Is it harder now to make it as a DJ more than ever?

Is it harder now to make it as a DJ more than ever?

21 May, 2008 | 6.05AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Ben Raven

Back in the day it used to be that a DJ could make it just through playing great records.

A mix tape might find its way into the hands of a promoter, some more gigs might follow and if they stuck at it for long enough, fame and fortune (at least in the pages of dance magazines like DJ and Mixmag) come next.

Now, as the volume of records being released increases thanks to the portals that digital music stores like Beatport have opened, the days of making it just by crafting a deftly blended mixtape or playing great records in a club are definitely over. 

The number of records required for a new DJ or producer to make a name for themselves is increasing all the time.

New stars like Israel’s Gel Abril or Shlomi Aber have had to graft their way into contention with release after release of big room record pressure. 

And with more new producers making more music than ever, the pressure to stand out from the crowd is greater than it’s ever been.

As someone who has worked in dance music for nearly a decade (and been a raver since the early 1990s), I’m constantly asked by kids, eager to push their ‘sweat, blood and tears’ DJ mix into my hands, how to make it as a DJ.

The answer is that “making it” is harder than ever and requires ever-greater levels of musical ability and dedication.

There are few new DJs who can actually claim to have made it without producing dance music.

Hard dance star Eddie Halliwell, for example, broke through because of his scratching skills, then a little-heard phenomenon in the genre.

But for the rest, getting your self into that coveted position of being able to play out each week means learning the ropes of production—an expensive, time consuming task that takes years to perfect.

Leeds DJ/producer Simon Baker struck production gold with a trio of big releases that punched him into the bigtime in 2006, but his arrival on the scene wasn’t an overnight success.

“Just DJing these days is not enough,” he says. “I started DJing seven years ago but releasing Plastik, Confused and ‘The Fly’ was the tipping point.”

“Technology is definitely making things harder,” he says.

“Kids can afford studios on their laptops and it’s made the industry a much tougher place.

Reaching the top means you have to offer much more and compete with a hell of a lot more competition.

Experience also counts, nothing happens overnight—things take time, believe me!”

That’s not to say it wasn’t hard to make it in the 1990s.

Back then, finding out about dance music was hard enough without mediums like the Internet and producing was restricted to those DJs lucky enough to have access to a studio.

Cheaper production technology has definitely democratised dance music.

But if you’re one of the thousands of DJing hopefuls, don’t be fooled into thinking a mix or two will land you a career as a DJ.

That will only come through ever-increasing amounts of hard work and a musical ability that’ll make you stand tall amongst the competition.

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