How to find good music for your parties? 7 places for digging the best tracks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- It has several charts. Which will help you to find great tunes in a particular genre.
- This is well designed. Then, you will lose less time while finding the best music for your parties and set.
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.
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.
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.