On Djing...

the last event i did (and really it was also my first "pro" event) was a private party on a ski mountain in february of this year before all the shit hit the fan.

for a first "me doing an event by myself" experience the whole thing was a bit of a shambles and i made it happen by the skin of my teeth, lots of bumps along the way, a lot of stress setting up, etc. i rented the sound system beforehand (you're right that this is a good way to go when starting out, it wasn't that much $ and i definitely recouped the cost). the wireless mic set the sound guy had to set up beforehand using the geo location info you mentioned. i thought i could just turn it on and it would work but it was really a nightmare and wouldn't pick up any sound so the drag queen had to shout at everyone :(. she was like "it happens" though and the party went over pretty well and i got paid a few hundo. got to play "love at first sight" really loud for the drag performance :).

stphone, i'm curious, did you do any marketing or did you just start with some word of mouth?

I'm not a pro, I only got into djing through producing, so I'd generally rather not play than have to please a crowd of civilians. :) Of course this means I don't play out at all now, except for the occasional radio mix. But this was a one-time-only favor to some close friends, and it was actually really fun to put together a set of solid gold radio hits that I could also blend/beatmatch, to make it fun for myself.

Of course most people there didn't notice or care that it was mixed, and had just as much (or more) fun later on in the night when we set up a tablet to play stuff off Spotify. I didn't get on the mic much because I hate being on the mic (although it does seem like 90% of the DJ's job is just to provide PA + mics).

I found the google doc with my track list, here's what I played for a hipster-ish mid-30s white people wedding:

Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (99)
Jay-Z/Radiohead 99 Anthems (94 bpm)
Paper Planes - DFA remix (95 bpm)
Beyonce - Crazy in Love - (99)
Beyonce - Single Ladies? (97)
James Brown - Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul (98/99)
Amerie - 1 thing (100)
Missy - Work It (102)
Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump (103)
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic (106)
Prince - DMSR (109 - 110)
James Brown - Give It Up or Turn it Loose (115)
Janet Jackson - When I Think of You (116)
Beastie Boys - Brass Monkey (116)
Destiny’s Child - Lose My Breath (119)
The Time - Jungle Love (119 / 120)
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody - 119
Missy - Lose Control (125 / 126)
Cajmere - Percolator - 126
Rod Lee - Get Up On it (130)
Salt n Pepa - Push It (130)
Beyonce - Run the World
Finn - Sometimes the Going Gets a Little Tough
My Boo - 130
Cupid Shuffle (144)
Joy Division/Missy mashup (148)
Outkast - Hey Ya (159)

It was surprisingly fun, but I'm glad I didn't have to play all night or do it every weekend.

nice, that looks like a really fun set!

thanks for sharing :)

to start it was just for friends then friend of friends and then yeah a word of mouth thing. but when we decided to invest in it, we made a website, made some business cards & paid a few hundred to be a vendor at a hip-ish wedding show, which paid for itself shortly after through several gigs we got. if i were doing it again, i'd probably focus first on a solid social media presence. wherever you believe your audience to be. but yeah something you can point potential clients to. i have some past experience with seo, which i've been able to use to build a decent web presence. we now get a lot of gigs through google.

reviews help a lot too. pick a platform you want to focus on (yelp, google business, the knot, etc.) and send clients who were happy with what you did that way. if the event did not go too well, well... maybe don't send them to your review page.

also make friends with other vendors you work with, particularly the planners. they'll get you gigs.

& as to music & type of events you do, i think it all depends on how you market yourself. if you want the most gigs possible, yeah you'll probably want to bust out the party hats & whatnot. but for a side gig, i've found you can make decent money with something more niche too.

ty!!!!!

I have a pair of QSC K12s and they are CRAZY loud, but if you want to play bass-heavy music outdoors, you'll need a sub.

agree that 12s are very loud! i think i'm going to do it like stphone did and rent sound for a while, starting out. especially since last february i rented two qsc 12 mains and a sub for about $100. more than enough sound (it may have been 15 inchers now that i think about it). for that gig i think i charged another $400 (there were extra logistics involved). a year or two of doing that and then i can look at buying my own sound.

i think that realistically, in the next 6 months, i can focus on:
getting my music back. external hd failed. $500 to a recovery service, IF it's technically possible (always back your files up everyone).
upgrade from s2 to s4 (not essential but high-priority)
get a basic web presence, start looking at marketing / ways to get back out there and get those first few gigs.

thanks again stphone for sharing your experience, super helpful.

yall think we'll see events come back by the end of the year? i know ilx is exceedingly sensitive on this subject, but i kind of think it'll happen.

i think so too but who knows

I mean, yeah. There are selfish dumbasses all over, so events are bound to return. There are already Plague Rave DJ's operating now.

i assume map meant non-selfish-dumbass events

ive recently seen a few ads and posts on social media about indoor socially distanced DJ events in my city. although our positivity rate is holding firm in the double digits so im not going anywhere near them to find out how they work or if theyre fun

I've been joking about nurse raves and senior raves for the vaccinated

From a UK perspective, I had been optimistic we would see some sort of outdoor festival activity this summer but I fear the new variant(s) may have torpedoed that.

I remain optimistic some sort of events will be possible and hope dancing is allowed (it wasn't last summer). A massive amount can obviously change between now and the end of the year with the vaccine roll out but I do find it hard to envisage clubs being open here this year. I hope I am wrong.

Nurse raves and senior raves for the vaccinated for the win. Perhaps dealers will move into holding supplies of Sputnik?

haha that would rule

gonna spend my stimmy on a pioneer xdj rx so i can finally get used to cdjs and get off sync mode on the ni kontrol, lol. i was really into key lock. i think the xdj is going to sound better overall though.

very happy with the xdj-rx2 (and i still get to use sync lolz)

looks like i get to do a patio pride set in june.

I got a simple Serato mixer (DJM-S3) and have been buying up stuff on bandcamp to complement my old vinyl from 1996-2002. Now I just need somewhere to play it!

so parties have started happening again in my small city. i'm running into a brick wall where i'm getting passed over for gigs. my dj friends are gatekeepers and i seem to be last in line lol. so i'm realizing if i want to play i need to start my own thing. some combination of the following:

pound the pavement, go out to bars, find one i like and propose a night to the owner
plan / throw my own party at a venue. i've never done this before and i'm broke rn so it's daunting and could easily backfire.
plan / throw my own house parties. i live in a trailer park lol so it would have to be a few close friends, not ideal for getting visibility.
start actually going out to other people's parties. it seems like hanging out and showing enthusiasm for other peoples' nights is a way to get asked to dj? n.b. i can only do this if i like their music, but even then it's hard--i don't drink, like to get up at 6 am and go running, and have a distaste for schmoozing and dj politics.

one nice thing is i feel like i've arrived "my sound" after years of trying to play everything. vocal-heavy, soulful, defected-type stuff, deeper pop remixes. no idea how that's going to play here or how 'cool' it is or isn't but don't care, it feels right for me.

anyway, if anyone has any thoughts about breaking through to gigs, please share.

i would have said start actually going out to other people's parties. it seems like hanging out and showing enthusiasm for other peoples' nights is a way to get asked to dj? would be a good plan but this - i like to get up at 6 am and go running, and have a distaste for schmoozing and dj politics. makes me think this is definitely not the route to go down as it will probably leave you quite jaded, cynical and might actually put you off.

the first two suggestions seem like the best bet to me. i have no idea how long you have been trying to get gigs but would say that i think perseverance and tenacity are key.

or i guess being extremely photogenic and having mad social media skills seems to work for tons of folk now....

ime throwing your own party at a venue can involve almost as much schmoozing and politics as going out to parties for the purposes of trying to get in good w/gatekeepers. if thats where your coming from the best option is #1 imo. finding the right place thats a good fit for what you want to play and also has an owner thats amenable to your idea is as daunting as anything else, but when/if you can find such a place and get a night set up its a nice place to be in.

yeah #1 also seems like the most approachable thing to me. i'll probably try to make it out to other people's parties more as well, at least on weekends.

working on my social media game but i am not naturally good at it.

thanks for your thoughts folks.

I've definitely been wondering about how to approach getting a first gig. I need to get a lot more exposure to the local scene, I barely have any concept of what's happening around here. Several years back I did a live PA at a hookah lounge as part of an Ableton users event, I'd love to do some more lowkey stuff like that just to get my feet wet and have fun.

I feel weird saying this, but I've noticed much more lately that every new-ish popular DJ I come across is either also a model or could easily be one. It's a little intimidating that there are so many super talented people out there who are also super beautiful, while I'm a short, balding, middle aged dude who wants to play some techno.

i am a bearish bodybuilder so that can get me some attention but maybe not the right kind for what i'm trying to do. i.e. the gay clubs here might not be the best fit for what i play.

there is one gay-friendly bar, only a few months old, that i'm going to focus on first i think.

xp i also feel old and awkward.

i have this recurring feeling that a business card would be really useful to have when i'm talking to bar owners, maybe with a qr code to my soundcloud. something to leave them.

that seems like a great idea

a business card seems like a good idea. linktr.ee is useful for consolidating your stuff into one link if you have mixes spread out over different sites

having a few motivated and extroverted friends who want parties to happen is the only thing that worked for me. i think if it were up to me to actually "network" i'd just give up and stick to mixing at my house. i started using instagram to try to increase my "visibility" but that devolved into almost exclusively posting my weird art which is not helpful

lol. yeah, having extroverted and party-oriented friends sounds key. i'm starting to realize this is almost 100% a social project.

put shows on every week with ppl on the regular int'l dj circuit and put your name on the flier

the best advice for this tends to be regional, and there are many diff ways to come up, but you'll find in most places that it's not only social but it's about having a lot of money to burn

to be clear, i don't give a fuck about 'coming up', i just want to play music i like to some people who want to dance to it and get some remuneration for my time.

i can't tell if you're being cheeky bongo, and i don't mean to be rude, but that sounds like a real fast way to fall out of love with djing, from my pov.

yeah lol I'm kidding in the context of your particular quest, but this is generally how people build names for themselves as DJs. Besides what's been said already you can also reach out to radio / online radio people to do guest sets and then mention that when trying to get gigs.

conincidentally, i just did that!

Good luck on this! My personal experience is that people generally don't care about online profile in terms of guest mixes or whatever, it's almost entirely social connections/people booking their friends.

Starting & growing your own night (and booking those gatekeeper DJs on it!) seems like the way to go, if you have the energy for it.

Also maybe just reaching out to those gatekeeper DJ friends and letting them you've been practicing all pandemic and looking to play out more? Can't hurt. I did that once with the people who actually throw events here and burned my cred by playing a noisy live set, so don't do that. I feel like now that I've finally developed some improved DJ sensibilities & skills, I no longer have any connections or opportunities around here, c'est la vie. It's ok though, I'm focusing on making tracks that other DJs play and living vicariously through their sets, which makes for much more reasonable bedtimes.

that's cool! the bedtime thing is so much more of a challenge for me than it used to be, lol.

i have this recurring feeling that a business card would be really useful to have when i'm talking to bar owners, maybe with a qr code to my soundcloud. something to leave them.

― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map)

very good idea, I have separate cards for business and personal, my personals have a nice design and say "Solar Designer/DJ/Pastry Chef" but the Soundcloud QR is a real step up from that

i agree w stirmonster that it is probably down to vibing off people and them vibing off of you, so like, however you can do that.

that’s super unhelpful on a practical level sorry lol but i do think that most great things in life are about shared experiences and feeling connections with people

map if there wasn't an ocean between us I would definitely be going to your party!

awww thx!!! right back atcha.

map, I started my own night. debut on Thursday!

coool... was it hard to find a bar or did you just know someone?

for real though i want to make it over there in a year or two... it really sounds like there are awesome parties happening on every corner in all the uk cities that aren't london that i get mixed up all the time

dog latin tell me all about how you started your night!

I spent a couple years floundering to get gigs then finally started to get popular by throwing my own parties, booking other local and eventually non-local DJs, and chatting up lots and lots of people (not just other DJs and promoters) at both my own and other nights. Once my own thing started popping (which didn't really happen until its second year), then the outside bookings started rolling in. Your own path and results may vary.

nice, thank you for sharing

are you still djing? would love to listen to your mixes if you're on sound/mixcloud.