Well, something's been botherring me lately. When I d/l a live set and listen to it, most tracks (if not all) I've never heard them before and I see all those people knowing at least a bunch of them and some saying it's old stuff and the dj should have played newer/unknown stuff. So I realised I have to catch up with the new releases, how do you guys get the new/hot stuff before it gets old? How do u keep up-to-date.

go shopping as often as possible and buying everything off the wall

i went rek shopping last week and i left the wall bear

oh...make good friends with the people working at the rek shop and they'll hook you up with stuff before it comes out

i go down to the few records stores we have here 2 or 3 times a week and always pick up a fair amount before they even reach the shelves :P i order in a fair bit also (only way to stay fresh down under) :|

Well, that's nice advise but the only vinyl store around here only brings in new vinyl once every few months and not in big quantities Does anyone find that charts help in staying up to date? I personally hate charts, you download 20 tracks and 19 suck and the other one is a very medium one

i go to online record stores (only-djs.com / juno.co.uk etc) like everyday and listen to all of the new releases there then make up a wanted list take it down to a store and see what they can do.

here in perth we have a similar, if not worse problem than u.. we dont get new releases til they are like months old everywhere else and have been played to death by every bigname dj.
The trance section in most of the stores, at the best times is only around 20 or so tunes.. and most of the time there just the shit ones noone wants..

Just ask here or go to the latest records bought thread. Then go find those songs either on the singles section of this site, or AG or Kazaa. Then you can order what you want.

I find my music by internet! These forums are a great place to start. A lot of people have their favs in their sig file and there are literally hundreds of posts on what tracks are hot. Try getting those tracks. Listen to trance radio (like digitallyimported.com) that have playlists. That way you can hear the tracks first before you buy them. search cdnow.com or amazon.com for new releases, famous dj's tracklists etc. There are so many small record labels that have top ten etc lists of unheard of tracks/artists. Other djs have websites with setlists up and top track lists, one is dj greed at http://djgreed.dhs.org/top10.htm You can simply do searchs for top track lists etc. that's how I found Dj Greed's site. Satelliterecords.com lets you listen to tracks first. Also try getting other tracks by the artists that you like now. Look for tracks that are remixed by good people. I don't think that there is a remix by Lange that I don't like!

All this stuff is common sense, but you have to be willing to spend the time and the money to go and do it! I spend 15+ hours a week doing nothing by flipping through tracks that I've found! And the rate that I'm getting new ones is quicker than the rate at which I can listen to them!

if the tracks I play are really new or prutty old doesnt really matters to me...
Here in sweden almost noone knows anything about the trance scene or anything like that. So I play records that I like and the the people like to dance t0.
When I broadcast radio here on the local radio station, I try to play new stuff all the time. If I cant find it on vinyl, I burn it down on a cd ...
To stay fresh i check sites like someone said earlier, juno.co.uk and things like that. I check the few vinylshops here in Stockholm as often possibe.

thanx guyz, nice tips