The other day a DJ approached me (he’s been djing for 20 years around here I think) and asked me to put some house music on an USB stick.
I myself am a bedroom dj who has only played out at some icerink once, so I thought I’d give him some stuff that isn’t that mainstream.
I gave him this song for example:
and some knife party songs ( tho I wouldn’t play these in a venue)
He came back to me saying stuff like “I can’t use any of these, if you’re working with these, you won’t get very far.” I don’t know why he said that, perhaps the music wasn’t mainstream enough.
He also complained that he couldn’t mix the songs, as “the melody starts way too soon, there is no drum beat” (something about extended mixes, I don’t remember correctly)
this has seriously left a dent in my self-confidence
Is it true that I need to work with extended mixes to get sufficient results?
Also, can anyone point me to some example song lists (or perhaps videos of sets) that someone would play at a venue, so I can get a grip on what kind of music I should play?
woah woah, calm down, I had no idea. I buy my music and I just gave him my usb stick, he didn’t copy anything off of it because he didn’t like it anyway. He just listened to my music, I can’t see how that is piracy. I got the stick back, no songs have been copied.
also, [quote=“dripstep, post:2, topic:39935, username:dripstep”]
you will get the banhammer
[/quote]
I’m calm. Let’s assume he did take some music…if I steal a car and give it to you, you are breaking the law by having it. If you give it back after 2 days, you still had it for 2 days. There are quite a few guys here that are very much opposed to piracy, and some are Mods.
If your tracks are too short at the start and are extended mixes that have been chopped up into tracks, it doesn’t look like they were paid for in the first place…
My recommendation is this:
Don’t give him music, he’s been DJing for 20 years, he knows where to find tunes. If he doesn’t like yours, no big deal, if you like the tunes, spin those tunes.
He did not. I’m also opposed to piracy.
The thing is you did not steal the car. You let me have a look at YOUR car, nothing more. I was right there when he listened to the music.
That’s bullshit, I never said they are extended mixes in the first place, that’s just you making stuff up. What I meant was that he wanted them to be extended mixes. I got my tracks off beatport, and they are not extended mixes, nor are they extended mixes that have been chopped up.
Also, I just read up on some law stuff. I’m allowed in my country to give music I bought to third parties, as long as it is meant for “private usage” (aka giving it to people I know), we don’t have this “fair use” BS over here
Dripstep, you have a point with the piracy comment, but srsly bro:
Ok, so back on topic… OP, you want to know what to play in a venue? I’d seriously ask the guy who has been DJing for 20 years, maybe see if you can shadow him for a gig. That would probably be far more useful than a list of tracks you should play, which would vary depending on the night, venue, etc… hell top40 is a list… Could also be problem with style, you may be able to mix those tracks no problem but this guy might not be used to the structure of those kinds of tracks versus his usual.
Finally some advice. He did offer me to show me some tracks (yes SHOW, not give before we go over this again) to use in a set on another day. Dunno if he’d let me shadow him though.
Also, how does he have a point in terms of piracy if said laws don’t apply to my country?
If you want to have an intelligent conversation on piracy at least don’t call it stealing which courts (including the U.S. Supreme Court) have long thrown out, copyright infringement is not theft regardless of anyone’s personal views on it.
I agree. Can you honestly say for yourself you’ve never been handed a cd by a friend who didn’t produce the content on it, thus committing copyright infringement? I’m not condoning piracy here, but srsly, can you?
also, lol @ the can of worms thing
it’s ironic that the grey album has been mentioned on DJTT’s blog recently
yeah jeez this has nothing to do with “stealing” for heaven’s sake. I used to make mixtapes for my friends all the time back in the day and I don’t give a shit that the record companies were trying to convince people it was stealing. Same thing now with mix CDs. Fact is, people like me caused more music to be bought (and there was a US Congressional investigation in the 80s that came to the same conclusion), created more music fans, and put more money in the industry’s pockets. Totally different thing than bittorrent and all that stuff where you’re not just sharing with a friend but with millions of unknown downloaders. But in either case, the original poster asked for legitimate advice, and there’s no sense turning this into a piracy argument over a couple of songs shared with one other person. You don’t like it, only play music by yourself in a room alone, because anything else is breaking the law.
Now, on to the original question; I’d say you can DJ with whatever songs you like that you think you can move a crowd with. It may be easier to match beats with extended remixes that have long intros with bare drum machine beats, but it’s ultimately pretty unimaginative. Some of my favorite mixes bring in tunes that are played with live instruments, not quantized, or that eclectically blend different styles of music. I’ve played parties of all swing music from the 1930s-60s before; none of that shit is quantized, but you can still mix it cleverly if you know your stuff. My advice - watch what other DJs do and learn from it, but don’t be bound by one person’s view of what’s right. If you love these songs then try to blend them yourself, see what works and what doesn’t, record your mix and see how it sounds.
That’s what I was commenting on guys. How much? A gig, 10 gigs? All I was pointing out that sharing music like that is piracy, and its frowned upon here. I take back what I said, talkabout whatever you want.
My recommendation still stands though, if he doesn’t like your music, he can find his own. This thread is ridiculous, what music should I play at a venue is the question. Play country.
Sorry if I offended anyone by pointing out that sharing music on a usb is the same as sharing over dropbox/megaupload etc. Who needs to chill?
I’ve had enough of your disingenuous assertions.
We did not share music for the last time, what does it matter how much filesize was on that stick.
The question is more like, what factors should I incorporate in my choice of songs? “Play Country”? No need to be an ass about it.
I guess you make a lot of friends.
But to get back on topic, still not sure why a veteran DJ was asking you for music on a flash drive to use at a gig then complaining to you that he didn’t like it. Fuck him, he sounds like an idiot if he’s been DJing for 20 years and can’t find his own music. But to answer your question I wouldn’t really call knife party or ferry corsten house music so that might be it- but it’s kind of vague asking for music if you don’t know the venue- and people mean different things when they say house music. When I hear house music I think deep house, soulful house, tribal house, filter house, house music and commercial electro house and progressive house don’t have all that much in common with it despite being close in bpm and 4 on the floor- they’re completely different things. And to answer your question you don’t need extended intros to mix especially if you are digital DJing and have other tools available.
Yeah, I guess you are right but that’s exactly what happened. He also complains about DJs who start mixing after about “one and a half minutes” and he seems to be all about being “real” with playing on CDJs, he looks down on people who use laptops.
perhaps not 2 minutes, but 20 seconds.. still wtf. Perhaps I just got him wrong or I dunno. Imma just see what kind of tracks he’ll show me before i can comment on that. But I also thought that he is making his life pretty easy with drum tracks and extended mixes.
