Being a DJ today, what does it mean? Promoting and Selling

October 4, 2010

Co-written by Cyril Léger (part 3 of 4)

Today DJs need to know how to promote themselves by using the social networks and their own websites to connect with fans. Before, you only needed to send demo tapes to the promoters who would get you gigs in clubs and music events in an inexpensive way.

Now, to ensure the right promotion is done, it can cost hundreds of euros in annual memberships on different social networks. You need to put your hand in your pocket before getting any gigs. On the other side of the coin, using the social networks allows you to easily communicate information such as the release of your new EP, your gig dates or simply exchange with your fans.

There are lots of social networks out there. Here are the principal ones:

Resident advisor – http://www.residentadvisor.net/
Soundcloud – http://soundcloud.com/
Facebook –  http://www.facebook.com/
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/
Reverbnation – http://www.reverbnation.com/
Fairtilizer – http://fairtilizer.com/
Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/

Also, writing your own blog or participating in other website blogs can help increase your online visibility.

Now you know where to promote but where do you sell your music? The music is mostly sold from online retail shops specialising in music. There are still physical retail shops that sell the vinyls but very few producers use them anymore. It is too expensive to produce and distribute them but there are always the hardliners that will listen to the tracks online and order them afterwards.

Here are the principal retail shops where to sell and buy music:

Beatport – http://www.beatport.com/
Decks – http://www.decks.de/ (vinyl only)
Juno download – http://www.junodownload.com/
Trackitdown –  http://www.trackitdown.net/
Djtunes – http://www.djtunes.com/
Djdownload – http://www.djdownload.com/
Beatsdigital – http://www.beatsdigital.com/
Traxsource – http://www.traxsource.com/
Itunes – http://www.apple.com/itunes/
 
 
 


Cyril Léger has been a DJ and Producer for more than 20 years, loves sharing music with others and getting the instant feedback, hopes to continue doing it for a long time, dislikes lack of respect and violence, wishes he could drink milk like when he was a child and really can’t eat salsifies.

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