With the arrival of Google+ now firmly in place amongst the social network big players, the question you need to ask yourself each time you post an update is whether or not to post it word for word exactly the same across all of your social networks, or tailor each update to different audiences. Of course, it’s entirely possible that you have ditched one service for another, for example closing your Facebook account to move over to Google+ in which case you need ever only worry about one aspect of your online social movements. But for those of us that use Google+, Facebook AND Twitter (and possibly even more), do you really want to be posting the same content across all of your social network sites?
For a long time now there have been services like HootSuite and Tweedeck that allow you to post to different networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Buzz, MySpace (LOLz), etc but with another major player moving into the arena isn’t it all just getting a little bit cluttered now?
Information Overload
Let’s take a look at things from a fan’s perspective. Chances are, they Like you on Facebook, and they follow you on Twitter. If you are posting the same content to both FB and Twitter, why does your loyal fan need to see the exact same content across the two networks? Why should they read the exact same info twice? It’s because you don’t want your followers/fans/whatevers to miss out on important news and events that you want to share with them and you want to cover all of the social network bases.
But think about it for a minute. It could be argued that the updates you supply on each network should be different to take advantage of the differing sharing and interaction capabilities. For example, if I’ve got something quick and simple to say or share with the world, the first place I go to is Twitter. I use Twitter mainly for commentary on the world, talking about the things I like and the things that piss me off. Twitter is great as it has a forced character length which keep your updates concise and is great for firing one-off pics from my mobile phone to an integrated service like Twitpic. On the other hand, if I find a web page that I like which I want to share on the net, I usually head towards Facebook to do this. Facebook allows for a much longer description than Twitter does and also collates Likes and comments into one place so that discussion and response becomes easier.
Mixing It Up
Yes, of course I share links and comments from time to time across all three networks but I like to try and mix it up a bit if I can. Even on Facebook I tend to divide my updates even further. On Facebook I have a Like page, I have a group page and I have my personal “me” page. The Like page is content that revolves around me and will include online mixes and links to blog posts from my own site. Jeez that all sounds a bit self-indulgent, but hey its a Like page and that’s what it should be.
In my Group, I tend to share great DJ mixes that I have found online from a wealth of sources such as Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Podomatic and so on. At the same time I invite others to post up any great mixes that they have found into the group. I try my best to do this daily and so each mix I share I call it my “Mix Of The Day” a hand-selected personal recommendation of a great mix that I think will appeal to the same people that like my mixes too. This Mix Of The Day labelling also crosses over into Twitter territory where I hashtag my Mix Of The Day updates with #mixoftheday, thereby inviting others to post links to their mixes of the day and add the same hashtag to it.
Social Networking Is Rarely static
It’s all one constantly moving, bubbling entity that doesn’t really stay the same and so because of this I like to tailor my updates to take advantage of each network’s funtionality. So with Google+, for example, let’s say I want to find out who remixed a specific tune that I heard. I only want to ask the people who are most likely to know which are, in this case, my DJ friends. I fire out an update to my DJ circle and it’s done without the need to clog up someone else’s network stream with a question they probably wouldn’t be able to answer.
It’s still early days for Google+ and over time we will be able to realise the finer qualities and major advantages but for now Google+ gets all of my serious updates. My Facebook group gets awesome mixes, my Like page stays up to date with stuff that I’ve either written, performed or produced, my personal Facebook account is for stuff that is less serious and Twitter is usually reserved for rants, hat-tips and smart-alec comments.
So What’s The Answer?
Of course, the solution to all of this is to put everything all under one social network roof. That’s the real honest answer here and we both know it. Once place for everything. But the trouble is, to market yourself as a DJ, limiting yourself to just one network is also placing a limit on your fanbase too and do you really want to limit the size fanbase you have when this is the most important factor when it comes to getting bookings?
What do you think? How many social networks are you signed up to? Do you post exactly the same content across all of them? Have you closed one network account down to move to another? How are you using Google+ to your advantage?
I recently put together a chart for djdownload.com featuring some of my favourite tracks from this months releases. You can go and check out my chart here.
Here’s a little article I put together on best practises for DJs to use Twitter in order to increase your fanbase and stay in touch with your followers. A lot of it is just common sense but have a read anyway as it might help you when writing your tweets in the future. Have a read and let me know what you think!
As a DJ, I buy a fair amount of mp3’s online. Most of my spare time is taken up with listening to promos or browsing through dance music online. There are several places that I go online that cater for my specialist Funky House niche and one of those places I go to is djdownload.com which I reviewed over a year ago along with 8 other sites.
Below is a list of reasons why I love DJD so much. Quite a few of the reasons are common to other online music stores but for me personally, DJD has all these things in one place.
You Don’t Lose You Place When You Log In
This is one of those small subtle changes that make a world of difference when visiting a site. When I used to visit DJD to browse music, I’d find a track on their site that I liked and wanted to buy but wasn’t logged in. I would go to log in but as soon as I clicked the “log in” button I was sent back to the home page and subsequently lost the page I was previously on. Now what happens is that you stay on the same page when you log in. Sounds like an obvious minor detail but not all online stores do this and if you allow your browser to remember your details you can log in in just 2 clicks.
Good Choice Of Options When Downloading Tracks
Once your purchase is complete you can choose to download all the tracks in one go or grab them one by one. If you even feel like downloading them at a later date you can do this too. For me, the one click download everything option is great as I can get all my purchases with the minimum of fuss and effort. The tracks are bundled and delivered in a ZIP file which means you get them on your computer that little bit faster too.
3 Prices For 3 Levels Of Audio Quality
DJD’s pricing is nice and simple and the options they give you for the music you want to download is straightforward too. With most tracks on their site you can grab a 192kb mp3 for around 99p suitable for playback on mp3 players, or you can grab a club-quality 320kb mp3 for around £1.30, or if you want that lossless sound then grab a WAV for a few pennies more. You don’t need any more options than that and the tiered pricing is sensible too.
Better Prices Than The Rest
For me, I have found that the prices on DJD are generally the cheapest around. I know that based on the music I buy, a typical basket of tracks bought on Beatport for example will be more expensive than the exact same basket on DJD. It’s possible to buy the entire top 10 tracks on the home page of DJD for a tenner which means you are spending just £1 a track. Bargain!
They Give You Free Music
For every 10 tracks I purchase, I receive a download “token” to use to get any track I like for free. I don’t know of any other store that does this and it’s a nice little touch to reward loyal customers. I like to keep hold of my token (I don’t think it expires) and use it on some of the promos/new releases that are priced a little higher than other tracks so I can get the full benefit from the free download token.
Great Memory
When browsing music, often I will not make a purchase that same day; perhaps I might like to come back a few days later, add more things to the basket and then get all my music in one go. DJD allows me to do this when I’m logged in by remembering what was in my shopping cart the last time I visited. I can then line up a number of tracks for purchase throughout the week and buy them all in one go at a later date. This is useful as it helps to avoid the small charge levied for transactions under £3, a charge that is common to many other online music stores and not just DJD.
One Of The Best Online Customer Services In The World
I have rarely found the need to get in touch with DJD, but as I have been a customer of theirs for several years it’s inevitable that I have been at some point. The customer service I have received from DJD on every occasion has always been absolutely spot on. Staff on the phones and in emails are the nicest, most polite people I have ever met working on customer helplines in pretty much any industry.
Methods Of Payment
I can pay by credit card, Paypal or online ‘wallet’ (if you like you can deposit an amount into a virtual wallet where it is kept until you decide to use it). DJD will store my card details to make checkout a fast and simple process - all that is required is my CVV number from the back of my card and checkout is complete. Simple and fast - two important things I look for when shopping online. A lot of, if not all other, stores do this, but I find DJD’s to be the slickest and hassle-free.
It’s not all roses and cupcakes however, there are a few areas I feel DJD could improve on:
There’s No Specific “Funky House” Genre
Both Juno and TrackItDown have a “Funky House” genre, sadly DJD does not. If it did, this would help me to specifically filter out the tracks I don’t want to listen to and would save me bags of time in the long run. However it has to be said that some of the little gems I’ve come across in the past have been when I’ve strayed unknowingly into a different sub-genre of House so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. I’d still like it as an option though.
The Audio Player Is Slow And Clunky
DJD was one of the first stores to use the needle-drop technology of previewing a song in its entirety prior to purchase and being able to jump to whatever part of the track you wanted to listen to is a bonus. Nowadays this is quite a common thing to see on other sites and it has to be said that other sites do it much better than DJD, Beatport currently being my favourite in this respect. The trouble with DJD’s player is that it is very slow and clunky to use. For me, the tracks take a long time to load in to the player and do not always start straight away; an unwanted frustration when trying to fly through a load of different tracks.
They Don’t Know Me
Although DJD likes me enough to give me free music, they aren’t too hot on recommending new music to me. When I log in to my account there is a list of tracks that DJD think I will like based on my previous purchases. Unlike Amazon for example, I find that they miss the mark quite far with this feature. The tracks they put forward are rarely good matches for the style I like and often they will suggest music I have already purchased previously. If this was tightened up a bit I feel it would make discovering new music easier, faster and more enjoyable.
In Summary
I hope the guys at DJDownload appreciate all the nice things I have said about their online digital music store and will take on board some of the things I have mentioned that could be improved. All in all they are a great place to shop for music and are easily my favourite simply because they stock the music I like for the best price and give me a free download once in a while combined with great customer service.
All content in this article is correct to the best of my knowledge at time of publication.
Although there are many widely used mis-spellings of the word A Capella (acappella, acapella, accapella, etc) the true spelling “A Capella” is of Italian origins meaning ‘in the manner of the church’.
An a capella is the pure vocal track without any form of instrumental backing.
What Are A Capellas Used For?
They can be used to create remixes or mash-ups with other instrumental tracks as long as the vocal and the underlying track are in the same key or fit together well. Masters of the commercial mash-up, in my opinion, are the Cut Up Boys who have released mash-up compilation albums for the last fewyearsinarow.
A capellas can also be used when produces are remixing tracks.
Where Can I Get Them?
A capellas in general are not especially hard to find but if you are trying to track down the vocals for a specific song then depending on the artist, you may have to search harder for it than others. In 2000, Defected Records famously released Defected Presents - Accapellas Vol.1 on vinyl for some of their biggest tracks.
You can buy a capellas individually from most of the online specialist dance music vendors and they will usually cost the same as a single. If you are lucky, you may find one or two on Soundcloud. Here’s one from Felix Leiter and one from Calvin Harris, both of which you can download for free.
Keep It Legal
Be careful using them. Just because you bought an a capella or freely downloaded an a capella from the artists’ website it doesn’t mean you have the bought the rights to use it in a commercially available track. That’s a whole different ball game. Licencing samples and vocals to be used as mash ups and remixes is quite a long and complicated process and often you will come across bootlegs that use a cheeky uncleared sample or vocal that sidesteps these rules. These tracks will often be clearly labelled “bootleg” and are made just for a bit of dance floor fun rather than any kind of big time commercial success.
Practical Use
Keeping a few a capellas in your DJ box can be quite handy as an extra tool to your trade. You can perform ‘live’ mash-ups on the fly and because the vocal track and instrumental track are independently fed into the mixer, there’s a whole world of effects you can play about with to chop each up and create your own unique individual style.
I’ve been wanting to write about the current state of music for a while now. It’s not really a discussion about how music is getting worse because there are still plenty of quality producers out there pushing the scene forwards but I just wanted to take a look at how the industry is shifting in its current state today compared to when I first started out and how kids today don’t know how good they’ve got it.
Nostalgia
I’m 30 years old so when I started DJing, the common way to hear new music was to head on down to the local record store, have a chat and a catch up with the guy behind the counter (hat tip to Vinyl Frontier in Woking), get given 20 or so vinyls and settle down at one of the listening posts to go through each record in detail.
After a fair amount of time I’d make my selection and typically pay between £7 - £9 per vinyl. Imports and special orders would cost more as would ‘DJ only’ promos and test presses.
I’d take my music home with me and practise a DJ set with my new vinyl. That static you got as you pulled it out the crisp new paper sleeve and that indescribable ‘new vinyl’ smell would send shivers down my spine. It was exciting times.
Now we look at the state of the music scene today and I think my biggest gripe lies with the select few that illegally download music. In the age of MP3s and instant online musical gratification I understand that you simply must have a specific tune right now and that making a trip to a store to buy music seems almost absurd now, but there is absolutely no excuse to illegally download music.
Illegal Downloads
Illegal downloads have been covered by the news more and more frequently over the past few years and I really don’t understand why people feel the need to share/steal music online. Music today can cost as little as 29p on Amazon, a far cry from the £7 I used to shell out back in the day. Who doesn’t have 29p to spend on a track? What’s 29p today - the cost of a single cigarette. Even the specialist onlinedancemusicvendors rarely charge more than £1.50 for a 320Kbps MP3 single and I think this is more than a fair price when you consider CD singles used to cost around £3.99.
What’s Changed?
So what has happened to music to make people think that free music is their right, that they shouldn’t have to pay for music at all? When did it become obscene to pay more than £1.50 for a track? Even in iTunes most music cost less than £1. A POUND!
When you get people illegally downloading music rather than paying a few pence its no wonder that the top quality artists are struggling to earn a living any more.
I think that one of the problems is that music simply has no value any more. Its become too disposable. Let me try and use an analogy here. If you are going to paint a room in your house, what clothes do you put on? Is it your £2 shirt from Primark, or your £200 Armani shirt? OK, bad analogy but you see the point, because you spent so little on something it means little to you. You have little money and no time or emotion invested in an instant download as opposed to taking a trip to a record store and meticulously going through each and every tune. Today you can preview a song and skip through it in a matter of seconds.
I know this to be true because this is what I do when I listen to promos. There is literally so much music that gets delivered to my inbox on a daily basis that the only way to get through it all is to skip through each track and devote just a few seconds of my time to each one. A few seconds of verse and chorus and I make my decision there and then (to be fair I do put those ones to one side to listen back to them properly later on).
An Over Saturated Market
Music turns over at such a phenomenal rate today and there is so much software and online tools out there to enable anyone to make music that the market has become over saturated. Its only in the last year or so that mid-week chart positions became something to fight over. There are more people making music today than there ever has been - not to say that there aren’t some talented people out there but usually it’s only 5% of tunes that I listen to now which I even consider adding to my ‘listen to later’ pile. It’s now so easy to make a tune and put it out there that there’s simply just too much of it.
In the same way that XFactor started the ball rolling with talent contest-style stars in 2004. XFactor does what is says on the tin, it finds unsung (pun intended) talented people and gives them a platform to progress their career. Fine. I get that. But the effect its had is to push valuable airtime away from people with bags of talent and give it to those that have none. Now all these other talent search TV programmes have copied the format and instead of TV time being given to people that deserve it and worked hard it is now being dished out to people that have stood in a queue. As much as I hate N-Dubz, they feel the same way and they do have a point with respect to effort-to-success ratio.
No Value Placed On Music
The generation of music buyers today will never be able to fathom the idea of treasuring music because there is an overwhelming abundance of it. Vinyl is a physical entity and as such it is prone to wear and tear. No matter how careful you are, music pressed on vinyl can only be played a finite number of times before the vinyl wears out and either starts skipping or sounds dull rendering the record ultimately useless. With MP3s there is no degradation of music and no limits placed on it, it will never wear away or sound dull and in 100 years time it will still sound the same. When you have an abundance of anything you treat it with less respect and value than you would something that is rare or something that you treasure.
The rarest of music I encountered when I started DJing was the limited edition test presses, acetates and dub plates. These were either one-off vinyl presses or super-small batches of records and because at the time you could not copy vinyl easily this made the music rare. So when you dropped that exclusive mix which blew the dance floor apart you’d get people coming up to the DJ booth asking where you got it from and what the name was. There was a certain bit of DJ snobbery I enjoyed where I took a guilty pleasure in holding up a white label and saying “Test press import, mate” to the punter.
It’s A Crowded Industry
But that’s the thing, test-press imports don’t exist any more. Producers around the world can upload their latest tracks to Soundcloud for example and share their latest creations literally minutes after it’s finished. Why? It’s because nowadays the competition out there is so much stronger than it was before and to get noticed and heard above the noise you have to put your music out there in this way to get people excited and interested in your music and to get it circulated among DJs.
Producers even give away free downloads to some of their tracks just to get people listening to their productions. It’s mad, but they have to do this in order to penetrate the market. It’s like one huge viscous circle because the more music that is given away free, the more the public demands, if not expects, from artists in general thereby feeding the fuel that diminishes the value of the music being produced.
Moving With the Times
In no way am I attacking the industry as it is at the moment because let’s face it the industry is always changing and we all have to move with the times, I just believe that the golden age of listening to music, buying music and music production has now sadly passed. Music production used to cost thousands of pounds just for the equipment alone and when something costs this amount of money you have to be really serious about doing it and have a real passion before you make that kind of investment. Now you can get programs like Reason and Ableton for a fraction of the cost.
It will be interesting to see how producers get noticed in future and how they expect to generate revenue required to carry on making music as a living. Looking to the commercial side, Professor Green for one believes that the future is in brand tie-ins, and you’d be hard pressed to miss Tinie Tempah jumping around in a Lucozade ad. Even Jennifer Lopez is selling out to Gillette. I guess you can’t blame them for when their revenue dries up from music sales, where else are they going to turn to in order to make their money? What was once a relatively stable industry has been taken over by an uncertain future.
Dance music has been a huge part of my life and it still is however the golden age of music has been and gone and now its time for the next generation to take what we have given them and to hopefully push it forwards in the right direction. Whatever happens to the state of music in the future I’m glad to have been a part of what it was in its glory days.
Lately I’ve seen more and more events and promoters running online DJ mix competitions. It seems like I come across new competition being launched each week so I thought it might be useful to throw together a few tips I have learned on putting forward a DJ mix submission.
Read The Rules
Study the rules carefully. Rules vary from competition to competition and its important that you meet all of the criteria asked for otherwise your mix might not qualify and all your hard work will be for nothing. Even if there are pages and pages of small print its worth spending a bit of time reading these too just to make sure you aren’t agreeing to anything you won’t want to do further down the line. Also find out what’s included in the prize - for example if the prize is a gig does it include transport to and from the venue, does it include accommodation and meals, are you sure you are available on that date, if the gig is abroad then do you have a passport etc.? Be aware of what it is you are entering in to and make sure all your bases are covered.
Do Your Research To Stand Out
Look into the promoters who are running the competition and see if you can tailor your set towards the kind of music you think they are looking for. If the competition is being run by a record label you might want to make your set comprise of just music from that label to help make you stand out. If the promoter is a festival event, perhaps your set could involve a few artists from the line-up. Try to make your set appeal to the judges and try to put yourself in their shoes - if you were a judge for this competition, what would you like to see/hear?
Don’t Compromise Your Style - Be Yourself
When I say you should tailor your set as mentioned above, I mean be flexible within your genre. Don’t start playing Trance if you are a House DJ, or play Garage if it’s not your thing. Lean towards a style that appeals but don’t break your integrity and start playing tunes you wouldn’t usually play. As an example, if I was entering a Hed Kandi competition I would play more upbeat slightly more commercial tunes. If it was a Defected competition I would probably root around in my DJ bag for some deeper-than-usual house. Structure your set exactly as you would if you were playing out live.
Listen Back To Your Mix In Full
Once the mix is finished then listen back to it in full - don’t just skip to the parts where you are mixing or applying effects, listen to the whole mix from start to finish to make sure the set flows properly and you aren’t radically changing BPM, levels or style. I personally feel that its perfectly OK to have one or two very minor flaws in the mix too as it shows you are human and that the mix is real. It all depends on personal taste but for me a mix that sounds too clinically perfect can do just as much harm than good.
Make Something Happen In The First 10 Seconds
If you are entering a popular DJ competition you have to understand that you are being judged by real human beings. It is very rare that judges will be intensively listening to every beat and every second of every mix that gets submitted as often they will have a lot to get through. So make sure something happens within the first 10 seconds of your mix to grab their attention from the start. For example don’t begin your mix with a track that has too much beat-only intro and instead begin with a track that has a more melodic opening. If you simply have to start with a specific track that has a lot of beat intro, consider starting your set from that track 30 seconds or so in so that there is some interest early on in the mix.
Title The Mix Well
There are any number of ways in which you can submit your mix online these days. Perhaps you have to email it, perhaps you have up upload it to Soundcloud, Mixcloud or otherwise. Either way, no matter how you submit your mix make sure you give it an appropriate title. Usually this will be the name of the competition and your name. For example “RANDOM EVENT FESTIVAL COMPETITION - DJ PAUL VELOCITY MIX”. Have a read of the competition rules to make sure the judges aren’t asking you to give your submission a specific name as I have seen this kind of thing requested in the past.
Add An Appropriate Image
When you upload a mix to Podomatic, Mixcloud, or Soundcloud you are given an option of uploading a picture to accompany your mix. Don’t upload a random image of a keyboard-playing cat. If possible, use the logo of the competition promoter - they will like that as it shows you are paying attention and publicising their brand too. If you have an amazing photo of you playing live then using that is a good alternative but make sure it still looks good when reduced to a thumbnail size.
Provide A Full Track Listing - Title, Artist, Mix and Label
You need to show that you know your shit when it comes to putting together a mix entry. You can help show this by putting a track listing together in the comments when you upload your mix, or write it in the email of your submission if you are sending it that way. Make sure you have the correct spelling of the title, the artist and mix of the track you are playing and number each track in order as well. If possible add the record label that the track is on too. This will help the judges see at a glance the kind of style of mix you have put together. Not putting together a track listing makes you appear lazy.
Keep It Unique
Chances are you already have a load of demo mixes stored on your computer somewhere. Resist the urge to pull out just any old mix and submit it. You should usually create a fresh mix for each competition you enter so that you can tailor each element of the mix such as the style, length or specific requirements as dictated by the rules. When adding a mix to Soundcloud the mix gets timestamped and shows how long ago it was uploaded. If the competition entry date was 3 days ago and your mix was uploaded 6 months ago it just shows that you are lazy and don’t care. Winners don’t use short-cuts.
Find Out Why You Won/Didn’t Win
If you have followed all these tips and you reach the unlikely conclusion that you did not win the competition, it’s always worth firing off a quick email to find out why. You’ve gone through all the effort and trouble of putting a mix together, you might as well get some feedback on it. Perhaps you weren’t quite the style they were looking for, perhaps they have some tips and pointers for you where you can improve. you never know, maybe the winning DJ is unavailable and you now find yourself in the right place at the right time. Its always worth an email. Just as important is to find out why you did win. Knowing exactly what you did to impress the judges will help to build a stronger relationship with the promoting brand and could lead to further work.
I hope this tips can help you out when you are considering putting together your next competition mix. Some of the tips might seem obvious but it’s definitely worthwhile checking all the angles before you submit your mix because just like a CV for an interview you only get one shot to make a good first impression. Good luck!!
So I’ve just received a spam tweet enticing me to click on a link. Just for shits and giggles I decide to see what pointelss crap people are trying to sell me and I click a link that takes me through to a website.
First impressions of the site tell me it is for music publicity and promotion. You chuck them a few dollars and in return they will promote and publicise you as an artist.
However after looking a little deeper I begin reading some of their “offers”. For $39 you can buy 500 plays of a mix or demo, or if you want 500 downloads you too can buy this for $69.
The idea is that when people check out your Soundcloud page, Mixcloud page, Reverbnation page (or whatever site hosts your mix demo) you appear to be a lot more popular than what you are as you now have over 500+ plays and over 500+ downloads of your mix.
WHAT. THE. F!?!?!?
Im angry. Im angry for two reasons. Firstly im angered that there is a market for where people want to actually buy this service and Im also angry that there are people out there who supply it.
I understand that there is a lot of pressure on upcoming DJs and artists to get noticed in the noisy crowd of this ever-changing fast-paced industry but when it comes to the point where you feel you must pay for a service like this you really have to question if you are in it for the right reasons. Surely you also need to question if you are actually any good at what you do if you have to fake your popularity.
The point is you don’t know how good you are because no one real is giving you feedback.
Im intrigued as to what kind of people pay for a service like this? Its not unlike the Japanese trend of renting friends. Services like this are preying on the vulnerable and the naive and selling to people who beleive that a large number of plays/downloads means you are really good.
This website I looked at even does a “Youtube Promotion Service” where you can buy 10,000 views for $199. Right, heres the thing… Youtube is a web site. Its owned by Google. Google is not stupid. Google is a multi-billion dollar company who has made their money through ranking the popularity of website content on the net. They arent stupid and they know their shit. If your video on Youtube suddenly gets 10,000 views overnight then Youtube is going to know something dodgy is going on. You could see your video being removed, your account could be shut down and I wouldn’t be suprised if you get banned for trying to cheat the system in this way. The website couldn’t care less if this happens and you could find yourself with no Youtube account at all on top of being $199 out of pocket.
Whatever happened to hard work, self-publicity and promotion? Have things really changed that much in this industry?
I shouldn’t really be singling out this one example from this one website - there are loads of services available from many different companies out there that all fall under the same shame bracket; buying Myspace friends, buying Twitter followers, buying Facebook ‘Likes’, buying Soundcloud plays, the list goes on. I see this kind of stuff on a daily basis and today has been the tipping point for me. It’s all so very, very wrong.
Not only are you cheating your way through your ‘career’ but you are falsifying your own popularity. For who? To make yourself feel good? To impress booking agents? Let me ask you whats going to happen when you do get your booking and no-one turns up? Are you going to find yet another service to buy people to attend your gigs? Get a grip.
In the long run you can’t beat a bit of good self promotion and publicity. On my own Facebook Like Page I’ve currently only got around 125 ‘Like’s. Sure I’d love to have more but I would never dream of buying them. Whats the point? Surely it’s the online equivelant of buying a load of life-size cardboard cutouts of people, sticking them all in your bedroom and pretending you are playing to a packed venue. Ego-stroking pointlessness.
I think its the uneducated, misinformed people that are being preyed upon by services like this. When part of a sales pitch is along the lines of “Pageviews and downloads are one of the first things promoters look at online” then how are artists supposed to think otherwise? I’m not having a go directly at people that use this kind of service because not everyone is aware of how or where to promote themselves online and I guess on the face of it, to those that are just starting out it must seem like a good deal. But if you truly want to publicise your self and get people liking you, you should really roll your sleeves up and put in a bit of hard work. If you truly have a passion for what you do then this will not be a problem at all and it will never feel like a chore.
Listed below are some of the places that I have signed up to in order to help publicise myself as a DJ:
You know what, at the end of the day I’m not the most popular DJ in the world. In fact on most of these sites I pale in comparison to a lot of the other users. But I’m happy with that because I know where I am and I can always work harder to increase my popuarity and exposure to the world. On my own personal site, immediately after my Biography I list a shed load of genuine testimonials from real people who actually love what I do. Here’s just one example:
“My first experience of your music is the May Mix 07. I used to be part of Innervision at Turnmills and have been a big clubber for 10-12 years and you have a sublime and unique talent. The 20 or so people that I have passed this mix on to have been blown away. Great tunes, perfect mixing and an emotional journey perfectly orchastrated.”
You can’t buy feedback like that for all the money in the world.
Its not often I post stuff like this up on my site but I felt I just had to draw your attention to the amazing talent of the dj/producer Dirty Freek. This is an artist that I have come across more and more often over the last few months while browsing funky house music online and Dirty Freek has really held my attention with each and every release. I beleive that every musical genre has its ‘Midas Touch’ producers where everything they touch turns to gold - and for me Dirty Freek is right up there on my list alongside eSquire, Audio Jacker and the Freemasons.
To find out more about Dirty Freek and to listen and buy his music, head on over to freek.me and check it out. If you like your music uplifting and funky then I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Moving swiftly on to the main reason for this blog post - Dirty Freek has been kind enough to upload and share a handful of tracks which are available for download. It’s very rare in this day an age for any producer to upload and share their music for free online let alone music of this high quality. These tracks will definitely be making it into my forthcoming mixes and I expect to be supporting future releases too. I’m not sure how long these tracks will remain online so get them while you can!
I’ve put together a new mix which is a little different to my usual style. It’s a housey breaks mix and is an entry into a mix competition for the Hideout Festival.
Mixes and audio available from this site are intended for home review only. If you like the music, please support the artists and purchase the music legally from the links provided.
With the arrival of Google+ now firmly in place amongst the social network big players, the question you need to ask yourself each time you post an update is whether or not to post it word for word exactly the same across all of your social networks, or tailor each update to different audiences. Of course, it’s entirely possible that you have ditched one service for another, for example closing your Facebook account to move over to Google+ in which case you need ever only worry about one aspect of your online social movements. But for those of us that use Google+, Facebook AND Twitter (and possibly even more), do you really want to be posting the same content across all of your social network sites?
I recently put together a chart for djdownload.com featuring some of my favourite tracks from this months releases. You can go and 
Here’s a little article I put together on 
As a DJ, I buy a fair amount of mp3’s online. Most of my spare time is taken up with listening to promos or browsing through dance music online. There are several places that I go online that cater for my specialist Funky House niche and one of those places I go to is 
Although there are many widely used mis-spellings of the word 
I’ve been wanting to write about the current state of music for a while now. It’s not really a discussion about how music is getting worse because there are still plenty of quality producers out there pushing the scene forwards but I just wanted to take a look at how the industry is shifting in its current state today compared to when I first started out and how kids today don’t know how good they’ve got it.
So I’ve just received a spam tweet enticing me to click on a link. Just for shits and giggles I decide to see what pointelss crap people are trying to sell me and I click a link that takes me through to a website.
Its not often I post stuff like this up on my site but I felt I just had to draw your attention to the amazing talent of the dj/producer 
