Beginner DJ Tips

Tuesdays are DJ Tips days on Lets Go Big tunes, from beginner to expert, they are bound to be of help.

*tips from https://passionatedj.com/how-to-become-a-dj-ultimate-guide/

Step 7: Building a Following

It’s time to construct your support base, build an online presence, and show your worth.

If you only want to DJ for personal enjoyment, and don’t care about growing an audience, you can skip this section. Otherwise… read on!

Publishing and Sharing Mixes

When you’ve recorded a mix or two that you feel comfortable sharing, find a place to host those mixes for public release. MixCloud is a great place to start, and it’s free.

MixCloud not only gives you a safe place to host your recordings (without the fear of automated copyright takedown… a danger on YouTube & SoundCloud), but they provide embeddable players, their player will display the track names in your mix as they play, and other MixCloud users can follow you.

Another popular option is HearThis.at

When you upload to these or any other music, make sure that you’re taking advantage of all their features. Fill everything out, put effort into your description, add relevant tags, and add some pretty album art.

Tip: You can easily make artwork for your mix (for free!) using a great graphics tool called Canva. If you’d rather have someone else do it, do so for as little as $5 by simply posting the job on Fiverr.

Try to get some honest feedback on one of your mixes from a trusted friend. Contact them directly, either in-person or with a well-considered message. Tell them that you value their thoughts, and that you’re trying to become a better DJ.

Creating an Online Presence

Like anything we want to promote these days, building a solid online presence is critical to success. We’re our own little promo companies. And after all, we need to show people what we’re doing!

However, it’s important not to overwhelm, ourselves and distract from the actual DJing. Pick one or two social networks to focus on at first… for instance, Facebook and Instagram. (This doesn’t include Mixcloud, etc.) Make sure that you fill out your profiles entirely, and link to your mixes.

I recommend eventually getting your own home page and domain… a place to promote your personal brand that is under your full control.

Promoting Yourself on Social Media

Here are some basic tips for promoting your work as a DJ online:

Keep content flowing. If you aren’t putting any work out, nobody has a chance to notice you. And unfortunately, most of our work will go unnoticed… it’s just the way of things! Don’t stay silent. You also have to be consistent with posting, tweeting, and sharing (as well as interacting with followers), or that social network’s algorithm isn’t gonna treat you well. Mix it up. Post different kinds of content: your own work, music that you like, artwork that inspires you, stories that move you. Anything that helps tell the story of you. Also, mix up the “types” of posts you make… for example, Facebook text post vs. image post vs. Live video. Don’t spam your mixes. You have to share them, sure. But not 50 times a day. Not only is this annoying, but your reach will get squashed by doing this. Give value to others. It’s hard to get people to look at you, to notice your work, or listen to your mix. So, try providing the same courtesy to someone else… maybe they will return the favor?

I hope those were of some help, see you all again next week for more DJ tips here on the Let's Go Big Tunes blog