customers



customers

/thread

What about the customers? They can't appreciate the art form? assuming DJing is just pressing play and chilling? consider yourself as a jukebox?

One thing that bugs me is the promoter ass kissing and mega bro-down aspect that plagues certain scenes.

Not in the clique? Sorry.

Thank for your reply Jprime!



can you clarify a bit on that?

lol

Let me guess you're writing a paper on "DJing" for some kind of "business" class and you're trying to use this thread as your "research." Here's what you should be doing: stop being lazy, find out who the big promoters / DJs in your area are, and actually email or call them up on the phone to ask them what they think about the business and the industry.

Posting an open ended question on serato.com is about as lame as it gets. And probably something I would have done when I was young. So just do it the right way.

Sure, why don't you drop me a PM, I'm happy to write some thoughts into an email rather than vent in here. Too many comedians ;)

the state of venues and mgmt.

venues sound and dj booth generally suck if they have one.

mgmt is clueless and do not understand the proper format for a night with a dj.

mgmt listens to the vocal minority instead of being happy with the quiet majority.

why can't he ask an international forum on their thoughts to get a wider opinion?

^^This
I've dealt with at least two clowns being injected into my nights in my DJ career due to the fact they kissed the promoter's ass.

One clown didn't know how to mix or scratch and didn't practice because according to him he "already made it big"

Second clown was a clone of first clown, except he'd just show up with a laptop. Conversations with him went like
Him: "why you being an a-hole bro? Just let me use your headphones, needles and CV"
Me: "Hell no"

If it was a properly constructed question or survey, then sure. But just asking "what are your challenges" to a wide audience of X is a really bad and lazy way to do "research" (and wastes peoples time.)

Doing actual research in person when you know who you are talking to forces you to be clear and get the answers you want.

Proper research would AT LEAST include defining questions like

Are you a pro/part time/hobby DJ?
Where do you DJ? (Clubs/Mobile/House/Other)
How long have you been DJing?

Otherwise the "research" is pretty close to useless because of how undefined it is. So I'm saying he should save everyone some time and do it the right way.

no parents no rules

My deepest pain as a DJ is seeing these types of surveys

:-P

nm

My deepest pain is when I wanted to say this but another DJ beat me to it.

can you be more specific in the question? Like, do you mean what are career obstacles we experience, things that generally annoy us, things that are normal but difficult, things we are trying to fix but cant/ or wont ect ect ect

The questions way to general for a good answer.

crappy systems and booths

A generally uneducated public about what it is we actually do! Want a crappy party - hire a crappy DJ.

Whoever who is truly disturbed by this thread does not have to take part in it.

I might have been too generic with my question. But the purpose of it was actually to see what is the first thing that would come to DJs mind when such a question is asked. It is then I can build off the responses and go into a more detailed conversation.

Appreciate the feedback! and obviously there are haters everywhere...

Whatever the purpose of the question was, it gives us something to discuss on an otherwise dreary afternoon. Not hatin.

This is my nightly entertainment!

I've been working on a DJ pltafrom for the past few weeks that would hopefully help DJs "proof their worthiness" (not only by facebook like, twitter followers or suck-up relationships with promoter etc.)

The purpose of this discussion is to validate its concept and to see if I am taking it to the right direction.

So you guessed on a pain point, worked for a few weeks on a platform designed to address it, and now you're trying to confirm the existence of the problem and the viability of your solution with an open ended question on an online forum that you believe is frequented by your target demographic....

I promise you I'm not being a "hater" when I tell you to rethink your strategy. As you can see by other comments in this thread, when some DJ/designer comes running up with unfocused questions you run the risk of turning the whole community against you and missing out on actual insights. Sit back. Read a couple books on user research. Come up with a plan that gets you the insights you want, and execute. I live in the Silicon Valley and invest in this space. I've seen maybe 50 projects from DJs across my desk and I've funded 1 of them. The other 49 looked a lot like this. DJs with an idea but too lazy to do the work. Put in the work.

Well, I'd be interested to see what this platform is but I fail to see how something like this would actually work. As much as all other websites and social media people may be judged by 'likes/plays etc'.... which may not be valid especially when much of that may be people following for the wrong reasons, or just straight up purchased.
To prove 'worthiness' would mean being judged by peers, which opens up a whole heap of potential problems in it's own right.

The DDJ Wego

This is a cut-throat industry so if some of the little things "pain" you, then maybe get into another field. What some may look at as pain, I look at as obstacles on my path to success. Being able to adapt and overcome, rather than dwell on negative aspects will get one much further.

The current music content. There are a lot of cool songs out, but it is hard to play many of them at events I do, because of the foul language. I do a lot of HS dances, weddings and private teen parties and there are just so many songs that don't need the F-Bomb or other words to make it a hit.

It is getting harder to find clean edits of these songs. My Prime Cuts keeps sending me songs that say clean cuts or edits, yet they still have really bad language in them. I think for it to be listed a clean cut there should be no four letter words in it at all.

Just my .02, probably not worth that much.

Ray J. the DJ

The other thing is that some clean edits of songs just flat out murder them and make them unplayable. In example, "DJ Mustard (feat. Joe Moses & YG) - Burn Rubber".

^^ Truth to both of the above statements. ^^

Administrators (school dances) insist on clean music, but the kids are bombarded with the garbage the radio cranks out. The #1 request is "Anaconda" these days... no way am I dropping that at a school function - edited or not!

I know there's a separate thread on the edited/uncut music topic as well, but this is a pain in the DJ business for mobile work. The club setting is one thing, but taking your show to a public venue or where kids are involved is a different animal.

Exactly. DJ's gotta be tough and seasoned. None of this emotional drama will get you far in life. Less complaining, more gaining.

I had the biggest pain as a DJ this past Saturday.

In front of the DJ booth there was a small slope upwards on the floor. It was just enough that it raised the front of my feet up and left my heel down. Within an hour or two my feet were killing me. I ended of taking 2 steps back and DJing with my arms extended out and looked like a fool.

haha, that sounds like a big pain

The biggest pain is T-Pain and all that damn autotune he uses...

My biggest pain is dealing with club owners/managers/promoters who are shady and making sure I avoid as many of them as possible.

so.....no answer here?

M.Bezzle

Weekends are the busiest for me so I apologize for the delayed response...

To be more specific, I am more interested in a day-to-day challenges or ones that generally tend to repetitive rather than career obstacles. Therefore it definitely interests me to hear about things that annoy u on a regular basis, as well as general difficulties of working DJs.

Hope that makes it more clear...
Appreciate your engagement

My biggest pain is a unprofessional venue and the request monsters that keep coming up all night

the boss/
its when hes Not drunk enough,Or too drunk to understand what either of you are saying. til he gets to that part and starts understanding you

forgot to add this about PRIMECUTS. if they dont slow down the dirtymouth they will be LONG GONE.and only in peoples cars and homes IF THAT.

Yes prime, your listeners are listening

THIS is not so much about a djing/ its about calling something what it is,WHAT IT IS !

WHEN You say,im goin to da CLUB. admit it. ISNT IT STILL A DAMM BAR. You have tables/chairs a long hard designer table only&barely two feet wide ITS A BAR. Not a club, the only reason why im bring this up,is tht i even had to look up the definition of bar/& club.....VERY VERY SLANGISH.

ive asked my boyfriend,hurry up and lets get to the bar before they get there,and get a good seat. thats how it happens in my home

playing awful music when i know good music is out there but wont satisfy people

TRUTH. I see kids thee days demanding to hear their crappy 60 bpm songs only to stand around and stare at their phones for 3 minutes. You play a older song with a good dance beat and they start to move again and have fun... yet come up to you and say "can you play anything more modern?"

That is so fucking true. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

This right here encompasses how a LOT of us who came in the game when GOOD MUSIC was great, to where we actually witnessed it die feel. -> Watchwww.youtube.com

Yup, every damn time. Im playing last thursday and i have a dance floor full of college girls dancing their ass off to some early 2000s stuff. Half the group who was dancing comes up, happy as can be, and requests some new 60bpm bullshit. I figure hey if the group of hot girls who are holding down the dance floor want to hear it then fuck it lets party right. I mix in the song, i get the initial hand up in the air THANKS DJ!!! look....then the entire group just stands there for like 10 secs, then pulls out phones and slinks off to the side to go text...followed by the rest of the floor....thanks for killing your own party girls

wow,i was hopeing to read that you would have KEPT the dancefloor,jumpin really crazy and letting them rule the party,NOT The ones that came and did the request. MAN I FEEL YOUR Pain. i bet You were somehwhat shocked,or damm right kicking yourself in the shin really hard. It happens,M-Bezzle...look at it this way,Thers always another hot night coming into view.with perfection on both sides YOURsss,& thers. Mostly Yourzz

"I can just use an iPod."

Deepest pain as a dj? Real djs who put together incredible sets can't disagree more with the statement...

A lot of times it isn't even directed towards me or other dj's. I just hear people talking about setting up parties/events etc...wouldn't believe how common people view dj's as jukeboxes.

I get the same mentality from schools and their dances/fundraisers. Fortunately, I have convinced even the most adamant school staff that a good DJ will make or break their event. It just takes some work.

Never get a good response from the new sub 70 stuff so I never play it. I do open format but more towards a House vibe. While I do play some Trap & Twerk, most of the Hip-Hop I play is classic 90s and early 2k stuff. I'm seeing more & more people grooving to the 120-125 house tracks that I've been spoon feeding them for the last year at this venue. They get new cutting edge house tracks weekly but also some of the Big Room/Prog House festival EDM stuff, plus classic 80s-2k tracks, Freestyle, Booty, Latin, Breaks, etc... I do a lot of quick jumps from Genre to Genre but make it work. This wouldn't work in a room with an all under 24 crowd though.

what area do you play in?

I play in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. I think Bezzle's in Alabama?

ah, i just find it interesting where you can still get away with more uptempo type sets. fla makes sense since booty/miami bass and breaks were so big there for so long.

getting fired from a 3 year residency for playing "Purple Rain" (by request) in the year that Prince died...

made me quit all my gigs

the controller age which has made DJing accesible to millions of little undercutting twerps

promoters that dont pay you

in a nutshell

also no union.

the reason being all the undercutters contravene the very purpose of a union

many many many industries over here have, dare say most, but nope, not for DJs

Whaaaa? Care to share a bit more about that one?

We've been over this for years.

Controllers had nothing to do with that. We've already established that CDJ's, Napster, and Nero Burning Rom opened accessibility the better part of two decades ago - or did you magically forget about those ultra cheap Gemini or Pyle CDJs?

MK5's and M5G's weren't $2000 for a pair 10 years ago either. We've already established that there are plenty of DJs running around with those who will take a 5 hour gig for $50.



You need a contract. Promoters pay fast when they see a summons.



...I don't even have a response to this. That's incredible. How'd that go down?

So,
why are the djs NOT getting fired for playing it NOW,
THE PURPLE RAIN SAGA/ you wont believe this that happened to me last sat at a fleamarket
PURPLE RAIN, Goddness i hear it all day on the radio,and i switch stations. i found a PURPLE RAIN/ 45single at a flea.market for 50BUCKS,and made me sick.
the lady had it on a really nice, GE Stereo. the kind you can put more than one lp at a time, and if you put three,they all play then the stereo turns off. BUT That was the trick of the 45 record.
she would only sell the turntable with the record. but the record was not for negotiating,AT ALL. i offered her 75 for the record.Only, she said no. I HAD To take the stereo,and the record .50 was the best. for both. i was losing my mind for her not taking 75 dollars for the 45
this lady blew my mind for that UGLY PURPLE COLORED 45 RECORD. and too the ge player was this faded Yellow, it looked like they took yellow milkpaint and repainted the GE Stereo.that when it was closed it looked like a suitcase

How many versions did you have of PurpleRAIN. Maybe it was just one version he hated when you played it. I know theres so many versions of PurpleRain out there, seems to me, you could have always mixed it up with other Princemusic. sometype of mashups.of princes music.
even the intstumental is good too. Just you got hit by the man with the keys to the bar.thats it. he runs the place and i guess he runs everything i mean Everything

Really? Not really a huge collector's item, they made a lot of them, sold here on Discogs starting at $.062

www.discogs.com

i remember after he died and all the half price books was selling his records for 2-3x what they are worth.

for some reason the new vinyl crowd doesnt realize that those super popular records should be worth 2$ not 10-20$

^ I found 2 of the MJ Thriller albums for $8 the week before he passed away.

Let's not start with just how many pressings and re-issues of Thriller that there were....

Didn't the original pressing have that huge ass fold out cover? I've got two of those and regular one.

the pain in the ass, who constantly telling you how to do your job.

Yeah, right. Maybe youve established that in your own head. I've seen it ruin my scene first hand

im sure whoever is really keeping up with the PurpleRain value of the lp,or 45,and even the cd/and probably the cassette which i just bought yestereay for 10 cents.and i fast forewarded it,and the fastforwarded it again, to get the alignment to my cassette deck. i did listen very carefully if there were any crinkles in the tape on the cassestte .i looked for the numbers of the time it was made/pressed is vnyl/burnt is cd/and im guessing they use the Original for the cassette types. . i called my mother who was having a benefit sale to restore the gymnasium in my home town,and wanted me to pick up this 8 track but he label on the front was missing but the back was fine, IT Was great, i asked her to play it completely and let me know if it was good enough ,and also idid it have any catalog numbers on it. she said there was a 8length number,andi told her that was probably it. i asked her to hold onto it,only because im bringing tons of things for them to resell at there fundraiseing event... i said wowl i wondered if THAT PURPLE RAIN Mustve come out of a special release,and all that was left was the 8track.
i still prefer the one i picked up at a second hand store that only had maybe 200 lps.and i found a special cut,which i think it was from from one of those clubs that remix music for nightclub djs.to buy. i love it. it was the entire lp,but no singing.
it was signed shena e/prince. is there a way to post pictures on here, theres two really Great lOOKING 8TRACKS,With purple rain in each. to me theres something missing about the way the cover looks . it was made for the 8track,has a paper picture,instead of painted on the way a cassette is printed on the cassette I
IF ANYONE can let me know how to add a picture to this page,let me know the two 8track players were for walking.

the mega-bro I know what you mean its like everyones all happy and super nice and friendly with their clique you gotta kiss ass and pretend everything is always all good no matter what.

ouch

D.C. reeks of this shit.

Nepotism is human nature

it still doesnt make Nepitisim right though. .

In this case, the proper terminology is cronyism.