4. YOU’RE AFRAID OF THE WORD “NO”
Getting turned down for the gig is not the end of your DJ career, we promise.
If you don’t already have a name for yourself, get ready to hear the word “NO”. A LOT. You may think you can rock a party, but most promoters have a very long list of well-qualified DJs, many of whom have spent years building working relationships with them, to tap into for playing their events. At the large-scale ones, every single one of them will bend over backwards just to play a half-hour soundcheck timeslot at 8pm. For free.
Similar to searching for a job, opportunities aren’t just going to find you. You’ve got to go out there and pay your dues first. Talk with promoters on Facebook who throw events that are based around the kind of music you play. Let them know you exist, what you play, comment on some of the events they’ve thrown, and describe to them why you think you are a good fit to play their show. Think of what YOU can do for THEM. Essentially this is a cover letter. Copy-paste generalized messages aren’t going to cut it. Limit your introduction to a single paragraph (promoters are busy, remember) and close with a link to your website and Soundcloud account. You have both of those, right?
Following this, consider every response you get a pleasant surprise, because they’ll be few and far between. You have to be persistent, which means you have to be persistent in handling rejection. Promoters get countless emails from DJs wanting to play for them. If you aren’t playing out frequently, you are going to be more of a liability than an asset as you haven’t proven yourself. There is no way in hell they’re going to let you go behind the decks to command a packed dancefloor with their reputation on the line unless they’re convinced you know what you’re doing. Plain and simple.
But remember: if you don’t ask the promoter if you can play, the answer will ALWAYS be “NO”. Promoters don’t have time to research every single DJ in your city, so you need to make yourself visible to them. And if you’re afraid to sell yourself, I’m willing to bet you lack the confidence in your ability as a DJ to justify the self-promotion you need to be doing. Back to the studio to keep practising until you’re 100% confident you’re ready for the prime time.
5. YOU’RE NOT SEEKING FEEDBACK FROM STRANGERS
The Mixes and Productions section of the DJTT forums can be a good starting point for feedback
You need to be soliciting feedback on your mixes from people you don’t already know. Sorry, but your friends and family are biased. Anything you do is going to be “amazing” to them. Spread your mixes beyond your inner circle. Start by posting links to them (with a track list) on communities frequented by ruthless seasoned listeners who have no clue who you are. Send them to veteran DJs in your town who have been spinning for longer than you’ve been alive, and see if they can give you some constructive feedback. I know that music is subjective and you’ll occasionally have to deal with harsh comments and trolls, but spreading your mixes outside your comfort zone is the best way to get honest feedback. Assume ZERO responses means your mix got lost in the shuffle because it failed to impress, had a predictable tracklist, or a non-descriptive thread title (if posted on a forum). Time to move on and get back to work.
A lot of artists fail because they allow the positive feedback from their friends and family to go straight to their head, causing them to become arrogant, or even worse, complacent. There’s not a single DJ under the sun who hasn’t had friends tell them how amazing they are behind the decks. At the end of the day, none of us are curing cancer with a MacBook and Serato box, so it’s in your best interest to just be humble.
Another mixtape tip: the only thing “studio” mixes prove nowadays is what your current taste in music is. They do not show how well you can read the crowd, mix without the luxury of being able to edit afterwards, and deal with technical difficulties at events (which happen FAR more often than you think). Mixes still help get your name out there, but don’t think that a promoter will be convinced in your ability to DJ just because they’re good. Showing them you can play a great set live carries far more value.
6. YOU’RE TRYING TO GET FOLLOWERS INSTEAD OF FANS
Just because you have followers doesn’t mean they’re engaged and paying attention.
Social media is the biggest change in dynamics to take place on the Internet since the birth of the World Wide Web itself. What’s awesome about places like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Soundcloud is they have enabled major artists to engage more closely with fans. They’re no longer high up in an ivory tower. Fans are curious and want to know what sort of debauchery their favorite producers and DJs are up to.
As for you…I hate to say it, but you’re probably not living quite as interesting a life as, say, Diplo. People aren’t going to flock right over to your Instagram feed or Facebook wall to read every mundane detail of your life. A drawback to social media is we’ve all become narcissists to a degree, myself no exception. We’re obsessed with trivial things like how many followers we have and how many people “like” our status updates. Everyone wants to build a following. But doing such can take years, and you need to be adding value in a way that justifies your audience having your content in their daily Internet lives.
Want to know a surefire way to NOT get followers? Treat them as followers, instead of fans. Posting only generalized information about your DJing, the events you’re involved with, and the obligatory what-I’m-eating-for-lunch status, are surefire ways to get ignored. You look like an advertisement. Add to the signal instead of the noise. Post other artists’ work you admire, post open-ended statuses that spark conversations with other like-minded people, thank the people who came out to your last gig, and carve out a unique persona for yourself. It’s okay to use Facebook and Twitter to let people know about your shows and mixes, but don’t be that guy who has nothing else to add to the conversation. Stop worrying about the “likes” and the follow count. What’s the point of having 10,000 followers if only a few are engaging with you? Worry about the 500 fans you have right now, not the 10,000 followers you wish you had.
The Facebook event thread-jacker. Please don’t be that guy.
Oh yeah, DEFINITELY don’t be “that guy” who stops at nothing to post your mixes everywhere: on the Facebook walls of people you don’t know, on Facebook event pages you’re not involved with in any way, as a status update several times a day, and on other people’s tracks on Soundcloud. Ever notice how these are the people who NEVER get booked to play anywhere, ever? They almost make those pop-up adds for Viagra seem tame in comparison.
Remember that everyone sucked not only as a DJ, but also at building a following, when they started out. There’s nothing to be ashamed of by not having a large fanbase during your formative years. Find your rhythm when it comes to promoting yourself online without being invasive or desperate. At the end of the day, the mixes and the music do the talking, followed by your fans if you’re a class act about it.
Read more tips how to build a DJ web presence in this June 2012 article!
7. YOU AREN’T THROWING PARTIES OR PRODUCING MUSIC
Ever noticed how the non-headlining lineups of most parties are comprised of DJs who are also promoters? This is no coincidence. Whether or not promoters will admit it to you, booking swaps are the norm. In case you’re new to the scene, a swap is when a promoter (who also happens to be a DJ) invites a DJ (who also happens to be a promoter) to play his/her event. The first promoter/DJ hopes the second one will return the favor. Generally, they will. It’s unfortunate when the requirement to getting gigs is the ability to create them for other people (rather than on the skill of DJing itself), but similar to other saturated markets, it’s the reality. And it sucks.
Starting a night of your own doesn’t have to be a major commitment, however. The thing I recommend doing is to approach a bar or smaller venue that is struggling. Let them know who you are, the kind of event you wish to create, what your goals are, who the target market is, and how you will help get those heads through the door. You may consider starting it up as a monthly first, and joining forces with one or two other like-minded people to make it happen. Don’t bother with headliners early on, just focus on spreading the word of the night around town and figuring out how to make the experience unique. DON’T book promoters in the hopes of them returning the favor. Instead, book yourselves and the people you believe in.
Now if you’re trying to start this night to make money, do yourself a favor and go find a job in finance or healthcare. Chasing paper is going to be the LEAST of your worries. Here’s the real payment: real-world experience DJing in a club, in front of other people, outside your house. Like I said earlier, this is where you will truly cut your teeth in this craft. It’s where you will prove to your colleagues you’re really good at this. It’s where you will convince promoters who happen to check your night out to give you a shot. Finally, it’s where the doors will start to open.
Of course, there is a second way you can score loads of gigs if you don’t want to take the promoter route: become a producer. This is NOT a path you will want to tread lightly on, as the number of people making original music has exploded over the past decade. Producing requires music theory, which will take YEARS of time to master. It’s way more complex than just “knowing the software”. It will require the strictest of discipline to wait until your ideas are fully baked before sharing them with others. Want to get booked in a different city or country without production credentials? Sorry, it’s probably not happening.
The only people who succeed as producers are the ones who are bringing unique and distinct sounds to the table. You know all those generic-sounding tracks you quickly flip through while surfing Beatport? Don’t contribute to that waste pile. Have a vision for how you want to take your work in a different direction than everyone else. Again, this is similar to all the failed guitar players who wanted to sound like Jimi Hendrix. Your original productions will also need to be polished and have that “wow” factor that instantly makes other producers go “why the hell didn’t I think of that?” Remember that the best producers spawn countless imitators, all of whom get instantly lost in the shuffle.
8. You think of DJing as a hobby
Nowadays, judging a DJs mixing skills is like judging a hockey player’s ability to ice skate. Everyone who plays hockey can ice skate, much like everyone who DJs can mix. But if you can’t play the game you will end up on the bench, regardless of how well you can skate. That would make you an enthusiast, not a player.
How does a hockey player avoid being an enthusiast? Focus. Determination. The will to give up most of your free time for it. The players at the top of the totem pole don’t view hockey as a hobby, to them it’s a lifestyle. It’s ALL they know. It’s what they hope to make a career out of (well at least until they get injured). They’re in it to win. You need that level of drive in order to be a “player” in DJing, too. Enthusiasts play in their bedroom. Players play in clubs. Other DJs should have to run to keep up with you.
Other competitive fields in the art and entertainment industry, such as photography, are no different. I don’t know a single photographer working full-time as one who does not eat, sleep, breathe, and shit photography, 24-7. Not one. Photography auteurs Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon never took vacation days. Photography was part of their DNA, much like DJing needs to be part of yours if you hope to get paid money doing it.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “I’ve got a full-time job” or “I’ve got a family to support”. Well, this is where you need to do some serious soul-searching. You can do the DJ/Produce/Promote thing, you can work full-time, or you can have quality time to spend with your family. But you can’t have all three. It’s tough enough even managing two. Look at any of producer/DJs from your hometown who have “made it”. Try to count how many of them work 9-to-5’s on top of the whole EDM thing, including those years when they weren’t quite there yet. Go ahead, I’ll wait. There’s NOT many. Every single one I personally knew threw parties, played parties, clocked 60-80 hours a week in the studio, and still had time to support other local events during the early years.
If you decide to leave your day job to focus on DJing, promoting, and producing full time, you’re putting your entire livelihood on the line. But ask anyone who has started their own business what their early years were like, and you’ll realize your situation is not unlike theirs. Make sure you’ve got at least 6-9 months worth of savings tucked away because times will be tough early on. But you’ll learn and grow from these struggles, plus you’ll be more driven to succeed than the people with the safety nets of a full-time desk job beneath them. People may call you crazy, but you have to go out there and prove them wrong. Like the hockey player, you’re here to win. I hope your friends and family will support your decision.
I want to end this with the fact that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with playing it safe by taking a different career path you still enjoy. You can still be an enthusiast DJ. You just need to manage your expectations different as there won’t be nearly as many booking opportunities available to you. Interestingly enough, several of my co-workers play hockey in an adult league every Friday during the winter. They don’t play in front of crowds, but they still love the game, and it sure as hell beats going home and watching the idiot box for a few extra hours. DJing may be expensive and time-consuming, but as with most hobbies, is an awesome way to enhance your life and meet people from it. If those simple pleasures are in line with the goals you hope to achieve with it, more power to you!
Read the article in full here.