The DJ Gospel: 2012

Friday, September 14, 2012

DJ Documentaries

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

10 Reasons DJ's Hate Other DJ's

1. You claim to have played at places that you never have.
2. You have no problem undercutting another DJ to get a gig.
3. The only way you get gigs is by having a friend working in a club or bar.
4. You use another DJ's mix and act like you are doing it live.
5. You have no desire to learn how to use any other gear than your own.
6. You say you played a song long before anyone else had it.
7. You always bother other DJ's for their music or playlist.
8. You brag about how busy your venue is when it's not.
9. You rely on waveforms and the sync or automix button.
10. You talk about how bad another DJ is when you are the one that can't mix.

I'm sure we could add 100 reasons to this list.. Feel free to add your own.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Why is The DJ Gospel negative?

I point out negative things so that other DJs can learn, if a tweet offends you, then it is about you, if that offends you DON'T BE A DJ. If a tweet offends you how are you going to deal with a person in front of you insulting you because you will not play a song. You have to be thick skinned if you want to make it in this business. I find it amusing that every time someone has something to negative say about a tweet it usually is a young DJ with little experience that is offended because they have done exactly what I have tweeted about, because we all know when you are young you think you know everything. Call it negative criticism if you want, but please do one thing and learn from your mistakes and bad ways. Once you have been in the game a few years a lot of this nonsense will make sense. To the ones that get the tongue and cheek tweets and strive to better themselves, BRAVO you will have a long DJ career, if you ignore it and keep doing what you do, all I can say is WHEN YOU STOP LEARNING, YOU STOP EARNING. If every DJ was awesome The DJ Gospel would not exist, since that is not the case I am sharing my 20+ years of experience to help the ones that want to get better and to weed out the ones that need to be sticking to that day job. I am merely the mustard seed it is up to you on how you grow. So keep reading the tweets have a few laughs, make yourself a better DJ and keeping spreading the Gospel to those that need it. Thanks for helping The DJ Gospel grow each and every day AND THAT IS THE GOSPEL.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Tale Of The Bogus DJ

One day a guy decides to go to his local music store and buy a new DJ controller in hopes that very soon he will be able to play in the best clubs in his town. Within a few days he feels he is just as good as DJs he has heard on his nights going out, this starts to give him an ego boost that he really will be the best DJ in town in no time. A few more weeks go by and he now has downloaded a ton of songs he likes and has put a mix online and pasted it everywhere possible daily and now can't wait to play live. He soon sees a club is having a DJ battle and enters the contest giving him 2 weeks to practice. During these 2 weeks he brags on all of the social networks on how he will dominate the contest and continues to post his mix everywhere he can. Finally the day of the contest comes and his excitement is easily seen by numerous status updates of how he can't wait to show people what a great DJ he is and nobody should miss it as victory is soon to be his. Later that night other people began to post that a DJ in the contest could not figure out how to plug in his equipment and needed help. Once he began his set it became obvious he was using an automix feature and word spread quickly in the crowd. The words quickly became laughs and as fast as his DJ career started quickly came crashing back to Earth. Once back home he was quick to try and start some spin control online and blame the nightclubs equipment for his misfortunes, which was quickly answered with more ridicule as no other DJ had a problem.

The moral of this story DON'T BE THE BOGUS DJ! Just because you purchased DJ equipment that in no way means you are automatically a DJ, there are so many more facets to this profession that you must learn before you even think of rocking a crowd anywhere. Watch, listen and learn from other DJs do not ever jump in this headfirst when there is no water in your pool. If you think this is a job to joke about you will become one that people will laugh at for weeks. So next time you are in the club and you think you can do better, be prepared to pay some dues first and make sure you practice like you preach about your supposed DJ skills you possess, if not you will be outed as a fraud. By the way there is now a slightly used midi controller for sale online and an ego that that has been put in check in a city near you. And that is the Gospel.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Most hated song requests by the year

It never fails that each year a song comes out that makes DJ's cringe as people beg you to play them because they want to transform themselves into strippers, morons, rappers or whatever makes them look foolish. Here are some of the prime examples since 1990 compiled from the Billboard charts. Feel free to add your own personal songs that make you puke.

1990 Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
1991 Grandmaster Slice - Electric Slide
1992 Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy
1993 Tag Team - Whoomp There It Is
1994 Ace Of Base - All That She Wants
1995 69 Boyz - Tootsee Roll
1996 Los Del Rio - Macarena
1997 Hanson - MMMbop
1998 Will Smith - Gettin Jiggy Wit It
1999 Lou Bega - Mambo No 5
2000 Eiffel 65 - Blue
2001 Shaggy - It Wasn't Me
2002 Pink - Get The Party Started
2003 Jennifer Lopez - Jenny From The Block
2004 Juvenile - Slow Motion
2005 The Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
2006 T Pain - I'm In Love With A Stripper
2007 Cupid - Cupid Shuffle / Soulja Boy - Crank Dat
2008 Lil Wayne - Lollipop
2009 Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling / Miley Cyrus - Party In The USA
2010 Kesha - Tik Tok
2011 LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem

Must have signs and cards for your DJ booth!

So many of you have retweeted these that we decided to put them in one location for you to grab.

Online resources for DJs

These should help both new and established DJs in the hunt for knowledge.

Gear Reviews:
www.digitaldjtips.com
www.djtechtools.com
www.scratchworx.com

Music Research :
www.discogs.com
www.whosampled.com
www.residentadvisor.com
www.mixmag.net
www.djmag.com
www.djtimes.com

Music Purchase:
www.beatport.com
www.htfr.com
www.juno.co.uk
www.traxsource.com

DJ Humor:
http://stuffdjshate.wordpress.com
http://nobreastsnorequests.tumblr.com/

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Tricks of the Trade - Tips

Ok some of you may or or may not find this useful, and in no way am I saying try to get money from everyone, but if you do work in a popular club where you are accessible then at some point someone will want to tip you for playing a song. Most of the time it is a song you would never play as no amount of money is worth clearing the dance floor for a few bucks. This is how to use tipping to your advantage and get rid of the pests that want ridiculous songs.

The first scenario is this.....To do this you may want to have a tip jar or just have loose money in your pocket this works best for me, a $5 or $10 bill is all you need. If someone comes up and offers to tip you with a couple of dollars you can turn this into a bit more by using psychology ( remember they are drunk most of the time ). Usually they want to hear a song that has already been played, you simply tell them a couple bucks isn't worth it, because others have requested songs and if you play that again you will have to deal with the others wanting to hear their song again. This now puts the ball in their court, they can either up the ante on tip money or will leave you alone, it's a win-win situation. If they do ante up and the others come up you can flash them the tip and say you were tipped to play it. Now you can repeat the cycle with them and have a good chance of making extra cash.

The second scenario is this.....You are playing a song and someone does not like it, you can show them the tip and say wanted to make sure they heard it and tipped me. Usually a girl will try to argue with "But I'm a hot chick, you should play it" I tell them their hotness does not pay my bills, once again they can ante up or leave you alone. Another win-win situation. Again have the $5 or $10 ready to show them for this to work.

The third situation is this.....Someone requested a song an hour ago, not a great one but something you would more than likely play. When they come back wanting to know if you are ever going to play their song, let them know you will get to it, but right now you are playing the requests for the ones that tipped you first. Once you bring up money it's a put up or shut up deal. They can tip you or leave you alone. Either way you come out the winner.

There are many other situations you can use to your advantage, once you have done this a few years you will know which ones will be wanting to pay you to show off to friends. Those types tell themselves off by asking "How much will it cost to get _____ played". That statement should be money to your ears. The ideal location for this to happen is in a busy club.

If you are in a slow club or a small one you can try this. When someone asks for a song you can tell them it's not really the format of what you play, if they say what if I tip you, you now have control, tell them if they make it worth your while you will throw it in, you can make up something like the manager will gripe at you for playing it but a tip will justify it. I have known some guys say they work off tips, that's a bit desperate but some people are.

The whole way you go about this determines how much you will make...you are getting paid anyway so it's all a bonus. If the tip you show is $5 then they can match it or go higher, same with a $10 or $20. This gets rid of the pests that want to request over and over and it fattens your wallet. Once you get a few people tipping you for songs you can easily make an extra $100 in a night, I have made up to $1000 in a night doing this.

Now if you don't want money, you can easily replace the $ with shots, drinks, beers and the like. It's a game have fun with it. The best part is it shuts up the ones that are constantly hounding you to play a song. To me that is worth more than money. And when you do get the big spender throwing $100 per request and wants to make sure others see it, it does start a buzz in the club which will get them talking out of the club which means more will want to come to your club as you now have some buzz on the streets.

Tipping varies from locations and countries you are in, you may be surprised what you are offered. And the best tip are from the ones that give you money just for doing a great job and not requesting a thing. The "feel good tip" I call it.

I hope some of you can find this useful and remember this is not a 100% guarantee that you will make a lot of money but it sure does help and that is the Gospel.

Friday, January 6, 2012

How to be a DJ when everyone is a DJ

Today DJ's are up against a somewhat never ending line of obstacles that have made it hard to remain a real DJ and keep your sanity. With the influx of new DJ's thanks to new and cheaper technology it seems anyone with a laptop is capable of adding the DJ moniker to their name by arming themselves a controller for a couple hundred bucks then they blanket the town looking for a gig. So the big question is how can you still be a DJ when everyone else seems think they are one? I could easily make this four pages long but lets keep it simple.

1. Research - Know what is trending in music and what is going on in your town, it's good to know what is hot on the charts but you do not want to be a clone of every other DJ in town make your set unique. Anyone can look at the charts and play what is hot if you do this you are a playlister not a DJ you have to be able to mix it up and know what will work. Read your crowd.

2. Knowledge - Know your equipment regardless of how much it costs you have to be able to get the most out of it. It's pointless to use a controller with 40 buttons and only use 4 of them. There will always be someone with better and newer equipment the key is knowing how to use it and get the absolute most out of it.

3. Performance - Be able to give a crowd something to talk about. Just as back in the day before the internet was around word of mouth was the best for way of promotion and it still is. Get your crowd involved in your set, encourage them to sing along ,dance and just go crazy. Regardless of what genre you are playing if they can dance to it you can get them to go to another level.

If you follow these 3 things that means you have the passion to be a DJ. Passion is the one thing many DJ's lack there are way too many DJ's that are doing it for the money and the fame and those will always fall by the wayside because without passion they have no desire to maintain what it takes to be a DJ.

These things are what separates you from other DJ's if you agree with this then you are already a peg above the others, if you think this is just bullshit then you need to do us a favor either learn to take your game to the next level or get out of the way. Abide or divide in these lessons, the choice is yours and that is the Gospel

The DJ Gospel