Want to be a DJ but dont know how

[JeJo]

Ive been playing sl for many years now but im not putting any Linden in sl anymore via a card. So i thought id lern how to dj to make Linden an one of my friends suggested using winamp. The problem is i dont have any media on my computer ive never bought any songs off of itunes so how do i get music on winamp? 

[Indio Quinnell]

Well...

 

First of all, I feel I should warn you that it is not just as simple as "using Winamp."  I'm not sure if your friend explained this to you or not, but in order to stream the music you're playing on your PC to other Second Life residents, you first have to install the SHOUTcast DSP Plug-In for Winamp so that whatever music is being played in Winamp gets transmitted to your ShoutCast internet radio server.

 

...What's a "ShoutCast internet radio server", you ask?  That's a service which receives the audio stream being sent from your PC, and rebroadcasts it out to the SL residents who are tuned in to your stream.  How do you get one?  Well... you have to subscribe to one, and pay for it.  Yes, it costs money.  The amount you'll have to pay will depend on what kind of service you get; some are a flat monthly subscription fee, others are a "pay-as-you-go" where you only pay for the bandwidth actually used and top it up as needed.  (Much like a prepaid cell phone.)

 

This may be where your plan falls down, I think.  It's going to cost you money to DJ, and there's no guarantee that you'll make back enough in tips in-world to pay for the real -world $$ you'll be spending on the ShoutCast server.  In fact, unless you really work your butt off getting gigs at popular clubs every night of the week, odds are pretty good that you will not make a profit at it, and probably won't even break even.  So, if your plan is to not have to spend any more money to play Second Life, I'm afraid you're in for a disappointment.

 

As for getting music onto your PC... iTunes is not the only way you can get MP3s, you know.  You can also buy music off of Amazon.com and get it in MP3 form... and if you have a collection of CDs, you can always "rip" the music from the CDs onto your hard drive.  Just Google "CD ripper" and you'll find several free and shareware utilities to do it.  (You might even be able to do it within Winamp itself, but I've never tried it.)

[Kelli May]

Do you own any music on CD, or on any electronic media (iPod etc.)? If your PC has a CD/DVD/BluRay drive it should be fairly easy to transfer CD music to your PC. The process is commonly known as 'ripping'... it's one of the options that appears if you open Windows Media Player with a CD loaded. If you have files on any kind of USB stoarge you should be able to connect it to your computer and copy the files across. 

There's plenty of music available on torrents and other P2P sharing sites. There are applications available to extract music files from Youtube videos. Of course this is a clear breach of music copyright, but that's a matter for your conscience and music industry lawyers.

Even if you've bought the music, you should be paying some kind of performance fee before you are legally allowed to broadcast it. The rules on this are particularly confusing when you have no idea where in the world your listeners might be. As you might expect, many SL DJs operate without any kind of licence, either through choice or ignorance.

Apart from the music, you'll need to get familiar with Winamp. You'll need some kind of broadcasting system... Shoutcast, Icecast or similar. You'll need somewhere to play, and they probably won't pay, and might also want a percentage of tips. Some places will allow you to merely stream a playlist, others will expect you to chat live over the stream, introducing songs and greeting guests. For that you'll need a mic and a quiet place to use it.

I could go on, but I can see others are already starting to post replies and I'm duplicating what's been said.

 

 

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Jelo,

It's admirable that you want to learn how to DJ and share your music appreciation with those in SecondLife.

Let's chat honestly shall we?

Why be a DJ?

You should have a passion about music to begin with. This includes not only knowing about the music, but about the artists & groups performing it as well. You should have been collecting music for years by now [ Vinyl, Tape, CDs, Digital Downloads ] and have everything "Ripped" to your PC and organized and annotated correctly. You like mixing songs in sequence to elicit a mood for yourself and as a DJ for your audience. If you are a live mix artists as well you will need higher-end software to make those great  [dub-step, trance, dance, trip-hop] mixes for your audience.

Getting Music

Buy it [Amazon, CDbaby, various digital merchants], invite your friends over with their CD collections and rip it, rip all your CD's, etc. Download it off of YouTube with Firefox & Download Helper as a MP4 and convert the stream to MP3 with one of many free products for this purpose. Please don't start to steal music from internet sites designed for this.

My collection of songs includes music I've been collecting for over 45 years. Yes I paid a fortune for it. My current budget for purchasing mew music is $100 USD a month. Once you put aside some income for monthly music purchases your collection will grow incredibly fast.

If you have [Once you have] the music then proceed to software.

Mixxx - http://www.mixxx.org/ - Is incredible open source "free" mixing software with incredible features. And did I mention it's free? "Mixxx has everything you need to start making DJ mixes in a tight, integrated package. Whether you're DJing your next house party, spinning at a club, or broadcasting as a radio DJ, Mixxx has what you need to do it right."

Download the software install it and use it with your music library just for yourself. Get the hang of using the song queue and the way the software transitions from one song to the next. Get a feel for how your voice sounds while DJing. You'll need a good set of headphones and a great cardioid microphone so that sounds in the room are not captured.

When you are ready to try streaming onto your parcel in SecondLife, so you and some friends can hear your music mixing, mood altering, party pumping skills using your great music library, get an in-world Relay Streaming Service  25 listener & 50 listener. IceCast & ShoutCast services are everywhere and can be had for under L$600 a month.

Don't worry about the performance fees you need to send to the various artist licensing agencies at this time. This falls under the Fair-use provision language. You are very OK sharing music in your home on a private parcel with some friends just as if you had invited them over to your house in real life.

These aforementioned steps will get you experienced and will let you know if you have what it takes by using your friends as guinea pigs first.

Next Steps - Being a "Paid" DJ at a Club / Venue / Wedding / Private party in SecondLife.

I'll add this essay a bit later. It will include details about the licensing of musical performances for the SL DJ.  The above info should get you started for now and will not get you in any trouble. Well except for the amount of time you'll spend playing with the music.

 

 

[Venus Petrov]

KarenMichelle has provided lots of good information to you about becoming a DJ in SL.   I have been DJ'ing in SL for nearly six years.  Some additional bits of advice:

Figure out what kind of music you like and would enjoy playing and focus on visiting clubs that play that kind of music.  Listen to the DJ with an ear to 1) does the DJ mix or not 2) does the DJ speak on mic or not 3) do you enjoy your time in the club?  The last, of course, is from a patron's perspective and it is the patrons that drive the success of any club.

Most clubs do not pay DJs.  DJs make their L$ from tips and a club may take a cut of those tips.  The club where I play takes 10%.

Some clubs require that you use specific software and that requirement should be noted in the application.  Pick up applications from clubs you enjoy.  Read them.

I can tell you that you will not become rich being a DJ in SL.  In addition to purchasing tracks for your library, there is the monthly rental cost of a stream (can vary widely). 

However, if you like music and enjoy having fun, DJ'in in SL can be alot of fun.  Do it only for that reason - to have fun - and you will meet your expectations.  Good luck!

 

[AdienTrench]

Lets not for get the question of legality, many sources for music state they they are for personal use only, even Beatport .com states in there Terms and Conditions for downloads; "...personal private use only and not for commercial or public use or distribution." (the is a site for DJ's?)  . Many countries have there own laws on the subject, some requiring the venue to pay for the licence to provide music, some the DJ. The digital age is truly a confusing one for Dj's, Check your countries laws. 

[Lunar Core]

Some advice from my DJ friend - one bit of it that counters another poster at that: Hosting a Shoutcast stream yourself (assuming your ISP package can handle it as well as your hardware) will not cost you a single cent beyond what you pay for your internet access. You may have to set up your software and hardware firewalls to allow the traffic through however. There are a few articles in the Winamp forums on how to set it all up.

Second: While there are some very good, free bits of DJ software out there, the bulk of them only allow MP3 or similar formats. If you're going to do as my pal has done and use non-standard formats (like any sort of chiptune as an example) your best bet is to stick with Winamp and grab a few of the input plugins from their site. If you need to run the audio through a DSP as well to clean it up, there's a nice DSP stacker or two offered as well as a few good DSPs offered as well.

I'd tell you to use the same stream DSP he does but it is sadly no longer offered by the parent company (same company that makes SAM made a Winamp streaming DSP years ago), same with the DSP he uses for audio cleanup (iZotope no longer offers Ozone MP for download/purchase).

Get yourself a decent mic or headset as well. If you do not mind the cost, there's the Logitec H530 on Amazon.

[Kenbro Utu]

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Lunar Core wrote:

Some advice from my DJ friend - one bit of it that counters another poster at that: Hosting a Shoutcast stream yourself (assuming your ISP package can handle it...

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While bandwidth packages are increasing for a lot of Internet consumers, the amount of bandwidth needed for a busy club would prohibit most from doing this.  Though it is good advice, and certainly something one should look into before spending the money on a dedicated stream. 

[Lunar Core]

From what I understand, his "bandwidth package" has no data limit attached to it. I was speaking more or less about the actual data speed being sent through the ISP systems.

 

On top of this, his in home stream is on a dedicated machine. A basic laptop on a hard line (ethernet connection) could run the streaming software.

 

ISP upkeep cost him a little over $60 a month and the dedicated hardware was something his roommate bought off of Craig's List for a little over $115. A former rack server.

 

Granted, not everyone can afford even a used bit of hardware like that and such a deal does not come around every day.

 

The point though was that one does not need to pay for an external stream if you're able to get a good price from your ISP.

 

Adding to it, the advantage of having an in house stream is that you're in control of up/down time. The stream server going down for any reason is one of the biggest issues/complaints the DJ friends I have have voiced.

[Kenbro Utu]

It is not (just) the data limit that can cause a bottle neck, it is the number of users who can listen to the stream at one time, and this depends on the upload speed of your internet connection if you are hosting from your own machine.  If you are streaming MP3s at a bitrate of 96 kbps, then having 10 listeners at the same time would require an upload rate of 960 kbps. My particular upload is 1547 kbps, so I could only stream at 96 kbps to about 14 people at a time.  That is where the limitation can come in.  

 

Edited to add (just).  

[Porky Oodles]

1) Get a cool DJ name like mine. JeJo isn't very good.

2) Get to know the coolest promoters and club owners on SL. Do coke with them and offer sexual favours if necessary.

3) Winamp and Shoutcast are free for PC. Don't even dream of renting a stream; if the club doesn't have its own stream, it's a  fleapit just waiting to shut down. Opening a club without a stream is like renting land with no build permissions.

4) Get some proper tunes - no "indie" rubbish (those clubs are full of losers who don't tip well). Nobody wants to hear your parents' CDs - get decent tunes like "U Got Me Up" by Dajae or "Wiggy Mouse" by The Fabulous Pop Tarts. "You're a mouse / a wiggy mouse / In my house of love..."

5) You need to schmooze and go to other DJ's sets occasionally, even if they are awful. Networking is key. If they really suck, tip them very little. I make about 5-6,000L per set, no point in wasting it.

 6) Gallery openings are the exception. Just download a load of washing machine noises and play that, as well as pretentious industrial/goth junk - SL art groupies will listen to any garbage as long as they think it's suitably obscure and 'far out'.

[Venus Petrov]

You are joking.

Your profile is empty.  You don't advertise your gigs in your picks.  You have no group.

It is always best to have your own stream so that you are independent of any club.  I work for one of the most successful and long-established clubs in SL and each DJ has their own stream.  How else might a DJ go from club to club to gallery opening?

5-6000L per gig?  I checked your profile to see where and when you played so I could experience this awesomeness.

 

 

[Porky Oodles]

I'm afraid I don't make a habit of reacting to or justifying myself to jealous snipes :matte-motes-sunglasses-3:

"A wasp may rise up and sting a noble, stately gentleman; but afterwards, one remains an insect and the other remains a gentleman".

[Kenbro Utu]

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Porky Oodles wrote:

I'm afraid I don't make a habit of reacting to or justifying myself to jealous snipes :matte-motes-sunglasses-3:

"A wasp may rise up and sting a noble, stately gentleman; but afterwards, one remains an insect and the other remains a gentleman".

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I hate to break it to you, but you did just react...

[KarenMichelle Lane]

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Porky Oodles wrote:

1) Get a cool DJ name like mine. JeJo isn't very good.

2) Get to know the coolest promoters and club owners on SL. Do coke with them and offer sexual favours if necessary.

3) Winamp and Shoutcast are free for PC. Don't even dream of renting a stream; if the club doesn't have its own stream, it's a  fleapit just waiting to shut down. Opening a club without a stream is like renting land with no build permissions.

4) Get some proper tunes - no "indie" rubbish (those clubs are full of losers who don't tip well). Nobody wants to hear your parents' CDs - get decent tunes like "U Got Me Up" by Dajae or "Wiggy Mouse" by The Fabulous Pop Tarts.

"You're a mouse / a wiggy mouse / In my house of love..."

5) You need to schmooze and go to other DJ's sets occasionally, even if they are awful. Networking is key. If they really suck, tip them very little. I make about 5-6,000L per set, no point in wasting it.

 6) Gallery openings are the exception. Just download a load of washing machine noises and play that, as well as pretentious industrial/goth junk - SL art groupies will listen to any garbage as long as they think it's suitably obscure and 'far out'.

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LMAO - Just goes to show you, there is a troll for each and every thread.

 

[Kremate]

Allo. All. Not sure what the rules are about old threads but I would like to thank each and every one you of that posted on this thread. I was here on SL about a year ago and I deleted My account. Alas, I am back. I've always loved music and have Djed in real life for some pretty shabby places. I am very interested on how to get My own gig set up here. I know it will take time and preserverence but threads with information like this reassure Me that I will be doing something I like to do. Not neccesarly for financial gain (I have a real life job) but for In world enjoyment. Again, thank you all for posting this.