Digital DJ Tips Platinum Facebook Group member Lee asks: “With the potential demise of SoundCloud in mind, where does everyone look for their secret DJ weapons? Don’t get me wrong, Beatport, DJcity and the rest are great. However, I love digging deeper and deeper to find tracks. SoundCloud is great for this. I start off looking at remixes and keep going until eventually, I find something tasty that might only have three plays.
“I grew up with vinyl cratedigging and the joy of finding those rare gems which no one else really had. Any ideas where else I should be looking?”
Digital DJ Tips says…
Good question, this is something on a lot of DJs’ minds at the moment. We agree, there is something magical about the feeling of finding a special track after a trip down a rabbit hole. Aside from listening to mixes on sites like Mixcloud, what about finding some DJ blogs that push your style of music? It’s important to have as many sources as possible for digital digging, just like you would check out as many shops as you can when vinyl digging.
You mentioned Beatport and you can also dig on sites like Junodownload and Traxsource. You can go deeper and deeper by browsing their DJ charts and setting release alerts. If you are prepared to spend a bit more money the time needed to rip tracks from vinyl, what about Discogs? If you still have your vinyl records, how about digitising some of the rarer stuff that you have?
Have you checked out other download pools like Promo Only, BPM Supreme and Late Night Record Pool? Record labels’ websites are another good place to look. Send off some emails and get on their mailing lists. They often give away free tracks and exclusive mixes to their subscribers.
Will SoundCloud disappear? Who knows. What is for sure though is that there are lots of other sites around the web where DJs are finding their tracks. Naturally, each DJ has his / her own digging process and with that in mind, let’s help each other out and share a few sites…
Which sites do you use to find your secret weapons of dancefloor destruction? How many hours a week do you dedicate to digging? Let us know in the comments below…
Christian Yates
