Thank you for the responses.
To be fair, I don’t actually consider myself a “DJ” as much as a producer. I’ve been producing for going on 15 years now but really just as a hobby or mostly emotional outlet. The type of music I make is some strange blend of Hip-Hop and Electronic. Kinda like Flying Lotus or Shlomo but not really. It’s very difficult to put in a genre.
When I do DJ sets or mixes it’s a lot of this style of music with a lot of my own stuff in there as well as some more traditional genre’s sprinkled in like Dubstep, House, Rap, Reggae, even video game music or TV show themes.
I don’t really want to be a DJ as much as an “artist” (however cliché). More specifically I’d like to release music, build a brand based around that and tour regularly. Mobile DJing is not for me. I know the money is probably much better but I would hate that job, nothing against those who do it. I respect the amount of work and skill it takes but it’s just not something I would ever enjoy.
While I am ultimately dedicated to pursuing this career choice I have NO IDEA where to start or how to do it. It’s an odd thing. I’m not really a DJ but I am. I used to rap and have done a lot of shows as just a rapper. It was a lot simpler to get shows. People would come to see rappers and I would go up and do my set, say some words and that was understandable. Now it’s much more difficult to explain or market. I’m technically still doing the same thing but instead of rapping I’m pushing buttons on a controller. Promoters don’t know how market that. I really don’t either.
So I decided if I just do some DJ gigs I can get a better feel for a crowd whilst behind a table and laptop and not directly engaging them. Eventually I’d like to just do shows, like “come see ME perform and some other people too” rather than “come to this event and there will be dj’s there” I’m just not sure how to present that or market it.
