DJ Promotion Tips:
How to promote yourself as a DJ

Are you ready for DJ promotion tips? Once you own enough tracks (3-4 hours)

and you can mix without stuffing up too much then it is time you thought about getting some work.

This page will give some DJ promotion tips for getting disc jockey work for the first time. The first step is to make a mix CD or tape.

Recording a mix tape or CD:

A mix tape is as easy as hooking up your stereo to the record out on your mixer and pressing the record button. CDs will require a computer with a sound card (for e.g. a Soundblaster Live!) and a CD-writer.

Your soundcard should have some recording software. Soundblasters have the Creative Labs recorder. You will need to hook up your mixer to the line in on the soundcard using an RCA (red and white plugs) to mini jack (small headphone style plug).

Boot up the recording software and press record. You will make a big sound file on your hard drive so ensure you have about a gigabyte spare to record an hour mix. Once you have your wav file recording you can burn it to CD using the 'burn audio disk' option in your CD writer software.

CDs are better quality and more professional than tapes. The biggest advantage of CDs however is that you can cheaply burn lots of copies so you can give them out to a number of club owners when you look for work. If you have the time you will also want to drop a copy off to the local radio station to try to get a weekly show.

Why are your skills good for a club?

Dance music is generally a fairly misunderstood genre of music.

Clubs often supply their patrons with a dance floor and big sound system but then play music that is unsuitable for dancing. This is simply due to the fact that the owner of the club knows how to run a bar not how to run a dance floor.

Dance music is good because people who have a dance at a club have a good time. Quality dance music gives people another reason to go out. As a good DJ, your job is to please the crowd by giving them something new and interesting to dance to. Giving people tribal beats makes them get up, dance and feel less self-conscious.

Promotion that you will do also benefits the club. Mention that you will be promoting your night with flyers and posters. Everyone loves free promotion.

These are the aspects of DJing that you want to make clear when you approach a club owner. The club owner will be apprehensive about changes at the club but if you stress the benefits he/she will get then you will more than likely get a trial at his/her club.

What DJ Promotion Can I Do:

CJ Promotion for your night at the local club should consist of standard advertising:

Flyers, use a cool design and print in colour at your local print shop
Posters, full colour with cool design, don't be cheap get a fewer number of better posters and put them up yourself in good spots (clothing stores etc)
Radio station, if you have a Radio show use it for announcing your nights and the station might give you free adverts if they like you
Mass produce your mix discs and make sure you give them to everyone who can help you get gigs. Every radio station, corporate event producer... anyone you can think of. Here's our review page of Acronova CD production equipment to help.

You can cut the costs of this type of promotion by getting local businesses to put their logo on the promotional material.

Part of the fun of starting out as a DJ is doing this stuff yourself. You can make your own theme in your DJ promotion that people will identify with your music. Use futuristic or fantasy images. I enjoy playing around with PrintShop to create flyers, business cards and other promotional materials, so have a go.

Here are some example flyers:

Take a look at the DJ Bailey flyer. He's a top Drum n Bass DJ in London. Full colour flyers look great and give your crew a professional image.

Sample flyer one

Full colour flyer for DJ Bailey

Here is an example of a two color printed flyer. These two color jobs cost much less to print and still look pretty good.

color flyer sample

Two color flyer. Cheap but still pretty

Remember to be original and put yourself out there. This kind of DJ promotion material is often the first contact people on the street will have with you. You want to make a good first impression don't you?

When your handing out your flashy new flyers make sure that you take time to talk to people. You've got to have heart if you want to get anywhere in the music scene.

You also need to do some thinking about your music, style and entertainment value, so check out these tips too to help in your DJ promotion decisions:

More DJ Promotion Tips

DJ Dress Important For DJ Promotion
Learn how your DJ dress and appearance can affect your DJ promotion efforts.

Advice on Disk Jockeys for Effective DJ Promotion
If you need advice on Disk Jockeys to have your advertising be effective for DJ Promotion, be sure and check out these tips.

Developing dj styles in music, dress and actions.
Learn how you can develop dj styles in your music, dress and entertainment actions to keep the party going.

Learning Styles of Music
What's important and what isn't in learning music genres.

Should you specialize in a music genre? Find out why you may want to and what to consider.

Setting up DJ promotions is a must if you want to become well-known, but advertising is not the only way that a DJ can promote his services to the community.

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