D-Jam

I think if I threw an event and printed up flyers, I honestly would not know where to leave them now. Seems like stores that used to allow flyers have stopped, and others who still do have a mess on their hands from them.

I personally think digital flyers on social media is probably the most popular way to promote. The problem is too many overkill with the spamming of people, like when they tag everyone in the flyer image or attempt to post it on walls or send it via private message.

I’ll be honest that I’m a jerk in that I’ll block people from tagging me and will report PMs with club ads as spam, even if it means they get blocked by the site. This is the age when you had better put some thought and effort into your party plans if you want people to come, and you had better be ready to recruit the popular socialites to get all the sheep to come out.

Biggest mistakes I still see made in event planning are:

• Picking an easily-available venue over the right venue. A bar/club that’s off the beaten path and empty all the time is empty for a reason…and your throwing an event there might not help that.
• Booking too many DJs
• Putting only you and your unknown DJ pals on the lineup, pushing yourselves like superstars, but no one really cares because they don’t know who you are.
• Not booking DJs who will play to the crowd, as opposed to lining up DJs who play to themselves and thus clear out the room.
• Not building atmosphere or a vibe. If you want to charge $20 cover, then you had better have a fashionable place with booths, bottles, etc…or some major name headlining in the booth. If you want no cover and a relaxed vibe, then build that as opposed to attempting to please markets who won’t come to your event.
• Creating the wrong marketing materials. So if you want a relaxed evening with cool music, don’t put hot gold-digger-looking models in lingerie on your flyer. Don’t put your picture on the flyer unless you as a DJ can be a draw.

It’s really up to you how you want to do it. If you really and truly want to beatmatch old school style, then change the visual setup on your screen to show the browser only. Traktor does make it where you can just have decks and browser without the visuals.

In my honest opinion, I don’t see an issue with sync or visuals. They’re all there to make life easier for you…which is why technology is made/improved upon. The only rationale I tell anyone to make sure they can go manually is when the songs simply won’t sync nicely…and you have to do it yourself. However, I don’t think you’re cheating anyone by using the visuals if they are truly helping. When I see it’s a case that the visuals are on the mark but it sounds off, then I simply close my eyes or look away to fix it. I simply stop trusting the visuals for that moment.

Also ask yourself if manual beatmatching without any help is really important anymore…compared to “doing more”. Look at the video and “homework” I posted. See if you can pull off something like that. This in my book is the new challenge for digital DJs.

I’ve seen many who are really doing nothing but acting. You’ll see them tweak and play with a channel that’s not in use, or do the “dramatic knob twist”.

I do agree people need to be just open to tinkering, playing, exploring.

In my career of web design, I honestly barely ever ask for help…I more do Google searches, and piece together different ideas into the one final product.

Frankly, it might help kill the pop/mainstream appeal of DJing and EDM, thus we’re freed of the Guetta/Harris sound and the Pauly Ds of this world.

I’d tell you all either to enter or ignore it. If you hate it then build your own scene.

J-Zed, post: 34047, member: 1486 wrote: I don’t like it, but you’re 100% right and if it was my club I’d do the exact same thing. Lately we had a boom in bottle service here in Toronto that frustrated many fans. However lately we have seen a divide where there are clearly top 40 clubs for barbies and bottles and the other clubs for the music fans. Seems like it’s working but even the ‘underground’ bigger clubs that open still have tables with service which I think is alright but they’re keeping them low key and more out of the way. Only time will tell if it works.

You know, it’s not all hopeless. Back when I got started in the early 90s, you had clubs catering to the underground, which were usually kind of dark, dank, and dirty…and you had clubs pandering to the mainstream, which were bright, pretty, and well decorated. In the underground spot the trixie would be told she won’t get to hear pop music, and should go to a different club. In the mainstream club, the underground music requests would get the same responses.

What changed is the fact the rise of the superstar DJ. Now we can go to the DJ Mag Top 100 and see plenty of mainstream music superstar DJs…but too often these guys also now cost more than a promoter can afford. So if I was bringing Skrillex or Avicii to Chicago, even a large club won’t be able to cover their price unless I’m charging an expensive cover…so I end up putting them into a small concert venue with an 18 and up age limit so I can bring out the numbers and make my money.

Places like Mansion unfortunately simply do not know how to find that balance between pleasing the high money people who really want the posh mainstream music club, and yet pleasing the press and industry who seemingly only worship the underground movements. You don’t hear about the top mainstream music bottle service spots getting written up in Urb, Mixmag, or other such spots.

Mansion knows if they’re only mentioned in tourist publications, then they won’t be seen as “cutting edge” or “cool”. Thus your cycle of life as a club will be short. I’ve seen glam bottle service spots in Chicago that practically shut down, do minor remodeling, rename themselves, and reopen every year…because by the end of the year the crowds they get aren’t the few “A-List” folk, but the office workers and blue collar folks in nicer clothes.

Meanwhile, some dark spot that brings out the RA Top 100 list ends up getting writeups in the publications and blogs…thus perpetually keeping them as the “cutting edge”…even if trixies show up and lament how it’s not clean enough, bright enough, and the people don’t dress expensively enough.

So we have the balancing act. Mansion and Marquee keep trying and failing to be cutting edge because they branded themselves initially as the mainstream clubs. New York clubs now at times forbid their DJs from playing mainstream music because they want credibility…which even leads some like DJ Louis XIV to blog about how (in his eyes) mainstream music needs to be given credibility and not quickly dismissed as junk because it’s popular.

This is why the anti-mainstream folk need to stop trying to get clubs to jump on board, and instead start their own events and scene.

DJ Connibis, post: 34032, member: 3937 wrote: The people who’s voices can be heard right after he makes his “too future” comment responded about the exact same way I would have.

I would love to know if any of these clubs “emptied out” when this happened to some headliner?

So they kick Farina or Shadow off to please a few high-rollers in booths, but then 20 min later the club is 3/4 empty because most of the normal crowd were fans who took off.

Hell…I’d demand my money back if a headliner I paid to see was pulled. Give me back my $20 you POS promoter.

We call them wannabes or poseurs.

Not much you can do about them. Eventually that guy quits DJing and is replaced with 10 more. It’s a vicious cycle.