Should I Be a DJ or a Producer?

A lot of DJs want to make their own tunes. That’s called being a music producer and is a lot different to being a DJ. Both require different skillsets, with DJs playing the music whilst producers make the music. There is no reason you can’t do both but it’s better to go more one way than than to learn both to become successful as a professional DJ or producer.

People get into DJing for many reasons, either to fit in with their social group, for the love of the music, to meet girls at clubs (girls do love DJs) or just as something fun to do. You don’t even need to be a great DJ to work in a club as you’ll see more and more often DJs just setting up a laptop and letting it do all the work. It’s boring, we hate it but somehow they make money from it. Becoming a great DJ is tough, how many superstar DJs do you know? Tiesto? Pete Tong? How old are these guys? They’ve been doing it for years with very few younger DJs taking their place. That’s how tough it is. You might be able to get to the top in your local area or even country but to become a super star DJ is almost impossible without some luck.

Thats fine for some people but who wouldn’t want to be called up to play over the over side of the world to dj for thousands of dollars? To be that type of DJ who leads the celebrity life style you’ll need to be producing your own music. Think of Fat Boy Slim, great DJ, much better producer that gave him his huge break into superstardom. His music spread around the globe and who better to play it.

To get a club promoter to phone you up and offer you mega bucks to come and DJ at his venue, he has to be sure your name will fill the place. John from Birmingham isn’t going to cut it compared to Tiesto or Fat Boy Slim. DJs fill the clubs, not the music played and if no one knows who you are outside of your city are they going to risk spending money hiring you in a possibly empty club? No.

So how do you get your name know so they will want to hire you. It’s rather simple and complex at the same time. Make your own music, promote it so it gets played on the radio and by other DJs around the world. We’ve mentioned Tiesto and Pete tong, image what it will do for your image having them play your music. People will want to find your track and give you money for it. Your name will be on the track and all of a sudden everyone around the world knows your name.

With each amazing track you produce your name spreads and sticks more. All of a sudden it makes sense for a promoter in another country to pay you to come to them to play your music. Once that starts to happen the lifestyle that comes with it will also start to happen. That might be more girls, more money or just more people loving what you do.

The challenge is making the great music. You may be an awesome DJ but if you have no idea how to make a tune, let alone a great one you will become stuck very quickly. Producing is complicated work, creating the music from samples or recorded audio and then tweaking it to give it that difference it needs.

Even if you have an awesome track you still need to get people to listen to it. Sending CDs off to anyone and everyone that will listen to it, spamming internet message boards getting people to check it out and hoping a record label picks it up, releases it and spends money promoting it. Being a DJ is just about networking with other people to get gigs and playing music. Producing requires lots of long hours and hard work.

So, to be a DJ or producer. Start as a producer first and learn to DJ second. It’s a lot easier and quicker to learn how to DJ than it is to produce. You’ll even find as you learn to produce you’ll be using equipment that later when you learn to DJ you’ll already know how to use and abuse. You’ll need to learn a lot about software and music composition which will also help with your DJing. As mentioned before, some club DJs turn on a laptop and let it play, thats how easy DJing can be so why spend 5 years doing that when you can spend 5 years making awesome tunes.

So get into the studio and start making some tracks, and don’t forget to thank us when you reach the top DJing at some of the worlds best parties.