As a (recent – my first gig was this time last year) beginner into this, I sort of agree with what you are saying, Kai.
But – you do not need as many tracks as you think you need. I play weekly 3hr (with a couple of breaks in) sets to a crowd of people that doesn’t change that much week to week, meaning that they like to hear variation in the music played but at the same time they do like some repetition from week to week – I play a total of around 40 tracks each week. For this, I have a “Core Collection” of around 180 tracks – that’s it. I don’t need any more than that and sometimes it even feels like too much.
One of the main problems with being a beginner is that you do not (yet) have that core collection – you don’t have all those classics that people want to hear and you maybe don’t own the right kind of music to DJ from (that was the case with my collection when I started). So you need to go out and build that – but quality over quantity, every time. Pick your songs. Listen to them again the next day before you buy them. Be really picky 🙂
I add tracks as they come out (They like hearing the latest charts releases.. mostly) and as I find them, and I have a clear out every month or so, getting rid of songs I haven’t played recently.
On a less regular basis, I DJ for a slightly different crowd who like a completely different kind of music – and this involves 4hr sets every now and then. So I prepped twice that in tracks – 8hr’s worth, which is around 130 tracks. No more.
So I have a total core collection of around 300 tracks, and that is it – that lets me know every track really well. If I hear another DJ play a track that I also have in my collection, I know it’s name (and bpm) straight away… Or within the first few bars. That way I can DJ instinctively rather than going through pe-prepped lists of tracks that I don’t really know very well. The results are nearly always better when you know the tracks – and that happens with a smaller collection.
On a different note, however, I do have a much larger collection of tracks on my hard drive that I use for storing the rest of my music – tracks that might get requested, tracks I actually listen to etc. This is around 3700 tracks big, including the 300 in my other collection. This way I can deal with (nearly) any request that i get given. One DJ I know who has been doing the same job as me but for much longer has a much bigger collection – approx 26,000 tracks. But he has the same system and knows the ones he plays most commonly very well indeed.
Back to DJ Pools, I don’t use them. I use iTunes and (very occasionally) the artists offers the track I want as a free download. I still check for it on iTunes though. I don’t see the point in DJ pools – if you don’t have a request, say you’re sorry you don’t have it, write it down and buy the track when you get home – if you think it might be requested again or if you actually like it… 🙂
If you are looking for songs of a certain genre, there are several methods to find them.
One is to find a song you like from that genre on sound cloud. Look at the “Recommended Tracks” list. Have a listen.. Any good? Often they are similar and sometimes they are decent. This sometimes also works on YouTube or iTunes, but they aren’t as good.
Another is spotify – create a playlist of all the tracks you have in that genre, then click “play spotify radio” on the top of the playlist. It will then play a load of tracks that a similar to ones in your playlist but NOT the ones in your playlist. Stick it on whilst you are trying to do something else and write down the names of any tracks that some up that you like.
Hope this helps,
bob6397
