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Promoter/DJ's in your area

Just a query to you guys and gals around the world.....

In melbourne/australia the phenomena of the promoter/dj has gotten to epic proportions. my facebook is spammed with a billion invites a day from different djs for different nights.

these guys get booked because of numbers they may bring into clubs - not for the music they play.

people around the nation are really starting to get sick of these 'djs' that are a promoter first and dj a distant second.

a few months back it kind of came to a head when the warmup dj for dubfire/sven vath/digweed played some very dodgey tunes followed by a few dubfire ones (just before dubfire himself was on). melbourne has quite a pool of talented locals (some with some hefty worldwide reps) with copious amounts of experience - yet this 18 year old kid got booked because he is fresh outta skool and has a lot of friends that will follow him to just about anything...

im just wondering if this is just an australian thing or if it is as rampant around the world?

Re: Promoter/DJ's in your area

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse Just a query to you guys and gals around the world..... In melbourne/australia the phenomena of the promoter/dj has gotten to epic proportions. my facebook is spammed with a billion invites a day from different djs for different nights. these guys get booked because of numbers they may bring into clubs - not for the music they play. people around the nation are really starting to get sick of these 'djs' that are a promoter first and dj a distant second. a few months back it kind of came to a head when the warmup dj for dubfire/sven vath/digweed played some very dodgey tunes followed by a few dubfire ones (just before dubfire himself was on). melbourne has quite a pool of talented locals (some with some hefty worldwide reps) with copious amounts of experience - yet this 18 year old kid got booked because he is fresh outta skool and has a lot of friends that will follow him to just about anything... im just wondering if this is just an australian thing or if it is as rampant around the world?

Wow, I thought you were talking about Houston Texas till I read melbourne :X

its like that everywhere..

there might be a few cities where you can get away with talent alone..


but most places here wont book you unless you can bring in 15 confirmed guest.


some promoters here even go as far as...having a certain amount of facebook friends required before they give you a night...ie minimum 400 or something like that..

it might suck, but it makes sense. would you personally pay someone to play an empty room with your own money? this isn't unicef, it is a business.

And this is the BIG reason why I don't bother to go out much at all these days. I still get spam from fuckwits in Melbourne to come to events even though they know I'm now in Brisbane. Business or not, I for one am sick of shit ****s with a massive following of retards with no clue. It's annoying as fuck when you get ignorant, self-absorbed bastards sending you useless shit.

actually if you can fill a club just with your own talent without having invited anyone and people come specifically to see you, you are probably better than most top 100 djs.

This industry is hard, better hang on with a club promoter one night and invite him to some beers and you'll have a residency in 2 months, if you give him a cd with your best mix it will be in the bin before he arrives home to listen.

Wow, that's pretty rude. He played dubfire songs before he went on? That's pretty rude!

But promoters are trying their best to break even at the very least, can't blame them I guess (maybe i'm being too optimistic) . I would like to see talent + unique song selection over a person who gathers heads.

quote:

Originally posted by Goebbel Goebbel it might suck, but it makes sense. would you personally pay someone to play an empty room with your own money? this isn't unicef, it is a business.

it depends how you view your night.

If you just want to get as many people through the door on each occasion without too much effort then sure its a great idea.

However if you want to build your night around some kind of musical policy and grow a following then it can be counter productive. Consider that if your night is essentially full of the DJs mates then the chances are they aint coming back next week when their mate isnt playing. In fact the only time they spend on the dancefloor might be when their mate is playing, giving you a strange atmosphere which isnt always good. You may also end up booking really shit DJs.

Its pretty much the standard way things operate here in London, and I don understand why people do it. And if you want to run your night in that way then go ahead but I do think it has lead to the death of the small "family" club night. Rather than trying to build a club night around a certain musical idea and ethos by booking DJs that fit that, maximising profit in the short term by booking the DJs that can bring the most friends has become the norm.

The results of this in my view all pretty negative...

A lot of DJs are allowed out into the wild before theyre really ready and then have no driver to better themselves. Clubbers get stuck with a lot of nights that are very similar as none of them have a specific identity so clubland looks pretty boring, driving them away. And promoters get stuck in a cycle where they are unable to take risks in order to fill their venues.

Ironically, if promoters really wanted to have a steady income from running a night they would be better off building a night with a decent music policy. Getting trust from people who would come along every week/month almost regardless of who was playing because they love it.

All IMVHO btw

It's a fact of life that promoters look for acts who will bring people to the night. Promoters are the ones footing the bill, after all.

With that said, there aren't too many problems around here with shit DJs being booked entirely to bring people through the door. Maybe I just get lucky with the nights I go to.

The OP obviously has no experience when it comes to throwing parties.

happens everywhere! america the land of greed has it just as bad dude but some places have risen up against it. at the club where my residency is at we give a long hard thought to who should open for who, both style wise, respect wise, pull wise etc. A lot of the big DJs compliment us on it, we program things correctly. Now from the OP note i can only say that i think a lot of promoters who aren't DJs have no idea what they're doing when they book locals. They don't know that a tech house DJ would be good to open for a big room house DJ or that one style fits better before another. It's just igornance on their part but i've witnessed a couple realy big DJs complain to the promoter about the opening DJ being "out of line". Promoters have a huge responsability doing "artist releations" and keeping these big artists happy so they come back to them and want to play for them again, all it takes is for a few bad circumstances for that DJ to go play for the competition.

All you have to do is look at the twitter feed of a lot of these DJs, Dubfire played for another club in San Diego last year and on his twitter he wrote "the douchebag playing before myself & Davide [Squallace] is playing the worst commercial garbage ever". Show that to the promoter and they're all ears on how to correct and remedy it in the future.

In most places ticket sales>talent. It's sad but it's the nature of business.

quote:

Originally posted by idoru The OP obviously has no experience when it comes to throwing parties.

Yep.

Just go throw a party where you have to invest a couple grand of your own money into it and all your questions will be answered.

It is a sad state... esp with proliferation of 'laptop DJs' that clearly have zero DJing skills but a jukebox.

If you want to get noticed, start producing. It's pretty much only way you'll get noticed

worst part of the scene unfortunately. i agree with others, i understand it, but hate to get tied into it. try to avoid as best i can.

quote:

Originally posted by Yohan It is a sad state... esp with proliferation of 'laptop DJs' that clearly have zero DJing skills but a jukebox. If you want to get noticed, start producing. It's pretty much only way you'll get noticed

Richie Hawtin, Chris Liebing, Dubfire = laptop DJs

Don't think that's the problem.


Let's be honest for a second - good DJs are a dime a dozen these days; and so are shit DJs that bring a ton of people. Believe it or not promoters do care about talent (some much more than others) - but I don't care who it is when it's your money on the line breaking even is always priority number one. Nobody wants to book a lazy local who won't put the word out to help make the night a success, and if you want to stand out (without producing) focus on both being a fantastic DJ that brings a lot of people. End of story.

Laptop DJ is just a phrase people throw around without actually meaning "a dj with a laptop", which I think is silly. The only people that still shit talk laptops are the ones that haven't actually used one yet. And I don't mean looking over someone's shoulder as they're playing, I mean tried & tested at an actual gig with people.

Back on topic:
I've been trying my hand at throwing my own parties over the past few months and I can say that as long as you don't lose too much money, you're doing alright

That said, if you're trying to build a brand then there's no room for compromise. Take the hit for the first few months and really stick it out, get your name out there. Let people know and understand the kind of night you're trying to build and it will work out. Or not. Kind of depends on your market

quote:

Originally posted by Yohan It is a sad state... esp with proliferation of 'laptop DJs' that clearly have zero DJing skills but a jukebox. If you want to get noticed, start producing. It's pretty much only way you'll get noticed

Rubbish.

quote:

Originally posted by Teezdalien Rubbish.

Only some of it is. He does have a point about the production side. If you really want to get somewhere today you really have to contribute back in some way. Start a night, start a label, make music, do something other than DJ because unfortunately, anyone can do it nowadays whether or not their taste level is up to snuff.

quote:

Originally posted by bas Only some of it is. He does have a point about the production side. If you really want to get somewhere today you really have to contribute back in some way. Start a night, start a label, make music, do something other than DJ because unfortunately, anyone can do it nowadays whether or not their taste level is up to snuff.

That's actually a good point about putting on events. I didn't regard production in that sense in my initial post. In my experience, you don't need to be making music if you're throwing good parties.

quote:

Originally posted by idoru The OP obviously has no experience when it comes to throwing parties.

Why?

Ive been running my own monthly bi/monthly night for over 2 years

I have had 1 release a couple of years ago- and its pretty shit - i also sell tickets to gigs im booked to play - so i would classify myself as a promoter dj!

I was just asking if its the same the world over.

Surely with Dubfire/Digweed n Vath on the bill that would be enough to get the club full and you could put on a more qualified dj to do warm up duties?

I've actually found that to be the case - when it comes to true A-list guys promoters usually do rely more on tried and trusted DJs for quality sound than numbers. Problem is those DJs most likely got their foot in the door through the numbers initially.. Nobody walks into a John Digweed opening gig without paying their dues.

yeah I've already abandoned a facebook account because I moved cities a couple times and it just gets spammed so friggin hard every weekend that I can't handle it.

Every goddammed party in 3 cities, every time there is a party, ugh

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse Surely with Dubfire/Digweed n Vath on the bill that would be enough to get the club full and you could put on a more qualified dj to do warm up duties?

Because your bar is open during the warm-up set. The more packed the venue, the more money the venue takes in at the bar. The venue will always love that and, assuming that this is a venue that gives a cut of the bar to promoters, it means more money back to them. It puts the promoter in good standing with the venue ("Fuck, the guy that threw the show here last week couldn't get 50 people until 11:30, but last night there were 100 by 10:30!") and it allows the promoter the ability to continue doing what they're doing.

surely like the promoter who is running the night should be the one who creating the buzz to get people there early instead of getting some 18 year old kid with very little djing experience but a few 'up for it friends' ?

the whole sell tickets to dj thing seems really amway and small minded to me. Surely the promo teams are the ones who should be selling tickets whilse dj's are left to do what they are paid for - play good tunes well?

do you get the lighting guy, security and bar staff to sell tickets as well?

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