I’m a struggling DJ. While I have a couple of monthly residencies, I have to fight for well-paying gigs, and I’m often unsuccessful. I’ve recently started playing G-House in the scene here and a few event coordinators and club owners have told me that no one else is really playing anything like it, and that it’s awesome stuff. Having been to a number of other events, I can confirm this. I have a feeling this genre is going to blow up pretty soon in the USA.
I’m trying to gain exposure to get booked more. One of the ways I’ve done this is to release a monthly podcast. Now I have to be honest: I’m pretty stingy when it comes to revealing playlists to local DJs because the scene is so cutthroat and cliquey here. In short, the tracks I have are, in part, what’s getting me booked. If everyone in the city starts playing what I play, especially other house DJs, then I risk being booked less; I’m not as well connected as some of the others.
So, I thought of a way to expose myself more by offering an incentive: if people share one of my mixes on Soundcloud/Facebook, then I’ll send them the tracklisting. A plus is that it’ll give me exposure, but an obvious downside is that I’ll be giving away my jewels to local rival DJs. Another plus is this: people already know what I play; they know my style. If rival DJs in the area go from playing their usual boring deep house one week to the more upbeat and tough style that I play the following week, people will notice, and they’ll know I was there first as my mixes will be in circulation online.
To counteract the downside, I thought of adding a disclaimer like: “Sharing this mix for a playlist does not apply to local DJs,” but that sounds rude and I don’t want to burn (any more) bridges. So my question is this: will giving away my playlists justify the exposure I could get in return? I’m sure you all here know how hard we dig for music, and the thought of just giving it all away and getting nothing out of it while seeing others hog the limelight makes me VERY UNCOMFORTABLE.
What should I do?
P.S. Here’s the stuff I’ve been playing lately. Thoughts and shares are greatly appreciated.
My suspicion would be that the people who made the music you play might be grateful of some exposure, or the chance to sell more of their music, rather than having you keep it to yourself…
From the perspective of the producer, absolutely. But alas, I’m not a producer: I’m a DJ who lives in a city where people are willing to stomp all over each other just to get gigs, and some of the leverage I have is my track selection. An implication of your view is that all DJs ought to hand over all of the IDs of the tracks that they play. I’m not comfortable with that for two reasons: firstly, I spend hours and hours digging and secondly, we cultivate our own styles by the tracks that we select–we form an identity. I’ve had to work hard to find mine, and they should do the same to find theirs.
Let me tell you what happened to me recently. An event coordinator for a major company sent me a message asking me for G-House tracks. This guy not only makes much more money than I, but frequently plays in front of thousands of people. Do you know what would’ve happened had I given him a list of 15 tracks for him to play? I would’ve never heard from him again. I’d still be playing small time gigs for $75 while he’d be in the spotlight. Instead, I gave nothing away and told him that if he wanted to hear G-House, he should book me. I ended up opening up for Mat Zo in front of 500+ people on NYE. That would’ve never happened had I taken your advice.
Look, I support producers, but the buck has to stop somewhere. I don’t know where that line is precisely, but I know it’s when my self-interest comes into play. I buy my music, tell my friends about producers I’m fond of, share their stuff on Soundcloud, so on and so forth. So it’s not like I’m wholly selfish, as you seem to think, but I am cautious. People in the nightlife use each other, so I think I’m more than justified in holding some cards to my chest.
As a DJ you should always know where to find good music.. I am in a real similar situation as you in my local scene but I got over myself and just dug deeper. This eventually forced me to start producing because the reality of the matter is, if you aren’t producing, making it big as a DJ will be very hard for you unless you really manage to get into the right crowd or you find some genius way to market yourself.
I have been considering production a lot lately, as it would transcend a lot of the high school drama I have to put up with in my scene. I know that “making it big” as a DJ is unrealistic, but I don’t think gigging every weekend is too large a request.
But setting production aside, what’s your take on the OP? Is it worth handing over tracklisting for (possible) exposure?
I would have to agree that production seems to be a big part of becoming a “known” name in Djing and in electronic music in general. From what i’ve heard, you’ve got the skills of fluid mixing, key matching, and finding great music. If you have that talent, i’m sure you can take your musical career to a higher level with learning to produce. Sit in the studio with some producer friends and start collaboration just to get familiar with things. Cant wait to hear your productions in the future
I would, it’s not like that’s the end of the road for said genre… As a DJ you should always be cycling through new music if you intend on playing out often.
HNQO & Kolumbo Feat. BR - We Do It
Sharam Jey - Jam Hot
DJ Diass - White Horse
Kinree - Dancin
Yam Nor - Low Blow
Anime Edge - Halfway Crooks
Tapesh & Kant - Ey Yo
Guru Groove Foundation - Moscow (Loulou Players)
Nikitin - You
That’s not quite a complete tracklisting, but not far off either.
Even if I didn’t already play a lot of that sort of music, I could easily assemble a few hours worth of very similar stuff by looking at those artists, labels, and following recommendations on Beatport, Traxsource and iTunes.
One of the ones that eluded me was the track which samples Marvin Huxley - Deep Sensation, but it must be around as there is a cut of it from another mix on Soundcloud.
The point of me doing that is, that your mix is very good. But it’s the age of the internet. Unless you made it yourself, or are getting it unreleased from producers directly, ANYONE else can find your music too.
If your tracklist is the ONLY thing you have going for you, you’re screwed. It’s as much about the mix itself, the programming, the blend.
In the case of what you play, how much of that is rap vocals over chunky beats? So rather than diving fully into production right away, why not do a few bootlegs of your own? Some instrumentals, some acapellas, a few cheeky edits… THEN you’ve got some tracks which are truly unique to your sets.
Just make sure you don’t do what that producer did with the Still Dre acapella on that track in your mix, and layer it on totally off-phrase… Anyone who does that should be slapped. Hard.
I just get a bit frustrated when DJs get precious about keeping music to themselves. I’m not a producer myself, but I know a few personally, and I know how basically impossible it is for them to make any kind of living from music sales.
The irony being, of course, is that means that the only way most of them can live is by doing DJ sets, meaning less work out there for us non-producer DJs…
Now, there is the question of just how many uncleared samples there are in that tracklist, and exactly how fair that is to the ORIGINAL artists, but that’s a whole other discussion…
I know I know, but I do agree. I used to be that guy in the OP because nobody knew how to find good music around me.. After getting into production I realized that I really wanted to support the artists I played so I would put out a tracklist no matter what. Just keep digging, you can surprise yourself with what is out there. Hell, I would go as far as create some interesting mash ups to personally use if you have a hard time producing and finding music on your own.
Edit: way ass bangin mix dude! Downloaded and added to iPOD. You have mad skills as a selector. I’d say this: you only keep what you give away. Innovate and keep going this direction and you have nothing to worry about.
You’ve missed the point of the OP. Yeah, anyone can use Shazam, but not everyone thinks to, and some tracks in my mixes can’t be found via Shazam. So, the incentive is that people can find out what those tracks are provided that they share my sets. I’ve asked a number of times now whether this is a good strategy or not, and despite your posts, you still haven’t answered the question. You said:
Now, this is uncharitable to me, and it tells me that either (1) your reading comprehension is suspect or (2) you didn’t read what I wrote. I made things pretty clear earlier on in the thread:
So your comment fails to grapple with what I said. Stop responding to what you think I write and respond to what I actually have to say. That’s how a discussion works. Otherwise, you’re just derailing the thread and probably trolling.
Again, you didn’t read what I wrote. I never said I keep music to myself. I made it very clear that I share my music with others. Here’s what I said in the OP:
So your frustration, as far as this thread is concerned, is based on attacking a straw man. Calm down. Take the time to thoroughly read and process what I’m actually writing.
I support the artists I play. I made this very clear in the OP. I dig a lot and, frankly, I think it’s uncharitable to assume that I don’t dig or that I don’t dig as much as I should be. For future reference, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to respond to Mojaxx’s responses to my posts, because he’s repeatedly misunderstood what I’ve had to say. I suspect he’s just trolling as he’s having a lot of difficulty understanding very basic English.
I agree with Mojaxx. A Djs tracklist is not their defining characteristic. Mojaxx also proved that you can figure out many of the tracks with a little skill and some knowledge. There are literally hundreds of articles out there on how to market yourself, obsessing over tracklists and whining when people offer a different point of view isn’t the way. If you want to look at someone who does do a good job of promoting what they do - why not go to youtube and search for Mojaxx - you might learn something
