Benoit Dervieux

About Benoit Dervieux

https://www.lesklights.com

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RIGHT PRICE = BETTER PARTIES

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You might want to organize a party to please the entire earth. Something like, I hope people will have a good time as I do like. 

You might indeed create some couples. Maybe you will help some dude get laid out. Or maybe you will help some friendships to be created.

But as with everything in life, this has a cost, and you shouldn’t be the one absorbing these costs.

It’s not capitalistic to say that, it’s realistic. That is why we want to teach you how to price your party.

Once you understand that, I can explain that RIGHT PRICE = BETTER PARTIES.

You’re not robbing people, chill out

If you’re like me, you might feel bad about asking for money from people. Not everyone is but my Christian influenced education makes me ashamed of asking for money in exchange for something.

Mostly when I wish that something should be free. 

In the best of the world, parties are free, and alcohol is cheap. There is good music everywhere and people do that through passion. In the best of the world only.

In the real world, those who don’t have solid finances behave like Titanic. They sink faster than expected.

So don’t be ashamed to ask people for compensation. We will see in this article that it is for the best of everyone. What you need to understand is that you always pay for shitty parties. 

So why not pay for yours? And yours won’t be bad with all the advice we are giving you!

So don’t be afraid to put the right price. People will save to come to your party instead of complaining. Believe me.

Pricing is a signal

Take a look at the last iPhone. We all know it’s too expensive, like any other through the years to be honest. Every time it’s the same.

But what does it says when one has the last iPhone? “Look I can afford it, I have money.”

At the same time, would you buy a 59$ phone out of nowhere? No, because you would think it’s crap. 

Well, that’s the same process with your parties.

A low price and people would think it’s crap, a high price and people would expect either a crazy experience or some really famous DJs.

So now you have to position yourself and explore what you really believe in. What value can you really bring to people?

If you think you’re playing crap music and it’s just a normal party, target low.

If you think you’re bringing a real experience to people, target normal or high.

It will tell them you are organizing a good event. It will also convince you and you’ll be able to finally make one.

Pricing will help you achieve your goals

Let’s say you’re organizing a concept of parties… Rap freestyle. 

You set up 4 or 5 mics in a room on a round table. One DJ mixes instrumentals and rappers from all over the neighborhood are coming to freestyle. 

You do it for 2 hours and the next two hours are only for dancing.

Let me tell you two scenarios you might follow to let you understand that RIGHT PRICE = BETTER PARTIES.

The first scenario – You are not charging or not charging enough

Even if your concept is dope, you are not charging.

  1. Anyone comes and bored people come to the party. They are not contributing to the general atmosphere and it feels like a retirement home.
  2. The owner gets mad because there are a lot of people but they don’t come to the party necessarily, they just stay there and don’t make numbers. More glasses are broken. It doesn’t feel like a win situation for him even if it’s slightly more crowded.
  3. The DJ who helped you didn’t get enough. Even if he played for 4 hours, he took the risk of bringing his own equipment and got nothing worth it in return. It was crowded and someone almost spill a glass on his laptop. Next time he will try to avoid coming and find excuses. He/she is talented and without her/him, there is no party.
  4. You have spent a quite amount of time for nothing. You even lost money organizing that. The DJ starts hating you and you can’t invest in anything to organize another one. You start wondering why you did all of that

As you can see, not pricing your work is not worth the effort. It brings mostly bad consequences. People don’t want to work with you and it starts to not be worth organizing something.

The second scenario – You are charging enough

  1. Only motivated people come to your party. They are not as much as if it was free, but the atmosphere is lit. Only passionate people who wish to listen to good rap and dance to good songs. Everyone is respectful and the word about this event will spread out easily.
  2. The owner is happy. Yes, it’s a small event but people have money to consume and because the atmosphere is great, they don’t hesitate to pay for more. Even if it’s not as crowded as other parties, he/she understands it’s the beginning and there is potential for more events.
  3. You can pay the DJ properly at the end. Enough for him/her to fill his hope of buying new turntables. She thinks – “If I work with him/her enough, I will get my new stuff in half a year. She will be motivated and stay serious.
  4. You have some money left to enjoy. You can reinvest in better sound, better lights, some Lesk, or decorations. You’ll be able to organize a new party and be able to invest for the next time.

As you can see, in this example, you see that money can actually help you to move further and solidify your concept. So don’t be scared of taking a fee for your work, it will only be a virtuous circle that can bring you only good things.

Pricing can help you achieve bigger objectives

One thing you need to have in mind is this.

Pricing can help you achieve bigger goals you can’t even imagine. It can be affording your dream turntables, becoming famous or any other thing you dream of.

Ok, I am exaggerating a bit but come on. You should price something fair for you and for your customers. It’s better to have the money in your pocket than in someone else’s. Because if you’re well-intentioned and you provide a good time to people, they’ll be happy.

How many times did you pay for something shitty? Was it the end of the world? No.

You remember the quality of something, not how much it cost (except if it was really really expensive but I hope you have some common sense).

What I mean is, by pricing the fair price, you’re opening the door to a bigger project. On something sustainable. Something that can grow.

You are opening the doors to the capacity to start a movement. Maybe, one day you’ll have the capacity to have the best performers in your town. The reason is you made enough parties to create a culture. You made enough parties because there was a financial motivation. There was a financial motivation because you priced well.

What to price then?

So you might wonder why RIGHT PRICE = BETTER PARTIES?

As we spoke about, the price is a psychological trigger. 

Too high and it seems exclusive, too low and people assume it’s bad.

You need to start from the source and ask yourself if you offer an exclusive experience?

What do I call an exclusive experience? 

Let’s say you’re renting special lights for a night. Something that can’t be accessed from kilometers/miles away. Or, you’re paying a big artist. This is an exclusive experience. 

This should cost more than a regular event. Hence, in this case, you’re offering an exclusive experience.

But if you read those lines I believe it’s not your case.

Is it a normal event?

In that case, you can price like your competitors. Technically, people won’t come to your or not because of the price, they will come for other reasons. 

Maybe they’re in town and it’s a nice place to come. Maybe it’s because their friends are there too.

If your party is like any other in town, you should play on other details than price. You can stay the same as your competitors and play on other details.

Is your event a bit better?

If your event is a bit better than your competitors, then the law of offer and demand can play. You can price your party a bit higher than the competition. If it’s worth it’s worth you shouldn’t be shy.

However, you need to make effort into marketing and let your target understand why your event is better. But this is another subject for another article. 

Are you starting? 

If yes, you can price a bit lower to attract people, to let them discover your concept.

However, the smartest way to do it is to add promotions. Coupled with a low price and you’ll be able to convince more people to discover something new.

Conclusion

1.Do not be afraid to price your event the same as your competitors.

It is not a reason for people to not come. Reasons for people to not come resides in others details such as your marketing, the fact you are new, or a word that did not spread.

2.Do not do free events if you start

Free brings problems if you are not backed up by special funding. So price a fair price according to the value you will provide and see what is happening.

I hope this will help you to run better events.

Cheers!

How to make money organizing parties?

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There are numerous ways of making money out there. You could import things from China, cut your neighbor’s grass, or even have a lemonade stand. But have you ever wondered how to make money in a fun way? 

In this article, we will investigate how to make money organizing parties.

Spoiler alert, it can be entertaining. Another spoiler alert, we base this article on our experience. We will provide you with all the tips we can. However, you will have to put in the effort. Once you understand that, you can follow along. 

Let’s go!

Find a concept

“Riches is in the niches” – is a famous marketing concept. You should follow it with care if you want to make money organizing parties.

You need to think of an innovative concept if you want to organize your own events. This can be a new type of party. A genre that is not often played or a location that sounds better.

The goal is to convince people to make parties in a better environment than where they actually do. Again, it can be a new place, a new type of music, or something people have never seen.

“But isn’t that risky?”

Yes, and this is why we will help you reduce the risks. A bit in this article, a lot if you follow along with the other articles on this website.

You need to create a concept that will attract the most courageous people. Or the ones who are bored with their routine. To do so, you need to find an idea that talks to them. But by definition, this concept would obviously be niched.

Do you know what type of concept to exploit? That is easy. You just need to analyze a bit.

The music you hear is always the same? Make something a layer deeper. From EDM to house or techno.

Is the queue always too long to enter? Make the same type of music in a smaller and easier-to-access place.

Do you need a dress code to enter? Make a party where you can come the way you want.

Find a concept of party

Check with your friends (and get help)

Have you ever wondered how to make money organizing parties? You’re at the right place. Because organizing your parties is fun. 

It is not fun like a video game where you finish a quest. It is fun as you can meet the love of your life. That is fun because the prettiest girls/boys can come to you and ask you if you are responsible. And then you can joke with them.

This is fun when people look at you and wish they could do the same.

It is fun as you become popular. You get attention and start create a network. The next day, considerably more people want to talk to you. (To whom you can sell some Lesk).

But you can not really do it alone. 

Hence, you need your friends implied for three reasons: A bit of help, spreading the word, and a bit of feedback.

A bit of help first.

There are a lot of things that should be done. From the marketing to handling the cash, the artists and the beverages. 

A lot of small tasks that we develop in other articles. 

All of that is to say that if you are forming a good team, you can handle it easily. But if you are alone, this might get harder.

Asking your friends is then a good thing to do. Mostly if you can be his/her wing(wo)man when the prettiest person might come to speak to you. Who knows, maybe some other want to make money organizing parties.

Spreading the word

People trust people. 

So the more people advertise, the more you can attract others. It is a kind of a network effect, not purely but still.

If you work with more people on this subject, you might be able to spread the word smoothly. Hence, having a squad with you is an advantage.

More importantly, you might forge great memories doing that with them.

So find some buddies that would be up for doing things with you. 

A bit of feedback

You might have a concept. It might be something crazy in your head.

You might have planned it out, reflected on it. You think it can be the best thing happening in a lifetime.

But if it doesn’t speak to anyone, you won’t attract nobody.

Well, that’s why friends are handy here. The more people you’ll expose your concept to, the more feedback you’ll have. Sometimes, you can spot that something is missing in terms of events. You can find a hole in the market. 

Some other times, an initiative can be a big flop as they start with assumptions. Getting feedback from friends is the first thing to do when we start.

Friends help for parties

Partner up with local venues

This is the most important concept as it will help you organize something for a few bucks (or even free). 

The business model I will talk about is the best if you don’t have a lot of money. It’s also the best if you hate responsibilities in life.

I mean you’ll still have some but you get me.

Ok, let’s focus.

The old business model

The idea of organizing an event is to find a place and rent it. Then you also rent all the music equipment. Then you pay the DJs. After that, you pay the people who will serve alcohol. You will need to buy alcohol. Then you pay someone at the entrance to take the jackets. Oh and did you think about  security? Blablabla

There seem to be a lot of things to do. You might not be a master at that. Like employing people as a bartender? Or ordering enough alcohol for the event? 

It’s really hard spending time on those. But you’re smart, you don’t need to do that, isn’t it?

Is that the image you had for how to make money organizing parties?

The new business model

Luckily, other people have done the work for you. Who are those other people? Bar or restaurant owners. Not all of them, those who have less business than others. Those who have a hard time advertising. Those who invested in a sound system already. 

Your goal will be to find them and ask if they are up for a partnership. You come with DJs. You advertise on social media and take a fee at the entrance.

In exchange, they make their profit on the alcohol sales and you can share the money at the entrance.

That way you won’t need to care (a lot) about security, alcohol, etc. Either way, they would open that night, isn’t it? So a little party wouldn’t hurt nobody.

Hence, you can eventually call some friends of yours who would love to DJ. If profit, you can negotiate to split it after depending on your profit.

And here it is.

This is how to make money organizing parties.

You have your events without needing to have a big budget to rent everything. 

This worked for us. We found a restaurant that opened under the condition to have at least 150 people. We didn’t spend one dollar on any organizational stuff. And we made 6 parties like that.  

Partner with venus to organize free parties

Contact local DJs

As a DJ myself, I have to admit that being able to play is a social experience.

If none of your friends ask you if you’re up for playing, you have few chances to do so. Even if you like to mix.

Even if there are strategies to find places where to mix, the ratio of DJ available vs opportunities is pretty weak. 

Hence, contacting your local DJs (or friends) can be an opportunity for them to just play somewhere else than alone in their room. Hence they might be happy when you’ll ask them to play if they are not superstars yet. 

That’s why you should definitely contact some local DJs to ask them about the opportunity you have.

Some of them will be dicks and will refuse, but others will be more than happy to help.

And how much should you pay them then?

When it comes to money, there are different schools. 

If your intention is to make more and better parties, you could negotiate to not pay people. If you’re a DJ reading it doesn’t get angry and let me explain. As I said I’m a DJ myself and for the good cause it’s ok to play for free.

But don’t fool people. If you keep the money for yourself, they’ll feel you’re a traitor and they’ll get mad at you. Your reputation will be tarnished and you’ll win nothing.

Another thing you can do is to pay a percentage of the profit. If you’re transparent with them and you’re only starting, they’ll understand. Negotiating is a way to respect the DJ’s time more than paying a great fee.

You should use this approach when you start and are not sure about your profitability.

However, if you’re making a lot of money, pay people accordingly. You’ll have a better reputation as well as better hopes for your future. 

Someone paid respectively will help spread the word about your party and business. While someone paid poorly won’t.

Contact local DJs

Respect the theme of the party

By the way, if you’re not paying the DJs, you should expect them to play the music they like, not the one you like.

Be careful when selecting them. As it might not fit with your concept or the vibes you want.

This is something you need to have in mind while organizing everything. You’re at risk to have arguments or problems. 

If you pay them, however, you pay for a service and technically they’re supposed to play what you want.

Advertise on Facebook and social media

One way to reduce costs is to advertise on social media.

Facebook is, from what I know, the best place to advertise something and we’ll see why.

Organize parties with social media

First, let’s focus and what’s free: Facebook groups.

On Facebook groups, you can publish a lot of information. The more groups you publish on, the more chances you have to spread the word. Yes, a lot of groups are dead. Yes, Facebook is a platform for boomers. But it’s still something where information transit. 

A lot of people discover things on Facebook, still. If they do not discover them, someone talks about it. And more importantly, it’s free!

Second, Facebook events

The same, FB events are basically free advertisements for your parties. You need to make one, invite your friends and ask your friends to invite their friends. 

The goal is just to send the information without sending one-by-one messages to people.

We’ll talk more about the way you can spread the word in other articles. 

Third, Instagram and Facebook events

Instagram and Facebook advertisements are a great way to spread the word about your party. 

Why? Cause for a few bucks (that you can easily get back) you will be able to be on the screen of thousands of people. 

Of course, you’ll have the be original and make it sort people can understand what you’re offering. But still, you can reach people who have an interest in your party, directly.

We could easily add TikTok for this but the only problem is that I am not so familiar with TikTok right now. So I think I would need to test before giving you a whole analysis.

Be serious and run a great event

Be serious when organizing events

The last thing you should do is to be serious are your event. Be respectful to the owner, and meet with him/her/them. Ask them how they want to do things, and make them feel you’re there for them. Don’t forget that if it’s going good, you’ll be able to make more parties. Hence, more frequently you’ll be able to make money organizing parties.

On your side, prepare everything with your crew. The sound system, what type of material people will have with them. Know in advance the cables you need.

Know also the decoration and the mood you want to have. The last day shouldn’t be the day you go and buy everything. It should be the day for emergencies.

On the D day, come earlier, bring food for everyone, and eventually drinks.

The night will not be a night for you where you can have fun. It will be a night where your vision will be accomplished and where you’ll get the money.

This money will serve to make bigger events or to make the DJ, you, your friends, and the owner richer. 

In any case, you’ll have to handle the cash for the entrance. Be ready to have everything official, don’t fraud the taxes. Be ready to produce receipts if needed. Get enough cash to give back for the change. 

Oh yeah, we did not speak about the pricing? It will be another subject. 

What I want to emphasize is that, be the person who is doing the boring tasks. It’s what is expected from the organizer.

I hope you liked this article. Do not hesitate to read more about this subject on our blog. If you have any questions, you can contact us by email, on Instagram, Facebook, or Tiktok. 

Thanks for reading.

Bisous et à bientôt!

Recording your mixes

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If you are a DJ, you will have to be able to record your mix. There are several reasons for that. For instance, you want to share it on the web. To either start creating a base of followers. Or for having feedback on how to improve your mixing level. You might also want to show your mixes to promoters to get booked. Or, the last one: You want to improve.

So there are a lot of convenient ways one can use its recorded mix. That is what we are going to see in this article about recording your mix.

I hope you are ready.

How do you record a mix?

The first thing to understand is how you can record your mix. This is essential because, more than just having the sound, you want it to be of good quality. If you want people to analyze your style, they might not be bothered by too much bass. Or by any sound problem that can occur. 

So let us see how you can record your music.

On a controller

I think controllers are the more simple tools to record your mix. Depending on which one you are using, there is a functionality that allows you to record internally directly. For instance, in Traktor, you can select the extended view mode, you will have the option in the upper right corner. On Serato, a button called “REC” is available for you to record your mix on the main panel. The same option exists in virtual DJ on the main panel too.

What you need to think about when recording, is the amount of processing power and memory it takes. Mixes can be heavy, so you need to have some free gigabytes. But most importantly, you do not want your computer bugging, so you need to avoid any latency problems. To do so, I used to run a program that would shut down all the unnecessary windows programs. You can also only shut down your wifi and close the application.

On turntables

When I speak about turntables, I discuss both vinyl and digital turntables in that case. The difference I am making is that you are unplugged into DJ software. Hence recording does not come easily. 

In that case, you will need an external tool to record. Nowadays, a phone can work, but you might have a fixed computer or an external recorder. In anyways, you will have to find an output (mostly the REC one) where you would connect a cable (mostly RCA). Then, from this output, you will need to connect to your recording device to get the proper signal. Then, you will have your mix ready on your device.

Note that the REC output sends a signal that does not vary. That means that you will not have music that can be too high or too low according to your volume levels. The signal will be standardized, which is better when post-processing your mix or uploading them.

The benefits of recording your mix

There are a lot of benefits to recording your mixes. Here, we are going to list them to let you understand why you should do it.

Publish on the web

If you are a DJ and desire to evolve, you will have, at one point, to publish your mixes. You will need to create your online profile and share your mixes with the world. I will be honest with you, only a few people will listen to it. But the ones who will, are the ones who will be your unconditional supporters. 

With the help of platforms such as Soundcloud or Mixcloud, you will be able to make your mixes accessible for anyone. It will serve to be discovered or to be looked for later. It will become part of your identity as you will be able to say that you are a DJ and that one can find your mixes on those platforms.

That leads to our next section:

Be findable and credible

You’re a DJ, but you feel shy? Everyone has been through this. Like a pyramid, the number of people who have uploaded their mixes is greater than the ones who have played in festivals. In any case, both can say they are DJs without shame. 

So if you want to be considered as a DJ, you need to have your mix out there. It is like, if you want a dream job, you need to have a resume ready to give. That is the whole purpose of being able to give out your mixes. That is the first step of a big journey. And believe me, more people will give you a gig than a job.

So yes, putting your mixes online is a big step, you might be shy in doing so, but you should not. Because when someone that will be able to give you a gig will ask you for a mix, they will be happy to see that you can provide them one. They will be even more delighted to acknowledge that you have made more than a dozen. And this is how it all starts.

Improve yourself

In my opinion, this is the most crucial point. 

How do you know you’re a good DJ? Like, your technic is good? I mean the crowd in parties dance to your music, but they are maybe drunk, they are maybe there with their friends or for getting laid. They might dance but not pay full attention to the music. They might forgive your music as long as the girl on the dancefloor is staying there. 

So how do you know you’re doing a great job? I mean, you’re doing your stuff. Hence, you can’t review what you’re doing. 

Well, the only answer to that is to record your mixes. It will help you to localize where you’re making mistakes and what you should improve. Maybe your transition is too quick, or too slow. You’re using too many effects. You don’t manage the volume accurately. There is a lot to take out of someone’s mix. But it’s even better when you analyze yours. Because you’ll be in total control.

Record your mix with your phone

You might wonder how you can record your mix with your phone? In this section of the article recording your mix, we will see how you can achieve it.

The cables

Your goal here is to capture the sound that comes out from your mix table into a device that records it. Here is your smartphone. To do so, you will find the right output for this. The best, as we mentioned early in this article, is the REC output as it gives a standardized signal. But any output can be good, you will just need to be careful with your gain.

To this REC, you’ll plug in some RCA cables. They can finish as a jack or you can buy an adapter for this. Then, you’ll need a TRS to TRRS adapter. For those who aren’t technical, let’s put it like that to understand. Some jacks can have 2 rings and then you won’t be able to record audio from them. You then need to have 3 rings. And this is how TRRS works. So it might not be 100% correct. But this is how I experienced it.

Record your DJ set on iPhone

There are a bunch of apps on iPhone that you can use to record your mix. In my experience, I would advise you to use the one you’re most comfortable with. I am using the normal dictaphone most of the time. The reason for this is that it exports to my email easily. But maybe you’ll find a better alternative such as Garage band or anything out there. 

I also know that pioneer has an app for that.

Record on an android phone

On the other hand, you might have an android and don’t know how to do it. Well, the Pioneer app doesn’t work in that case, nor does garage band. So you will have to find an alternative, but I am sure that the normal dictaphone works perfectly. Again, find something that suits your workflow.

I hope that you liked this article. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to comment and I will be glad to answer you.

Organize events – Do we agree with Phil Morse?

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Organize your own events – Do we agree with Phil Morse?

In his book “Rock the Dancefloor”, Phil Morse says that what has been a game-changer for him was to organize events. The reason for that was that he could earn more money than a simple gig and that he could play what he wanted. 

At Lesk, we believe that one who organize events on his/her own will enjoy the DJ journey even better. We think that the reasons why Phil organized his own parties were the same as ours. This is why we wanted to comment on all the recommendations he gives in his book. We will add some of our perspectives to help to have a better analysis.

event that displays confettis

You should start small

Why do we agree? 

It is a mistake to think that you will get the jackpot by organizing one party. Maybe you can spot a good gap and then get a lot of people. If you’re experienced enough, you will know how to market and get paid. Then you will be able to make quite a decent money out of that. But come on. You don’t do that for the money, do you?

What I am trying to explain is that you’re more likely to start slow than fast. It is a mistake to think the reverse. The only case you could start fast is that you have a network of people ready to party. This is what happened to us and why we started strong. It was an opportunity that we grabbed. That’s how we started to organize events.

Over the months, as we attracted people from our network and not people that liked the style, we declined. Because here is the thing:

Throwing parties is about creating a movement, not a one-shot.

People need to know you enough and be secure enough to go to your parties. In the beginning, you’ll have only the one who likes the type of music you’ll play. You won’t have the one who follows blindly. So you will have a restricted amount of people.

This is why you should start small when you organize events. Because maybe the first time all your friends will come and their friends. You will have this network effect of 200 people. But what about the other times? Where only 30 passionate people will show off?

So start small, cut your expenses, and build your local audience. It is better than starting big and failing directly.

Person reading a small book

Choose good night

Why do we agree?

We will have to know your calendar and people’s habits. This is what’s going to make the difference when you will organize events.

Public holidays are really interesting as people want to party at that time. So you have opportunities. But let’s go further in detail.

First, the experience will tell you everything. Don’t expect to know exactly how people will react precisely. Business is “guess something”, “work towards that guess” to achieve it, and then make conclusions. So my experience, you’ll know when night will be great or not.

For instance, we fucked up a party by throwing it on valentine’s day. Only 30 people came even if the concept was great. We also got good results at the beginning because we started just before the Christmas holidays when people were fed up with their studies. It varies a lot. And you will have to understand that.

What we want to add

You can never know what a good or bad night is. So try your best and hope everything will be fine. Look at your calendars and try to target well. If bigger events happen that night, you might be empty. If too big of an event happens also, people might be fed up with joining other too crowded parties and choosing you. You kind of never know. So be aware of that when you organize events.

night with a lot of stars

Do it yourself

Why we disagree (and then why we agree).

When you don’t know what one needs to do, doing it yourself might seem complicated. Between the marketing, the organization, the tickets, the jackets, the cash, and so on, doing it yourself is not the easiest. 

It all depends on which kind of deal you get when you organize events. If you’re going to a place where they already have people selling tickets and taking jackets: ok. If you need to do all that by yourself, you’ll need to hire, plan, or do that with friends.

So do it yourself, when you start, is not the best advice I believe.

Why we agree

However, here are the reasons why we agree.

I’m going to take my example, but what happened was that for our parties, everyone was asked to participate. Everyone wanted to join just to mix and be part of the night. I ended up sometimes having no time for my part and no one wanting to let me mix. Even if I was spending a lot of hours doing marketing and logistics. 

So if I would have to do it all over again, I would do it with the fewest number of people possible. Yes, you hear me, even alone if it could be possible. 

Because I spent a huge amount of work to get the thing running to at the end, get kicked out from my own movement. So yeah, do it alone and like that, fewer problems will arise.

Ps: If you don’t want to invite people, create some rules that will help you to manage everything. Believe me, it will help you sooner or later.

Events where people are dancing

Half of the people who say they would come won’t come

Why do we agree?

This statement is partially true. Partially because we had one-third of the people not coming in our case. Luckily, we had a list of people that we could track to see how many people came or not. At the same time, we had a portion of people that came from nowhere.

My advice here is to understand what is your ratio when you organize events. How many people are showing off vs how many people don’t? I guess there are plenty of ways to reduce the ratio. A bit more advertising at the right time and you’re good to go. But you need to be aware of the number.

people walking in the street

Build a brand, not a style of music

Why do we 100% agree?

People respond emotionally to brands. They might not like your style of music, but they might come anyway for the atmosphere. Even if they are just sat at the bar, it’s always good. 

As we said previously, you need to create a movement if you organize events. And brands are good to do so. One can associate a brand with a way of thinking, of acting, of living. Values can emanate from your brand and this is where you’ll make the best out of it.

If you just refer to your style of music, you might be limited in the type of people coming. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t choose a niche. It only means you should present it through a brand.

It’s also that you can educate people. Maybe people don’t like the type of music you play. But after one, or two or three events they will. They will be convinced that it’s better than what they are already listening to. A brand has the power of changing habits and perceptions. This is why you should use it.

advertisement and brands everywhere in a street

Negotiate the right deal

Why we agree

“You’re as big as the problem you’re resolving”. Always keep this in mind when you organize events.

If you visit a club that already has parties going on, you’re not resolving a big problem. So they won’t give you a huge credit. If you visit a place that is on the decline and is desperately looking for people organizing parties there, you have the advantage.

So keep that in mind when looking for a place and prepare your negotiation. State what you want in the future and see where you can meet the person. 

Don’t forget that a bad deal can ruin both your and your brand reputation. Also, don’t let people take advantage of you just because you want to play somewhere. It will frustrate you more than it will be beneficial. And if someone doesn’t want to take time to negotiate, then it’s a big no. Most of the time, they’ll lose more than you. Believe me.

negotiation between 2 people

Use every marketing trick available

True.

Marketing is about spreading the word, and the more you spread, the more people will come. My advice here is to see what you are capable of producing and how fast you can. Between copies, stories, posters, videos, and so on.

That could (and maybe will) be a whole course in itself but keep in mind that you need to advertise as much as you can. You also need to ask people to promote your event. Not selling tickets for it, but at least to share it on their social networks. No matter how many people follow them or not.

The more work you’re putting in, the more credible you will appear when you organize events.

marketing digital

Collect email address

True and not only that.

Marketing people are obsessed with numbers and data. And they are right. The more data you have, the more you can be sure of your activity. 

So we advise you to collect email. Try to make a base of people that might come every time to personally tell them that your next event will be that date. Try to reward people who are the first ones coming.

Those are the ones who will make your movement bigger, so don’t skip them. 

Marketing and good finances are what will help you to stay motivated in the long run. So get educated a minimum to be able to not lose what you’re building.

charts on a computer

If you’re successful, you’ll be able to book your favorite DJ

We don’t know if it’s true. But this is all we wish you if you decide to organize events. <3

I hope that you liked this article. Don’t hesitate to comment if you have anything to add.

Cheers! 

events where there is a big star
Benoit Dervieux mixing

The author

Benoit Dervieux is the initiator of Lesk. He started DJing around 14 years old, bought his first pair of vinyls at 22 and started organizing parties at 25. He has a master in entrepreneurship and is developing Lesk hoping the product will enter the market. You can contact him directly on instagram @lesklights.

Review of Rock the dancefloor – Phil Morse’s book

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A review of  “Rock the Dancefloor” from Phil Morse

Hi everyone,

In this article, I will make a review of “Rock the Dancefloor: The proven five-step formula for total DJing success” that I read in about one week with more or less intensity.

This book is, in my opinion, addressed from beginner DJs with no experience to average DJs who would like to recalibrate their knowledge. It gives the big picture about DJing in general and helps understand it.

Let’s dig in.

"Rock the Dancefloor" from Phil Morse

"Rock the Dancefloor" from Phil Morse

The author

Phil Morse is the founder of Digital DJ Tips. It is a website for DJs that offers many services. There we can find courses, articles, affiliated products, etc. Their approach, even if it’s not the one I prefer, is very good. They also offer a lot of content and a lot of advices for free. One can only be thankful for that.

Under his hat, Phil seems to have quite a strong experience of gigging and mixing. And even if no music comes out when taping his name on Youtube, I guess that his advice will one day register him in the domain of the ultra-known DJs.

One last thing that I would add, is that Phil seems to be a technology optimist. Which makes him being pretty open-minded on new gears. While we are more of a movement open-minded here in Lesk. We mostly mix for dancing, for the sensations, and less for the technology. 

This is notoriety that pushed us to make a review of “Rock the Dancefloor”.

That said, let’s continue to the book’s review.

Phil Morse, Dj who wrote the book "Rock the dancefloor"

Phil Morse, Dj who wrote the book "Rock the dancefloor"

The structure of the book

To start the review of “Rock the Dancefloor”, let’s analyze the structure of the book. Here are the chapters in order:

1- The gear

2- The music

3- The techniques

4- Playing out

5- Promoting yourself

The advantage that it offers is that it gives the big picture of DJing. From buying the first piece of gear to market yourself. It can even be too generalist for someone that has already started. But still, it’s good to know to at least have generic knowledge. It is also useful to trace a virtual path on where one would like to go.

It helps to situate oneself on the path of DJing and where to get orientated.

Ok now, let’s review the different parts.

A DJ mixing at an event

The gear

In this part, the author reviews which different types of gear it exists to DJ. Without entering into deep details, Phil dresses the portrait of what is existing. From controller to vinyl passing by tools few people use, everything is more or less mentioned. 

The important aspect I am taking out of this chapter is that, as long as you have the essentials, don’t bother buying more. Follow your budget and your heart, and don’t try to reach too high. In other terms, if your budget is 100$, you better buy something second-hand and use it, than dreaming about something which costs 1000$. And he is right. Djing money will come after (and we explain how to do it on this website), but before you need to practice.

For instance, I have a Traktor S2 MK3, and I think it’s way enough. I could have an S2 MK2 bought second-hand (around 200$), and I would be as happy. I know I still have to practice, and that’s ok. Yes, I dream about CDJs, but if I want to play on CDJs, I can go somewhere else to use them, so that’s ok.

He also explains that as long as you have two tracks of audio, a mixer, and something to hear music, you’re good to go. So DJing doesn’t need to be that advanced. Even if we see the contrary on videos and so on. This is the most important stuff I remembered for the review of “Rock the dancefloor”.

If you are new on the world of DJing and want to know how to start DJing, we have made some articles about it. Here on turntables, here on vinyls and here on the controller.

DJ gear

 

The music

In this chapter, Phil explains how you should approach your music gathering process. In other terms, how can you create a system where you automatically gather music?

As DJ, you need to listen to more music than the average to filter them and create a DJ set. So you need to automatize it. From listening to the gathering to the filtering and your playlist.

What I think is interesting to add in the review of “Rock the Dancefloor”, is this state of mind that you have to have. You need to create your own system for gathering music. For me, the system is a bit messy, but I shazam as much as I can, I save on Youtube playlist, and I take a screenshot of Spotify. But sometimes it’s not enough. So it showed me that I needed to be more systematic.

The techniques

In this chapter, the author describes what DJs do. How do they mix, and what is their job. Again, you have learned those principles you can find that it’s a bit boring to go through it again. But for a beginner that is very passionate about mixing and has never touched a mix table, this is the right step.

Going through my notes again, I have a hard time figuring out what is essential to know. However, I have found this note which was:

“you need to fade it good to people to not understand that it’s faded”

To do so, you should analyze your music and do the job. Don’t hesitate to use pieces of paper to do the job, it’s ok. The important is that your analysis skills would develop to be accurate during the mix. You need to know the bars and how the music structure works. Or that one can call the phrases in a music.

Also, in the book we have five types of transition that I guess are worth training. Even if one might do them instinctively, it’s always good to have them in mind when trying to improve.

To finish, Phil advises you to record yourself. The goal of it is to understand how you’re mixing and how you can improve yourself. As you can’t judge yourself when you’re mixing, you need to have a trace of it. Recording your mixes will provide you this trace. I did it, and I have to admit that he was right. I saw that I rushed too much into changing my music while if I took my time, I could have something cleaner and less stressful. For my review of “Rock the Dancefloor”, I thought this advice was the best one could receive.

Ok, so that’s everything I took from this section, let’s move on.

Playing out as a DJ

Playing out

In this chapter the author emphasize on the need for any DJ to play out and confront himself with the crowd. So the objective of getting a public gig is what can help you improve as a DJ. Also, you need to see how people react to your songs and how you can manage to entertain them. In other terms, when you’re a DJ, you need to get out of your comfort zone and play publicly. 

I agree with him on the fact that playing publicly is a life-changing experience. Quitting your bedroom for something more real-life is what you need. So get yourself ready and go hunt gigs. Yes, you might fear being rejected. We all have this fear. But that’s also the process. Not everything can be easy, and not everything can be accessible.

Another subject that the author is speaking about is how to behave in terms of music and attitude. Musically speaking, you will have to please 3 types of people: You, the manager and the crowd. You should be aware of that. In terms of conduct, Phil advises that you should be easy and respectful. You should be the person that doesn’t cause any problems and mind his own business. Be polite and respectful to all the other staff members. Also, don’t get taken away by drugs and alcohol, it’s never good. 

For the author, the more experience you’ll get from there, the better your DJ journey will be. We agree with him in this article that dresses the review of “rock the dancefloor” by Phil Morse.

Promoting yourself as a DJ

 

Promoting yourself

In this section, Phil Morse gives several tracks to follow to help people getting to know you simpler and faster. Without going deep into the details, let’s list some steps that are, in my eyes, pretty important:

Make a good online profile

You will have to get an internet presence if you want to get known. Not something perfect, but still. To do so, you’ll have to create a website and make all of your social profiles. You’ll have to put up mixes, be able to gather email addresses and be contacted.

Be implied in your local scene

It will help you to network and create a base of people following/knowing you. Being active in your local scene is the best one can do. You will interact with people and see more opportunities. Either get invited to some parties, small festivals, bars and so on. People who DJ just for pleasure will share tips with you, and everything will make your routine better.

Making your events

That is what we are prone to here at Lesk. Like Phil, we believe that making your event will give you credit and bring you enough money to pay back at least your material. 

We will speak more about this chapter in another article.

Becoming a producer

It’s not something you have to. But still. Becoming a producer will help to extend the frontiers of your music if you’re good enough. You don’t need to be the next David Guetta, but sharing your music with the world will have more impact than playing locally.

 

my critic on the book rock the dancefllor

My critics

Here are my thoughts about this book to finish with this review of “Rock the dancefloor” by Phil Morse.

The book gives the big picture of DJing. I think it’s convenient if you’re starting as well as if you have been DJing for some time. If you’re a professional, however, you might think it’s not worth the time spent. However, it can also be a great tool to recalibrate his skills and reorganize our way of approaching DJing.

The book explains the different types of DJing that exist and doesn’t prioritize one type over another. We then get a realistic overview of the work that I believe is also great. The author shows a lot of modesty and respect towards all types of DJing. One great thing is that Phil Morse is enthusiastic and speaks to and for anyone.

This book confirmed what I learned about DJing as I mostly did it on the go. Reading this confronted me with my habits, and it helped me improve my workflow. I was also able to take a step back and look at my position to figure out how I was acting and what I should correct. The ability to change perspective because of this book is what makes it worth buying.

For instance, after buying, I changed this:

  • How I was gathering music
  • How I was analyzing my sets
  • Why I should get gigs soon
  • How I should market myself
  • and a lot of other small details

Now, as it is a critic, I feel forced to address some negative comments.

I would say that you won’t find a revelation in this book, mostly if you have experience. That can be frustrating if you’re expecting this. I know few DJ evolve reading books and might think that if they do the effort, they should find the magic formula. This won’t be the case here. Instead, you’ll have small little advice that you should apply.

Another critic I would address is the lack of stories. I love to learn through stories, and it felt as if the book lacked them. Maybe it could be a suggestion for the future, for another book, But for now, it seems like it wasn’t enough.

Otherwise, I recommend this book for sure. It’s easy to read and can always help you.

I hope you like this article. Don’t hesitate to comment and tell me if you would like more of those in the future.

Benoit Dervieux mixing

The author

Benoit Dervieux is the initiator of Lesk. He started DJing around 14 years old, bought his first pair of vinyls at 22 and started organizing parties at 25. He has a master in entrepreneurship and is developing Lesk hoping the product will enter the market. You can contact him directly on instagram @lesklights.

How to beatmatch by ear?

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Nowadays, it became easy to be a DJ, and anyone can say that he or she knows how to DJ.

Some apps and gadgets do the work for you. Smooth transitions than even the best artists in the world couldn’t imagine. Plenty of effects that would make your music resonate in a dimension we couldn’t even think of. I even saw a startup that wanted to develop only a crossfader as simple hardware. (Sorry, the link is in French, but the picture speaks for itself)

Well, all of that is great. It’s good that anyone can discover the art of DJing that easily. Everyone can use a smartphone to train or to see if this hobby can be their next dream job. 

But does it make you a DJ right away? The answer is, sorry to say, no. (and this applies to me also)

And to understand why we need to go through the DJ journey. The ones which consist in mastering all the techniques to mix well and to transform a practice into an art.

Beatmatching by ear is one of the most important. Because it registers you into the bottom of the passionate people, and that’s enough for earning respect. 

Let’s dig in.

A DJ mixing on a controller

What is beatmatching?

Beatmatching consists in modifying the tempo of the music we are mixing to adjust it to the one we are playing. To do so, we need to prepare the new music while the other one is running. By listening to it in our headphones and adjusting the pitch, we transform the speed of the music. Then, we can phase both music and prepare our transition to make a smooth mix. It avoids interruptions, brutal transitions, and beats not being in phase. The last one is truly awful to hear.

In the beginning, beatmatching was done by ear as the technology wasn’t as advanced. It was hard to achieve, and not everyone could do it. One needed to have the appropriate practice to perform such a task. And the equipment wasn’t as accessible because it was expensive.

However, today, with the rise of DJ software, beatmatching has become effortless. Software or apps analyze your music and give you the BPM directly. It allows any DJ to know precisely the tempo of their music instead of adjusting it. It also helps people to make smoother transitions without the need of investing a consequent amount of work.

 

DJ mixing at a party

Why is that problematic?

In a way, technology made the job of DJ easier but maybe too easy.

Then, a skill that required passion and dedication became accessible to anyone. Everybody started to consider themselves as a DJ even if they didn’t have the same amount of practicing hours. Equipment that required a huge investment became available for the masses.

The sacred characteristic of DJing might have been hurt. And let’s be honest, the privileged status of DJ has been threatened by the fact that doors opened up.

At the same time, isn’t DJing an art? And what differentiates an artist from other people? It is the amount of time he spent to master his arts. Even if it means losing time in some unproductive activities.

That is why beatmatching by ear is more respected than beatmatching with software. It belongs to the art side of DJing.

 

2 MC at a party

Why is beatmatching by ears so important?

As said in the previous paragraph, beatmatching by ears belongs to the state of arts of DJing. It’s a skill. And as with every skill, it asks for dedication, regularity, and work. That is not something one masters in one night. It’s a competence that is acquired through time, through experience, and mostly, through pain.

Beatmatching by ear is traumatizing. Your mixes sound awful at the beginning. You question yourself if you’re a good DJ. And you can flirt with the verge that would let you stop everything.

But it also reveals passion. If you’re strong enough to not stop and to master it, it means that you like DJing for what it is. If you’re dedicated enough to overcome shame and painful mixes, then it means that you’re not DJing necessarily for the girls or the fame. Yet it can come on the way, but it’s not what you’re looking for. And this is honorable.

People will notice it and will give you more credit, more respect. Respect is something you need if you want to grow. You can be highly talented, if no one respects you, you’re nothing. While if you’re hard-working and respectable, success, as you define it, can show up one day.

What is a skill when you know you don’t need to sweat to get it? What is a pleasure when it comes too easily?

Sorry for those wise words, but I needed to show the importance of beatmatching by ear before continuing.

 

DJ doing ear transitions

How to beatmatch by ear – The process

You can beatmatch by ear on any device. To do so, you’ll need your usual material for mixing. Vinyl, turntables, or controllers. I am not going to explain how to do here, but I guess you already know. And you’ll need to HIDE YOUR BPM AND STOP YOUR SYNC. 

As simple as that. Because the temptation is there, you will look, and it isn’t what we want.

Then let’s see the process. 

Setup your songs

To start with, take 2 tunes with distinct beats and almost similar BPM. You can also start with a similar BPM but then you’re not adjusting the tempo. And it’s the most important skill you need to develop. So don’t take 2 songs with a similar BPM (but close).

Load both songs on your equipment. Connect your headphones and orient your speakers to your face. Having a good sound will help you. If you can take away the screen of your laptop (if you use one), it’s even better. But in that case, you need to know your controller (or turntable) by heart.

Then, start the first song. While it is running, play the second one in your headphones trying to match the beats. If those two songs don’t have a similar BPM, you will notice a gap. This is our enemies, and the clock is ticking to fight it.

Adjust the tempo

To do so, you’ll have to play with the pitch(tempo), either increasing it or slowing it down. And start the second sound over, always trying to be on the beat to see if your new tempo matches the one of the music playing. You do that over and over until both tracks are in phase. You’ll need to turn the jog to do so. But that’s how you do on paper.

Another thing to take into consideration is your headphones. There are also differences between the sound from your headphones and the one coming out of your speakers. Sometimes, when you hear the second sound in your headphones, you think everything is fine. Then you do your transition and you figure out it’s not. It’s because the sound in your headphone and the one on your speakers has those milliseconds that kill everything and makes your mix awful. So be careful with how you hear everything in your system. Makes sure you’re comfortable with it.

Then do you transition

As simple as that!

Fellas mixing at a party

How to beatmatch by ear – The state of mind

Now that we have seen the basics, let’s see the state of mind you’ll need to be to learn how to beatmatch by ear.

At first, you might fail a lot

Beatmatching by ear is exhausting, painful, and annoying at first. Except if you’re a genius at it, your mixes will sound horrible. You will spend two-third of the music trying to beatmatch just to understand that you have almost no time to mix anything then. You will prepare everything, think that music is on point and then hear this gap. As if someone would knock at your door asking for the rent. You will go through the joy of doing one good transition, being super excited, and then do shit for the next fives ones. 

Let’s be honest: it is normal.

As said, it’s a skill to develop. A capacity to differentiate two music when played at the same time. It’s not instinctive and doesn’t come naturally. You’ll have to train your ears and most importantly, train yourself. There will be days with and days without. And that’s normal.

My advice here is then to train a little bit every day when you have time with. First, with tunes, you like and then by extending everything. You won’t have to do a DJ contest tomorrow, will you? So you don’t have to master everything overnight. 

Make it an habit

Take your time, see that as a long-term skill to acquire. Let your brain understand everything. Maybe two sessions of 30 minutes per day with a dozen of music you like. When you’re tired, you stop and do something else and come back. Of course, you can challenge yourself sometimes and do something longer. But the thing is to not exhaust and frustrate yourself. 

At one point, it will come, it will become more obvious. From the obvious, it will become easier. From easier, it will become instinctive. It’s better to learn it in 3 slow months than to give up after 2 intensive weeks. 

So take your time.

Someone beatmatching by ear at a rave

How long does it take to learn to beatmatch by ear?

Everything depends on the time you spend on your activity. Some people will learn it in 1 week, for others it will take 1 year. The truth is, except that it depends, that beatmatching by ear is a muscle. The more you train it, the more it grows. But if you stop, it will automatically reduce.

I didn’t touch my gear for one year during the pandemic and I was surprised that I could still beatmatch by ear after that. It wasn’t perfect, I am honest. But it wasn’t as frustrating as in the beginning when I first started.

I started with vinyl and my turntables were quite bad. In total, I think I spend a bit more than one hour per day during one month to develop the skill. Yet it wasn’t the best, but I was still proud.

So here is the answer, to learn how to beatmatch by ears, I would answer you that you will need 40 hours. But it doesn’t mean that you will beatmatch everything after 40 hours of mixing. No. It means that you will be able to overcome the frustration and sharpen your skills after those 40 hours. If you want to make it a reflex, you’ll need more, way more. 

But the good thing is that you’ll focus on something else. Once you have the basics, then you can start experimenting with something else like better transitions, better playlists, other types of effects, etc…

 

Controller for mixing at a party

Do all DJS beatmatch by ear?

The answer is… No! 

There is no rule. You will never get fired from a club or a bar because you don’t beatmatch by ear. Party organizers don’t judge you on that. Mostly when you need to get adapted to any place fast. They judge you on how you can get the vibes or not make people consume more drinks. The way of doing that is up to you. As long as it functions.

So no one will ever ask you to beatmatch by ear, but the difference is more subtle. 

I think that 99% of people in a club don’t know what you’re doing when you’re mixing. Ok, let’s say 98%. So 2% will be able to eventually understand what you’re doing. Among that 2%, half of them will understand how you mix (so 1%). In this 1%, half of them will blame you for using the sync button, the other ones, depending on the level, won’t care. But this 0,5% are the ones you’ll be competing with. The ones who care more about the art of mixing. The social circle you have chosen. Yet, you can just adjust the pitch button, ensuring the BPM is the same on both channels without using the sync. Or you can take your time to beatmatch by ear, or you can do that in less than 15 seconds. The more impressive, the more respect, it is up to you to decide who you want to be.

 

Not all DJs beatmatch by ear

How to beatmatch quickly?

To beatmatch by ear quickly, you will need to once again practice, practice and practice.

There is no miracle, you’ll need to train and you’ll need time. Overnight success comes with years of practice and this is what will happen. 

But keep in mind two things:

First, beatmatching fast and by ear is on the legend level. When I say legends, I speak about the artists that your favorite artists adulate. So don’t set your expectation too high or you might get disappointed. The goal is to take pleasure mixing, not feeling that you can’t achieve something. Sometimes, it’s better to focus on something else and let the time do its work than to push too hard. So don’t put too much pressure.

Second, don’t let your frustration take over everything. Beatmatching is important, but there are so many other skills to manage that you shouldn’t focus on that. It should be part of your DJ routine, but nothing more. Again, it will come with time, through mixes, through experiences.

 

A DJ who beatmatches fast

Conclusion

Beatmatching by ear is an important skill to master as a DJ. 

First, it shows that you’re mixing for the love of the art. Purists will feel it and this is how you’ll be able to make better connections with people. You’ll have more to share, more to speak about. You don’t need to master it from the beginning of your DJ journey. If you just started it’s chill. But if you’re mixing, you like it and intend to go further, you should consider it. I saw DJs using sync during gigs, I approve but don’t take them seriously as DJs. Now you know.

Second, it will strengthen your skills as a DJ globally. It’s a rule. When you push your training harder, the rest will feel easy. When you stay in your comfort zone, you don’t evolve. So it’s up to you to make your own choices.

That said, I hope you’ll have a good time training yourself to beatmatch by ear. Don’t hesitate to comment or to contact me if you have any questions. Cheers-

Benoit Dervieux mixing

The author

Benoit Dervieux is the initiator of Lesk. He started DJing around 14 years old, bought his first pair of vinyls at 22 and started organizing parties at 25. He has a master in entrepreneurship and is developing Lesk hoping the product will enter the market. You can contact him directly on instagram @lesklights.

Make your party viral

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Do you remember the movie Project X, which has shocked a whole generation of viewers? They were picturing the best party possible. But what makes this event so great in the movie? The answer: the number of people.

Actually, this is what makes your event remarkable, the number of people. Not too much, but mostly not too little. And everyone knows it is easier to get too little than too much.

So how do you make your event have too many people rather than too little? It has a name, and it is called “virality”. 

You’ve probably heard of a video that is “viral”, which means it’s so great that people share it with others easily, and it makes it famous. While this phenomenon in itself is hard to reach, some elements can be influenced to ensure virality. In this article, we will see how to make your party viral.

This article speaks about a subject of how to organize parties. We already treat this subject in a whole course that you can find here.

Disclaimer: This article can be applied to both house and club/bar parties. Just adjust it.

An event with a lot of people attending

The definition of virality

The concept of virality resides in the fact that existing users invite other people automatically. Those same people will then do the same, and exponential growth can be achieved. 

For instance, Facebook. There is no interest in using Facebook alone. This explains why it became so viral. People were telling their friends to use it, and it made a kind of snowball effect. It grew into the social network that we know today. 

Uber, at the same time, used discount codes or promotions. They applied if you were inviting your friends to the app. 

So virality is the tiny push that a brand will take to get the word out there. And this is what we will investigate right now in order to understand how to make your party viral.

A crazy event

What you need to have in mind for making your event viral

You can think of 3 metrics and one concept to understand how viral is your event?

The first is the number of people one person shares your event with and how. Let’s say a normal person shares your event on his/her story. Then, the number of people who will watch the story fully is the first metric. It’s just an example, but you understand the principle.

The second metric is the number of people who will interact with your event after one has shared. Now let’s take another example, word of mouth. Maybe one person will speak directly to five of his/her friends to come. Among those 5, 3 will be able to come and invite others. You have then a 60% virality in that case.

The third metric is how much time does it take for people to share the event? Do they need one week to convince others? Two weeks? Three months?

The last concept is, how do you make it a loop? How new people can invite new people? This is important also because if it stops with one person only inviting his/her friends, then it’s not that viral.

Ok, now that we have seen the basics, let’s understand how we can apply it.

Phone with a lot of apps

Understand your ravers

One thing you need to start doing is to understand how people come to your party. How do they get the word? How do they get excited about attending your events?

What you need to know is the story behind anyone who’s coming to your parties. 

By mapping your customer’s trip, you will be able to understand them better. Then you will find ways of going viral. You will have insights on how to make your party viral.

I personally know that I go to parties when I see the trailers of the events on Facebook. As long as I see “house” or “techno” I am starting to think about coming. Then I am asking my girlfriend, but no one else. Why no one else? I don’t know. Maybe because no one is suggesting it to me. Or because nothing tells me it’s also an event for people that don’t like this kind of music. 

In any case, this is how I experience going to an event.

People at a rave

Set up your viral goals

Why do you want your event to be viral? (or at least have virality?)

I spoke at the beginning about the number of people was crucial. But maybe for you, it will be something else? In any case, you need to set up your goals to be able to reach them.

If you have your own organization, maybe spreading the word could be a better strategy than having people right away. Maybe making something exclusive could be a long-term strategy. 

Set up goal for being viral

Don’t do too much

Finding a solution to make your party viral is a good step. But multiplying them to be sure to spread the word can be counter-intuitive for your ravers. 

So be prudent in what you’re doing and don’t try too hard. Maybe testing through the parties can be great, but not adding them.

The world is viral

The examples

Price reduction if you invite a friend

The price is a great incentive to make something viral. The only problem is the amount of reduction that you can give. Even if you market your party at 50% less, one will still save a relatively small amount of money. So the price here is not an important decision.

What is important, is to say that you’re pushed to invite a friend. This is how something can go viral as it reminds people to invite their friends. This is why it’s a good example

Something to win

I don’t know if you remember, but at one point, Instagram launched an update and encouraged people to make contests. Well, that became pretty popular, and this is a good way to think about it.

If you organize a contest and tell people that they could win something, this can be a reason for them to come and share. The only criteria you need to take into account is motivation. Is your prize enough?

If you have a shitty price, the incentive won’t be enough for them to make your event viral. At the same time, if your prize is too expensive, you might be broke. You then need to find something in between, and that’s hard.

In the same way, you need people who reshare your event and mostly come. You should then have your strategy between only sharing and no coming and only coming and not sharing.

Clubhouse style

Do you remember when Clubhouse started? What a hype. Everybody wanted an invitation, and the fact of not having access to it was stressful.

Well, there are lessons to take from it. Sometimes, not having something makes it even more appealing. Maybe your party can be viral in that sense. By being exclusive, you can become viral, and people might want to come just to feel they are part of the club too.

However, I would advise this strategy only if you have a strong enough community before. If you’re unknown, people might not even care that your party is private or not.

Invite anyone – Everyone is welcome

The same as the “invite your friends” style. By saying that everyone is welcome, you are pushing people to invite their friends and to feel that it’s a big gathering. By doing so, you’re spreading friendly feelings, and that might be what people want. 

So don’t hesitate to include everyone who can be concerned about your event.

Register on a list

Registering on the list is again, a process that we already know of. It’s not new and gives a little bit of exclusivity.

By pushing people to register, you send the message that coming is not that easy. They should earn their place. And this is usually what they want to do.

 

 

Ok, that’s it for today, I hope you enjoyed this article about how to make your party viral. 

If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate, I will try to update this article if I find new ways of making your event viral. 

Thanks et à bientôt !

Did you like the article and want to know more about organizing parties? We have a course for that!

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Benoit Dervieux mixing

The author

Benoit Dervieux is the initiator of Lesk. He started DJing around 14 years old, bought his first pair of vinyls at 22 and started organizing parties at 25. He has a master in entrepreneurship and is developing Lesk hoping the product will enter the market. You can contact him directly on instagram @lesklights.

Organize your parties – A simple guide

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Welcome into the article Organize your parties – A simple Guide. This post concerns all the DJs who wish to organize parties but never took action because of a lack of opportunity, fear, or imposter syndrome. I wrote it after organizing 10+ independent house and techno events on my campus in a Swedish city when I was studying for my Master’s.

I didn’t speak the language, we didn’t really have money, and I had weak DJ skills.

However, we managed to find an opportunity, we caught it, and we figured out it was not as complicated as we thought.

This is why I am sharing it with you right now. We have made a bigger course on it. And also, we have a dedicated Reddit. You won’t have excuses now.

joey-thompson-4zN_-PKsbWw-unsplash (Copy)

1) Ask people around you

Ask your friends or connections…

…if they want to organize events too. It’s a funny activity, you can eventually start earning money and it makes you a cool/active person.

The first and easiest step to do is to ask among your friends and/or to post a story on social media. “Who would start an organization for making parties” and you would be impressed by the number of people ready to do something.

If your close friends are not really up for that, start asking people around you that can be interested. Maybe at your school, work, university and so on. As this is work as well a passion, you don’t have to be friends with the people you’re organizing something.

Keep in mind that you should at least have compatible tastes for music. Once you have found people, you can start motivating each other.

People dancing in a club

2) Connect with local artists and local party people.

In this article Organize your parties – A simple guide, we advise to start connecting with local party people to localize opportunities. Send messages to see if you can connect or help them to organize events. If you are ready to work for free to get experience, you will start meeting people. Then, you will make connections and see opportunities everywhere.

Once you start frequenting those people, you will be in the world of party organizing. There, you will understand how everything works. More opportunities will pop up. The people you frequented might even help you organize other things.

DJs and promoters often have tons of ideas and tasks to do. If you help them to accomplish them, they might welcome you. Be careful, do not transform yourself into a slave. If you don’t find your pleasure in helping people, don’t. This is not the point.

The point is to get the contacts for artists, places, experiences, and anything worth taking.

Disco ball during a party

3) Create a “fictive” proper concept

Start ideating a concept or party you want to create. Write it on a piece of paper. Show this to your friends to see if it makes sense and if people would come. Then, find a name generate some beautiful aesthetics. You can create a logo, fonts, colors, and most importantly, a poster.

Finally, create your social media accounts that are useful, the ones where you can spread the word to the people you desire to invite.

You don’t need to be perfect. You need to exist, be understandable, be found, and be accessible. People need to project themselves into your event. Even if it’s not the reality yet.

Here, getting likes is not the goal. The goal is to show people that your thoughts start taking place.

To make it more professional, do not hesitate to generate your visuals with the help of Photoshop or Gimp tutorials. Or find free templates, you’ll find plenty.

Party in a club

4) Find a place to throw your party and negotiate a percentage

There are plenty of restaurants or bars that have sound systems but have a hard time attracting customers. They are craving to make money. Then, organizing an event is a perfect way to do so.

If you know enough artists to perform, If you know how to spread the word to attract enough people then they might be interested in you. (and with social media it can be really easy)

The goal here is to organize an event and take a fee out of it. This fee can be the entrance ticket or a percentage of all the sales during the night.

Why is that better than a simple gig? Because of the purpose, you will create. The hype will be bigger, people will come for the atmosphere you will create and this is where you can do something bigger than the bar/restaurant owner.

Take your concept with you and visit the clubs, bars, and restaurants. Ask them if you can work together. If they reject you, this is normal. Just don’t forget that you need only one “Yes” to organize your first party.

Be smart on the location you’re choosing, not too chic, not too far from people, something that makes sense.

Understand also which kind of place you’re dealing with. Sometimes, they already have people organizing events, and they don’t think you bring that much value.

Sometimes, they regret their ancient time and would love someone to reactivate their old soul. In any case, you need to understand why they want to do business with you. It will let you know how big of a fee you can take.

You’re half way in the article Organize your parties – A simple guide.

People dancing at an open air

5) Manage people and artists

Many local artists and people would love to promote their local scene, which means that you might find people interested in working with you…

…for artists, ask for their mixes and their style. Then, you will be able to understand the type of music they are playing. Depending on their energy, you will determine when they will play.

Understand which kind of energy they can bring depending on the place’s frequency.

Place the less skilled when people are not here and the most experienced when people are here, even if YOU are the least skilled.

For the people working with you, you will have to split the tasks. The best way to do so is to plan AHEAD.

If you’re leading, you will be the one organizing shifts and work. As you’re working with people, don’t forget that they might be late or lazy doing stuff. Prepare in advance and make them have an easy time while accomplishing it.

Understand why people are doing what they are doing. It will help you understand why they act the way they behave.

Someone who wants to become the next David Guetta might tell you the day before he won’t come if he finds a better gig.

Someone who wants to improve the local scene might help your competitors without seeing any problem.

If you understand that, you will avoid problems in the future.

PS: Bring AT LEAST food and drinks to your crew and DJs. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just needs to show that you have considered.

People at an event

6) Market your party

To make your event credible, you will need to make several pieces of advertisement. This is what we advise in the article Organize your parties – A simple guide.

You already created a poster, which is good, but come on, you can do better.

Tell your story, make a video, a copy in addition and show people that it’s real. That your event will happen and that they should be hyped for that. It’s their blood boiling before entering the club that will make the difference.

Create a Facebook event and repost it in every group you can (the groups where people who are susceptible to come are part of).

Ask your friends to share the event. The merrier, the better. And mostly, it will make your event more credible.

Pay some Facebook ads as it’s very effective.

Post on Reddit or any social media that can convert people.

Sometimes, people are craving for the type of party that you will organize. They might just don’t know that someone is playing around them. So you’re actually helping more than anything else.

Someone under water

7) Prepare everything

Normally, working with a bar or a restaurant will avoid all the regulations, all the permits, and so on. You won’t need to think of everything. But still, you should always ask for:

Fire = Normally, the owner has it covered if it’s a legal place. (And this is why it’s easier to choose a bar or a restaurant)

Security = Often, the owner pays someone when they have events. Ask in case.

The noise disturbance = Try to avoid cops coming in the middle of the party to shut down everything. Ask the owner.

Handle cash= Find ways to handle cash and be paid surely. Be able to give recipes too. Find a way to have a simple accounting. Depending on your country, you might not need to start something, but it’s better if you keep track of the future.

The wardrobe= Find someone YOU TRUST for the wardrobe. Ask the owner also. He might already work with people.

Understand the sound system of the place. Be ready for any problem and see if your DJs can plug themselves. Come several times the week before your event to be sure that everything is smooth.

Organize meetings with your crew to be on point = It helps people to structure and speak out on the project. The more you let people show implications, the happier they will be.

Come before and stay after the party. Help to organize the room. You will gain credibility. Be careful, do not do someone else’s work.

Be easy to find. Nothing is more frustrating than not finding a party.

PS: here, if you have any other suggestions, I am down for getting them as we are never too careful.

Dark atmosphere at a club

8) Throw your party, enjoy and repeat

I applied this strategy when I was studying in Sweden. I started organizing parties from scratch in a country where I couldn’t even pronounce the alphabet. I also didn’t have good DJ skills by the time. I made lots of connections, got crazy memories with a lot of friends, and found my future wife. If it worked for me, it should work for you too.

I hope that you liked this article Organize your parties – A simple guide. Find all our articles here. Don’t hesitate to comment if you want more content.

How to start DJing? The CDJ from Pioneer

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Before we start this article, let me be honest with you. I will not be 100% objective of this article. For me, the CDJs represents the ultimate object to have and to master for a DJ. This is the tool that tells you to have a professional level. Or at least the requirement for starting to be a professional. For me, this is the top of the ladder, the ultimate goal. These turntables represent an accomplishment, both in terms of skills and money that I have not reached yet. So welcome to this article: How to start DJing – The CDJ from Pioneer.

Person mixing on CDJ

What are the CDJs?

The CDJs are a series of turntables made by Pioneer. They started their production in 1994 to become the iconic brand that every well-known DJ uses nowadays. With their recognizable design and a focus on CDs when vinyl was more appreciated by the time, Pioneer led the market of turntables. They left other competitors such as Denon and Gemini far away behind.

All in all, the CDJs are the reference for turntables for all the big festivals and clubs. They are used everywhere. So this is why I am making this article today.

The difference between the CDJs and other types of turntables?

As I said, CDJs are used by all the great DJs in the world. So there are not just mixing tools. These are more than that. But, let us understand why.

We need to refer to the marketing of Pioneer to understand that. 

Pioneer has managed to place their logo everywhere on their products. They can be seen while we are dancing, as well as when we are watching DJ sets. It seems that we are surrounded by the brand when we are partying. In our imagination, it created a particular association. Pioneer means parties. Pioneer means quality, and Pioneer means being a great DJ.

The difference between the CDJs and other turntables is that they are linked to our imagination. 

You can have almost the same results with any DJ tool in terms of mixing. Maybe you will not have special effects, but all in all, you can do the same transitions. So why do people buy more than the necessary stuff? Well, this is for the feeling they provide. And CDJs affords the feeling of being one of the best DJs in the world. Other brands do not.

Man mixing on a boat

Can you afford them?

I have constantly been blocked by the fact of affording DJ material. We do not spend 5 000€ on DJ equipment in my family, and this is a rule. But what about this rule when you really love to mix, and you want to experience CDJs?

Well, here are three pieces of advice I can give you on this one that I painfully learned through the year.

First, can you look for CDJs somewhere else?

The first time I had the opportunity to mix on CDJs was when I moved to Linköping, Sweden. They had a place with studios and a DJ booth where I could train. There, they had 2 CDJs 2000, and it cost me 30€ per month. I did not need to spend 5 000€ euros to get all the pieces of equipment.

Second, can you start a business?

Imagine that you start a DJ business, and then you get several hundreds of dollars per gig. It would make sense for you to invest in great material, wouldn’t it? The more material you have, the more you can charge, and the better will be your parties. So this is also a way to get your CDJs by starting your own business.

Third, are there other alternatives?

Pioneer has other types of controllers that look like a perfect set of CDJs. They are slightly different but pretty similar. By buying those, you will manage to train as if you had normal CDJs. Then, you will have the necessary skills.

We are half-way through our article: How to start DJing – The CDJ from Pioneer.

Dj mixing in a club with CDJ

Why are you going to be a real DJ with them?

As said previously, CDJs are the standard of the industry. You can find them in all the clubs and festivals. All the top DJs are using them. So you can only enter a club with a pair of USB keys and your music and start playing. Isn’t that great? 

Yet, to be a complete DJ, you would need to know to mix on vinyl and on a controller, but CDJs are the standard. This is the pro-language. This is the openness to an international world, to a standardized world. This is why I believe it will make you a real DJ.

But hey, it does not mean it will make you a great DJ.

The difference between the CDJs and other turntables?

Let us be honest on this one. Pioneer is not the most innovative firm out there. Denon is way better than Pioneer. Denon products have more functionalities available. For less than the CDJ price, you will have more.

Also, you can do everything a CDJ does with just a controller. So again, this is not about the functionalities, this is all about marketing. This is about the meaning of these turntables. This is about the feeling they provide.

Here is the difference compared to other turntables. 

Pair of turntable pioneer

The advantages of playing on CDJ 

Here is a personnal list of advantages and disadvantages in this article How to start DJing – The CDJ from Pioneer.

The advantages of mixing on CDJS for me are to feel that you are in the game. You are a professional now. This is the big bath, and you know how to swim. You can pretend, and you can say that you have spent tears to be part of.

From now on, you can work on your skills and your style and trace your way.

As a rite of passage, playing on CDJs means that you have achieved something. Either monetary or professional.

The disadvantages of playing on CDJ

The price. They are way too expensive. They are like a luxury tool and are hard to reach for anyone. Yet, I dreamt of having them for a long time. But I will not buy them because they seem like a useless pricey tool that no one needs if you are not mixing professionally.

So right now, as long as I do not want to make my DJ career evolve, I will wait to buy it, and one day maybe, when I will be financially comfortable, why not.

DJing on a pair of CDJ

My opinion on this

In my opinion, you should try to buy a controller, learn how to mix on a controller like you would mix on a CDJ and then, find a place where to practice on CDJs.

There is no need (except if you have the money) to invest in tools that we are not sure we would use. So do not lose your money. Lose tears of sweat, and then you will see if this is what you truly need.

Then, maybe start a business, invoice your gigs, or organize events. Once your business is doing good, it will be time to think about investing in yourself and maybe get those CDJs. 

Having a business can also help you set your goals up and work your ass off for that. And that is not a bad thing.

Ok, the article is finished. I hope you liked it. Do not hesitate to comment if you have anything to add.

 

I hope that you like our article How to start DJing – The CDJ from Pioneer. If you would like to continue, we also have the article on how to start DJing with Vinyls and how to start DJing with controllers.

How to find good music for your parties? 7 places for digging the best tracks.

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The prime goal of a DJ is to play what the crowd can consider good music. It does not really matter how, as long as they have fun. The only thing is to be able to transport people through music.

If people came to listen to a particular genre, you do not even need to really be precise. You just need to give them what they want. I do not speak about requests. I talk about them dancing to your songs. 

This also means that if you do not have crazy skills, you can still count on passing great music. But how do we find good music? Well, this is what we are going to see in this article called How to find good music? 7 places for digging the best tracks.

Posters on the street

Spotify (and Deezer and any music streaming platform)

Ok, I know I do not start with the favorite one but let us be logical and honest. Spotify is huge. So it can obviously be a good source of songs. This is only a matter of how one uses it. Let see how we can find gems on Spotify.

Mainstream playlists

As said, people want to dance, and sometimes, giving them mainstream stuff is not bad. They will recognize and be familiar and like it. This is how music works in a way. We love to hear what we already know. So you can definitely get some inspiration from there. What you have to take into consideration is that people might pay to be on those playlists. So basically, you are not listening to something handpicked. You are listening to something paid. It can be exhausting sometimes to listen to music that has no souls but commercial ones.

Artists’ playlists

Those playlists are the Track ID from the sets they have played. Those are great because, if you like a particular artist, you can dig into her world and discover which music they listen to. From there, you can identify even more artists, more labels, etc. You can also analyze the difference in perception during their set and their playlist. Personally, I feel as if I am not that hyped when I listen to the playlists, but I like when I listen to their set. So that is worth understanding why.

Normal playlists

Well, I do not think I have anything to explain here. The playlists help you to discover new songs. This is simple. However, if a playlist is known and listened to by many users, they might have an entry ticket. Which means you are listening to something people have paid. Not really handpicked. In that case, if you are looking for unfindable gems, you might not find what you are aiming for. But still, you can find the good stuff.

Artists accounts

Again, no need to explain. With Spotify, you can find the artists and see their productions. Sometimes this is worth digging into if you like the atmosphere of the artist.

Someone using Spofity

Youtube

Youtube just revolutionized the way we can listen to music. If Spotify is a tool, youtube is the toolbox. Digging on Youtube is even scarier than on any other platform. Why? Because it seems so broad that we can search for hours and hours and save crazy amounts of music.

But anyway, apart from finding music through our research, here are some ways we can actually look for music. And I can insure you that we can find good music on Youtube.

Recommendations

Using recommendations leads us somewhere we would not really go. We can discover channels and artists this way. The only problem is that sometimes, the style of music we are listening to can change. Then, this is easy to lose focus in the genre we like.

Special channels

Some special channels promote a type of music in exchange for, I guess, a bit of money. They are great for two things: targeting a special genre of music, and see what music can work. If not all the music makes it, you can still find crazy gems and good and unknown artists on it.

Labels

They, of course, are on Youtube, and this is important to know them. Most of the time, these labels have a vision, and they hide crazy gems. So dig for these labels also as they can have a pool of talents that deserve to be discovered.

Boiler room and DJ sets

This is a no-brainer that DJ sets are a great source of inspiration and help us dig for music. I remember listening to them at the library while studying and shazaming in my headphones. The only problem I see is a problem of “ who got the exclusivity ”. Actually, you should not care. But if someone already heard the song and feels he is the connoisseur, he might address you to some critics. But fuck that shit.

To list a bit, here is a non-exhaustive list of video channels one can follow to listen to DJ set: 

Boiler room – Defected – Cercle – Mixmag – DJ mag – Beatportal – Resident advisor – BE.AT-TV

Artist + name + playlist

Ok, this seems messy, but let me tell you my story. Once, one guy asked me to mix at a party. They had a kind of dubstep downstairs, and they needed something cozier upstairs. They wanted a kind of Solomon style. Slow techno/deep house. I had only 1 day to prepare everything. So instead of digging as a crazy guy, I went on youtube, looked for a “ Solomun playlist ”. I took the ones that had songs he would play, and I downloaded them. The next day, I was just doing simple transitions. Then guess what: I made a dancefloor where I was only supposed to play ambient music. So keep these techniques in mind.

Underground channel and playlist. There are a lot of small channels out there. You will have to dig well, and all in all, Youtube is a great place to discover these.

Youtube on a phone

Facebook

Facebook is not known for being a music platform, but still, one can find good songs on it. Apart from the usual artist page, here are other ways one can find music.

Specialized groups

Do you know this guy you meet at a party and who spread his musical culture? The one who lets you hear a song that is not that bad but not crazy either. And then he tells you that is genius. Well, on Facebook, they are entire groups of this type of man. Instead of meeting them at a party, now you can talk to them virtually. If sometimes, their tastes are a bit too much, they can at least educate you. Then, it can help you increase your scope and knowing more about music in general.

Track ID videos

Sometimes, a viral video pops out, and a great tune is played. You see the crowd being crazy about it, and you just want to get the music. Well, this is what you can do if you follow the right accounts on Facebook. Right now, I am thinking about Defected as an example. But I am sure there are plenty of them if you research them.

Facebook on a phone

Beatport

Beatport is primarily a place where one can buy music legally and in good quality. If you play on a good sound system, that might be where you will get your music. But still, you can allow yourself to dig on it to find some new gems that you would not have found anywhere else. It’s pretty handy if you want to find good music, and recent ones.

Beatport has remarkable advantages:

  1. They sell you music= they make efforts. Beatport is well designed, and as the need to sell you music, they arrange everything for you to have the best digging experience to buy. So there, you might find qualitative stuff because they need to present you with a qualitative platform.
  2. The website is organized by genre. So you do not lose your time looking for music that is not in your scope. Of course, you can forget important ones, but you can also stay focus and work your style that way. 
  3. It has several charts. Which will help you to find great tunes in a particular genre.
  4. This is well designed. Then, you will lose less time while finding the best music for your parties and set.
Someone mixing on pioneer

Record store

Record stores are the most intimidating place to dig your music. They are full of people taking music sometimes too seriously, and you might feel as if you do not belong by going there. But let us take a deep breath and face our fears.

My first time in a record store, I understood nothing. I have bad memories of the names of the songs, so every time I go there, I do not understand anything. But I am trying. I select vinyl, listen to them on Youtube and be like, “hum… I never going to pay 15$ for this shit”. As if I tasted a 1000$ wine that did not really inspire me. 

You will probably find new types of music in a record store. But the most important is that you might meet people indirectly. You might meet well-known DJs. People who have a lot to share, who experience music in a way you could not imagine. They can inspire you, they can tell you their battles, their struggles, and their victories. You can meet some young geniuses. All of that at the same place. And this is why this is worth going there to find music.

A pack of vinyls

Posters

One thing I like to do is to take the poster of a festival and to listen to the artists that are coming. This is not the most convenient thing to do.

Most of the time, the artists are not your type. Hence, this is hard to have an opinion on them. This is also time-consuming to write their name and understand their world. But this is a great way to discover gems too.

Also, let us be honest with ourselves. Imagine missing a great artist during a festival you go to just because you have not taken the time to listen to his songs. A shame isn’t it? Well, you know what to do if you want to avoid this deception.

Posters on the street

Second-hand shop

A funny thing about second-hand shops is that they are made for people who either have no money or too much money. On one hand, you have people digging because they can’t afford normally priced vinyl (as I was). On the other hand, you have people who can afford to buy market-price music but know it does not make sense to have them just like that.

I will speak about my personal experience here. I remember going to 2 second-hand shops that had a crazy amount of vinyl. The first one was a usual record shop selling pop from the 80s to simplify. Upstairs, they had a hidden room full of house music tracks from the 90s to 2000s. Each record cost 2$, and you needed to only have patience if you wanted something qualitative. I used to spend my afternoon there wishing to find some pearls.

The other second-hand shop was owned by a man that also sold homemade beer. He had a bunch of vinyl that he was supplying every couple of weeks. There, even good DJs used to come to check. The owner used to talk about Laurent Garnier and MCDE. Did I ever meet them? No. Was the owner a liar? Maybe, but I do not think so. But I remember that he had crazy ones at 1 to 2euros per vinyl. 

Oh, and speaking about vinyl, here is a useful map I just found here. It lists all the vinyl stores you can visit in the world.

And you, what are your ways for finding good music, and what did you think about those 7 techniques?

Please leave a comment if you have anything to add. I would gladly make this article longer with your suggestions! 

And now that you know how to get good music, you can learn how to dj. Or if you already know, you can learn how to make your own parties.

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