Don't be a DJ if you want to get booked

What does it take to get a booking at a festival as a DJ in the scene today?

I occasionally ruminate on this question, as i do… often at 1am… while knowing i should be sleeping. It seems to me if you have trks to you name you will get bumped up above DJs who do not… the actually skill level gets overlooked. So if I was a DJ looking to get bookings I should get trks out under my name onto Beatport and Spotify. But thats not really that easy. Learning to produce music well takes a lot longer than learning how to DJ… a lot longer, years.

We are in a weird place, the best way to get gigs as a DJ is not being a good DJ, it’s having released trks! On the flip side if I am a producer, I’ve spent the time, blood and sweet, honing my craft over years and I’m getting my trks played out by named DJs, I very likely will not be able to make a living off my efforts. I need to get on the festival bills to make enough money to live off my work. So where does this leave us? You want to DJ and get gigs, you need to produce. You’re a producer and want to make enough money to live, you need to DJ. The ironic thing is nether of these scenarios require you to be a good DJ.

So what we have now is a circular economy, one where you need to have releases to get booked and you need to play out to get paid… The irony is the “DJ”, the guy who spends weeks digging for tunes, hours and hours in their room playing trks, experimenting with combinations of mixes, years playing gigs at local clubs and parties learning the craft of DJing isn’t in the mix. I was talking to a friend of mine from the pop/rock scene today and he was surprised this had happened to dance music too. Turns out it’s unfortunate our scene has gone the way of his, viral tiktok clips mattering more than skill.

You might be asking if I am feeling hard done by or that I am owed something I don’t have. I’m not. Actually I don’t mind at all. The saving grace in all this is the underground is still going strong. Every weekend all over the world in cities, towns, clubs and lounge rooms, crew are still gathering together for the love of music and the scene. The acceptance of each other for who they are. Celebrating a tune or a mix. This is where the true payout really is, and it’s the only one I actually care about.

Plur