Good looing out on the pool info... I'm gonna get into digital dj just because of your info... Thanks pimp...

Good info here. Do any of these places have a sample list of tracks? I know digiwaxxx has all new stuff about to blow coming from labels but do any offer older stuff?

Good review DJ Tronzo. Can we please pin this mods?

I would like to have some more info if possible:

1. Legal status (legit pool? authorized by labels?)
2. quality of tracks (bitrate and format (mp3/uncompressed/wma etc).
3. type of music.

Thanks for the overview.

^^ agreed ^^

great post, though.

What I like about My12inch is that many songs come in 320kbps, which means I don't have to record those 12"s myself (even though I still buy them, can't take the vinyl junkie out of me).

Thanks for the comments; I'm glad you like the review. Here is my response to your questions.

SAMPLE LIST OF TRACKS: Yes, all of the pools have sample lists of tracks. You have to know what kind of song roster you're buying before you take out your credit card. For most of them, you have to be approved as a DJ first before you can see the roster. Once you are a free member, you can check out all the tracks. They are tricky because they put a "download" graphic right next to the song, but when you click on it, you have to pay first.

OLDER MUSIC: The purpose of any record pool is to promote music in order the increase album (and song) sales. Usually this entails getting new music to the DJs first. Record labels don't need to promote songs that were released two years ago. Those sales have already plateaued, so if you want older songs, use iTunes.

LEGAL STATUS: I have a number of record label contacts because I used to work for a local vinyl record pool/street team. We would talk on the phone just about every single week to discuss the new singles. Some of my contacts are the same people that are listed on digiwaxx. Before I joined any of these pools, I called my record label contacts to give them reviews on singles. I then brought up the point of digital record pools. Most of my contacts had heard of all five digital record pools that I reviewed. Some of my contacts are the actual suppliers of these pools - the same guys at the labels are supplying all of the record pools.

Some red flags on illegal pools include:

1. The pool's address is in a foreign country, such as Russia or Korea. emp3s.com is a great example of a pool that probably is illegal. The USA (and Canada), Europe and Japan are really the only places these labels heavily promote singles. They promote in other countries of course, but obviously an underground record pool from the Phillipines should raise some concern.

2. There are numerous typos/grammatical errors on the website. This would indicate that the creators of the website are not out to HELP the record labels, but instead out to HURT the record labels and just want to make a quick buck. The creators probably don't care about the music or integrity of their service.

3. There is no contact information. This would indicate that the pool is not service-oriented and does not want to be in contact with anyone. The music promotion business is a contact game - it's about talking to people all day every day about the new music. If there is no contact information, then how are record labels supposed to get in touch with them?

QUALITY OF TRACKS: All of the pools promote with mp3s, and almost all have a streaming preview made with Macromedia Flash. Nearly all songs are 192 kbps or better. When theRecordPool.com started out, some of their songs were as low as 92 kpbs. But off course as time went on they started encoding at 128 and 192. In fact I believe all five pools are now at 192 even though some started out much worse.

TYPE OF MUSIC: All of the pools I reviewed are hip hop pools. They all have a little bit of dance/reggae/adult/latin/whatever, but almost all the songs are hip hop. I'm only into hip hop myself (rap, freestyles, old school, beats, samples), so I didn't really pay much attention to pools that promote dance music or techno and stuff like that.

Digital dj pool needs to get their paypal account together... I can't seem to get anything other than the abort message screen...

www.promoonly.com

I've been using this service for 6 months. Never had a problem with it. The music comes in Compact Disc format. Just rip it too your computer. They have different catogories to choose from.

I have been with these guys for almost 5 years. They are almost always spot on with their music, but ocasionally they will put a song out a month to late then you have to go buy it because everyone wants to hear it.

They are HELLA RETARDED EXPENSIVE though. They just keep raising there prices every year. . . But if you play out regularly and make decent money DJing, then they are worth it. (Hence the 5 years I've been with them)

Also, they have ALOT of good series, depending on what you play. At one point I was getting 5 series a month, and I think they are about $25 a month right now, but you pay like a year at a time.

(12months x 5series x $25 = yikes! up front $$ for me. . .)

Yes, promo only has been around for many years. I highly recommend. It's not technically a digital record pool though because everything comes on CD.

bump.... very useful info

what about TJ's & DJ's??
Record Pool??
CD Pool??
anyone??

So what about DJ's who are just starting to get out there but dont have any official club/radio work? Music is loved by all DJs (usually) and we all try to stay up to date with the newest music compared to the average music listener. Are there any Pools out there for these guys? Digi wax is free but it ask for the DJ to be on top of the DJ game. Its real easy to say "well then just step up your game" but this is not right because there are way better DJ's out there than just what you hear on the radio/clubs and those guys think there the sh**. Most may have skill but it always comes down to "Who" you know not "What" you know.

i like my12inch.com...its been working well for me, i also like digiwaxx.com

Breakin-Records.com

A LOT of the files on Worksessions aren't directly from the record labels. Some of them are vinyl recordings - I can here the record spinning at the beginning. A few of them sound like internet file sharing downloads (with that funny internet-echo in them). I compared a few songs to the one I got from Digiwaxx and there was a huge difference in quality. Some of the files are distorted, have hissing, etc.

The terms and conditions for www.digitaldjpool.com says "Content received through the service may be used and played for your personal professional use only. You agree not to reproduce, retransmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, make available to third parties or circulate the content received through the service to anyone or to exploit any such content for commercial or noncommercial purposes not intended by the agreement."

This means the service is only good for bedroom DJ's. If you want to DJ in public events or sell the remixes then this service cannot be used.

Fixed...tellem find twelve white folks n take that shit to trial

I don't see how that limits you from playing in public, besides possibly the use of the word 'retransmit' The purpose of that is to stop people from downloading files and reselling them or passing them around. Pretty standard.

Check out Crate Connect it's been around for awhile and is constantly updated with current music. Dj Slue is the owner and I pay $20.00 a month for high quality Serato and Tractor ready mp3's.
I've been with Crate Connect for about 5yrs(or more). Unlimited downloads a month, 20+ genres, mash ups, professional drops, over a 100,000 mp3's, etc.

Wow! I can't really comment cause I've never heard or used "any" of those pools.....

How's their drum & bass/dubstep selection? I couldn't search their database, and that's one area where Franchise is severely lacking...

lol

There are 2,898 drum n bass tracks
8,395 Dubstep tracks

Is

Is that good enough? He's always updating, check out Crate Connect on FB and talk to him.

That's over 10,000 joints in just those two genres alone btw...you haven't inquired about the various house, radio, club, mash ups, dancehall, reggae, techno, etc

hey guys I'm a new dj and i need a good record pool. i play a lot of EDM and top 40. is there a pool thats exactly like zip dj but cheaper? i was looking into digital dj pool but wasn't too sure if it had the music i was looking of.

Although it is frowned upon to ressurect a thread... I guess Ill help

I was actually looking around to see what music Digital DJ Pool has to offer, and I found this. They have a page that is specifically designed to show all the songs they offer (up to April '05)

digitaldjpool.com

Hope this helps, Good luck

~Chase Ra

great info, short and to the point but i wasusing digitaldjpool and all of a sudden now it wont even come up on my computer, i see the banner and thats it no payment info , no sign in

Wow this original post was started in 2006. What a throwback!

nice list (some are definitely old skool)

I would like to add that djcity is decent. I don't like the review workflow but I understand that it is for the contributors. What i benefit from are the charts and trends. $90 for 3 months

Also if you are into video smashvids and videotoolz are good. Don't remember the price for SV but VT is $18 a month. The difference is I believe SV has better quality and a nicer layout. VT offers videos and mp3's.

Lastly LMP (lomaximo). They are pricey and FTP based without any searching capabilities for MAC users. They do have a very extensive collection if you can find what your looking for or you can simply download their entire 40 TB collection. $360 a year.

I am not sure anyone reads the last post anymore haha but I use ZipDj.com and they are awesome. They take $100 off the subscription at Christmas, as well they have a Summer sale too.
There is SO MUCH music, you have about 10- sometimes 25 remixes of popular tracks. It is rare I cannot find what I am after.
They added "ZipDJ Packs" that have the most downloaded/ popular/ trending tracks in genera specific "packs" it helps during the busy seasons, when you haven't got the time to listen to everything coming out.
I think my biggest month had over 20GB of tracks down. I can binge at times. Anyway great group to work with.
Their support team is also amazing, a client knocked my drive onto the floor, and destroyed MY ONLY COPIES of my library. I contacted them and they let me go back and re download all my music. They only let you have one copy of the track, no multiple downloads. Helps keep the servers fast.

I found a new DJ Pool, doingthedamage.com I was sceptical at first as it seemed cheap at 9.99 per month... But I applied and was offered a free trial... I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! Best selection of Tech House, House, Disco House and like commercial remixes I've found in any DJ Pool over the years! The guys are really responsive and Matt always gets back to me really quick when I have emailed them. I checked with an artist I know who's tracks were on there and he told me it was legit and I also check them out on PRS and they have a licence too, so I feel happy to subscribe. It's unlimited downloads and all tracks come at min 320 Kbps and Mixed In Key tagged. All in all I'm really happy with Doing The Damage and can highly recommend! I hope this answers all the questions raised above about pools but please contact me if you want to know anything else about it :)

Just want a record pool for EDM. Because Beat Port is looking like a bad financial move.

So to update my current subscriptions are

BPM Supreme - for Hip Hop, R&B, Top 40, Dance (mostly for the videos) and now the curated sets.
BPM Latino - they tag everything properly which is important. for everything to say latin is a shame. they use real sub-genre tagging.
DJCity - trends mostly

I just left BPM because they are so slow with updating music I had to buy the new Chris brown and Drake song No Guidance from amazon. Can someone tell me a good record pool for hip-hop r&b and southern soul that stays current with the radio charts ?

I want a record pool for EDM. Because Beat Port is looking like a bad financial move.