The Chemical Brothers: World-famous for their productions, but these guys are actually first and foremost a DJ duo. Pic: Pop Cultureddd
There was a time when being able to flawlessly match beats and select killer tracks that flowed like butter wasn’t only difficult, but rare and special. Putting that on a mixtape and getting it into the right hands secured you a gig, which could lead to great things.
However, the digital revolution in DJing has changed the game in many ways – some great, some not. Perhaps the largest change, however, is how to go about making a name for yourself in an extremely competitive and highly international market.
This site has gone into great detail on how to market yourself, secure your first gig, and be a better DJ all-round. But this still mostly deals with things on a local scale. And if you are looking to take your talents to an international market, the best way to do that is by making your own music. Here’s why:
1. You can achieve instant global recognition
Online mix hosting services have helped the “mixtape” trend continue into the digital age, and some DJs have even mixed their way to thousands of fans through brilliant social networking.
But what is the most surefire way to get noticed by the biggest jocks in the industry, and of course, by their fans? Make a hit record. If your new hit winds up on Radio 1, you can be sure people from around the globe will know your name very quickly.
OK man, I’ll be straight up. You won’t make it through DJing…
A fairly famous DJ once told me: “OK man, I’ll be straight up. You won’t make it through DJing. You will make it through productions. That’s the only way people around the world will recognise your name; otherwise why would someone in Romania know about you? No matter how good a DJ you are in your home town, unless you’re part of a residency to one seriously world-famous night, like Panorama bar or Fabric, it won’t happen through DJing.
“So get in there and get producing, then go to gigs and put the CDs of your tracks in the hands of the guest DJs who would play your sound, and then when you get signed to big labels people will take notice. Get what I’m saying mate?”
2. You’ll get respect
If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times: it’s easier than ever to be a DJ today. I won’t beat a dead horse, but it just isn’t enough any more.
Moby, holed up in his bedroom studio.
So when you’ve spent years of your life (not to mention several grand) holed up in your apartment learning to make high quality dance music that one day gets released on Beatport, people respect that.
It shows you are truly serious about the music and about your craft. It shows you understand music on a fundamental level, which of course translates into “he’s probably a pretty good DJ, too”. It shows you have dedication, and are serious about being a part of the music scene on a deeper level.
The big jocks know this; they’ve been there too. And many of them love seeing new dedicated and talented young producers work their way up, and are willing to support them.
3. It’s more about raw talent
You have to analyse your strengths and weaknesses. I’m not brilliant at networking, and the only way to get gigs where I live is to spend countless hours out at the clubs making nice with the right people, then countless more trying to get people come to your show. You’re a promoter, DJ and PR agent rolled into one.
I figured I could get much further by sitting at home in front of my computer and learning a craft.
I realised this a few years ago and knew this wasn’t for me. I figured I could get much further by sitting at home in front of my computer and learning a craft. Networking is a craft to be sure, but for someone like me, reading books and blogs on things like sound engineering and being able to set my own hours and work from home is how I can best spend my time achieving the results I desire, and it’s starting to pay off.
I know a vast amount more about making music than I did two years ago, and I’m learning more every day. And hopefully with enough work, one day I’ll have tracks big enough to make real waves. Then the sky is the limit.
4. You gain musical understanding
Putting in countless hours learning what instruments, percussion and synthesisers are used to create a desired musical effect has given me a much deeper understanding of the music than I had when I was only a DJ. And if you are a serious DJ, you know how much time you spend analysing tracks to begin with.
As a result, my DJ sets have gotten tighter and cleaner over time, with much less effort spent combing though Beatport. I recognise keys, rhythms, instruments, and basslines that will work together much easier than I used to.
This of course comes to anyone who spends enough time around music, be it through DJing all the time, or just constantly having Pandora going in the background – but producing amplifies it.
5. It gets you gigs
What’s the easiest way to start touring the globe as a DJ? Do what they used to do in the rock’n'roll days: Write a huge single that sells like crazy. Promoters see a rabid fan base and know you will pack a show.
James Holden: His own productions have led to him getting DJ bookings worldwide.
The evidence is currently clearest with some of the overnight sensation dubstep acts. Instead of slowly working their way up gig after gig, they spent a few years in the studio, and by 19 or 20 had a hit record on their hands.
Now of course there is a bit more to it than that. Getting your hit track into the right hands can be tricky, for instance. But if you do happen to write the next mega-hit, you can guarantee that with proper marketing and exposure, eventually that right person will hear it.
Easier said than done….
I do understand that when you are just starting out DJing, music production can seem to big a task to tackle. Learning an in-depth, high-end workstation like Ableton Live or Logic is difficult, and can take years to start getting good at.
Music production can seem to big a task to tackle…
But just as you worked hard, learned your DJ software inside and out, and eventually learned to mix and maybe even got some gigs, with dedication and hard work you can learn to make your own music too.
• American house DJ and producer Chandler Shortlidge in a little over a year has gone from a bedroom producer to having his track “Shenzaz” (Red Sky EP on Purple Gate Records) go to #13 of the DJTunes.com top 100 Tech House chart.
Have you considered the production route to DJing success? Have you managed to get gigs through your own productions? How closely do you think production and DJing are linked? We’d love to know your thought in the comments.
Now go to:
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Tags: production
Id have to agree for the most part.. I started Djing but I had a lil bit of production knowledge. And since I’ve taken the plunge into production full time my mixing skills have gained so much traction. I guess it really depends if you have the love for both, some days I don’t wanna mix at all, I just wanna produce for hours; while others I wanna rock my neighborhood lol
[ link ]Records are your currency as a DJ. you need the music nobody else has.
So many guys try to make it as a club DJ playing top ten beatport lists and playing the obvious mainstream records that they sound the same as everybody else. I get sent loads of mixes by DJ’s who want to play at some of the venues and events I play at. most of them are clones of others, technical skills might be great but the music does not stand out and make them individual. People but skills and technical stuff before the music. We now buy music that is the most convienient and easy to get hold of.
To make it as a DJ you need to amake the effort searching hard and long to get your own sound playing good records nobody else has. Even if you are a digital only DJ, still buy vinyl and ripp it if it has a good sound you like on the vinyl. I have a turntable with a quality needle set up in my studio for ripping old and new vinyl to digital. i don’t DJ with vinyl now as clubs don’t maintain the equipment or have got ridd, Just because i don’t play on vinyl that has not let that limit me to where i get my music from. Buy a record and sell it back on to somebody else on discogs or other vinyl sites.
There is that much music great music out there that none of it is old. if you and 10000′s of other people have not heard it before it is new. so don’t be afraid to play old music and get digging.
[ link ]Does anyone have any advice on how to start producing or remixing dance/house tracks? Maybe some online schools or books?
[ link ]Hey Ryan,
Try checking out http://www.pointblankonline.net/.
[ link ]I haven’t used the school myself yet, but I have spent ages scouring the site and will dive into a course early next year. I think the awards and props from students such as Claude Von Stroke make it worth while to at least give a look in.
you can still make it without production. production takes loads more time and most of the guys who are that desperate to make it big end up rushing out crappy clone music aimed at ticking every box.
I have dj for 25 years and only for the last year have i got into production more serious, tinkered 10 years ago but it was more expensive to do. The same as i buy vinyl aswell as digital I am buying old synths and hardware to get my own sound, loads of guys just get logic or maschine now and use all the same presets and sample packs that they will not make it in production as they will not stand out.
[ link ]NOT 25 years ha ha, 15 years , im not that old. not that age is issue to being a successful DJ.
Frankie Knuckles mentions how he got into being a DJ and how things used to be. He is 56 and still packing out clubs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKo2qOTFJms&feature=share.
[ link ]I’m glad you brought up Frankie Knuckles. I learned about him when he was 44. With me being a late bloomer, I always think about him.
[ link ]it’s funny, people were saying the same thing (produce if you want to DJ at big clubs/parties) back in the late 90s when everyone was still on vinyl…..true then, truer now.
[ link ]I started in production first before DJ’ing and I have to say that it is much harder than DJ’ing. Making a living on Production takes more work because you need an artist and a label to have success (at least you used to). I come from the Urban Hip Hop genre and putting out music with no lyrics just doesn’t work.
With DJ’ing you go direct to the consumer and venues and play. Less in-between time. However, I feel production is a great way to complement your DJ skills and will allow you to make your own songs, remix, etc.
Either way it takes dedication and networking skills for both. There’s really no way around it.
[ link ]I’ve been trying to push music theory at DJTT, but they pushed back. Here’s my argument.
[ link ]im interested…
links?
[ link ]no links… sorry.
[ link ]There is a lot of truth to this and everyone seems to acknowledge it these days. The thing I find frustrating about articles like this is that they make it sound so easy!
Firstly, writing good music is not easy. Go and check out some random stuff on Soundcloud to see what I mean.
Additionally, you need the same networking skills but on a higher level if you want to get well known labels to listen to your music, let alone sign it. I had my latest track rejected from a pretty big label, not because it was bad, but because I didn’t have the profile. They said they would have definitely signed it if I had a bigger profile – how do you combat that? I would say that as few as 25% of labels listen to the stuff I send through (I track it on Soundcloud).
[ link ]That’s what I mention in the last bit of point 5. It can be very difficult to get your music into the right hands. And as far as I can tell, there are a few ways to go about it, but at the end they all involve getting real attention for your tracks, be it by Youtube or the charts on Beatport. Having thousands of views on your track on Youtube, thousands of followers on Soundcloud, friends/fans on Facebook, or having a decent reputation among the wider community of producers in your respected genre by having written lots of solid tracks that DJ’s like and do well in sales are all very valid and useful. It’s just a different kind of networking, as most of it can be done via the web, not with drinks at clubs
[ link ]Being primarily a producer was the thing that, at least locally, opened the path for me to play as a DJ at bars-clubs, true story. However, as others have noted, making “good” music is a craft of its own – pretty much like how DJing is a craft. People shouldnt be fooled, music production of an acceptable quality level takes years of work and practise, but then again so does DJing.
Unfortunately, the same people that thought they could bypass practise and studying with DJing, will be the ones that will try to do the same with music composition and production.
“Come onnnnn, spare me the theory, I dont want to know what an LFO and an ADSR envelope is, I just wanna make phat beats”. Uhmmmm, sorry mate that won’t be the way you go about it.
Finally I have said it again and I will say it here also (keep in mind Im talking from a producer’s standpoint so I absolutely don’t have the need to “defend” the DJ craft BUT – )
[ link ]Being a good DJ doesnt make you a good DJ.
Being a good producer doesnt make you a good DJ either.
I have heard a lot of producers bashing DJs like, “pffff anybody can DJ, producing is harder”. It certainly isnt true and if it’s hard to jot down a few kicks, snares and hi-hats into a rhythm, its equally difficult to make a club dance through the night – trust me I ‘ve tried both.
lol
*Being a good DJ doesnt make you a good producer.
[ link ]Being a good producer doesnt make you a good DJ either.*
The worst thing imo, is that when you produce, you are making the sound YOU like, not the sound people should/would like, so it became even more personal than selecting some gems tracks into djing.
And this is where it split : from being in the mood with the dancefloor while djing and now feel alone in your own world with your produced tracks that you’re the only one concerned about.
(Yeah I know, true genius/artist are not understood… lol)
Seriously : should you produce what you like or should you produce what should please ?
[ link ]In other words, how will your fans, target will found you without an appropriate network ?
This is a really good question but I think you start from the dancefloor.
Let’s say you’re a DJ (so you know what gets the crowd going mental), and you’re also a clubber (you have to be to be a good DJ, or at least you have to be happy hanging around in clubs!). So therefore you know both from the crowd’s point of view (because sometimes you’re one of them) and from the DJ’s point of view exactly what makes both you AND the dancefloor go crazy.
Now, when you’re producing, doesn’t that give you a great advantage over non-DJing, non club-going producers to be able to produce stuff that you love AND that is going to drive your type of dancefloor wild?
[ link ]Yes you’re right, my mistake is that I’m producing what I would love to be played on a dancefloor, not what I’m actually liking as a cluber/dj.
[ link ]Very good point Phil, will try to improve on that. Thx.
My own opinion – I think where getting to the point (or already at it) were even producing tracks isnt enough.
From what I’m seeing, EVERYONE is DJ’ing and MOST people are dabbling in production.
Society is very much in love with instant gratification these days and I believe as a DJ you have to offer ‘Something Different’ to get a name (following) for yourself.
Have a bit of Chutzpah maybe? Im not sure
If you know what this is..Let me know
[ link ]Yea, true. That’s where having good branding and networking (websites, logos, stuff like that) comes in. But as far as I can tell, and why I wrote the article, is even if you do none of this, if you write a track that gets 100,000 or a million or 10 million views on Youtube, you can bet you’ll be getting gig requests. So again, that just comes down to talent.
[ link ]What about mobile DJs?
[ link ]He does state at the beginning of the article that this is talking about global success, not making it as a mobile DJ.
[ link ]I produced songs before I became a DJ. The funny thing about being a producer is that it sounds great. I am a producer! A producer of what? Like being a musician or being a DJ. It does not make you good. But it’s a start…some are good, some are not.
After years of producing music for myself, I started to share it to everybody and I am now producing original songs for our Events. I like the results that I produce but I realize that I still have to improve it. Mixing in a club and mixing tapes, helps me to compare what I produce with the top songs.
I love producing and I hope that one of my songs will make it thrue by the end of 2012. I’m surounding myself with great singers…that helps too!
Thanks!
[ link ]This article leapt out at me straight away because this is EXACTLY where I am in my career now. I’ve been a DJ for years, and without blowing my own trumpet, I’m good at what I do. I started out playing just house music about 9 years ago. From there I moved onto other genres like rnb, hip-hop, indie, chart, dance, trance, even cheese! Then last year I fell heavily in love with our local bass music scene….
With already being able to beatmatch naturally for years and being adept at mixing any genre, picking up the rhythms involved in dubstep took next to no time at all. I started putting it out there that I played dubstep and instantly got asked to do a few regular gigs. So, after years of being a ‘jobbing DJ’, I decided to specialise in one genre, a genre that I loved for years and now could play.
The problem, however, is that pretty soon I began to realise that music nowadays (in general, but even more specifically with dubstep and dnb) is very much a producers game.
I had some great sets last year, played alongside some massive names like Mary Anne Hobbs, Adam F, Icicle, Plastician and Hatcha to name a few. But after a run of 6 months or so, the gigs started to dry up as the city went on holiday for the summer. I was left with no gigs to play at and wondering why, as the ones I played at, I smashed to bits and everyone raved about me!
This article confirmed what I already knew…. You can’t get anywhere these days (on any scale other than just locally) without producing your own tunes.
So I embarked on a journey. I stepped up my other work, got a full time job as well, in order to fund all the elements I think I’ll need to produce my own records – including an incredible new laptop powerful enough to easily run Traktor, Ableton & Cubase, and some decent monitor speakers to work from.
Now I’m just beginning on this road, and to be honest, trying to get my head around music production is proving one of the most difficult things I’ve ever tried to do. I’m frustrated, I hate it already. But I know that given the experience I already have from years of working as a DJ, if I keep at it, I’ll end up being where I want to be – getting booked to play everywhere and taking my career to the next level.
Wish me luck…….!
Tom
[ link ](Half Man Half Bit-Sick)
@tombyrnetweets
I sincerely wish you the best of luck, Tom – please stay close in touch on your journey.
[ link ]Thanks Phil, will do!
[ link ]Yeah! Good point…Produce what we would like to be playing as a DJ in a club… I will improve that too.
Thanks!
[ link ]Its waaaaaaaaaaay harder to produce a hit record than to get DJ gigs. The author has good points about how producing broadens you as a DJ. But producing tracks mainly as a route to better DJ gigs is bad advice.
I produced tracks that were released nationally on a compilation CD in the USA. I got respect from my circle of DJ friends, but not DJ gigs. I didn’t even get to spin at the record release party! (All the artists on the CD were DJ’s with bigger names).
Make music because you like making music.
[ link ]Its not easy for me,
If you have good art in your hands,brain and heart still,even if you send the demos to good record labels, they wont accept it,
I know what my music sounds like and what it deserves, still a young lad whose music is appreciated cant be released in good labels,
They wont support and so you have to suffer, and then you wont get good gigs, and this is my first step got failed even I know my art is
appreciated by many people. The good record labels why they dont wanna release good music coz the artist is new??
Plz answer me i m confused and need help.
[ link ]You’re expecting it to be easy, and it’s not, it can take many years to get any recognition at all. Keep finding ways to improve and don’t give up!
[ link ]Check out audioschoolonline.com for tips on mixing. It’s definitely a good idea to either have your own productions professionally mixed, or at least strive for top sonic quality yourself. I’ve seen label big wigs discard songs, and then later love the exact same song/recording mixed by another (better) mix engineer. Quality always counts for something!
[ link ]I completely agree with this article being a producer/dj. When I first found out about dance music, around 14 or so, I listened to trance music day in, and day out knowing I wanted to make it or DJ it when I got older. I continued listening to dance music and, I started producing my sophomore year turning from youtube noob to a pretty decent producer just a year out of high school at 19 going on 20 this year. I picked up DJing my senior year, and because I know how a trance track plays I can keep the energy rolling like it’s nothing. I think if you seriously want to perfect being a dance DJ you need to study it thoroughly by either listening to it, understanding it musically, or producing it. After listening to trance for so many years I can for the most part anticipate what’s going to happen without counting, and I love it. As to making it in the scene I haven’t made it that far, but I’m pretty sure if you can stick a song to a DJ it’ll surely outlast DJ “plays other people’s music” any day. The audience will believe your more into the music when you live it to another level by stepping it up, and making it yourself. That’s memorable.
[ link ]