DJ with Big Goals - My Story So Far

[MaxwellBanks]

Hey guys,

As the title said I'm a DJ with big goals. I started DJing in 2008 and music is one of my big passions and although the music industry is suffering financially, as they said "If you are a valuable commodity no matter what industry you're in you'll always be in demand."

I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

DJing at the start is not glamrous at all, I played a lot of garbage gigs that never got me anywhere, I thought it would get my name out there but that's a load of BS.

I had a DJ Partner but most of his gigs were pretty garbage so I pretty much networked while I was working with him to try to find better things. Pretty much how people look for other jobs while still working at their current job.

I met a promoter via Facebook of all places and he he gave me a room at a big nightclub and I promoted a small event with a few people. It wasn't as great as I wanted it to be but I learned a lot of valuable things that I otherwise wouldn't have learned if I didn't do things on my own.

I got a team together, got designers for flyers made the tickets, I pretty much did everything myself. Which is pretty much being a leader and an entrepreneur in a sense.

The one thing that stuck out was I realized who my real friends were and sadly I realize I didn't really have that many.

Long story short I'm in a tight knit small university business program which is pretty much a high school where everybody knew everybody and what they were doing.

People found out I was learning how to DJ and people thought I was a joke didn't take me seriously. I had some other people who supported my DJing endeavours and so I thought.

Finally got my big club gig and only a few came out which was pretty pathetic. I thought they be proud of me and support me but I guess not.

As the saying goes "people will help you when you're starting out because it's the thing to do, but once you're excelling too fast people want to pull you back down again"

As my current situation stands I'm Djing this event on Valentine's Day, I'm working with some big local DJs and one that's big nationally. I'm not the main guy just opening or closing the night.

I ain't getting paid much either and I've already had a taste of entrepreneurship I can make a lot more doing my own thing then working under somebody else, however it's a lot more risk but as they said high risk high reward.

In addition it's good for the resume/portfolio so I might be able to cut better deals when doing my own thing later on

I know for a fact I need to promote and throw my own parties to excel at a rate I want to go.

I'm only 20 (Legal Drinking age is 19 in Canada) and currently in 3rd year, next year is my last year of University so when you look at it that way I don't have a lot of time. Once I graduate I'm going to need a job and as much as I hate to say this when a full time job takes over you don't have much time to fully committ to other things. In my opinion anyway.

In the future I want be a DJ/Producer maybe run my own media promotional company, run my own record label, there's a lot of things I could do with this DJ thing. It's never good to solely concentrate on one thing but use that thing to elevate you into different fields/opportunities.

Any Thoughts or ideas of what I should do next?
Thanks

[mtnjkwe]

Hey dude, I have been browsing this forum and I came across this guy from Canada who has set up an online business for DJ's in order to help promote them . I think you should give him a go , you never know? I dont remember his name but heres the site www.submise.com

Hope it helps

[Lukas]

Hey dude, I have been browsing this forum and I came across this guy from Canada who has set up an online business for DJ's in order to help promote them . I think you should give him a go , you never know? I dont remember his name but heres the site www.submise.com

Hope it helps

Thanks so much for posting this, you beat me to the chase. Yes, my site is http://submise.com, and it is a DJ promotion site.

You can contact me VIA the site, msn (lukaslarsson@submise.com) or, VIA e-mail, lukaslarsson@submise.com.

I may be changing the way the company operates, which would benefit you, if you joined, even more so.

I'd be much interested to talk with you.

Thanks;
~Lukas

[Aletheides]

The best DJs have large followings, find out how to build a large following and you will command bigger paydays. Study those that do, how can you emulate their success?

[MaxwellBanks]

The best DJs have large followings, find out how to build a large following and you will command bigger paydays. Study those that do, how can you emulate their success?

I know a DJ who's 24 years old and won Club DJ of the Year for Canada and one of the youngest to do it.

He told me he just rented out venues and packed and promoted the club himself.

While doing that he would work on other side projects, such as mixtapes that have received a lot of downloads and awards.

Bottom line is I know what to do to succeed at a fast rate, however there's big monetary risk and all that jazz lol, so I'm just trying to see my options and see what's up.