Promotion allows a beginner DJ to make their way from the bedroom to the real events at clubs and festivals.

The internet gives the beginner DJ great opportunies which were once a hassle and downright cutthroat.

By promoting your mixes on Youtube, you will be able to gain a broad audience and following, eventually guaranteeing your success.

In this post, I’m going to show you a few tips and tricks on how you can promote your DJ mix on Youtube.

Setup Your Youtube Account

First things first, you need to set up your Youtube account.

Your Youtube account should reflect your style and brand. Branding is very important and in this case, it will be your DJ name.

To begin, visit Youtube and select ‘Create Account‘.

Next, fill out all of the available information.

Fill your ‘Username‘ with your DJ name, this will ensure that whenever someone visits your Youtube channel or watches your video, your name is right in their face.

Over time your name will get stuck in viewers heads which will help you promote yourself and your DJ mixes on Youtube.

Now that you have your account setup, let’s start promoting your DJ mixes.

Record A DJ Mix

The next step you’ll need to do is to record a DJ mix.

Because Youtube only allows you to upload a total of 10 minutes per video, you’ll be creating a ‘Ten Min Mix‘. These small mixers are excellent because it gives people just enough time to enjoy your mixing and listen to a solid block of tunes.

You can create a video two ways:

• Record your set using the output on your system or program then trim it with tools such as Audacity
• Record yourself mixing in front of a camera with your webcam

Although a simple audio recording will suffice for your DJ mix, the goal we want here is promotion and that means you need to display yourself and your actual mixing, therefore you should record a video.

I highly recommend the Microsoft LifeCam. We have a couple of them at work to record videos, they’re excellent. They shoot HD and have a pretty decent built in microphone.

Because you’re on video, people can begin to recognize you. If you play at local parties, people will be able to easily spot you because you are in their face at the party and whenever they’re watching videos online.

Your ten minute DJ mix should be absolutely flawless. You only have a few seconds to catch someone’s attention when they click your video so skip the whole introduction and jump right into your mix. You could always do a shout out during the mix or add a subtitle with your name – extra branding!

When you’re mixing on Youtube, don’t over do it with crazy tricks, keep it simple but solid.

Create a playlist that is going to wow people, so they stick around and listen/watch the entire DJ mix.

Promoting Your DJ Mix On Youtube

There are dozens of methods to promote your DJ mix on Youtube.

The best one’s I’ve found are:

• Piggybacking off other popular videos with video responses
• Linking your videos on your own blog and sharing it on social media such as Facebook and Twitter
• Promoting your video with Youtube ads and promoted videos
• Proper video optimization

Let’s break down this list for a second.

Piggybacking is simply using your video as a video response to other popular videos. You should try to keep your video responses to relevant videos, don’t post your mixes on something such as a cute cat video, it doesn’t have relevance.

Cross promotion with your blog and social media is a smart choice for beginner DJs that try to build a following on Youtube. You may already have a website, blog or social media accounts so take advantage of them, share your video anytime you post one.

Youtube offers people the ability to advertise and promote videos. This can be a little costly depending on which category or where you want to place the video but if it leads you to success, it will all be worth it.

Finally, you should aim to optimize your video the best you can. You don’t have to learn all the wizz bang tricks of SEO and other techniques, just make sure you title your video with relevant keywords.

If you are mixing Dark Psytrance, title your video something such as Dark Psytrance Minimix. Additionally, you will want to use tags that are relevant to your video such as DJ mix, mixing, beatmatch and others.

Proper combination of video optimization will help you show up in regular search results as well as higher ranking within Youtube.

Now that you’re uploading your DJ mixes on Youtube, it’s time to begin building a following and further promote yourself.

Building A Following

What you’ll want to do is upload a few of your mixes (only the best ones) so if someone enjoyed one of your mixes, they can continue through and watch the others.

Although a mix video alone can bring in quite a few viewers a great trick you can do to begin gaining subscribers is to upload music, videos and other tidbits of media when you’re not showing off your mixing.

Some channels have thousands of subscribers simply from the miscellanious music videos they’ve uploaded over time, this is the idea behind subscribing. Your goal is to build your subscribers so each new mix will shoot to the top from hundreds of views.

As you build your subscribers, you’ll also begin to reach higher and higher on the Youtube search results.

Whenever possible, interact with your subscribers and don’t be ashamed to ask them to help promote yourself.

Ask local subscribers to come out to parties you’re DJing at, tell them to share it with others or vote for your videos on social bookmarking websites.

You don’t have to be pushy but your intent is to promote yourself, which will push some of your buttons at times if you feel uncomfortable being in front of the spotlight.

Keep updating regularily, talk to your subscribers and help promote one another, it will all payoff in the end.

I’ve Uploaded My DJ Mix, Now What?

If you continue to produce great DJ mix videos, subscribers and top the charts you’ll soon have leverage to talk to people that would have ignored you previously.

If there is a local club that has an open DJ slot, try your best to snag it. When you talk to the promoter or club owner, you’ll now have additional influence over other DJs simply because you can tell them how you have a great following on Youtube.

Simply saying “I’m big on Youtube” isn’t going to open every door for you but if you can get your subscribers and friends out to the clubs and parties, you’ll really start to get some kickbacks. Numbers talk volumes, use it to your advantage.

Final Tip

You don’t have to stop at just Youtube to promote your DJ mix.

Websites such as TubeMogul allow you to submit your video to dozens of other video websites for free.

You’ll be blasting your video all over the web to even more people. Remember though, Youtube has the largest userbase so if you want to focus on any one in particular, stick with Youtube.

Hopefully these tips will help you get on your way to begin promoting your DJ mixes on Youtube. Think of all the success you can achieve just from uploading a few videos of what you’re probably doing in your freetime anyway.

Go forth and promote!

Do you have a DJ mix on Youbue? Share it with everyone in the comments below.

But there’s one major question that’s been going through your mind: “What equipment do I need to begin DJing?”

For beginner DJ’s that want to use vinyl, these are your best options:

• 2 x Technics (1200 or 1210) Turntables
• 1 x Mixer
• 1 Good pair of headphones
• 1 Pair of speakers to listen to your mix

Other than these essentials, you’ll of course need a stack of vinyl to practice on.

Vinyl turntables, unlike CD and Midi turntables, allows beginner DJ’s to use the classic format which has been in the DJ’s bloodline for decades.

Vinyl is a way of life.

To many, it’s the only format.

Vinyl turntables are quite large and clunky compared to the modern controllers and CD turntables that are readily available but for those beginner DJ’s that want to have the ultimate hands on experience, vinyl turntables are the way to go.

Vinyl turntables come in two types:

• Belt Driven
• Direct Drive

Beginner DJ’s should always opt for direct drive turntables because they offer the greatest amount of torque. Torque is especially important when you have to start and stop your records, it’s what makes the platter catch up to speed after rocking the vinyl back and forth.

Now that you’re set on getting a pair of direct drive vinyl turntables, you’ll need a few other items:

• Nice turntable cartridges
• Slippery slipmats

These two are the basic items that compliment the vinyl turntable well.

Your cartridges are important so you get the best sound for your mix while the slipmats allow you to rock your tracks back and forth without sticking to the platter.

You need something to hook up all of your beginner DJ equipment to: a mixer!

The mixer allows you to, well…mix the tracks. Your vinyl turntables will hook into the mixer which also allows you to control the overall sound.

Invest in a good mixer in the beginning so you don’t end up buying a new one just because it begins to bleed the sound or breaks.

Okay, so now let’s move onto the headphones.

Your headphones should include these things:

• Comfortability
• Flexibility
• Great sound quality
• Thick cables

The first one is a no brainer, you should have a pair of DJ headphones which are very comfortable for long hours of play.

The other things a beginner DJ should be looking for in a pair of headphones is that they flex around your head. Usually you’ll be listening to your tracks in one ear and the mix in the other.

Finally, the two other aspects are the sound quality and a thick cable.

The sound quality really matters for your DJ headphones, they should be able to replicate the same amount of sound your tracks are playing, this will allow you to listen to all of the mix.

The headphone cables should be thick because you may have an accident some time by stepping on the cable or pulling too far back. Flimsy cables, like those found on regular headphones, will snap – uh oh!

Okay, we’re on a roll here, we need one more essential piece of beginner DJ equipment: the speakers.

Durr, of course you need sound else you wouldn’t be playing anything.

Hook up your mixer to your speakers and you are good to go.

As a beginner DJ, it’s okay just to use inexpensive speakers because you aren’t in a club environment but you may want to invest in a good pair later down the road.

You have all of your beginner DJ equipment setup, mixer is on and ready to go, headphones wrapped around your head and the speakers are humming but before you can begin, you need some vinyl eh!

Jump online, swing by a local record shop, check out eBay/Craigslist, talk to retiring DJ’s or bum some from your friends, begin building that collection now.

It’s a heavy investment, vinyl, but it’s all worth it in the end.

From this point out you have to practice, practice, practice.

Start with the fundamentals like beatmatching and then work your way up to mixing.

As you soon get your groove, you’ll be DJing in no time.

Now, go out there and bring the music!

Unless you plan to only play songs back to back, you’ll need to learn how to beat match if you are serious about DJing.

Learning how to beat match isn’t an extremely difficult to learn the fundamentals but it does take many years to reach the professional levels of the greatest DJs.

Once you understand and can accurately beat match, you’ll be on your way to creating your first mix.

What is beat matching?

The purpose of beat matching is to match the BPM and phrasings of two records so they can be mixed together in order to blend together as if they are a single song.

Beat matching allows a DJ to create a mix that lasts for hours without ever stopping.

Understanding the beat

To understand beat matching, you must first understand music.

Every song has 2 major aspects:

- Tempo or Beats Per Minute (BPM)
- Phrasing

Phrasing in music helps break up each note and creates music sound like… music. Phrasing creates a continuous flow of the notes instead of sounding like single one-shots.

In order to mix correctly, you will need to

The tempo or beats per minute (BPM) is the speed of the record.

In electronic music and many other genres, the speed of the record is measured by the number of beats each minute.

Counting bars

Counting bars is one of the fundamentals to beat matching.

With most electronic music, songs use a 4/4 (on the floor) beat; this keeps the song at a steady tempo.

The easiest way to understand counting bars is to put on your favorite track and, out loud, count the beats on the kicks drums.

When the kick on a track begins, you begin counting.

On each kick drum count one…two…three…four…one…two…three…four.

If you did not catch the first kick just listen for little indications of the next bar. This indication could be a sudden snare hit, a new bassline or the start of a synthesizer lead.

Soon you’ll be listening to tracks, completely understanding the pattern to the song.

Notice how you can visually see how the song is breaking down?

Once you’ve trained yourself to count bars correctly, you will be able to anticipate what will happen in a song. That snare roll that keeps building up? Keep counting out one…two…three…four and when you’ve reached the final bar, the track will change up and break into bass, lead or any various sounds.

Selecting your music

Now that you’re able to count the BPM of a record, you’ll want to know which songs you should mix.

To be honest, there is no defined rule to what you plan to mix – that’s the greatest thing about DJing.

However, there are a few guidelines to consider when beat matching and creating a mix.

You may want to stick with a similar genre in the beginning.

Because you’re just starting out, it would probably be best to pick a genre to practice with and continue to do so until you feel comfortable with trying to mix two different genres.

The reason behind this is because the BPM and phrasing are completely different between, let’s say, a Drum and Bass track and a House track.

Keep the same type of “mood”

If you have a very fluffy, bouncy track playing you’ll really cause a clash if all of a sudden you mix in a very aggressive, dark track.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t experiment with mixing everything but you’ll want to select tracks that follow the same sort of “mood” and gradually change it instead of drastically.

Keep within the available BPM

Much sticking with a similar genre, one of the main reasons behind this is that the BPM of various genres may be entirely too fast to beat match correctly.

Even with pitch control, you won’t be able to slow a Gabber track down to the same speed as a Dubstep track.

Figure out the structure of the song

Each genre, although similar in some ways, may be structured completely different from one another.

A Trance track may have a 128 bar build up while a Hardstyle track may kick right into it. Mixing the two genres of music will be difficult because each of them break down differently.

First listen to your tracks to understand where each break down, build up and plateau – this will help you understand when to begin mixing in the second track during your beat matching.

Starting your first mix and beat matching

So, you’ve should now understand how to count bars and select your music but now’s the biggest step of them all: mixing and beat matching.

Whatever system you’re using (vinyl, CD or digital), start up the first song.

Don’t worry about mixing right away; you may want to give the song a listen or two first in order to pick up the essence and structure of the beats.

Once you feel comfortable with the first song, it’s time to…

Queue up the second track

While the first song is playing, queue up the second track.

The first thing you’ll want to do is to find where you want to begin mixing in your second track. For the purpose of learning how to beat match the first time, simply get your second track to the start of the first kick.

What you’ll want to do at this point is to rock the track back and forth on the first kick. You should hear a sort of “oompf” sound as it goes backwards and forwards over the kick.

Now, while you’re rocking the second track back and forth, you’ll want to be counting the BPM and bars of the first track.

There’s no ‘perfect’ time to mix in the next track but you most often don’t want to mix in two sets of vocals on top of one another because this causes a clash.

Instead, you may want to start the second track as the first one is beginning to end.

Most tracks have a buildup and outro. During this outro, you’ll want to push the second track forward at just the right time as the kick on the first track hits.

If you started the second track at precisely the right time, the two tracks should sound in sync with another.

The tracks should be in sync with one another

However, having your second track start and sync with your first track may not always be possible, which leads us to…

Controlling the pitch of the record

So, you’ve started the second track and the beats are somewhat in sync with one another. Good good, but now comes the slightly advanced part to beat matching: controlling the pitch to keep the tracks in sync.

While the first track is still playing over the speakers, you should be listening to the second in your headphones. The key to correctly beat matching is being able to count the beats and bars of the first track at the same time of the second.

When the two songs begin to go out of sync, you will hear a galloping sound – a ‘badump badump bump bump babump’. If you hear that your songs are out of sync with another, it’s because the pitch (speed) of the two songs aren’t matched.

There are many different ways to sync up your two songs, including:

- Touching the platter or platter nub
- Using the pitch control

Although touching the platter or platter nub may be the easiest and quickest solutions to syncing the two songs, it’s not necessarily the best practice – this is what the pitch control is made for.

With the pitch control, you are able to increase or decrease the speed of a record.

If the second track sounds like it’s faster than the first, you’ll want to reduce the speed by going negative (-%).

If the second track sounds like it’s slower than the first, you’ll want to speed up the track by going positive (+%).

These pitch control adjustments aren’t going to be drastic because the two tracks may only be off by a fraction of a percent.

Play around with the pitch control until the two tracks sync to each other; you should hear both of the kicks hitting at the same time which will make a semi muted sound.

The tracks should be hitting at the same time, the first track is about to break down and exit and now you’re ready to bring in the next track…

Mixing the two songs

As the first track begins to break down, you’ll now want to begin sliding the mixer slider from track one to track two.

Play around with mixing in the next song at what you feel to be the best time.

You may not want to mix in the next song in the middle of the first’s if it’s still playing vocals or lead, but there are no rules to this.

If everything goes correctly, you should have a clean mix between the two songs.

Congratulations!

You’ve not only beat matched two songs but you’ve also done your first mix!

The trick now is to keep this going until your set is over, that’s the theory at least.

Remember, these are only basic guidelines to beat matching and by no means the ‘rules’ of doing so. There are many different ways to create a mix but knowing how to beat match is the first step in your process.

Practice, practice, practice.

As long as you continue to practice your beat matching, you’ll be able to sync your songs together. As soon as you become comfortable with beat matching, you can then move onto creating and structuring your mix.

Beat Matching Tutorial Videos

Check out even more beatmatching tutorials videos here.

Where to go from here?

Experiment with your beat matching or consider checking out the ‘How to DJ Fast’ video series by DJ Sean Gallagher.

You may not always be able to match two songs that are similar, try mixing in different genres of music.

Throw some screwballs at yourself such as trying to do a very quick beat match and mix as if you’re trying to play as many songs within a time period as possible.

See how long you can keep two songs matched with one another. Try throwing one track out of sync and then use your beat matching skills to resync them.

It may take a little while but once you have the fundamentals of beat matching down, you’ll soon be on your way to DJing.

Cheers.

This is a really good question as there are a lot of different paths to take when DJing. You can DJ as a hobby within your bedroom, work the local scene by doing mobile or wedding DJing or eventually rise to the top as a club/festival DJ. To clear this question up, the following post will tell you about 6 different kinds of DJs.

This is certainly not all the type of DJs there are, but it should give you a good idea of what a lot of people choose.

The Bedroom DJ

The bedroom DJ is exactly what it sounds like: DJing in your bedroom.

Often, these DJs can either be really good or complete ass; you’ve probably seen quite a few videos on YouTube of bedroom DJs so you already have a good idea of what’s going on. Bedroom DJs are generally the ‘first’ type of DJ because we all have to start somewhere. Unless you’re some spinning god, you’re not going to walk into a club and hold down an entire set.

Bedroom DJs have the basic equipment to get going, such as a pair of turntables/CDJ’s/mp3 controller, a mixer and some basic speakers – more often than not, regular computer speakers. The great thing about playing as a hobby is that you’ll be able to do whatever you want – mix in some random, cheesy song with a pounding house beat, who cares, it’s not like anyone is listening but you.

The only bad part about bedroom DJing is that it becomes very comfortable. Sure it’s great as a hobby but if you plan to go any further you need to step out of the room and mix it up elsewhere. There are a few things you can do to get a bit more exposure with your mixes:

Upload your mixes to YouTube

Join a few forums and become part of a DJ community

Start doing mixes at your friends house or their parties School dances are always good – you may even impress a few people

Either way, it’s your choice to do what you want, just have fun.

The Mobile DJ

The Mobile DJ is often your ‘step up’ from the bedroom DJ.

These are the people that finally left their room and started hitting the local circuit. You’ll often see these type of DJ’s playing Top 40 for various events – maybe some local charity event or sale. That’s not to say the mobile DJ is limited to these activities. Maybe the person just don’t want to move into a club, they could be doing really well right where they’re at.

There are a lot of cool little benefits of being a mobile DJ:

You’re getting paid for a change

You’re getting a bit more exposure

You can afford some new, cool equipment

You may find these types of DJs at local parties as well, maybe a kegger or something along those lines. They’re comfortable playing in front of a crowd but haven’t made that jump to playing to a room full of people really wanted to dance hard.

The Wedding DJ

If you’ve ever had to attend a wedding, you’ve probably ran into a wedding DJ.

They’re pretty cool people overall – it’s kind of hit and miss. Just because you can play music doesn’t mean you’re worth a damn, believe me, some people just suck.

A wedding DJ has a different job overall though, they’re trying to be an overall MC in a way. They’re trying to get everyone together at the wedding to participate in goofy games, do a bit of dancing, announcing what’s going on and other stuff like that.

The only problem with wedding DJing is that you don’t really have a say on what you’re going to play. You’re not going to show up to a wedding playing a hard acid track (although that would be badass). Instead, you’re kind of stuck with Top 40, often playing the most popular songs of the day and of whatever decade the bride and groom grew up in.

The upside to wedding DJing is that people are always getting married, so your services are welcome all over the world. You have to remember that it’s two peoples special day, you don’t want to come with an attitude because that would just be a dick move.

Plus you get free cake.

The Bar DJ

Ahhh, the bar DJ. Sometimes they know what’s up, other times they’re playing nothing but Aerosmith all night (ughhh).

I’m not really sure the mindset of the bar DJ because they always seem to be all over the place.

When I mention a bar, I’m talking about a general bar that you find in every city.

It isn’t about dancing to music but you’ll probably end up seeing drunk, middle aged people dancing to 80s hair metal by the end of the night. Half karaoke, half controller of the radio, the bar DJ is a bit like the wedding DJ but he’s there to get people really drunk. Depending on the type of bar you go to, you never know what type of bar DJ you’ll run into. Kind of like the wedding DJ, the bar DJ generally take requests to keep the patrons happy and drinking more.

There are some perks to being a bar DJ – you can get free drinks, talk to some really interesting people and you’re working at a bar, how awesome is that.

The Radio DJ

The Radio DJ is in this sort of purgatory.

On one end you get to be recognized and you get to listen to music all day as your solid job. However, you’re often stuck playing what the program director wants you to.

Unless you’re a glutton for punishment, playing Top 40 country would just drive a person insane. Additionally, in a way, you have to sell yourself which, I would think; most people have a hard time doing. You’re stuck plugging promos for shitty products, events that no one cares about and talking to some very boring people.

On the flip side, if you’re at an awesome radio station, you can play all kinds of stuff that you want. You can be that person that everyone flips over to when your show starts because you know what people want to hear and you’re going to give it to em raw. This is when you know you have it good, when you have a lot more freedom to choose your playlist, talk to crazy people, pull some on-air hijinks and get some extra little benefits.

It’s not for everyone but radio DJing has a lot of perks.

The Club DJ

The club DJ has it made, usually.

You’ve made it to the club level, you’ve gotten residency and your name is all over the wall, you get to play whatever you want and party all the time.

People just want to spin music for others to dance and have fun. I applaud these people. They aren’t out to get rich and become famous; they just want to live for the music. Others are the stereotypical douchebag that thinks they are the greatest thing placed on this planet.

But I digress. The club DJ has a regular gig. This can be a blessing or a hellish ride as it becomes a true job. At some point you have to step back and wonder if you’re doing it for the passion or doing it because you’re comfortable. It’s like being a bedroom DJ but your bedroom is now serving alcohol and people are dancing.

There are all kinds of perks to being a club DJ:

Travel the world!

Meet up with other really awesome DJs

You could get your own radio show

The list goes on and on. This is what many people strive for and best of luck to those that do.

The “All-in-One” DJ

I say the All-in-One DJ because this is the person that does everything.

You see them at festivals, house parties, weddings, and clubs – basically everywhere because they just love to play and there’s always a party going on.

In my opinion, this is what everyone should strive for. You’re not stuck just playing to friends in your bedroom, you’re not stuck playing Top 40 to weddings and you’re not stuck playing night after night in the same club. You really get to choose what you want to do.

At this point, you might as well start making your own music and touring as well. You’ll build all kinds of contacts; people will know you all over and go apeshit whenever you’re in town. You get to have fun, plain and simple as you’re living for the music.

Always do it for the love

Whatever you choose to become, always keep the music to your heart. As cheesy as that sounds, that’s what really matters.

As long as you play a great set, for both yourself and the crowd, you’ll find that you’ll always have fun. You’ll meet a lot of great people along the way, learn many new tricks, party in the sketchiest of places, but it will all be worth it.

Cheers.