Category Archives: News

Come on DJ Keep Playing That Song… What is it is like to be a DJ?

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Before I joined to this group project, my idea of DJs were pretty vague. People standing before turntables with headsets, moving on rhythm, continuously nodding to the beat while closing their eyes and stopping the vinyl record occasionally with their fingers, rewinding and playing music to get people to dance… that’s all. Although something tells me it is not that easy, so I did some research on what is it like to be a DJ, how you can create the career path to be a DJ, how much money the DJ can earn and so on.

You can also check out this Documentary about the DJ and Producer Lifestyle

https://www.careersinmusic.com/dj_nightclub-dj/

Here are some points people not familiar with DJ culture may find them interesting.

  • There are two different kind of DJ careers: those who just play the music and those who create music and play them as a performance.
  • The DJ needs skill of networking and social skill to build a fan base.
  • The DJ cannot pursue money as his/her priory goal. Sometimes they must play unpaid. After becoming famous, they earn money from performing and from the royalty of their own tracks. “On average, a reasonably successful DJ can expect to make a few hundred dollars per show.”
  • Many DJs work few hours at weekend nights, from Thursday to Saturday.
  • DJs must work with promoters, bookers, night club managers. At first you become friends with them to let them book you.
  • To be a DJ, you will be offered to perform gigs for free, so people will know you, and you can build fan base. Then your DJ career may on a right track though it is pretty competitive.
  • There is no working union for DJs though as a tracks owner they belong to a music royalty organization.

My conclusion is, it is for your weekend jobs. The interesting thing is as part of their necessary tasks, building a fan base by using social media is recommended. I believe our site will help many DJs who doesn’t have enough time or skill to do that. Even if they have, it is always nice to have extra sites to collaborate with their works and ways to have deeper engagement with fans. In a DJ’s world, social media is powerful and it is going to be more powerful as the era of Web 3.0 arrives.

International Music Summit – The Audience, Spotify, Mox, Mixcloud

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At the International Music Summit in 2013 there were some interesting presentations and discussions on some of the ways the models for how we consume music is changing.  I watched this video from the Summit to gain some ideas of how music industry professionals are thinking in this space. In it the presenters talk about how the media industry has been forced to embrace social media and about the desire of fans to interact directly with musicians. They also talk about the way that mobile apps are enhancing the user experience at events including and about the rise of electronic dance music. They also talk about the increase in the use of apps like DJ face for music

-Ted Cohen, EMI Music  “Obviously more and more people want to become DJs… the barriers to entry are getting lower and lower. software is moving from the desktop to mobile”

-Spotify’s Mark Williamson. “22 of the top 100 tracks on Spotify fall under electronic dance music,” 

Music for Partying and Studying?

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Music for Partying and StudyingGiven young people are our chosen demographic focus one suggested feature is advice on what music is useful for studying. However, miXXerS is specifically for people who go to parties. While the idea came up it is quite a divergence from the main aim of the site which targets DJs, party/concert goers and musicians and party producers/promoters. Given we are a team of all students that like music we are getting our music on as we work on this project.

The old-age Question: Do you prefer to have music while you’re working?  Some people, just like myself, most of the time have it on when completing assignments. However like others students either thrive off listening to music while study OR find having music on in the background incredibly distracting.

The timeless debate has been made. Meanwhile, a number of academic studies suggest listening benefits the brain, sleep pattern, the immune system and stress levels. This is extremely true for music lovers. Furthermore, many people, including researchers and scientists have a theory that music without lyrics such as Mosaic is the best music for study. According to research, listening to classical music help students in studying by increasing the concentration, improve the retention and ensuring more successful study. While is not the focus of miXXerS, we’ll turn our music on when we do our miXXers research!