This post is going to dig through some of those DJ books that explores the world of DJing and may offer you a tip or two about the industry as a whole.

If you’ve got a bit of extra money on hand and want to sit down and read a good book than you might like one of these:

On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide

Description: With On the Record, Scratch DJ Academy, the premiere institution for DJ education, brings together years of training and expertise to create an authoritative guide to the dynamic art of DJing.  More than just a “how-to,” this is a sonic adventure, guiding you through forty years of music, creativity, and culture.  From beat matching to body tricks, Grandmaster Flash to Fatboy Slim, the Bronx to Ibiza, On the Record is an all-in-one guide.

Find it in Paperback or Kindle Edition

The Mobile DJ Handbook: How to Start & Run a Profitable Mobile Disc Jockey Service

Description: The Mobile DJ Handbook, Second Edition continues to be an excellent guide for novice and experienced DJs looking to build a successful career as the owner-operator of a mobile disc jockey service. Complete with practical tips, expert advice, and creative strategies, this book serves as the perfect guide on how to market and sell your services as well as develop and expand your business.

Find it in Paperback or Kindle Edition

The Laptop DJ Handbook: Setups and Techniques of the Modern Performer

Description: THE LAPTOP DJ HANDBOOK presents the ever-evolving DJ world with a fresh approach to redefining what it means to be a DJ in the digital world. You’ll learn to harness all the hardware, software, and musical options available through helpful explanations, tutorials, and examples.

Find it in Paperback or Kindle Edition

DJ Skills: The essential guide to Mixing and Scratching

Description: From scratching and mixing skills to the latest trends in DVD and video mixing this book gives you access to all the tools, tips and techniques you need. Topics like hand position are taught in a completely new way, and close-up photos of famous DJ’s hands are featured. As well as the step-by-step photos the book includes an audio CD to demonstrate techniques.

Find it in Paperback or Kindle Edition

How to DJ Right: The Art and Science of Playing Records

Description: How to DJ is the perfect guide — from the most basic keys to establishing a music collection and a distinctive sound, to elementary record-spinning, to the complex skills of scratching, hot-mixing, and beat-juggling, as well as the inimitable art of creating an evening of sound that is perfectly timed, balanced, and unforgettable.

Find it in Paperback or Kindle Edition

So, why go with a DJ book when you could just be practicing? Well, like anything – it comes down to education. If you can gain an edge over others through how the big boys got there than I think that’s a good thing especially when you’re competing with others on landing the gig. You may not want to dig through all of these books but it may be worth the investment on your bookshelf.

What we’ll be using is Photoshop but you can certainly use a program such as GIMP or an editor website like Pixlr.com to get the job done.

I’m not gonna say that this is going to be the prettiest logo design but I hope that it gets your mind going into what you’d like if you get one professionally done for your DJ business cards, flyers or whatever else you may be putting your name on.

Let’s make this simple, with lots of pictures, easy text and to the point:

Step 1: Open Photoshop and create a 600px by 300px work area.

Step 2: Snag a good font and type in your DJ name.

If you need some free fonts, visit DaFont.com and install them to your ‘font’ directory on your computer.

Step 3: Right Click and select the Blending Options.

The blending options will let you play around with the design of the object (your text/name) so you can change the color, outline and everything. Play with the features in this area until you find something that fits your own style.

Step 4: Add some stylization to your DJ name

For the design I was doing for ‘DJ Muxx’, I did:

• Inner Shadow > Distance: 1 > Size: 1 > Color: Black
• Inner Glow > Color: Gray
• Gradient Overlay > Dark Gray to Mid Gray
• Stroke > Color: Black > Size: 10px

These are all really simple DIY elements that I picked up from doing web design but overall, it came out halfway decent even if it’s a placeholder for now. I suggest that you play around with it or hand it off to a designer friend to have them critique the look – they could maybe touch it up for you.

Step 5: Export it

Here’s the result when I saved the file. I also recommend that you save the PSD so you can easily make edits to it down the line without having to work with a JPEG or PNG image – makes it easier.

Conclusion

Welp, this wasn’t the most robust guide but it’s straight and to the point. If you don’t have the money to hire a designer do to the DJ logo for your business and name than you could always do it yourself using some of these tips otherwise, pony up a bit of money and have it professionally done. Hope this helps!

After all, it’s the music that you play that ultimately shows off your skills but playing the same tracks or ones that are overused time and time again will get you nowhere. Okay, here are five websites and resources where you can find new DJ resources …

Beatport

Beatport is one of the largest websites where you can find new DJ music releases. There are thousands of tracks loaded on Beatport for a great price but more importantly, it’s an excellent source to dig through what artists are releasing every day – you can even sort by genre or browse by charts.

Juno

Juno may seem a little cluttered but it’s packed with DJ tracks and new releases every day. Pretty much every genre of electronic music is represented on Juno and they help you find great tunes through charts, streams of new releases, breaking things up into genre’s and even having a section for new releases. Tracks are generally around $1 a pop where as albums will fetch you around $10 – $15 (sometimes more – the usual, ya know).

Discogs

Discogs is less of a website to find new DJ music releases as it’s more about finding out ALL of the releases of artists, groups and bands. However, the front page displays the most recent additions to the database and is infinitely helpful for digging deeper into a genre. The best feature, on Discogs, is the ability to browse albums and tracks by an artist (even under aliases) as well as through record labels which is very handy when you find a label that continually produces amazing tunes.

Amazon Hot Releases

Amazon, as you know, has millions of items but did you know they also cover new releases through their ‘hot releases’ feed? Yeah, it’s pretty good overall because it shows the top sellers, top rated, most gifted and more which can not only get you some excellent albums but also tells what people are enjoying which is great for when you’re trying to find hot tunes to play on the dance floor. You can trust Amazon all the way because they’ve been around for what seems like an eternity (web time, that is).

DJDownload

DJDownload is broken up into multiple search options so you can find new releases, best of’s, top 100’s and more throughout the year. The search feature is very handy in the New Release page where you can break down your search into options like ‘Today’, ‘Last 7 Days’, ‘Last 30 Days’ and more which is very helpful when you can’t quite identify when a track came out but know around which time of the month it was dropped. The tracks on DJDownload are a bit higher than the other websites but the selection is still top notch.

And, of course …

Use your noggin’. If you’ve found BeginnerDJ using the web than you probably know how to navigate around and find new DJ tracks online. Search engines are your friend, my friend. Also, find blogs that cover music releases – they’re very helpful. Ask your friends or browse Youtube (lots of great releases there). In all, use the web to your advantage OR swing by a local music shop and ask what’s up.

Don’t worry because a lot of people get to a point where they can’t quite figure out what to call themselves. Coming up with a DJ name is a little stressful because it’s going to be what people call you by and you don’t really change it down the line after you start to become successful – of course, you could always.

So, I found a couple DJ name generators online that could potentially help kick up a few ideas for your DJ name, check them out …

(Click on the pictures to jump to the websites)

As I had outlined in How to Choose a DJ Name, the one tip that seemed to work the best with people is to just go off your nick name. Sometimes, we don’t like our nick names but it really does stick and fit. There’s usually a good story behind a nickname too which could add a bit more story to your DJ name whenever someone asks you what’s up.

You don’t really need to rely on tools to come up with your DJ name; just use them to kick around ideas and draw up inspiration. Most of the DJ name generators are more or less just novelty but people seem to be searching for them all the time so I figured it would be good to put them all under one roof.

Kick around some ideas with your friends and see which seems to stand out. Many DJ’s didn’t even bother with a name until people started calling them what they wanted – maybe that could work for you too – hell, just use your given name for the meantime and come up with a DJ name down the line when you start to experiment with music production or something.

Anyway, hope you found this post helpful. Share it with others if you know they’re looking to figure out a DJ name as well.

Music brings the world together which is why you’ve probably have kicked around the idea of creating your own music from time to time.

This article explores the top five programs to do just that: make music …

Why DJ’s need to Make Music

Seeing that this is a DJ blog, you’re probably in the mindset of why music production should be something in your “skill portfolio”. Well, since you’re going to be playing music with your DJ skills, you might as well make the music you’re playing.

Having your own catalog of music puts you in a greater control over your mixes and also gives you the chance to gain a lot more traction in the DJ world because people will be playing your music which will instantly pull attention your way.

Finally, since you know what type of music works in the DJ world, you can create some really killer tracks for your audience and really pull some heads (and ears) when other DJ’s drop your tracks.

Top 5 Music Production Software

Here we are on the list; let’s take a look at the music programs that many DJ’s and music producers use to create those awesome songs we all love to hear.

FL Studio

When it was first released, it was named Fruity Loops which made it come across as a “toy” for music producers because it lacked many features that people were looking for. Likewise, a ton of people were making music using the built-in samples which made it very amateur.

However, Fruity Loops got a rebranding and major overhaul which turned it into FL Studio. FL Studio is now jam-packed with almost all the features you’d look for when making music. The interface is very simple, you can create your own synths, work on the mastering and more.

If you’re just getting started with music production than FL Studio is a pretty great place to learn the ropes; especially since it can cost you less than $100.

Learn more: Check out FL Studio

Reason 5

Reason, by Propellerhead, is one of the better high-end music production software tools available on the market. The music program comes packed with a massive amount of built in tools like synthesizers, drum machines, EQ’s, sampling and more. Out of the list, Reason is my favorite because it’s basically like a music studio in a box

What makes Reason 5 stand out is that you can add in “fills” that are more-or-less templates for the tools in the program so, for example, you could instantly have a grand piano with real samples or add a TB-303 fill that gives you that excellent acid house sound. The fills are really cheap so it’s like buying a new instrument for a few dollars but complete with the actual sounds and structure.

Reason 5 starts out at just under $300 which is a little expensive but is still a great price for essentially having a complete studio (with gear).

Learn more: Check out Reason 5

Cubase

Cubase is the king of music production software; in my opinion. Cubase isn’t so much a music tool as it’s more of a complete system because it relies heavily on recording, editing and mixing music. Rather than just creating music, Cubase is used heavily for the actual structuring and completion of music tracks; however, it does have a ton of VST’s, virtual instruments, which you can use to make music right in the software.

Cubase, in some ways, will remind you of video editing software. Rather than having a UI that looks like a musical instrument, you have a UI of bars and segments that are your individual musical instruments. Cubase is, perhaps, the most professional tool on the list because it’s use in many studios around the world.

For about $400, Cubase is expensive compared to the others on the list but what you’re buying is everything all-included; it won’t matter what type of music you’re creating because Cubase will handle it.

Learn more: Check out Cubase 5

ProTools

ProTools was the Mac equivalent of Cubase but is now available on the Windows platform. Like Cubase, ProTools is essentially a studio-in-a-box, complete with editing software, effects and controllers for mastering your tracks.

I haven’t personally used ProTools but I do know that it’s used by many music producers especially on the Mac. ProTools is a little expensive, running about $500, and you’re mostly working with your own music instruments so you may need to make additional investments into your music production. Either way, ProTools is a great start for music production especially since it’s one of the biggest pieces of software used in the industry.

Learn more: Check out ProTools

Ableton Live

Finally, we have Ableton Live. Ableton Live is a bit different in terms of music production software; it’s mainly used for live performances and live mashups because it allows you to add and edit midi clips, on the fly, while you’re playing.

However, people have found out ways to make really great music with Ableton Live and not just on-the-fly in front of an audience which puts it on our list. The software is a little expensive, running at just under $500, but in terms of pricing, it’s perfect for those just getting started because it’s one of the easier pieces of music production software to learn. Once you’ve got the hang of Ableton, you can always shift onto other programs on the list or rock it, live, in front of people.

Learn more: Check out Ableton Live

A DJ business is still a business; if you treat it like a hobby than you’ll only get paid hobby pay (generally nothing). If you’re serious about making a living off DJing through a mobile DJ business than you’ve got to make sure you’re getting paid.

Here’s how to do it right …

First: What is your Time Worth?

What do you think your time is worth? I’m not talking about how much people have paid you in the past because let’s face it; some job paying you $6.00 an hour to stand around and tend a cash register really isn’t what you should base your pay from. Instead, what do you really think your time is worth; what kind of skills do you have that warrant that price?

Here are a few things you should consider with your DJ service pricing:

• How long did it take for you to learn your DJing?
• How much money have you invested in the gear?
• How much do you need to make per gig to provide for yourself?
• How much does other skill based professions pay for your line of duty?
• How much are you paying to travel around to your gigs?

See how things are starting to add up? If you only charged $200 for a gig but forgot that you’ve just spent $50 on gas than you’re not really taking away a lot of money. Also, you probably picked up a few drinks or supplies before going so cut that down even more.

You need to factor in how much you think your time is worth based on how much you need to make to survive along with a bit of extra money for personal entertainment. Measure in your expertise and what you’re bringing to the table when you do your services.

Bonus: FreelanceSwitch’s Freelance Calculator is a great place to help you understand all the little expenses you are paying to operate and what you need to be making in order to survive in the DJ business. You can check out the calculator here.

Second: What are Competitors Pricing?

Let’s do a bit of espionage, let’s take a look at your competitors and figure out what they’re charging people so we can figure out your own pricing.

Here’s a dirty little trick: call up your competitors and act like you’re someone holding a party, ask how much their pricing is and viola! You’ve got yourself some inside information.

Is this a little shady? Maybe, but you’re in business and you need to know what the industry is like, in your area, so you’re not selling yourself too short and you’re no charging so much that you’re scaring people away.

Browse around and try to find your DJ competitor’s webstie. See if they have a client list and call up these people to ask about their services; again, pose as an interested party that’s looking for a good DJ.

Find out what type of gear the DJ’s are bringing to the table and what other forms of entertainment they provide that you may be lacking; this will obviously let them charge a higher price for their services.

In all, create a spreadsheet of your competitors in the local market so you can find that sweet spot for landing gigs.

Third: What kind of Gig is it?

When you’re first starting out, you’ll be excited as hell just to land any gig but in time, running a DJ business, you’ll realize that different gigs pay different rates. If you’re only charging the same rate no matter what you’re playing at than you’re missing out on a ton of money you could be getting for your DJ services.

For example, you shouldn’t charge the same rate for wedding’s as you would for a small bar; there’s a huge difference here in how much people are willing to pay for services. People having weddings are doing it once (usually) so they want to make sure they’re getting true value in their DJ; they’re ready to pay big bucks for the perfect DJ for their special event. Bar owners, on the other hand, may just want some background music so they aren’t really paying for your skills, they’re paying for you to be a jukebox in some form or another.

By pricing your services flat across the board, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Scale your DJ services based on who is contacting you and for what event. Obviously charge more for big events like business parties or weddings and be flexible when it’s something small like a church meetup or some bar gig. Hey, no one said that every gig is glamorous but they all can be profitable if you’re smart about your business.

Fourth: Are you actually Professional?

Finally, ask yourself is you’re professional. Are you just showing up with some gear and slapping everything together to play a bit of music or are you bringing something unique to the table that warrants the prices you charge?

I don’t know about you but if I were having a wedding I’m not going to pay for some DJ that’s just going to have a computer running off to the side; I’d want a DJ that will make announcements, look professional, have dance instructors and much more because it’s such a big event.

If you’re not bringing anything more to the table while you competitors are than you obviously aren’t going to bring in as much money for your DJ services. A small investment in DJ tables, lighting and accessories (although a little corny) can be the big difference in landing clients that are ready to pay top dollar.

Look the part, get paid the part; plain and simple. Treat your business like an actual business, bring something awesome to the table and people will pay for the extras.

Final Thoughts

I know you may be thinking that your DJing is a passion and you feel a bit bad for charging so much for it but remember that you need food on the table too! Hell, half the gigs you’ll be playing for are already dropping tons of money especially if you’re doing wedding gigs; don’t be the one person that is so ridiculously cheap that you miss out on getting paid what you’re worth. Take what you’ve learned in this post and go back through your services and pricing to see if they pair up with what you need to be making in order to keep DJing; that’s all.

We’re in the 21^st century dammit! I want to listen to music wherever I go. I want to hear music that isn’t on the radio!

I know you’re the same which is why I put together this awesome list of 15+ places where you can listen to free music online.

Awwwww yeah, bring on the list!

Grooveshark – Grooveshark lets you listen to free music online in a really clean fashion. You can search and find pretty much anything you’re look for, create a play list, hit play and sit back to enjoy. I really like Grooveshark which makes it part of my top 3 list, easily. This one’s definitely checking out.

DI.fm – DI.fm takes the cake at my party because of the uber selection of electronic music dance channels. Not only can you find just about every genre but what I like the most about DI is that they let the little guy take over the radio waves; you don’t have super ego DJ’s that control everything. You can tune into some of the most obscure mixes, talk with people in the forums and discover a whole bunch of great music while you’re at it.

Pandora – Pandora is the most known, probably, out of this list. It’s a music recommendation engine that let’s you listen to the music you want and helps find new tracks you may be interested in based on your preferred type of music. Usually I like to listen to exactly what I want but it’s always great to hear something new.

Youtube – If you really want to listen to tracks than look no further than Youtube. Although Youtube is a video sharing site you can find just about any track under the sun; leave it to the Internet to upload music in masse. I’ve found the most obscure stuff on Youtube that I couldn’t find anywhere else; thanks internet.

Blip.fm – Blip.fm is a pretty awesome music service that takes its own spin by adding a social layer. Songs you like can be shared with your friends on Twitter and a few other services (sometimes this gets annoying) but otherwise you can get your music on and jam out.

Last.fm – Last.fm is where it’s at; you can listen to all kinds of music, share it with your friends, create a profile and track your songs. The songs you listen to, even when linked up to your other players and accounts, will let you discover new artists along the same genre. So, you’ve got music discovery and music streaming; that’s awesome.

Yahoo Music – A little mainstream but Yahoo Music has got you covered when you want to listen to some of the more mainstream music and stations that you’d find on the radio. You can get active on the music service if you have a Yahoo account too.

Maestro.fm – Okay, it’s not so much a music streaming service but you can make it into one. Maestro is a cloud storage slash music sharing service where you can share your music with friends. Upload your music, link to your friends and you’ve got a pretty awesome collection of music if you create a big network.

Spotify – Spotify took some time to clear up their legal battles with coming to the U.S. audience but they’re all ready to launch. Although the service is still in invite-only mode you should definitely sign up because this is going to change up the free music game.

TheSixtyOne – An indie artists’ dream, thesixtyone, is a music discovery site that lets people rate music that you won’t exactly hear on the radio; scratch that, you won’t be hearing this stuff on the radio but it’s awesome in its own ways because you get away from the commercial dribble and back to the roots of music.

Shoutcast – Shoutcast, by Winamp, has been around forever but is still rockin’. You’ve got thousands of music stations at your fingertips and even some video if you want to see concert footage and music videos. If you don’t feel like visiting a website you can grab the URL and plug it into Winamp, stream from there and listen your little ears off.

Soundcloud – Soundcloud is a beast when it comes to streaming music. You’ve got all kinds of producers uploading exclusive tracks, mixes and more. You won’t really find a lot of commercial music here but you get all that you can handle from the indie producers.

Live365 – Streaming radio stations? Check. Free music? Check. Live365 definitely makes the list. Live365 is an online radio directory where you can find a massive amount of great stations all over the world covering every type of genre you need.

RadioTuna – I got to beta test RadioTuna a while back and I really love their service. They aggregate music stations all into one place which works wonders when you can just search for a music genre and have a doze or more stations pop up. You can even listen to the stations in your browser, pretty awesome!

Deezer – Gah! The French are taking over! Well, if they take over music and make it awesome than I’m fine with that which is exactly what Deezer has done. Music, albums, more music, you’ve gotta check out this site to see if it fits into your arsenal of free music sites.

Myspace Music – Yeah, you know that old social network that you used to use and then jumped ship to Facebook? Well, while you were away Myspace did a huge launch in terms of music for a ton of artists that didn’t want to give up their pages. So, this means you can find all kinds of free music on the site; support the small artist yo!

Megaupload – Well, this one is a bit of a gray area but you can certainly find free music here. Don’t rush off to download commercial music cause you’ll get your butt in the can but don’t dismiss Megaupload right away because you can find a ton of royalty free music out there.

So there ya have it. More music streaming sites and services than you can shake a stick at. When you’re looking for free music online you might as well do it this way; get it instantly and rock on!

All that hard work of collecting, sorting, buying and downloading has gone to waste. Having this happen to you is one of the worst feelings in the world – especially for musicians and DJ’s.

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to deal with this heart ache because there are plenty of amazing online backup tools and services; here’s the list …

#1: Mozy

Mozy is an online backup tool for just about everything and the best part is that it’s automatic. Once you setup your account and set the files you wish to backup it will take care of the process and always make sure that the files are uploaded to the cloud storage.

Mozy takes a bit of time to go through your files at first but once they’re up there you won’t have to update unless something is changed. Combined the automatic service with encryption and your files are pretty damn safe.

The only problem with Mozy is that it’s sometimes too much; it’s a little costly if you don’t plan to do huge backups. Likewise, since it’s automatic there are chances where you may overwrite some of your files if you’re not careful.

Check out Mozy here.

#2: Dropbox

Dropbox has long since been my favorite online backup tool. I can’t begin to tell you how many times it’s saved my butt when something goes wrong on my computer and files get deleted. I always make sure to have my backups in my Dropbox and sync it to another computer just incase.

Dropbox, in short, lets you setup a folder where you can drag and drop files so they sync between computers running the software along with uploading to the central cloud server. Even if your computer crashes you will have multiple areas where you can snag your music and files.

Dropbox lets you start with a free 2GB of storage and then you begin to pay. 2GB is quite a bit of music when you think about it so it’ll be perfect for all those really prized tracks that you can’t find anywhere else. You can also get up to 8GB of storage if you invite others to sign up (just like in the link below, yay!).

Sign up for Dropbox here.

#3: Carbonite

Carbonite comes in at number three but certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not as powerful as the others. Carbonite offers the same type of services but it’s a little more simplified with unlimited storage and automatic backup.

Carbonite is a bit more business related but it should work out for mobile DJ’s that completely rely on their music for their business. The one problem with Carbonite is that you’re restricted to a single computer with their service which kind of sucks if you have a laptop and desktop.

In all, Carbonite is a good solution if you need to backup your music online and need a lot to go into the cloud.

Check out Carbonite here.

Why backup your music online?

Before we go, I wanted to remind you why backing up your music online using one of these tools is a good idea for musicians and DJ’s.

• You don’t have to mess with hard drives – When a hard drive crashes you’re pretty much out of luck unless you spend a ton of money on restoration services. Online backup tools let you bypass this because all of your data is saved in the cloud.

• Keep things organized – Suppose you backup your music on CD’s; well, now you have to sort through hundreds if you need to get all your music back on which can be a real headache if you didn’t label them correctly.

• It’s really cheap, actually – The price of online storage continues to decrease which means that in a year or two you will have larger storage than if you just went out and bought an external hard drive. More users mean that these companies can offer up more to their customers.

I’m not gonna make the choice for you but believe me – it sucks when you lose all of your music and need to start again. Backup your best music online and you’ll be thanking yourself later if anything happens.

Dropbox

I use Dropbox for a variety of projects at work because it allows you to sync files and folders between multiple computers on the fly while additionally backing up the same files to a central server. This handy tool can also be used to backup a portion of your music collection.

There are three versions of Dropbox currently available:

• Free – 2GB (and goes up with additional people you refer)

• $9.99 /mo – 50GB of storage

• $19.99 /mo – 100GB of storage

To the hardcore collector; this may not be enough but those that are a bit more selective of your collections; it’s really perfect. You could drop all of your music into your Dropbox folder at home and then have it all synced up, ready to go whenever you get to a party or wherever you may be off to.

Google Docs

If you wan’t a seriously amazing deal than look no further than Google Docs. Sure, you may think it’s just for business but what you’re really getting (when starting out) is 1 Gig of storage. But here’s the kicker: you can upgrade to 20 Gigs for just $5 bucks a year! That’s some seriously cheap storage; plus, you probably already have a Google account.

Amazon S3

I use Amazon S3 for a few of my other web projects and I can stay that it’s awesome as hell. When you’re running websites; it can be taxing on your bandwidth when you factor in all the media that needs to load. But that’s besides the point – the real area where this shines is the ability to upload your own files and access them anywhere with a computer connection. Prices are very cheap and since it’s through Amazon, you know it’s ace.

SugarSync

SugarSync is just like Dropbox with synchronization and everything but the free version starts you off with 5GB instead of the normal 2GB. 5 Gigs of music will hold over any DJ (as long as you’re not loading it all down with FLAC) – you could even sync up a bunch of your mixes and tracks to share with your friends without having to send requests and invites through FTPs, Instant Messengers and other programs.

Get crafty

If you want to get a bit crafty, you could always sign up to a few of these services along with your friends and essentially daisy chain them all together. If you’ve got other friends with a ton of great music (uhh, legal of course), than you can make an uber collection.

Seriously, there’s a lot of them

This post listed a few of the online backup services where you could put your DJ music collection but it doesn’t end here; there are plenty of other of services such as Mozy, your own FTP, MediaFire and more.

If your business is DJing than you’ll want to keep your collection safe and sound. Even as a collector, it’s a good thing to make a few backups just incase something goes wrong with your computer. Consider a few of these services if you want to easily share your tracks and always have a backup on hand in the event of a disastorous day.

If you would like to guest post on BeginnerDJ, please visit guest post page.

Creating your own beats is of course a great hobby and a perfect way of entertaining your own self.

You can learn how to produce music within the comfort of your own home and do not necessarily have to spend a fortune on mastering the art from a professional studio. All you need is a passion for learning and access to a computer to start off and you with a little dedication, you can make your own music in no time.

There are many types of software that make the task of making music simpler.

Moreover there are a good number of websites that offer excellent tips and online resources to master the art of making music.

If you can invest some time and money into online lessons, then you could also be well on your way to making quality music. These can be an effective and inexpensive way of becoming a part of the ever growing music industry.

Here are the ten best websites that you can use as resources for learning music production.

Sonic Producer

This website will guide you on using the Sonic Producer software to make beats with thousands of sounds. The software is user friendly and it is really possible to learn how best to use different instruments to make music.

MusicProducerPro.com

This is another site which helps you to produce hip hop beats and guides you on every step through easily understandable and explanatory videos. You can learn a lot from about 10 hours of production lessons on video that comes along with a membership at the site.

The Indie-Music Network

This is also a great site for those who are serious about learning how to produce music. The site offers helpful tips on using Sonic Producer. The website has extremely informative articles on creating, selling and producing your own music.

Learnmusicguide.com

This website is perfectly suited for those who live and dream music. They have music producer lessons which contain step by step instructions on making the music of your choice.

RedBullMusicAcademy.com

This site is an excellent resource for those who simply love to make music. The portal is replete with interviews, plenty of videos of the lecturers and discussions about music production and more.

Audio Tuts+

This is also a very informative website which has useful tips on making music, mixing, the best music players and more.

Berkleemusic.com

The Berklee College of Music has been the undisputed leader in contemporary music education for over 65 years now. This website offers more than 130 online courses and multi-course certificate programs which allow you to be in touch with the world renowned Berklee College Faculty. You can learn how to produce music from anywhere in the world through their online courses.

Nickstutorials.com

This site is a great place to check out offers and deals on different music production lessons like the Ableton Live courses and more

Audiomasterclass.com

This website can truly help you become a music production PRO in no time at all. They offer distance learning course which can help you learn music making in your home recording studio.

Audiocourses.com

This site offers distance learning courses on music production from SAE ( the Sound Engineering School for Audio Recording). These courses help you improve your music production skills by letting you work on music production sound engineering projects designed by audio professionals.

It’s a big decision

There are plenty of resources to choose from when it comes to learning music production techniques. You need to compare between them and decide on what is best for you based on your specific skill level and needs.

Louise Baker writes about online degrees for Zen College Life. She most recently ranked the best online colleges.