Need some DJ advice

[EX0TICD0LL]

So I have been a DJ for three months  my bitrate is fine and everything as far as technology is fine. i play hardstyle, dubstep, hiphop, and stuff like that   I don;t know if it;s because i;m a female DJ or maybe i;m just that horrible.  but  i;m having a hard time getting people and followers. I have a group full of people that never show up to my sets, and at some clubs when i dj people leave. I  please don;t be an ***** if you have no interest in genuanly helping then just don;t reply but I need some help 

[sandi Mexicola]

How good/friendly/sociable are your hosts, hostesses and other people working with you when you spin?

[EX0TICD0LL]

some hosts are social and friendly some r not

[sandi Mexicola]

Well, it could be a lot of things.  I don't really know, but one thought came to mind: if you are spinning for people from various other countries/cultures than yourself, they might have very different tastes in music.  Of course, each crowd you spin for might have completely different ideas of what "good" music is. 

Another idea is how friendly and sociable and outgoing you are with the audiences.  

[Kardargo Adamczyk]

First rule of DJing is to have fun, if you have fun the people have fun...

Secondly, always remember that it is impossible to please everyone, especially playing in clubs with different music styles, you take over from another DJ, people will leave, other people will come, that's how it goes....

Interact with your audience, be an entertainer, a DJ is more then playing tunes...

Then, playing for a crowded club is easy, they give you energy, you perform. It is way harder to achieve the same performance for 2 people, so have fun, enjoy yourself, make people smile.. even if there are only 2.

If you need more advice, or even mixing classes, feel free to IM me inworld.

Good luck and have fun,

Dargo

 

[Da5id Weatherwax]

No matter how good you are, no matter what style you spin or perform, your baseline audience in SL is relatively tiny - even for the "bigger names" - Stop sweating it, stop caring if you're playing to an empty venue or not.

Just put on a good show, one that you'd like to be at, and have fun doing it. It only takes one or two people really liking your sets for the word to start spreading. Even then don;t expect every set to be packed - but overall it will ramp up, because the corollary to my first statement is also true - whatever you play, however you play it, there is somebody out there that likes it as much as you do and you will be the artist they've been looking for their entire second life....

[Rabid Cheetah]

As someone who's been a radio DJ in real life, it can indeed be frustrating not knowing if you're being listened to by thousands of people, or none at all.  In radio DJing, you can't even see your audience, so you have no idea if no one is listening.  Either extreme can be unnerving -- being nervous speaking in front of so many people, or wondering "why bother" if there's no one out there.  One thing that helped a lot of our DJ's was to look at their reflection in the glass between Master Control (where the DJ and soundboard were) and the Interview Room (where guests would sit at their own mics, as well as where the news and sports folks would do their broadcasts from).  The trick was to look at the reflection and pretend you're talking to a friend.  Just ONE friend, as radio is such a personal medium.  So maybe setting up a mirror next to your monitor will help.  At the very least, this is a Customer Service Representative trick that folks use to remind themselves to smile while on a call -- because whether you're on a call helping someone install software, on the air all excited about the new release from Billy and the Boingers, or addressing a crowd at a live remote (or a virtual one, in your case), folks really CAN hear your smile.

As to people walking in and out, realize that you're not really giving a concert, no matter how much the hosts have tried to make their venue seem like a real-world music venue.  It's still Second Life, so folks are going to behave more like they are in a bar, or even at kaaroke.  My biggest shock when performing was the first time I sang at a kaaroke bar (in real life):  People kept drinking and talking, despite my great performance on a favorite tune.  It seemed very rude, but then I had to realize that despite being up on stage, the event wasn't about me -- I was just background noise to the other fun folks were having.

When I HAVE been successful in bringing the house down at a kaaroke bar, it's been from the next point I want to make, the Golden Rule of Radio:  Know your audience.  I no longer sing until I've heard what other people are singing, and base my song choice accordingly.  Rush's "Spirit of Radio" flopped that first time I sang kaaroke as the audience was more into getting drunk and hooting at risque tunes.  Jump forward a few years later, a different place where someone else did a Rush song, and I bring the house down by leading with "Ladies and gentlemen, would you all please rise for the national anthem...", then going into "Closer to the Heart."

So.  KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.  I can't say that enough.  And don't try to be all things to everyone.  Take it from someone who's done radio:  That kind of programming rarely works.  Sure, you can have many styles in your music catalog, but try to stick to a single genre each night.  If you switch things up too much, you'll alienate your audience.  But above all, know what they like.  Ask the venue owner what music goes over best.

Also pay attention to BPM (beats per minute).  A set sounds best when you build BPM, picking songs with tempos faster than the previous one.  Then let it crash and start all over.  Right after the max BPM song ends is a great time to go up on the mic, as the BPM will have everyone's energy level up, including yours.

Best of luck to you, and above all, as others have said, have fun with it.  That's really all that matters.  Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Rabid Cheetah
Me hate typos

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

Wow, that was good advice from Cheetah.  I was going to say, not to take it personally when people show up then leave.  Many arriving at a club may be coming on a whim, not knowing you, or even that you were DJ'ing there.  They might be checking the crowd to see if it's fun, and you are peripheral to that point.  Just a notch above radio, until they decide to stay awhile and then they can key into what you're doing.  Or, if it's not to their tastes, they scram.  Nothing personal in all that.  And I think a lot of people don't key-in to any DJ.  Music is a brain slot. Not everyone's got one.  And, SL players are way too random for you to expect to make predictions about. Just play your sets, do your best, but really,  just have fun, since every set will be different and unpredictable.  Your own fun is your payback. 

I suspect many of us have favorite DJs but that doesn't mean we make all their events.  The key is the crowd, and the fun, and who we're with  The DJ is not the key.  But sometimes you might be.  And those are your good nights.  

That's my take on it.    

Edited March 29, 2020 by Lancewae Barrowstone
syntax

[Da5id Weatherwax]

It's amazing "listening" to somebody like @Rabid Cheetah who is an artist in a similar but different field talk about their art. How the tiny differences between the two ways we entertain folks with music show up. Where a DJ is thinking about making the beat flow from one song to the next and probably likes songs that share a key, or at least where the key is related by an easy interval for the sake of a smooth mix, I'm building a set list by making the story each song tells flow into the next, by trying to make the intro I'd give each song naturally flow out of the previous one. I'm avoiding doing songs in the same key as the previous one unless it's intended to be a smooth segue, to avoid the "all your stuff sounds the same" thing. But it only takes one or two upbeat songs to let you do the whole rest of the hour with ballads...

This is why I always tell my fellow live performers who disparage DJs (there are a few of us who are that stupid) to STFU. Talk to a DJ for even a few minutes and you'll realize they are musicians in their own right, just with a rather interesting instrument

[Rabid Cheetah]

Wow, thank you.  Yes, I did look for songs that would blend well into one another, letting both the last ten seconds or so of a song and the first ten seconds or so of the next be up at the same time (though of course using the volume level switches to fade one out and fade one in).  I also had to fit a certain format, and got good at knowing the lengths of my favorite filler songs so that I could time my going up on the mic to within less than a minute of the exact time it was expected that we do so.  It was just college radio, but being one of the few stations entirely run by the students, we took it very seriously.  And you're right, it's tremendously different than playing live in a band.