Is a DJ a Good Career?
There’s never been a better time to start a career in the music industry as it’s easy to get started, and you have plenty of options. If you want to be a DJ, that can be a good career choice. However, more goes into a DJ career than mixing songs and making playlists
Is DJ a good career? Thanks to the rise of the internet, being a DJ can be a great career choice for many people. An aspiring DJ can show off their skills on a YouTube channel or SoundCloud account. DJs play at venues such as night clubs, bars, and even weddings or other parties. A DJ can specialise in one area or branch out for more gigs.
If you want to embark on an exciting career in music but don’t like to sing or play an instrument, DJing might be perfect for you. You can listen to music so that you find songs that fit together, and you can work in a variety of venues. Whether you’ve DJed for years or are new to it, with perseverance and some skills, you can become a professional DJ.
How to Start
The hardest part of becoming and working as a DJ is getting started. When you’re new, people won’t know your style, so it can be hard to find work. That’s why it can be helpful to open yourself up to some free work to get exposure.
Practice DJing
When you first start your DJing career, you won’t have much experience, but that’s not a bad thing. If you have the equipment, such as turntables, music, and a computer, you can practice DJing for yourself. The more you practice DJing, the easier it will be when you land a gig since you’ll know your way around your equipment.
Build Your Brand
Your marketable skills begin with your talent and your sound, but there’s more to this picture too–your consistency, dedication, professionalism and personality carry a lot of weight with your fans and with the people who want to hire you.
At the “superstar” level, DJs are a unique breed because they have to manage multiple aspects of their public persona. It’s not enough just to tour the world with an expensive light show, or to mix a mind-blowing set with passion and creativity. You literally have to be an arbiter of the future–attuned to emerging trends and technologies, and ahead of the curve with your selections, remixes, and productions–while still maintaining a vestige of the sound and style that got you there. That’s not easy; just ask Tiesto, BT and Richie Hawtin, or even eclectic outliers like Ellen Allien or Amon Tobin, both of whom have reinvented themselves more times than we can count, but draw packed houses consistently.
Why Does Branding Matter for DJs?
Think about the most successful DJs in the world, and you’ll realize that they have several things in common besides their technical skills and talent. They each have a distinctive sound, look and personality, and they each maintain a steady media presence–all of which connects to being memorable as a brand. Tiesto is a perfect example; with his immediately recognizable logo and his dynamic presence on stage or in the booth (he’s known for dancing all night), his live shows have become ritual gatherings for his fans worldwide.
Creating and Curating Your Image
The way you dress and the music you play, as well as your social media presence, website, and the marketing materials you create, are all reflections of your personal brand. But don’t forget why you need it: you’re trying to get gigs so you can make a living playing music. If you’re not getting work, or if you feel stuck in a creative rut, you might want to think about retooling your brand.
Interview with Ani Quinn: DJing in the Big City of Dreams
As one of the top DJs in New York City, Ani Quinn has made the most out of his early experiences on the city’s underground rave scene. We asked him what the competition is like in one of the toughest markets in the world.
DJ Tips and Tricks for Beginners that Actually Work
DJ Tips and Tricks. A DJ typically plays records in a sequence to the entertainment of the listening audience. In recent times though, a DJ’s role has evolved slightly to include mixing and tuning the songs they play, but the role remains essentially the same: dishing out a carefully selected playlist to a teeming audience of gleeful listeners.
Determine your Music Sound
What sound gets your juices running? What music lifts your spirit? DJing is as much to do with your music taste as it involves your quality in handling equipment. Don’t worry, for now, about the sound others will like. The stunning diversity of sounds in the music world ensures that there is a market for every sound. Do you vibe only to alternative rock tunes? Electro? ‘80s hip-house?
Have Fun
Closely related to tip number one above, having fun is an important part of DJing. This is perhaps the most fun-oriented job you can ever hold. Music brings life. You have to tap into this life while DJing if you are to really get your audience to feel the music. When you are really into it, the crowd knows, and they just love it. Better your technique, follow your heart, and have fun
What Kind of DJ do you want to be?
If you are yet to ask yourself this question, then you are yet to get started on the path to professional DJing. With your sound decided, you want to focus on what type of DJing you will be doing. Are you gunning to become a mobile DJ, scratch DJ, club DJ, or house party DJ? Or do you intend limiting yourself to the role of hobbyist DJ who simply plays for a bit of fun? Not only will your answer be critical to your practice, it will be important as you consider your choice of suitable DJ equipment.
Select the Right Equipment
Your DJing experience will very likely have started with a simple PC with a DJ software. Once you decide this is something you really enjoy, it is time to go for quality equipment that will make your learning more professional, and all the more easier. This is an exciting but delicate step in your career that you don’t want to rush into. Although it might seem easy, you can easily find yourself with the wrong equipment, one that doesn’t suit your style. Selecting the right equipment early on to suit your sound and targeted career path will aid your practice and professional growth.
What Wedding DJs Wish You Knew About Choosing One
Wedding couples are frustrated. DJs are frustrated. There’s a disconnect here. But what exactly is the problem?
It depends on who you ask. DJs continually wonder why brides and grooms treat the mobile DJ — the type who lugs around his equipment to show up at big events and weddings — as a commodity. In other words, couples price-shop ruthlessly, as if any given DJ were interchangeable with the rest.
Why Is It So Different With DJs?
Part of the answer is an image problem, says Paul. “People perceive that most mobile DJs will turn up fifteen minutes ahead of time, with a couple of speakers and some cheesy circa-1970’s light screens, and play ‘Agadoo’ all night.” (For we lucky few who haven’t heard it, the 1984 song Agadoo frequently charts as “the worst song of all time.”)
When She Was Good, She Was Very Very Good
Perhaps it’s hard for the average bride and groom to grasp the difference between a green DJ with low-end equipment, and a seasoned one who knows how to transform shy and retiring Clark Kents into dance floor superheros.
The first may be nothing more than a glorified CD changer. He may or may not have a firm grasp of the different musical needs that accompany standard reception rituals, like the cake cutting or the father/daughter dance. He may lug in his entry-level Peavy subwoofers and arrange his sound system in ways that ignore your venue’s peculiarities.
The best DJ controllers
Modern software applications such as Ableton Live mean you can now technically DJ with pretty much any MIDI controller, or even just a mouse and keyboard. Nevertheless, there are several very good reasons to use DJ controller hardware designed specifically for mixing.
Whether you’re after something to replicate the feel of traditional turntables, mixers and CDJs, or a modern pad device designed for sample triggering and effects manipulation, the best DJ controllers in this guide offer skin-tight integration with your preferred mixing software of your choice, so you can properly get hands-on and expressive with your library or tracks
The best DJ controllers you can buy today
While Pioneer DJ’s rekordbox DJ mixing application remains, arguably, slightly in the shadow of the ‘bigger guns’ Serato and Traktor, used with Pioneer’s new flagship DJ controller, theDDJ-1000 it’s the perfect pairing. In fact, the 1000 is the closest thing we’ve found to condensing a club CDJ setup down into controller form.
Its meaty, pressure-sensitive jogwheels have the heft of mixing on one of the brand’s industry-standard CDJs, and the mixer section is effectively a trimmed-down DJM-900. All tracks prepared in rekordbox are ready to be loaded onto a USB and taken out to a club too – meaning this is probably the closest compatibility you’ll find between home controller setup and DJ booth
How to choose the best DJ controller for you
There are several things to consider when shopping for a DJ controller. The firstm, and possibly biggest consideration is your choice of software. If you favour Serato DJ, it’s important to note that the software is only compatible with certain controllers,