To be honest, moving forward does require “business skills” as much as technical skills and music selection. Especially getting to know people and more importantly getting those people to know you.
In most cases you will need to do the legwork 1-on-1. Don’t count on being found through your website, SoundCloud, Facebook, etx. And contacting clubs will most likely not get you into events.
Go to the festivals you want to play at, ask who is in charge of the line-up. If they are there, see if you can have a quick 2 minute talk, do your “elevator pitch” (why you should be in next years line-up) and hand out your contact details (business card), have links to your best mixes/demos on the card.
Festival DJs are often producers first, with stuff of their own. It’s extremely hard to get into that scene if you are “just” a DJ and not a producer. And I say this with the ultimate respect to all those DJs, seeing how I am one myself.
The other thing is to not overthink it either. Clearly sitting on the couch waiting for the phone to ring is not the best approach, but worrying too much about your “career” isn’t the right way either.
You see, those in the game to “make it”, often start to focus on the wrong things, spending too much time in career and too little in DJ-ing.
It is important that you enjoy the journey, more so than being overly focused on the destination.
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