJing is all about networking. You could be the best DJ in the world that no one ever has heard of because you can’t get your sound out there. Plus shop owners would always be in the know they knew what was flying off the shelf and what they had 30 copies of. I myself prefer to have the option of human being that I can talk to and say this is what I’m into what to you got for me?

Plus now I have so many tracks to dig thru I have to set aside hours everyday to listen, rate, sort, catalouge new tracks it’s hard finding time actually practice. It was a little easier when you had someone to kinda sift thru some of the garbage ahead of time before you even walked in the door. These days anyone with half a brain can get released digitally (No offense to any of the members who have been released on any of the sites) that you have a mountain of crap to go thru to get that 2-3 good tracks.

Just my two cents.

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Yep the dj’s with residencies at big clubs and the famous names still get stuff sent to them way before you can download it - in fact this is probably where vinyl was an advantage if you weren’t a name. You could get white labels and test pressings if you knew you’re local record shop well enough - now it’s almost impossible.

I too had a pile put away behind the counter - then on a Friday I used to go spend about £150 every week.
The buzz of playing the new stuff Friday night was immense - I didn’t even have time to listen to most of it properly before playing it, which seems weird now…

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“I have to set aside hours everyday to listen, rate, sort, catalogue new tracks it’s hard finding time actually practice.”

I think that picking up on the buzz is what’s important, and the earlier we manage to do this, the quicker we get new music that others haven’t got.

Sites like Hype Machine help by aggregating mentions of tracks - there are some pretty good remixes that bubble to the top on there through blog exposure only.

Also, you need to put your neck out, the second you hear something you like, even if you don’t know why you like it (probably, BECAUSE you don’t know why you like it) you should play it in front of a crowd immediately.

You could be holding a bomb that nobody else has realised is a bomb, but you won’t know till you chance some dancefloor reaction. (This has always been the case, mind.)

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really? i find great records all the time…

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No way man the weekends I spend from 9 am to 3 am the next day thumping blogs gives me a definite edge in both the buzz and obscure gems. Unless your doing what I’m doing I doubt you are both on the bleeding edge and close to completing a compendium of electronic music from 1992-2010.

As far as real gem’s goes though, it’s all about oldies. Diggin in your nose, thinking about growing up, going to the beach and that song on the radio is always the winner.

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your compendium…not mine…my influences are probably different than yours…

i’d put my stack of records up against anyones…

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Having never really experienced crate digging at the record store, I honestly I can say I’m not unhappy that it’s gone (persay). I do admit there is quite the hype about it, and there is that magic of walking in and buying a gem that no one else in town would have, but it’s not for me.

As not being a DJ actively as a job, and just doing things from home, and mostly a music consumer more than anything, I love our current age. I have all the same power as any DJ to find a gem. I know when labels are going to be releasing a banger of a record, and I can pick and choose which tunes to buy, rather than wasting my money on stuff I would never play.

I will say, money has a lot to do with it. Vinyl is just straight up more expensive than digital. And above anything else, it’s what is making digital grow in strength as vinyl wanes.

If money wouldn’t be an issue? Yeah, I’d love to own everything in straight vinyl. But as it is, digital is my medium of choice.

I dig through blogs, keep up to date on the labels/artists I really like, and I even follow “up and coming” artists to the scene. I find it harder in some respects to sift through, because there’s just SO MUCH MORE stuff to go through. No longer does a producer need $1000’s of dollars worth of equipment. There’s so much new, and good, stuff coming out it’s insane.

And communication is so much faster as well. If something is a banger, it travels FAST across the world. It’s not just waiting on a certain press of records, it’s all instant.

It makes tune selection that much more difficult to achieve well.

I can tell you that back 10 years ago, most DJ’s were much better at tune selection. Just from going out to clubs and the like. Nowadays, there’s so much thrown at them that I honestly feel it’s both a good thing and bad thing, but there are a lot of people who can’t pick a good set for the life of them because of information overload.

Anyhow, I like digital, and I’m glad today has come.

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And this is what is entirely wrong with djing today. I’ve spoken about it in another thread

"Quote:
Originally Posted by keithace
LSG used to get down…

now people are so intent on labeling music and styles is that you dont get to hear DJ playing across a broad spectrum of EDM…Digweed still does it…Don Diablo and guys like that do too…

now DJs are afraid to leave the safe list and push things forward with what they like…

(Me…)

It’s because everything has become so genreized and the internet makes it so easy to find a whole lot of music, I come from a suburb of dallas, in the mid 90s I had to WORK for any UK trance and house…now kids just go online, steal it, burn it, and talk shit about it on a forum the next week. Everyone has too much access, it makes digging (at least the kind of digging of that nature) too easy, just go online and find out “wotz hawt” and play that, zero imagination and your “ear” isn’t really yours, if that makes any sense"

The point of all that is that you “digging” through established music blogs doesn’t make you any different than the next DJ. The access to tracks is equal (which is a good thing) but you are basing what you play off of the internet’s response which makes you the same as the next guy. Sure you are going to manipulate the mix differently and you may possibly be more “skilled” but essentially what a dj does is play other people’s music. The development of one’s ear for good music is essential to the art of djing. People bag on Sasha and Digweed, Paul Oakenfold, etc etc but the reality is that they broke tracks and were good dj’s because they had an excellent ear for what moves people. I believe that it comes from digging in store after store searching out the hidden gem.

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Yep

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bigheadmikelove…if you’re ever in SoCal i will buy the first round…

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I’m in the same headspace as both bigheadmikelove & keithace. There’s been talk about “gems” I think the idea of the “gem” is very different now a days as compared to days gone by. The gem was like a limited edition baseball card or Batman #1 comic. It was a gem because there was only a limited amount pressed and therefore a great track became sought after. Now you can have access to anything and once you find it you can dupe as many copies as you want. While I think being able to find anything is great in some ways, it’s made all music “disposable” and by making it disposable, more music is being produced, not necessarily better music, just more music. It’s a vicious cycle of the dragon eating it’s tail and I feel it doesn’t allow a track created today, that might be worthy of “gem” status, enough time and breathing room to actually attain it. I’m not saying that there aren’t some great tracks being produced to day, I’m just saying that the “gem” that might be created today doesn’t usually have the same kind of long-term impact that it might’ve when there was only 2000 pressings of it.

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Great Topic and some good dialogue, definitely brings back a lot of awesome memories…DMC Records, Beat Non Stop, Exodus, Fat Beats, VIP Records, Tower Records, G spot, Higher Source, Dr. Freeclouds…All good Times digging in the crates…but I dont miss paying 15 dollars for 1 record with 1 good song and walking out of the record stores flat broke.
Also yes I believe the brave new world has evened the playing field for Djs and made more good tracks available to the masses…

Be interesting to see how many new songs being played today will still be played in a few years because of the sheer volume of tracks now available.

genres=pigeonholed!

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@Keithace if you ever come out to Western Oklahoma (I wouldn’t) I’ll buy you a round but the music out here sucks (unless you really like country)