Rattfink

Oh man you’re in for a treat! The first few years after high school are tumultuous and you learn a tonne- inside and outside of school. If you’re serious about trying to get into the music industry there are a few things that I could suggest. First off, Odd brings up a few good points. Treat your first year of undergrad as a way to test the waters. That being said, if your serious about music there are some courses that will help. Courses like Entrepreneurship (learn to work with what you have to create something that you’re good at), Computer Science, Graphic Design, Digital Marketing (these three will be important when you look to market yourself/your brand online), Copyright Law, IP Law (important to know how the industry profits/how to protect yourself, your property and your brand from pirates and infringers), Languages (polish your french canadian up), and Philosophy (not really music related but I think everyone should have a kick at thinking about what we think about).
When it comes to outside the classroom, Odd is spot on again. University represents a unique opportunity in your life to network and further your career. Get involved on campus. Offer your services to the people who are in charge of social events (usually the Social Director on the University Student Council). Try to present yourself and your skills in a way that doesn’t force yourself on people, yet lets them know that you’re professional about your performance. Collaborate!!! You’re going to be in close proximity with some skilled like minded people and jamming ideas with them is only going to make you better. It’s a lot of give and take but it’s all about learning and evolving. And, when you get gigs, make sure to follow those gigs up with promotion, listener interactivity, and brand recognition. If people hear about your playing, witness you destroy people’s minds with your sound, get to chat with you afterwards and find you’re quite chill and down to earth, and can connect your name/logo/brand with an upcoming even that they saw on a flyer/FB event/blog/etc with all those good feelings that they experienced when they last saw you, oh dud you’ll KILL IT!!! 😀 😀
Remember though. Never stop learning. Seriously there’s so much in this wild world to understand that you always have to approach life willing to figure out what it’s giving you. Never think you’re done learning. You’ll kill it!
(ps watch out for ladies requesting songs. They may try to take advantage of you :P)

Emma Partnow, post: 4997 wrote: it is Their Legal Right (in Some Countries) to ‘Sieze’ Our Hard Drive; and Take It Away

Man just try to “seize” my hard drive!

I’m a Canuck from Vancouver stuck in the Gold Coast Australia by way of London UK!

Oh man! That’s one hell of a crowd. Maybe play old people music until the old people pass out/get drunk and don’t care then switch to bangers? That’s a toughie though best of luck!:)

I’m thinking I may have been bit by the Nu-disco/house bug! Also I’m kinda over the epic synth’d anthem-vibe that a lot of commercial electro house tracks are coming out with. It’s fun to try and inject some new grooves into the crowd and see how they go. Obviously it’s all about reading the sets and venues but I’m just getting bored of the commercial stuff that’s out so that’s why I look for mashups/remixes of the big gunners to stand out from your normal club dj. In my experience the crowd reacts well to it mostly because they all go “oh hey I know that song but it’s different/new/cool!” Try http://www.whitefolkgetcrunk.com they’re brimming with good re-takes on all the popular stuff.

Spandryl, post: 10745 wrote: Alright everybody, gig recap! Went into this gig with 6 years of aspiration and 1 month of actual DJing. I’ve wanted turntables for years but never got around to saving enough money to make the purchase (stupid college loans!!). After seeing NERO perform in October I gave myself the ridiculous task of booking a gig and getting a set together in a month. Done and done! I used Ableton live, which I’ve had for a bit… Gig went very very well. Only one train-wreck and a few missed cues but overall I’m very happy. Yes I planned my set, but people seemed to dig it! Its the first time something like this has happened in my area and hopefully not the last!

Congrats on playing a good set man! Djing for a crowd is worlds away playing in your room but it’s such a gratifying (and at times frusterating) experience! 😀 I guess if you’re using ableton to DJ you don’t really have much of a choice about whether or not to plan. I couldn’t deal with having my sets “set in stone” on Ableton so I ended up having to move back to DVS. I tried to move from Traktor scratch duo and turntables to ableton for my live sets a few years back but I missed the “off the cuff” vibe that seemed to make djing fun. So I ended up biting the bullet and getting Serato and CDJ-400s. That way I had the ability to adapt to crowds but I can use the bridge to bring ableton into the scene. It gets rather techie but that’s how I like it.
All in all, I agree that 100% planning sets doesn’t really work unless you’re a big name DJ that people are coming to hear their original tracks anyways (think Deadmau5 etc). But that being said, I also think you should have tracks that work together (like 3-6 track “mini sets”) as well as having your tracks organised by genre, feel, key, type of crowd etc. That way you can adapt to crowds with ease no matter who you’re playing for, and you can still put together sick mixes.
At the end of the day, that’s what you’re being paid for: to be able to make people dance, buy drinks, and come back again! And if your set is already planned in and locked, then it’s harder to be able to do that. My way of planning sets (mini sets, playlists based on taste/keys/etc) is epically tedious to put together (especially when you’re still trying to keep your library up to date) but it makes you adaptable to any situation and crowd, and that’s what they pay us the big bucks for!

I think that $200 for three hour sets is pretty fair if you’re doing well and bringing in crowds?