Your First Gig

DanStuart000

DanStuart000

New member
How did you get your first gig?
I'm new to DJing (mainly song write/produce) and was wondering how everyone else got their first gig?
Would like to get my foot in the door soon, any tips would be much appreciated!
 
I'm not going to lie, I haven't done my gig yet as I'm still focused on producing at the moment however:

My buddies out in Phoenix Audiohype and Dirty Doses both got into the scene by simple meeting with the promoters out here. Building up rapport with the local promoters is huge. I've got the ability to now get good word through my two buddies to get on the scene just because they've built solid relationships with the promoters out in the scene. Find out who runs the parties or someone that knows them and push on it. That's the main thing man, show them your music. The more you show your motiviation through handing out CDs, websites, etc. shows that you are confident in what you do and you can ultimately build a fan base that promoters can't refuse.

Hope that helps.
 
My first gig was playing local, managed to put a night on with free venue hire and all door takings where profited our way, from then just slowly work up to playing bigger and better venue's/events etc.

networking is your best chance of getting gig's, find events and other DJ's & Producers with in your genre and start making friends, keeping up to date with whats happening and showing an interest, it'll boosts your chances of getting noticed.

keep plugging out mixes/sets, internet radio stations are pretty easy to get on to these days, being that there are so many.

I'm sure something will come your way soon enough....
 
As the above said, networking is an absolute must. I'm also still looking for my first gig and i'm starting to build up some contacts now. It can be difficult, but once you meet a few, it can kind of take off.
 
One of my friends threw a rager at his house that I spun at. Someone attended and saw me and offered to pay if I spun at his trailer party (ghetto but fun as hell). Point is do free gigs for people you know to start, and eventually your name will get out
 
Record a mix (spend time making sure it's pretty tight) and then hand it in to club promoters / bar owners or whoever. They'll probably skim through 5 minutes of it and if your mixing is ok you'll probably get a chance at the very least.
 
I just send an FB message to a guy who is organizing an after party to a fashion event near my city. I just asked if it's possible to play during the event since I saw that year ago random people were playing some music there. He answered and was positive about it and later on he wrote that I can even play an after party! And there will be some well-know rap artists playing there alongside haha. And since I am a producer I plan to give them my business card to check out my beats. But coming back to DJing - I am totally new to this so since couple of days all I do is learn how to play live with Ableton + Maschine and searching/downloading/warping tracks and learning how to play them! So actually I was lucky but it all came from me writing the guy. So just be brave enough and write to all the people that can possibly help You. Good luck!
 
kmano said:
I just send an FB message to a guy who is organizing an after party to a fashion event near my city. I just asked if it's possible to play during the event since I saw that year ago random people were playing some music there. He answered and was positive about it and later on he wrote that I can even play an after party! And there will be some well-know rap artists playing there alongside haha. And since I am a producer I plan to give them my business card to check out my beats. But coming back to DJing - I am totally new to this so since couple of days all I do is learn how to play live with Ableton + Maschine and searching/downloading/warping tracks and learning how to play them! So actually I was lucky but it all came from me writing the guy. So just be brave enough and write to all the people that can possibly help You. Good luck!
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That's an awesome story man, well done!
 
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