Have you ever noticed how much going to shows has drained your wallet? $15, $25, and more expensive events can really start hurting if you like to go to parties every week.

You’re already so involved in the scene that you’ve amassed hundreds of friends on Facebook just because you recognized them from that one night, or you are one of those who wrote on the event page: “Add me if you saw me! I was the one wearing the tutu/giving epic light shows/wearing a horse mask/spinning crazy poi!!!”

Almost everyone you have on there is a DJ, promoter, or someone in the scene. Well, here’s how you can take advantage of that.

Any event in the electronic music scene is put together with the help of DJ’s, attendees, and promoters.

Basically, there are the people that put on the party, the people that help fill up the party, the people that attend the party, and the people that provide the music, visuals, and sound for the party. Trying to not go too deep into what comprises these shows, a large amount of work is done by the promoters.Not only is this group in control of the bookings, venue choice, and even the entirety of the party given your position, but they are in charge of bringing it all together.

Some of the Benefits of Promoting?

Promoting has great benefits when it comes to going out. You can save money going out by getting on the guest list and having free entry, you can get paid to promote, and you can make friends in the scene as well as knowing the details of parties all the time.

My Story

I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. It wasn’t until I was about 16 that I heard about the electronic music scene. I was in high school when I heard some of my friends discussing going to Ultra Music Festival. I had gone and looked it up when I got home, and saw that The Prodigy was going to be playing. I definitely had to go.

Fast forward to the next year. I go to Ultra again, but in between I don’t really get that taste of electronic music that I really wanted. I searched around for some local, smaller events and could only really find 18+ club events.

I found websites like 8up.com, which did show some of the parties that I eventually went to.

I was too scared/young/socially awkward to go alone at first, so it wasn’t until I met someone else in the scene, oddly enough through OKCupid, that I got to go to my first local party.

He taught me who to add on Facebook, what pages to like, and what event pages to join to find out about my local scene.

All I really had to do was add the main promoters and people putting on the event to get the information on more parties than I could ever imagine.

A year later, and I’m in Tampa at University of South Florida for college, finally old enough to get to the 18+ scene. I had connected with a few people in the Tampa scene, and found a group to join to promote for Electric Daisy Carnival in Orlando. It was my first promoting experience, and being naive I ended up not getting anything in the end, since there ended up being no agreement on compensation.

Through other mutual friends, I saw an opportunity to get a job with a legitimate promotions company in Tampa. I explained to them my previous promoting experience, and was chosen to flyer for them. I had the choice of flyering on Wednesday or Thursday, but at University of Tampa, which is about a half an hour drive from USF. I quickly learned that not knowing the area around you and not having a large area to flyer added to the fear of being kicked out for trespassing wasn’t the ideal way to flyer. With that, here are some tips for flyering: whether at a familiar or unfamiliar place, with their permission or not.

The Low-Down on Club & Party Promoting

Sarah has put together an extensive guide on the process behind modern club & party promoting; here’s what she had to say:

Tip #1: Get to know the area.

The first way you can really figure out how to flyer is getting to know the area. Take a walk around. Look at Google maps. Read around to see what parking spots are you may want to flyer. See where your target audience would congregate, and some secluded areas such as benches or chairs they may run off to escape the crowd. Find out whether it is a large area you need to cover or a relatively small area.

Tip #2: Know your target

Knowing who you want your flyer to reach can really help you figure out the best places to flyer. For example, when I had to flyer for EDC Orlando, Ybor was one of the places that I chose to flyer. Ybor city has a lot of clubs, but it’s also one of those “bad” neighborhoods as you’d call it. Aside from the electronic music clubs, not many people in Ybor were very interested in what I had to show.

Having a target specified to you is helpful, but by the area you are assigned it can be pretty much inferred. With my job, I was assigned to flyer University of Tampa. Obviously, one would imagine that the target audience is students. So I found areas that they gathered around, such as residence halls and the school buildings, as well as the student parking lot.

Tip #3: Know how to ninja it

If you’re like me and dislike confrontation with security officers in an area that is private property, including areas in the city that prohibit solicitation, this tip is for you. Knowing the fact that University of Tampa is a private college, I was unsure if I really was allowed there since I’m not a student. It helped to have a friend going there to help me out my first day, who warned me about flyering cars and maybe getting kicked out for flyering. With that, I devised a way to stealthily flyer, and not really get much attention.

One of my ways I like to do it is by bringing around a backpack and looking like a student, while carrying around my iPad in its case and leaving the flyers in there. Whenever I get to a spot I want to put a flyer, I just grab one and put it down, snag a picture while I can, and walk away. The alternative is sitting down at a bench, putting a flyer down, and sitting for a few seconds/minutes, browse the internet on my phone or send a text or two, and open up the camera to get the photo as I stand up and walk away.

Tip #4: Tables, benches, ashtrays = friends

Anywhere visible is a great place to flyer. My target tends to commute around campus, and sit around on the benches. A lot of clubgoers tend to be smokers as well, so ashtrays are a good place to get them to notice flyers. They also like to sit down and smoke, so tables are a good choice as well.

Tip #5: Where to flyer cars

Cars are one of the ways to make sure someone notices your flyer. However, it may be illegal or unfavorable conditions to flyer cars in certain areas. I find that parking garages without security are usually your best bet, in downtown areas or clubbing areas. Flyering cars in the streets isn’t the greatest idea since weather can wear down the flyer and create problems for the owner of the vehicle—I once had a flyer put on my car and left on there for days, it was rained on and dried and left me a nice big white patch of residue glued to my car.

Tip #6: How much to flyer

How much you are going to flyer really depends on the size of the area that you are flyering. USF, for example, has such a wide area to flyer that the ratio of flyers to building will be a lot smaller than how many you would be putting in a smaller area. Obviously, you don’t want to bomb somewhere with flyers and not have enough left for other areas.

Tip #7: Push on Facebook!

The easiest place to promote an event is on Facebook. By copying and pasting the event onto your wall, other people’s walls, and group pages, as well as inviting your friends to go to the event. A fair warning- your friends may not like this and delete you, or block invites from you. But you take this risk as a promoter!

These are just some tips to take into consideration when putting out flyers. If you put your best effort into it to get people to show up, and they do, the rewards go out to you and the entire scene.

The web, as you could expect, gives us a buttload of great resources when we want to learn how to product electronic music.

You don’t need to drop a handful of cash in order to get started because there are more than enough tutorials and resources to fill your schedule for the next few years.

dat monstaaaaaa

I went ahead and started putting together a monster list of free electronic music production tutorials that I’ve found across the web.

I’m also listing out a dozen or so great reads that I think you should dig into and finally – there will be a few premium resources worth checking out if you do want to drop a few bucks for professional help.

Okay, let’s get this started – it certainly won’t be complete but I can try to give you the best …

Index of Beatport Tutorials

Francis Preve was the tech editor over at Beatport from 2007 to 2009. On his website, he’s put together a rather large list of tutorials that were featured in Beatport from ‘introduction to Synthesizer Programming’ all the way up to a full ‘Master Class’ that takes you through a full production process. You can find these on your own if you do enough searches and digging around but Francis already did the work for you so they’re definitely worth checking out.

100+ Video Electronic Music Production Tutorials

Dave from BoyInABand.com has been working hard over these last few years creating some really top-notch tutorials. My favorite thing that he shows is the ‘7 day song’ tutorials that go through the major elements of electronic music production day-by-day. There are a lot of resources to dig through on this page and even more on his actual Youtube account – if anything, start here.

350+ Music Production Tutorials on AudioTuts

They may not all be electronic music production tutorials but they all have something in common and that’s teaching you how to use programs and understanding the essentials of music production as a whole. Even if you don’t use every tutorial on the blog – you can still learn a lot from digging around because it may give you a bit of inspiration. The blog is always updating so keep it bookmarked.

Sonic Transfer’s Uber List of Production Tutorials

Sonic Transfer has been going at it for quite some time now. The site focuses heavily on Ableton so it won’t be for everyone if case you’re using Cubase or another DAW but for starters – this is definitely top notch. The tutorials aren’t hugely in depth most of the time but they’re quick and easy so you can retain the information rather than getting too bogged down at one time.

Reddit’s EDM Music Production

Reddit, if you didn’t know, is a pretty awesome community site which is divided into ‘sub-reddits’; they have one specifically on EDM production too! There aren’t a whole lot of individual tutorials on here but the discussions are well worth taking a look. If you sign up, you can join in with asking questions which will be extremely helpful if you can’t find support from the other resources on this list. Additionally, people on the sub-reddit often share sample packs which are worth their weight in gold.

LoopTV Music Production Tutorials & Guides

LoopTV has about 100 or so music production tutorials on their website and that’s just the tip of the iceburg considering that there are tons and tons of producer interviews which are worth checking out in terms of learning production methods. LoopTV has podcasts which will always keep you up to date. The site focuses a lot on Ableton, Cubase, Reason, Native Instruments, and all the other major brands that dominate the EDM production library.

Trance Production’s Guide to … Trance Production

This seemingly simple website is packed with great information if you’re getting into trance production. The website is a bit wordy and could use more pictures but all of the information is there for the picking; it’s divided into the main elements of trance along with some excellent resources that go beyond what the website has to offer.

How to Make Electronic Music Guides

HTMEM (eh? Yup!) has a ton of quick and simple tutorials for learning how to use FL Studio as your main production software. Although the site is mostly around FL – it’s still a big one for people using this software because it offers up free VST’s, samples and presets that help you get out of the boxed samples and deeper into music production with the program.

WarBeats (Big on FL Studio)

WarBeats probably takes the cake in terms of the amount of tutorials for music production using FL Studio. Again, FL Studio is a bit “lower end” compared to programs like Cubase but it’s still a perfect starting point for many and is only really limited by your creativity – WarBeats aims to help you understand the program with their offerings which they do so spot on. Definitely worth a look.

Funk Naughty Guides

Fun Naughty is a site that’s been going since around 2010 and has already racked up a ton of tutorials related to music production and DJing. There’s a lot of emphasis to the big named programs but what makes the site really cool are the exclusive interviews that have with big name DJ’s like Carl Cox and others (although, that’s part of the premium part – worth it? Maybe).

Computer Music Books (aka. Books!)

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty into music productions by picking up one of those things old people use … ya know … a book?! Books are excellent because they’ll help you focus vs. bouncing between websites, videos and all the other distractions of the web. I’d recommend the following: The Dance Music Manual, The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music, Music Theory for Computer Musicians, The Beginner’s Guide to Computer-Based Music Production. Some of you will probably learn better from having a book in your face than a million tabs opened – just saying.

Conclusion (and so on)

I’d like to add to this list over the course of the blog history so be sure to check in from time to time for new electronic music production tutorials and resources. In the meantime, pick a few that read out how you best learn and dig right in – you learn the most from trying than just absorbing information.

It’s harder than ever to get yourself found but the good news is that you don’t truly need a massive audience these days in order to be successful.

The beginning of DJ music marketing really breaks down into three main areas:

A. Awareness

Awareness is your first real interaction with your fans; it’s the moment that people take notice in what you’re doing and what tells them whether they should be listening to you or not. The awareness element of DJ music marketing is the most difficult because you’re all on your own at this point in time. However, the more you stick with building your awareness – the more you’ll build which will lead you into the next important element of marketing your DJ skills.

Here are some of the ways you can begin building awareness to your DJing:

• Uploading DJ mixes to websites like Mixcloud
• Sending out promo CD’s to local event organizers
• Participating in open deck nights at local clubs
• Joining up or hanging out with a local DJ group
• Playing multiple live events in your area
• Handing out business cards for your DJ services
• Putting up flyers around popular hang outs
• Create a Youtube channel to show off your mixing
• Doing live DJing on websites like Ustream

This is really just a general look at building awareness and truthfully, it all depends on what and where you want to go with your DJing. Obviously all of these won’t apply for every situation that you’re in but they are effective at getting the ball rolling.

B. Building Connections

Don’t be fooled, DJing has a heavy influence from business and marketing. Although you’re playing music for others, you’re still in a constant struggle of promoting yourself and building connections which will lead to better exposure which, in turn, will bring in new gigs and potential sales for your services.

The good news is that creating connections are easier than ever because of the web. Here are some of the ways I recommend building connections:

• Create a Facebook Fan Page for your followers
• Start a Twitter account and share gigs, music and discussions
• Send out emails to local promoters and business owners for services
• Advertise your business in the local papers
• Post up flyers so people can get in touch with you
• Hand out business cards with all of your content details
• Create a phone number specific for your DJ business or services
• Get active in a local organization of DJs
• Participate on forums and get people to follow you online
• Setup your own DJ website to share your mixes and information

Most of this about creating connections, you already know. Think about how you interact with people outside of DJing and build your connections that way. Get social with people and don’t be afraid to mention that you DJ because they could be looking for someone to fill in a gig or hire. Create some kind of rolodex or spreadsheet of your contacts so you can keep up with them.

C. Creating Sales

Finally, what you’re really doing as a whole is creating sales. Now, sales doesn’t necessarily mean selling your services – think of it as selling yourself – to land the gig. You’re really promoting yourself and the attitude/skills you bring rather than just filling in. Your sales is where you get people that are following or have come in contact to say “yeah, I want them on the decks at my party”.

• Use clear contact details on your website or social networks
• Have a section specifically for your services
• Create an invoice system to process the work
• Get active on Craigslist and share your work to pull in clients
• Offer up something free for a local charity and mingle – could lead to a paid gig
• Be a regular and make the move to ask a club owner or promoter if they’d hire you
• Put out a mix CD and get you followers to buy it by tapping into your web presence

You don’t need to be sleazy when it comes to selling. I know you might feel awkward when trying to get people to pay you for what you do but remember that you do need to earn an income if you want to take this full time. No doubt, you need to treat aspects of your DJing as a business else you’re just throwing parties for free and need to hold down a regular job. Go for it all by building awareness, promoting yourself and then getting people to pay for your DJing – that’s how to take it full time!

Sure enough, you probably already have some friends that are constantly sending you party invitations – well, this is essentially what we’re going to be talking about but on the other end where you will be setting up the promotions for your gigs, mixes and so you can build a fan base. Sound good? Let’s get going …

Get a Facebook Fan Page

There is a 5,000 friend limit on normal Facebook pages which is no good in terms of building a fan base because, in time, you will hit that limit and then no more people can follow you. Facebook saw this and so they put together Fan Pages which are nothing more than a normal profile but with the ability to add in a few extra features for building a fan base.

Although this video is a bit cheesy, it’ll take you through the process of setting up your Facebook Fan Page. There is a bit of hype and gimmicks to the video but it still shows the process which is what you’d need to work through in order to get something setup.

Link to video: http://youtu.be/bsobq2Jk6YI

I know you’re tech-savvy, you are DJing after all, so something like setting up a simple Fan Page shouldn’t be any problem but if you do get caught up, refer back to the video or check out David Sabat’s Guide to Facebook for DJ’s – he takes you through a lot of the pro’s and con’s of the different Facebook features and gives a few tips on promoting your Facebook page.

Get a Sexy Flyer

People’s attention spans are incredibly short; I’ve probably already lost half of you in this post – just as an example – so one of those all important elements of promoting DJ gigs on Facebook is to create a gig flyer that’s going to catch someone’s eyes really, really quick.

If you’re the DIY type, I suggest you check out an earlier post about which has 10 Photoshop Tutorials for Creating DJ Flyers. Of course, you don’t actually need Photoshop, you can use a free program like Gimp or use an online photo editor which can handle just about anything you throw at it.

If you aren’t DIY, than I suggest you hunt down a few local designers or ask fellow DJ’s where they are getting their flyers from. Chances are, a friend of a friend probably knows someone that understands design and is itching to work on DJ flyers – I’ve had my hand at it, it’s fun, there’s others out there that are the same.

The flyer is what’s going to get people to take notice immediately. You have the title and link and everything but nothing stands out more than a picture on Facebook – remember, short attention span, etc etc. Grab them quick with something that looks hot and you’ll get them over to your event or fan page.

Share Great DJ Mixes

Perhaps the best way to promote yourself as a DJ, on Facebook, is to share your DJ mixes (or others you’ve found to be really great). People are following you because they want the music; they don’t necessarily want to hear what you had for breakfast or some broken relationship status poem – give em what they want, give em music.

Use websites like Soundcloud and Mixcloud to upload your mixes so you can easily share them on your Facebook pages. In fact, you can even embed some of these onto your Fan Page using some of the widgets; you could create a page solely dedicated to something like “mix of the month” or something like that.

Upload a Video to Facebook

I’ve talked before about using Youtube to promote DJs but, as you know, Facebook also has video sharing which is perfect for sharing some of your mixes, party videos and more.

A local crew where I’m at is always uploading the latest videos from the parties they throw. What it does, from people’s reactions, is get them talking about the music, the parties and the fact that they can’t wait til the next one.

If you’re doing gigs, setup a video camera and record it. If anything, you could rip the audio and upload the live mix but you can also take advantage of the video so people can be a part of the experience if they didn’t get to go.

To go even more hardcore, you could upload videos as the nights go on within your Fan Page so that if someone is 50/50 on going to the party and see the video, they’d be all over it. You could also do this with streaming video from UStream and let people watch the party unfold live!

Take some Event Pictures

Pictures get people talking, plain and simple. Facebook is great at facial recognition so it’s a great way promote your gigs by uploading event pictures and then tagging people that showed up. The people getting tagged will come over and talk about the event and their friends will see the good time they had and may join in next time.

Hire a photographer to take great pictures of the gigs or just ask people to upload their shots after the party is over. You’ll find that people are easily on board with sharing their experiences and this is a great way to get some excellent feedback on the gig and get people talking about the next.

Final Thoughts

We live in the information age; you no longer need to send out thousands of mixtapes and demos to get people interested in your music or parties. With a simple upload, you could create an event page for the next gig in a few minutes and have people ready to go months in advanced. Facebook is pretty awesome for promotion; you already know it so use it to get your name out there!

Hell, I remember running out of food within the first day of a festival and left to trade beers for supplies by the second. In all, you have a kick ass time but every time you come back, you always want to make sure the next time is a little easier for ya.

This is my collection of the twenty helpful tips to survive a music festival.

Tip 1: Start Small

Above all else, be smart about what you’re doing before, during and after the music festival. Obviously, there are situations that are going to be illegal so be smart about that, be aware that there are undercover people at the larger events, be aware that sometimes they put up roadblocks and even that there are shady people that come to the events. All-in-all, use your noggin’.

Tip 2: Bring Extra, Extra Clothing

Look at how much clothes you are bringing and then add about twice as much. Festivals are dirty and you’ll find that you run out of clothing pretty quick when you start to get really sweaty or the random rip occurs on your shirt. You can keep going but it’s always nice to have an actual change of clothes especially when you’re partying on farm land where you’re going to be stepping in shit.

Tip 3: Get Plenty of Money

Festivals are expensive. Yes, hippies show up and get by no problem but they’re hippies – you’re more likely going to need extra money for the little things that you’ve forgot, food when you run out or to buy the essentials once you’re there. It’s always good to have a bit of money in the event you need it.

Enjoy it best, with friends

Try to go with your friends. Not only will you have a good time being around the people you like but it will create a good community to be around especially when things get a little out of control. I’ve been to a festival by myself and it can be troubling when things are sketchy; it’s always good to have a friend or two there to ground ya.

Tip 5: Expect the Unexpected

Take all the thoughts you have about a particular festival and throw them out the door. If you haven’t been to a festival than you really can’t understand the amount of things going on once you’re there. The best piece of advice I can give you is to just be ready to have everything you know blown out the door. You’re going to see weird and cool people, watch mind blowing acts and be temporarily out of any type of civilized society for a little while so just throw out the expectations and roll with it.

Tip 6: Stay Cool at All Times

Don’t become an ass at the festival just because you don’t know people. Don’t push people around and freak out when something is uncomfortable; take everything with a grain of salt and keep things cool. People are there to have fun – don’t be the dick that ruins it for everyone.

Tip 7: Don’t Go Overboard

Don’t take it too far. You’re going to have the opportunity to do a lot of things at the festival – some legal, some illegal – but always keep your head straight if you partake. There’s nothing worse than someone losing their cool and freaking out – keep things within your control if you can; if things start to slip, seek out your friends.

Tip 8: Bring More than One Cooler

One cooler isn’t enough to last you through the festival especially when you get into a giving mood and hand out all your beer to the cool people around you. Bring an extra cooler with supplies so you can barter with people and be generous; you’ll be happy you have extra when you run out of the supplies.

Try to find your tent now

Don’t skimp out on your tent, please. I’ve been to festivals with cheap, $30 tents and believe me, they suck. Pony up the money and buy something worthwhile, something that can survive some extreme conditions because the weather changes all the time and nothings worse than being soaking wet, freezing cold and dirty as hell in a cheap ass tent.

Tip 10: Be Careful

Be safe about what you’re doing. I don’t need to remind you about this but use your common sense. Don’t be climbing up trees when you’re drunk or starting fights. Don’t walk away from the festival with injuries; not only are you going to ruin it for your friends but it’s going to kill your good time.

Tip 11: Don’t be Stupid

Also, don’t be stupid. Don’t pick fights with people because they did something silly. Don’t steal from people. Don’t crash their buzz or call out people. In short, don’t be an asshole. Everyone is there to have a good time but there are always a few people that try to ruin it. There’s nothing worse than feeling on top of the world than someone to come up and rip into you for no apparent reason. Accept everyone and don’t be some jackass.

Tip 12: Bring the Little Things

Don’t forget to bring the little things like batteries for flash lights or extra tampons for the ladies. You’ll find some basics at a festival and you may be able to run to a store but some festivals lock you in once you make your way inside. You could always barter if you need something so bring those little things that most people will forget.

Tip 13: Don’t Do Everything

Don’t try to do everything if the festival is massive. Pick an artist you really enjoy and make the sacrifice to see them even though there may be another favorite artist playing in a different area. You won’t be able to see everything and do everything at a festival so it’s best to just maximize what you are doing and enjoy it – rather than bouncing all over the place and never really getting into the moment.

Special, special peoples

Break out of your little social barrier and start interacting with people. Walk up, kick up conversations, sit down at a tent, give people a cig, share a beer with someone – do social things! The people you meet at festivals aren’t your normal run-of-the-mill bunch, you probably won’t see them again but you’ll have some amazing conversations when you can.

Tip 15: Be One with Nature

Embrace the dirtiness that is nature. Don’t be afraid to get messy and dirty as hell. People aren’t at a festival to look good – they’re there to have a good time and sometimes that means not exactly taking care of everyday habits like showering and using the bathroom in proper places. Respect nature, don’t litter but blend in – don’t fight what you can’t control.

Tip 16: Bring Backup Tickets

If possible, get a couple copies of your tickets or confirmation for when you’re going. Nothing’s worse than buying a ticket at the last minute and the organizers scramble to find your name (it’s happened before after driving to a festival nearly 8 hours away). Print out the tickets or the receipt of the festival if you buy the tickets online – don’t expect to get tickets at the gate if it’s a big one.

Tip 17: Don’t “Just Deal With It”

If something bad happens such as an overdose or a major injury, don’t just “deal with it” and keep going because you have to realize that people are in real danger – it could be your friend or it could be a complete stranger. People are going to be so out of their minds that people skip over the basic care for themselves and others; don’t risk serious injury and trauma just to “stick it out” – be smart.

Tip 18: Set a Meeting Point

Try to always let your group know where a general “meeting point” may be in the event that you get lost because you’re too far out of your mind. Sure, the tent is a good place to meet up but sometimes that can be extremely difficult when there are thousands of similar looking tents around you. Set something like “the main stage on the left by the giant squid statue” or something like that – this way you know where to go if you need help or if you want to meet back up.

Tip 19: Stay Hydrated

You’re going to have a lot to drink during the festival and not much of that is going to be water. You can’t survive on beer at the rate you’re going at festivals if you’re constantly dancing and running around because you’ll dehydrate. Every once-in-a-while, drink a bit of water just to balance out everything else you’ve put into your body.

Tip 20: Don’t Plan

Ha! The last one on the list basically negates a good majority of this post. Festivals are completely unique each year so there’s no real reason to do some extensive planning for them like you would a family vacation. Use your common sense when you’re going, bring essentials and just go – nothing is going to work out the way you plan it so don’t worry about it!

Final Thoughts

I’ve gone to my share of music festival and can honestly say that they are some of the most enjoyable moments of my life. There are times when things were amazing and others where I felt doomed; in all, they all had their own unique feel and were totally worth it in the end.

I know, from going, that I try to be prepared but it rarely happens. There’s not much you can do once you’re in the gate so try to be smart about what you bring in and how you’re going to survive for the duration of the festival. If things go up or down, take em in stride and enjoy the ride.

If interested, you could always read this cool book on Music Festivals; gives a nice look at the music culture we all love.

Live video is the perfect way to get people into your music and show off yourself; you can get your name and music out there. Best part? You can do it for free with the live streaming video site: UStream.

Step 1a: Get a UStream Account

Visit UStream and click on the ‘Go Live!’ button on the top right (rather than login, at this time, so you can read some good info on setting up). Once you have the overview of UStream, click on the ‘Sign Up’ link at the top right. Signing up gives you the general options you find on most websites: name, password, email, captcha code and more, blah blah blah. Finish setting up your basic information (finding friends, etc) and then move on to …

Step 1b: Setup your Account

Once you’re in, and before you start, click on the ‘Account Settings’ so you can upload an avatar and biography to your account. This is a good time to get this out of the way so people can learn more about you. You can also take this time to link your Facebook or Twitter accounts in the ‘Account Settings’.

Step 2: Setup your UStream Channel

Next, click on the yellow ‘Create Channel’ button under your user name. Fill in the name of your channel, name it something interesting so people remember it. Next, fill in the category (probably Music – Electronic), tags for your channel (electronic music, DJ, [DJ Name], etc), upload a picture and then also the ‘about’ section so people can know more about your channel.

Remember: Try to brand everything you do; be congruent with your images and wording because you don’t want to send mixed messages – keep everything the same between your website, stream, social media profiles and more because you want people to easily find and identify you.

Step 3: Start your Broadcast

Now that you’ve got your profile and channel setup, it’s time to get broadcasting!

UStream will automatically detect a web cam connected to your computer after you’ve accepted the terms; you should see yourself show up almost immediately on the screen. You’ll see a lot of options you can fiddle with such as the video and audio source (you will most likely change this for your mixer input), viewer options, chat boxes and other features that help brand and let people interact with your channel – all of these are great for getting people engaged and talking about your DJing.

The most important item to do is hooking up your mixer to your computer. To do so, you’d run the sound out of the mixer to a sound card on your PC. Afterward, you’d select the option in the ‘Audio Device’ to pull from your mixer.

After you’re all setup; it’s only a matter of selecting ‘Start Broadcast’ and you’re good to go!

Bonus: Record Videos

UStream also gives you the option to record your broadcast which can be very helpful if you’d like to save your performance to upload on your website or to even reshare it on Youtube. Once you have video, you have a lot of control – you could even rip the audio and then upload that to one of the music sharing websites for even more exposure.

Not Sure about Video?

I’m pretty comfortable with video because I learned video production in high school but I know a lot of you are probably don’t have a ton of experience when it comes to video editing and production. Likewise, once you have video you can begin promoting yourself if you know how to use it right.

There are a lot of great Video Production Tutorials (link) that can take you through the process of it all; it’s about $100 bucks but it’s a pretty good investment considering you can promote yourself, as a DJ, and you could even use the knowledge down the line when it comes to recording the parties you’re throwing or attending. It’s your choice, thought it would be helpful.

Final Thoughts

In all, live streaming video gives you a lot of control over promoting yourself online AND it can be really fun since you’re showing off your DJ skills and interacting with your fans – it’s much more involved than just uploading a video to Youtube and then responding to comments, ya know?

It’ll take a little bit to get setup but once you’re up and running, there’s not much else to it other than getting on camera and rockin’ the decks. Good luck!

Maybe have a studio for making music and starting your own netlabel?

Or maybe you just want to have something professional for anything music related?

Check this out; this is a quick guide on how to build your own home DJ studio.

Why Build a Home DJ Studio?

This is pretty sick!

The first thing you’re probably wondering is why even bother setting up a studio. Well, a studio will give you the freedom to work on your music and mixing without having to bounce back and forth between gear; you’re setting everything up all in one place.

Computers have made setting up and building your own home studio even easier than what it used to be. You can literally get by with a few pieces of gear and you’ll be ready to go. From your studio, you could hold live mixes for people on a radio station, stream your video to fans or just work alone on your remixes or completely new tracks. Sounds good, right?

The Basic Home DJ Studio Equipment

Now that you’re getting a little excited about a home studio, let’s talk about gear. The gear that you’re using in your studio is pretty much the same that you’d have for your decks with the exception that you may need a few extra pieces of software or a couple midi controllers to make your music creation easier.

To get started, here are a few things you’ll need:

• A sturdy work station desk where all your gear will be setup
• A microphone or video camera for recording your voice or live mixes
• A laptop for DJing (especially good if you have midi gear, duh)
• A mixer to connect your external sound sources (if needed)
• Some monitor speakers so you can listen in on your mixes
• A midi keyboard (or two) to help with music programs

Once you’ve got all your gear, begin setting everything up. Put your laptop in the middle because that’s what you’ll be working off of, mostly. Set your turntables off to the side but in an area where you’re not reaching around and can get easy access to them. Set your midi keyboard in a great location so you can watch your laptop while you’re plugging away at the keys. Hook up your microphone around face level – you can use some kind of bevel arm so you can later move it out of the way. Finally, set a video camera up high, facing downward toward your turntables, so people can get a great glimpse at what you’re doing.

The Essential Home Studio Software

Depending on your budget, you can either bootstrap your studio or go all out. Since you’re just getting started with a studio, you’re probably in the market for some inexpensive gear and software to get started and plan to upgrade later.

Here are some great pieces of software and guides for setting up:

• http://www.soundware.co.uk/pages/homestudio.php
• http://www.blogtalkradio.com/
• http://www.korokithakis.net/tutorials/icecast/
• http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/07/make-your-own-internet-radio-station-ubroadcast/
• http://www.ustream.tv/get-started
• http://www.beginnerdj.com/music-production-software

Browse through and learn as much as you can about setting up a radio station, streaming to live internet viewers and getting your home studio together. For the most part, you’re mostly just getting your turntables so you can broadcast online or so you can easily record and get feedback on your music.

Bringing it all Together

This is a real quick and dirty guide on getting started but I know that you’re web savvy and understand what a home studio is made of. You’re setting up your DJ setup to a computer so you have access at doing live radio stations, recording live video and recording your mixes. Just get your gear hooked up to your computer like you probably already do and then use some promotional techniques to get found online. You’ll figure it out, I belieeeeve in ya.

Nothing is really in order but its all good Virtual DJ tutorials worth checking out:

One thing that I highly recommend is to NOT USE THE SYNC button that you may see in some of the videos because this will prevent you from learning how to beatmatch properly – don’t rely on software for this because you’ll only be hurting yourself when learning to mix.

Update: Check out the new Digital DJ Tip’s Virtual DJ course, here.

Those should get you started with Virtual DJ basics, I recommend playing around with it for quite some time just as you would with practicing – get used to the interface because if you know your way around the software than you can more readily understand what the hell is going on when you’re mixing.

If you’re tired of videos and want to do a bit of reading, check out a few of these forum threads and articles with Virtual DJ tutorials:

• http://www.mpcforum.com/showthread.php?104763-Virtual-DJ-Mixing-Tutorial
• http://www.trancefix.nl/showthread.php?149846-Virtual-DJ-Tutorial
• http://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/User%20Manual.html

These should be enough to get you started with Virtual DJ. It’s a short post today but hopefully it can help you get started with Virtual DJ – it’s more about practicing than just watching videos and reading guides so go download the free trial and practice.

So, how does one become a Youtube DJ? This article will share a few tips on how to get started from recording your mixes to getting your Youtube videos promoted to the point that they help land you DJ gigs – sound good? Let’s get started …

Part 1: Get the video gear

There are two good options for you when making Youtube DJ videos and that is:

• Recording yourself mixing using a video camera

• Recording your mix using a piece of software and then editing a video

I’d recommend you go with the first because you’d be able to show your mixing skills off and people will be able to recognize who you are rather than just your name but I know there are many of you that are a little camera shy so recording your mix, editing it and uploading it works too.

For cameras, I’d recommend the Flip Mino or Kodak ZI-8 because each of these is high definition cameras that will certainly get the job done. They let you easily hook up the camera to the computer and some of them, like the Flip, come with editing software. You can pick up either of these for under $150 which is a good investment when you consider you can make your Youtube DJ videos AND take it to parties and festivals later on.

Once you’ve got these, you just need some video editing software which is generally installed on computers like Windows Movie Make or iMovie on Mac; otherwise, check out Adobe Audition or Sony Vegas which will easily handle your video editing.

Part 2: Get to mixing

awwwww yeah

What’s a Youtube video on DJing if you’re not actually mixing, duh. The next part of doing Youtube DJing is to … make a mix. Since you only have about 10 minutes (until you get more time from Youtube), you’re kind of limited which means that each song and effect you put into your mix needs to be really mind blowing to catch people’s attention.

Do what you would normally do when creating a DJ mix. Choose a great selection of songs or even theme your Youtube DJ videos by playing certain genres of music, music based on released dates (such as the new song mix format) or some classic tune mixes.

Bring the best that you can so the Youtube video helps with promotion. If you need additional help, check out this other post on how to build a better DJ mix to bring out the best in your abilities.

Remember, you only have a limited amount of time so bring the ruckus.

Part 3: Get the video on Youtube

Once the video is created, edited and looking good, you’ll need to get it onto Youtube. If you don’t have a Youtube account than you can sign up at http://www.youtube.com/create_account; fill in the information that matters and setup your account, easy enough.

Quick note: When you’re editing your videos, be sure to add your Youtube channel name and contact information so if people embed the video on other websites, people still have a way to easily figure out who’s mixing and how to get in touch.

Okay, get your video up on Youtube and do a bit of work to make sure that it’s looking good such as adding a title that perfectly describes the video, choose something like “10 Minute Dubstep Youtube Mix” or something akin to that. Fill in the description with the tracks that you’ve used because people always ask for the songs. Add in your website link or Twitter name or some kind of contact method so people can get a hold of you which is perfect in the event that someone wants to book you for a show if they really liked the video.

Also, get people to subscribe to your channel and build up a Youtube following by just flat out telling people in the description.

Part 4: Promoting your Youtube mixes

Alriiiiight, now you need to get your DJ video found on Youtube. Well, that’s easy because if you optimized the video it will show up in search engines but besides doing that, you can begin sharing it on Facebook, forums, Twitter and other social networks you’re on.

If you have a website, you can embed your video onto your website. You could also send your video out to people on your email newsletter if you have one. Do what you would normally do when sharing video. Submit it to sites that you’re always on (maybe Reddit?) and just be conscious that you have a video (or a dozen) out there that people could be interested in.

Check out other people’s channels and leave a link to your video if they’re also doing mixes in your type of music – network yo!

Part 5: Getting gigs and earning a few bucks

Finally, sit back and keep pushing you video out wherever you can go; build up that view count and subscribers to your channel. It might be completely random but you may land a few gigs based on your videos. If you have a website offering DJ services, you could have your video to show off your skills for when people are thinking about hiring you – think of it like a sales video of some sort.

If your video starts to take off than Youtube will let you monetize it through Adsense and video ads. Depending on what you want, you can agree to the terms and have it there to make a bit of money if people click on your ads. You could make a nice bit of money off to the side for your mixes, cool enough.

Don’t rely on your Youtube DJ videos to land you gigs though; you still need to be actively promoting your DJing by going to parties, handing out DJ business cards, setting up a website and more.

Bonus: Youtube Video Resources

In case you’re still a little bit confused about online video and Youtube in general, for DJing, here are a few resources that will help you get started and up to speed:

• ReelSEO – This is a website that talks a lot about video production and how to promote Youtube videos online; there’s a lot of good tutorials but you have to dig around a bit because there’s a lot of news on there too.

• Youtube and Video Marketing: One Hour a Day – A book on how to get started with video marketing; don’t let the name scare you, it’s just the practice of creating videos to promote yourself which is basically what you’re doing with your Youtube DJ videos.

• Video Sharing Websites – A list of other video sharing websites that you could list your videos on if you want to extend your reach besides Youtube.

Those should get you started with promoting your Youtube DJ videos and understanding it a bit more.

Conclusion

So, hopefully you’ve found this guide helpful. Youtube is huge, you know that and you’ve probably seen quite a few DJ’s showing off their skills on the video site – get started too! You can really make a name or yourself if you do mixes on Youtube so why not tap into it for your promotion – it’s smart, that’s what.

There’s a lot to a mobile DJ business and it certainly doesn’t only involved just playing a few tunes for people. Starting a DJ business requires a lot more work than you may have imagined but I’ve put together a really easy, crash-course guide on getting started …

Before your Begin (the Legal Stuff)

Before you start a mobile DJ business, it’s important to understand the legal aspects of operating a business in your state and that you have all of the documentation. After all, a business is a business; you may be able to skim by with just a few gigs here and there but if you’re building a real business than you need to do it legitimately.

• First, find out business licensing in your state by using: this official resource for your state.

• Second, look into possibly starting an LLC for your new mobile DJ business by using easy services like LegalZoom.

• Third, realize that since you’re starting a business you’re going to need a bit of capital for getting started just like any other business; expect to invest about $1000 for starting up your business which would include equipment and the basic promotional strategies outlined in the post.

Once you have the basics covered, it’s time to move onto the actual leg work and “getting started up” phase of building a mobile DJ business.

Phase 1: Create a DJ Business Plan

The first phase of starting a business should be creating a DJ business plan. You don’t need to go crazy with this document but it’s still important because you’ll want to make something that you can reference whenever you’re moving forward with launching your business.

Why? Well, for one thing you’ll want to lay out your strategies for building up your business and how you plan to promote it. Secondly, a business plan will let you approach banks and investors that could lend you some money that will be the base capital for getting your business promoted.

Check out INC’s guide to writing a great business plan. Don’t skip over the step but don’t worry about getting every little detail right. The important thing is to get your ideas down on paper so you can move on with the important things.

Phase 2: Purchase Mobile DJ Equipment

Once you’ve completed the “business” end of setting up your mobile DJ business, it’s time to move onto purchasing your equipment (if you don’t have it already).

Mobile DJing doesn’t call for different equipment than if you were playing in your bedroom with the exception that you may want to pick up a few extra pieces such as DJ Tables or PA Speakers.

For a mobile DJ setup, you’ll be required to have at least:

• A set of turntables
• DJ Headphones
• PA Speakers

If you’re not sure about which DJ equipment to start with, take a look at the Beginner DJ equipment guide which covers ever aspect of DJ turntables, mixers, headphones and more.

Additionally, you could browse through the top CD turntables or the top digital DJ controllers which are also located here on BeginnerDJ.

Once you have your DJ equipment, it’s all a matter of learning how to beatmatch and understanding the basics of DJing. You may also want to take this time to get used to being on the MIC because there will be events (such as at weddings) where you’ll be making announcements and getting people involved with party games.

If you’re getting caught up with learning how to DJ, I recommend the DJ Fast Video Series by DJ Sean Gallagher which covers all aspects of learning to DJ. You can pick up this course for a great price; there’s tons of instructional videos that will help you get started.

Phase 3: Setup a DJ Business Website

With a DJ business plan in the can and equipment ready to rock, your next duty is to create a place where people can find your DJ services. In my opinion, the best way to promote your DJ business is through a DJ website.

The creation of your DJ website is actually quite easy if you tap into platforms such as WordPress and have about $20 to get started.

Here’s the process of setting up a DJ website:

• Buy a domain name – I recommend GoDaddy.com
• Buy website hosting – I recommend Bluehost
• Buy a WordPress theme – I recommend ElegantThemes
• Link your domain name to your website hosting
• Install WordPress using the Fantastico script on the web host
• Install your WordPress theme and configure it how you need it to look
• Fill out your about me, contact form and any other essential pages you need

Done and done. Of course, it’s a little bit more involved than that but the entire process really isn’t that hard if you do a bit of research on how to setup your site and get WordPress going. WordPress is a content management system so you can easily add content without needing to know HTML/CSS and other programming languages.

Once you have your website up and running, you’ll want to apply some basic SEO to help your website get ranked in search engines. SEO is nothing more than finding relevant keywords for your website and adding them to your page titles, URL’s, heading tags and other elements of your pages so search engines know what to rank your pages for.

Your website should have a page for your services so people can figure out exactly what you have to offer. At this time, you can also list your DJ prices and additional things you bring to the table to help with getting yourself a gig.

Phase 4: Promoting your DJ Services Online

Next up, it’s a matter of promoting your DJ business online. Compared to how it used to be with fliers and business cards, today’s promotional process is actually very easy when you tap into web platforms.

To get started, I recommend signing up and funding a Google Adwords account. Adwords lets you choose keywords to bid on which will then display your advertisement in Google searches; the ads that appear on the right side of Google. Adwords doesn’t cost a whole lot and can get you people instantly to your website once it’s approved. Bid on keywords that relate to your business such as “DJ in (your city)” or “Wedding DJ in (city)”; these will get you noticed right away when people are doing their searches around your location.

Another mobile DJ business tip I could give you is to list your website in local business directories such as Yelp, Google Places, Bing Business, Yahoo Local and Best of the Web. These local directories will help your DJ business website show up in local searches. So, for example, if someone were to type in ‘Tampa DJ’ and you had your site listed in the area, you’re far more likely to show up. Simple.

Finally, I recommend that you start being active with promoting your DJ mixes online. There’s no better way to get your name out there than letting the music do the talking. Record an awesome DJ mix and start sharing it on websites like Mixcloud where people can find and rate your mixes; that’s the key to promoting yourself online. Who knows, you may be able to land a few gigs from people that discover you there.

Phase 5: Promoting your DJ Business Offline

Although offline advertising is starting to fall to the wayside to online advertising, the offline world still matters because there are a TON of people still looking for DJ’s using traditional platforms like the phone book, flyers and business cards.

Here are some of the ways I recommend promoting your DJ business in the offline market:

• DJ Business Flyers – Create a couple of DJ flyers and post them up around on bulletin boards and leaving them on windshields of people’s cars. Get your flyers out to as many people as you can; it’s a numbers game.

• DJ Business Card – Create a DJ business card you can be proud of and hand it out to anyone that asks what you do. Even if the person you hand it do doesn’t need a DJ at that time, maybe one of their friends or family members do – they’ll have your card to get in contact.

• Referrals and Recommendations – Always, always, always ask for referrals from your clients. Referrals are the ultimate form of marketing because of course someone is going to listen to the recommendations of their friends and family. Whenever you finish up a gig, tell people that if they enjoyed your DJing to tell their friends. Also, go back through your existing client list and strike up a conversation – before you go, ask if they could refer you to someone.

Promoting your DJ business offline doesn’t need to be a hassle; you just need to do it. Get your name out to everyone you can. Try to get covered in the news. Play at every gig that you can so you can land some referrals. Attend parties and pass around your card. It’s a numbers game; the more people you can get your name out to – the greater chances that people will get back at ya.

Phase 6: Landing the Clients

Finally, it’s all about landing clients. Besides doing the massive amount of promotion online and offline, you really need to work on bringing leads to your business just as any other business would be doing.

To get started, try to become well known in your area. Attend a lot of the local parties and use that opportunity to size up the game in town. Get your website ranked well in search engines using the tactics described in the previous section; hell, pay someone to help it get ranked and setup properly. Start doing everything you can, locally, to get yourself known. Take the crap paying gigs just so you can get in front of people. You’re going to need to do your “dues” before you start landing high-paying DJ gigs so just get them out of the way.

Take some of the capital you’ve started off with to dump into advertising. Get active on Google Adwords and other online advertising platforms. Get your business cards out to everyone you can and even try sending out mail to people in your area. Hell, you could even pay for a list of people that are getting married soon so you could contact them!

Be crafty with landing clients. Once people are interested, close the sale by backing up your work with pictures, videos and other examples of what you bring to the table. Be professional with your business and offer something that others don’t.

Once you land a client, do everything you can to give them a great experience because this is what referrals come from. Repeat the process over and over and over and over again until you don’t even need to be actively promoting your business; people do it for you.

Conclusion

Throughout this post, you’ve learned how to start a DJ business from the ground up. If you’re serious about getting in the DJ business game than make sure you do it right from the very beginning; do it legal and setup a website so you can promote the hell out of yourself. Get the gear that matters and practice as much as you can; be a great DJ. Get your name out there and land those clients. Stick with it and you’ll have a successful business.