Why DJs Fail To Promote themselves – Part 2

There are many reasons why DJs fail to promote themselves. We’re going to list some of these mistakes so you can hopefully avoid them.

Part 2 – Image creation and manipulation.

This is key, think long and hard about what type of DJ you want to be. Are you totally in love with House music? Maybe you are into experimental mixes or maybe you just want to become a myspace DJ. Either way you need to decide what type of DJ you are going to be and stick to it. It’s easy to get lost or drawn in by other fashionable scenes but you’ll quickly find you lose your style and who you are. If no one knows what type of DJ you are how will they hire you?

Always keep in mind what type of DJ you are and keep reminding yourself. Your image will be your selling point, there will be no point promoting yourself as a Hard House DJ if your more into 80′s cheese. You also need to decide what you are doing this for. Are you doing it for the love of music or for the money? Will you stick to your principles or sell out. You could become the next Tiesto or maybe you want a small label that does what you enjoy. Maybe your goals lie somewhere in the middle, but you need to have some goals of what you want to achieve.

A 5 year plan is a good start, set realistic goals for each year and try to achieve them. Becoming the next Tiesto in 5 years will take a lot of hard work and a bit of luck but by planning small for each year you can see your progression. For example lets say you wanted to start a record label.

Goals for my record label:
2011 – Create tunes and website
2012 – Promote tunes and release CDs/downloads
2013 – Create better tunes based off feedback, release and await feedback. Team up with other DJs
2014 – Have your own studio where other DJs want to work with you
2015 – Release a top 10 track.

They might seem like big steps but these are just your end goals. You’ll need to break down each year into a todo list. For example in the first year you can have:
Buy software
Create ten tunes.
Do photoshoot/create graphics.
Create a logo
Create website
Gain feedback
Create flyers/advertising
Promote on myspace

By breaking it down you make the end goal more achievable. Some goals may be on going, others once completed can be forgotten about. Set goals for what you want to achieve and don’t be afraid to add to them. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t meet all your goals or even your ultimate year goals. Somethings take longer to happen than others, sometimes they take multiple goes. If you fail on a goal decide if you are going to leave it, come back to it later or try again. You will probably have to update your later goals over time or you may even find some goals can be skipped or get done ahead of time.

1. Decide who you are
What type of DJ do you want to be?
2. Create goals
Create goals to become the type of DJ you’ve decided upon.
3.Complete goals and add more over time.
4. Grab what you need to complete your goals.
You might need to hire someone to make a website for you or work with other DJs to get your name out there.

Next time we’ll look at what you need to get your image out there through websites and flyers.