Sunday 21 October 2012

DJing looks like fun, but can you make money from it?

By John Clelland


It's no secret that practically everyone, especially from today's generation, wants to learn how to DJ. However, if you think that being a DJ is as straightforward as putting a cd in and pressing play then you have much to learn. The development of laptop DJing and digital mixing software has removed a number of the obstacles preventing people from learning DJing making it both cheaper and easier.

Because this removes the need for you to learn how to play songs at the same bpm as each other it frees up your time to focus on learning other aspects of DJing. If you get really good then you can earn huge amounts of money. Even if you only play the odd small gig here and there, you can still earn a bit of cash from it. The job is definitely well paying and the icing on the cake is the fact that you get to have loads of fun as you play.

One of the best pieces of advice that a beginner in the world of DJing should make use of is with regard to how important it is that you know your music. Having an intimate knowledge of your music is a cornerstone of your DJing career and should not be looked upon lightly. Everyone would like to learn how to DJ, but the process has to be done in a professional manner. Ultimately, knowing your music inside out will make the rest of the process a whole lot easier.

There's more to being a good DJ than just being able to beat match a couple of tunes and mix between them. Of course these are important things to learn but they are just one aspect of it and knowing how to control and work a crowd with the music you are playing is really important too. Remember you aren't there for your benefit but the benefit of your crowd.

The moment you start playing music that you like is when you will begin losing your credentials as a good DJ. You need to be able gauge the reaction of the crowd to the music you play and adjust accordingly. Depending on the venue you are playing at and the crowd you are playing to you might be able to play quite a broad spectrum of music, or you might be very much limited to one or two styles.

You're going to have to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book if you want to get ahead in this hyper-competitive world of DJing. It's debatable whether or not you should specialise in just one or a few genres of music and that depends a lot on what kind of DJ you intend on being. If you're going to specialise on one genre of music, ensure that you become the best DJ in the industry. Given that it's difficult to say that you'll achieve that for certain before you start out, it's probably a good idea to get a good all around grounding in a number of genres and styles so that you can vary your sets, play to different crowds and improving your mixing skills by playing different styles of tune in the same set.

Specialising tends to limit you and this may work against you especially if you're depending on the DJ jobs as your ultimate source of income. You might feel like you are selling out but you can make good money from DJing at corporate events. However, the style of music that you would be asked to play at these will differ significantly to the kind of music that you would play at a rave. The information provided here should give you some good pointers and basic tips to get you started. Once you've sharpened your skills, ensure that you invest in high quality DJ equipment as this will help to raise your status as a professional DJ.




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