Lessons

Lesson Info

Branding and Marketing Part 2

A lot of djs have found success with, like and mixes like, you know, creating mixes, putting them up online. Um, there's a ton of different sites. Um, nick bakay, mick bookie is like one of the, uh, guys that's out there that, like, over the years has put out, like consistently good mix tapes and so definitely made a name for himself with some of the mix tapes that he's put out there. So he's a great example of that, I think. Can we check the next slide really with, uh uh, no. Well, we'll leave this actually let's go to the next one. Yes. There you go. Eso another one z trip? Uh, really, really, like, um, one of these guys who puts a lot of thought into his mixes has created, like, great bodies of work with the stuff that he's done, same sort of thing. You just kind of have to figure out what it is that you want to put out there into the world on and the audio representation of what that is. So, you know, if you're making mixes and putting them up, be sure that they're mixes that like,...

this is good to put out into the world, I see it sometimes a lot of people who are just, like, let me record my practice cool upload to soundcloud not probably the best work that they could do and just kind of thrown up there and the tough part is that like somebody somewhere is going to hear that and that's what they're going to think is your sound and what you sound like um so you know really put some thought into the work that you're doing and that goes for not only mixes but like if you're doing remixes or mash ups of songs like you know don't just make it and throw it up there like take some real time and pride and what you're doing in the toughest part with this day and age is that you like everything can be instant, you know? So every thought that pops into your head could go on twitter every mix that you make it could go up to soundcloud instantly you know, everything that you do could be shared instantly but maybe shouldn't be maybe there should be a filter there that says hey, you know, what is this worthy of putting up on my site? Uh, no, I could do it better let me do it better, you know? So be it be selective with what you're putting out there z trip did this obama mix um you know, pretty cool taking like the speeches and like being able toe interject them in there I did a performance for the grammys during grammy week for the actual uh, academy a couple of years ago where they asked me to create a body of work that was sounds of change that was the theme was like sounds of change of the last fifty years so like, you know, I took like the martin luther king I had a dream speech and sort of chop that up took some other songs like brought in some public enemy brought in some different songs and like you know, did wordplay on unlike some of the words in lyrics within that spent really time like I probably put in like eighty hours plus into like just the prep of it and then building it out and then you know for them that to be performed live for a three minute routine you know so but putting in that sort of that time and that effort and like creating like a real body of work is like, you know, maybe something that you aspire to if not that's cool too like this is one of those options that can help differentiate you that can help like get your name out there um cool let's go to the next slide uh an academy instructor scratch dj academy instructor in front of mind to martel does this mix every year he's a big um coachella gore ah he's based in new york but comes out teo the southern california area for coachella every year as a fan but also puts together this like artist mix which is pretty thoughtful as well in terms of like just taking like a lot of the people that are on the bill and finding a cool, creative way to like mix that all together and posts it as this so if you are searching for coachella on soundcloud like his mixes would come up and, uh, you know, I mean, I'm sure that there's he gets plays and downloads from from just simply that so you know, something to chew on something to think about, um, cool next slide videos the same thing with videos though, you know, be very, very, very selective about what you put up there, you know? Nobody I don't think a ton of people want to see like a weekly video of you d jane in your room for three hours he's probably not going to be something that wants to be viewed I also like, you know, be selective like you said in your hair on fire and d jane may go viral, but like, is that what you want to be known as also so like, you know, I think some of this stuff through video can be a tricky one on and again there's all of these different platforms a friend of mine who is a social media expert um and she actually works over at the grammys but and does their social media and she did a a workshop um at scratch dj academy about social media for djs and social media strategy for djs and one of the things that she says to quote her is that figure out what platforms you want to participate in and then and which ones you do best and focus on those so you don't have to do everything like you don't have to have a vine account, a twitter account instagram account have a youtube channel have all of these things if you can't up keep them, it would almost be better to like you can own that space like you can go out and, like, own that user name and then maybe just like you don't you don't really stay active on that I mean that's fine, you can then direct people like here here is where I'm active. I'm most active on instagram are most active on facebook or whatever that might be and that's where you then direct people, but if you try and do everything, you won't really excel at any of those things, you know it'll spread you'd way too thin, so just keep that in mind I thought that was great advice, um, but if you're big video person like obviously there's a ton of different outlets for where you can really, you know, kind of own that space and have, like a good presence youtube being a huge a huge one and then obviously there's a ton more um cool next one. Um, of course we have a different a couple of different web sites. I mean, you know, ultimately I think, like, as a deejay, your web site should be very, very somewhat simple, somewhat basic. Like, what do you for you guys here who were here in the audience? What do you feel like are things that you definitely would want to see on a djs website? Yeah, links. So the other social media pages, okay, thanks to other social media pages. Ok, what else? Yeah, touring dates. Okay, so dates like dates of, like, when your plane where I can see you, what what's going on? Yeah. Um, music or videos. Okay, so, like, music, like samples of music of some kind, like some sort of sample mix of some time. Ok. Um, or video? Ok, cool. Anybody else? Yeah, you look like a fan shop. We can get some gear were from the artist. Okay, okay. And some of this, obviously you're speaking of a much like sort of larger artist as opposed to, like any regular local deejay right but I mean at the same time like look if if you do create t shirts or you create stickers or you have other like stuff that's out there and you want to have that like up there and out there that absolutely that's a way of like um you know, you should use your site as a way to promote that what else? Contact and so huge that is like one of the biggest ones contact info if I like what I see I want to be able to get in touch with you like I want to be ableto like hey, are you available on this state? I want to be able to like reach out to you so contact info is huge um yeah big one bio is a big one um that's your story? Who are you? You know you're just if I don't know who you are, then I only know like just your name and I don't know exactly the background of you. I want to know a little bit more about your background by it was a tricky thing, though you know your bio, especially for a newer deejay like often get this question too and we do this exercise within the academy, which is you know, for students who are about to graduate that they write their bio or that they have their bibles written but from a person who doesn't have much experience as a deejay well would you really right in your bio you can't write like oh I've headline this festival and I've done you know I have this residency and this and that so my advice though is like play up the positive parts though you know play up the parts that are like interesting when I'm reading a bio I'm looking for a way to connect to this person that's what I'm looking for I'm looking for something that's like oh wow that's really interesting you know? So while yes certain names like do like it like that connection like oh well you've played here you played there but also like you know who your influences are well give me an idea for like the type of sound that maybe I would expect to hear from you so and that's something that you could do even as a dj that doesn't have much experience you know like you're influenced by this and by that you know you're influenced by soul and funk and then also like you know you grew up in aa in the nineties rave scene and like that that's a huge influence to your sound or whatever um and then also you know other things that play for like you know what's going to set you apart what's going to make you different no you dropped out of dentistry school to become a deejay that's pretty interesting you know, like you got a degree from you know, the university of acts like in psychology that's pretty interesting you know, like wow and you're deejaying interesting, you know? So even though you think that like well, what is my psychology degree have anything to do with me? Jane it kind of doesn't but it has something to do with you as a person and that's what this bio is really about is like who are you now that being said your bio also shouldn't be this like autobiography of like, you know, john smith was born on a warm, sunny day in you know like no like it should really kind of like cut to the the main bullet points of who you are cool eso cool this is events mixes galleries so photos and videos contact blogged you know again do what you feel like you can manage and set a goal when it comes that too so I can use the same sort of goal setting when it comes to some of this stuff I'm gonna have my bio done by when when when you're gonna have your bio done first draft when is it done? When is the final draft? You know, like setting out those things okay, you need to get five good photos at least five good photos that you can have um when is that going to get done you know, like, really the toughest part about being an entrepreneur or like a small business owner or just even a creative and being independent, is that there's nobody who's cracking that whip on you that says you have to be in the office at nine o'clock and you need to have this report on my desk at this time, so you need tio exercise discipline, and you need to create structure within your own world then, you know, life. For instance, when you downloaded music, you know, set a time, said a day or maybe it's every day from nine a m to ten a m you're downloading music come ten a m that's it no more downloading music, but you might need to, like, create that sort of structure, and for some of you, it might be more like from noon to one a day from noon to one p m is when you're downloading music after you wake up and then you know, and then you're doing what, though, you know, so like, schedule out your day too, because that's what's going to make it a lot. Otherwise you'll find that life as a creative it's, very easy to then get into a situation in which you're just kind of doing. And you're just kind of floating along and everyday kind of feels like the next and they all kind of blend together and the next thing you know like a year has gone by and you're in the same place doing the same thing so that is the one tough thing though about like that not having like an actual place that you report into or whatever is that you have to be a lot more disciplined when it comes to questions every good we have one question from online another thing too it's worked really well on websites his quotes from other djs like now that all you guys know d j hop you should be asking him to write like a quote like, hey, I know this guy he's legit if he thinks you're actually legit, right? Yes uh yeah I've done that on my website and it goes a long way because then people gives you credibility if you don't have a list of like, long tour dates that you've been right this isn't somebody says whoa, I know t j hop is he's legit and he says these guys are like that's a great that's a great that's a great point you make there? Yeah, for sure I haven't seen that on a lot of djs websites, but that's that's definitely like an interesting like thing to like maybe having especially depending on the type of business educator to like if you're doing a lot of weddings and doing a lot of stuff like that like that would be huge like an actual referral a quote from somebody's wedding that you did that says hey um you know deacon was fantastic like what you know blah blah blah blah blah blah but having that live somewhere probably go a long way yeah let me read you this question I'm a deejay producer and audio engineer I'm currently struggling with the best way to brand all three a cz faras what and how to combine these three different services under one umbrella if at all, what would you suggest on that? So somebody that's doing a bunch of them yeah, I think you know I think what I would maybe recommend and I show you what that too sometimes because I am a person who wears several different hats on and I think like, you know, we come into a day and age in which like a majority of people that are out there do wear different hats so it's not so such a foreign concept however like it can get a little bit confusing especially if like sometimes I get a card from somebody that is uh this would be your card I'm just making this up but like d j d conn deejay producer remixer um audio engineer, actor host radio personality blah, blah, blah like volunteer firefighter like like wow, you know and it's like yeah it's tough for that and like I don't know I mean I guess it would depend on like, depend on how far and you are in each one and if like you're more of a deejay than a producer on an audio engineer then I would lead with that if you're more of an audio engineer and you also kind of d j and produce on the side like then I would maybe lead with that um and then you know, you could always implement the whole like, you know, kind of branding each one separately if you wanted teo I think there's a couple of different ways to go about it and I think like depending on what your strength is that I would push forward with that one and then like, you know, look as a deejay, the fact that you're an audio engineer is freaking awesome, like later on when we're then here and like, now you're d jane and the fact that you're you can also like oh, wow, you're like now on tour and there's a way for you to then also like you d j the beginning of the show the opening of it and now you're engineering uh, you know, the band that you're rolling with your their audio engineer but yet you're d jane the intro of it or whatever so you know there's a way to marry those worlds too and I feel like that's one of the like try and think that through two with like some of your skill sets like you know, how else can you refuse these things and then flip it the other way and say like, oh, this is actually really cool because I can then do this like, if you're a chef and you also deejay that's interesting like there would be maybe clients that you have that you're like, you know, you did catering for and this and that and hey, when I'm not doing this, I'm also a deejay, you know? I don't know sometimes that works, you know, any other question that we have a way of one question about licensing? Uh, ok, we're just kind of a big topic let's see let's see woods was the question question is wondering if eyes deejay hop if d j apa is speaking about music, licensing issues and associations thanks because that is a huge question, you know, that is a huge question and I actually think that like that is such a big topic that like that would be totally another workshop that I think should be definitely take care of and honestly like, I'll be completely honest, I am not the expert when it comes tio that side of it I would love to attend that workshop though and no more much more about that we'll let you know and yeah please do I'll be watching you on the other side of the camera um cool uh let's see if e I think we haven't maybe one or two of the slides left here getting traveled to your side. Okay, we talked about email marketing I mean, you know, the list goes on and on and on and on for like I like things that you can then like add on tio your world and what work so you know, maybe you get into a situation where um I have a lot of friends that send out a newsletter and every month I get their newsletter um you know, I personally don't send out a month in newsletter maybe I should, um I it's just not something I've spent time doing um but you know then again, like maybe that would be a good thing so you know, look into that their services that that make it really easy, you know, nowadays like, you know, that's a really nice thing about all of this is that a lot of this stuff has been built to then for people like us to then take advantage of some of these services like normally, like, you know, fifteen years ago if you wanted to run an email campaign well, first of all, when they nearly as much sense fifteen years ago but like let's say like, you know, five or six years ago if you were to run an email campaign it would be a little bit more difficult than it would be today. You know, with services like male chimp and like all these other like services that are out there, it makes it fairly easy to be able to do that. In fact, you might even find that there's like some like there's a site or a place that's out there that offers a lot of these services that you're looking for all in one bucket. Um there's a service that I used for some of the events that I promote um and throw called splash that it creates a splash page for the event you can add in e mails on and you can add and people to them invite and send out like the sort of email invite they can easily click on in rcp to the event you khun then it then creates the guest list right there in all of that would like literally a matter of clicks. You can then be like moving around to do that a couple of years ago would be very difficult to do but the fact that then it's all in one place it makes it makes it easy so you know, do some research out there, find out what you know, people that you look up to our doing or like, you know, people that you see are doing things like that's actually how I ran across that splash that it was it was an event in new york that was using that service was like, that's really interesting and so that's how I came across it, um, social media again, we could have an entire entire probably six hour session on social media and social media strategy, you know, the biggest thing that I would say is the advice that my friend lindsey gave me, which was like two do do a couple of them well and spend your time there. The other thing that I would say is like, try your best to make sure that the that the user names are consistent across multiple platforms, so if I'm deejay hop on twitter but I'm hop a deejay on instagram that's confusing, especially when a lot of these programs talk to each other. So, you know, occasionally you'll see somebody that maybe, like they post something on instagram and then they have it posted to twitter and facebook direct from instagram and if there's somebody that the handles don't match up like they're something on instagram but there's something else on twitter and it goes straight through that, then it's tagging that that handle and in instant twitter it's then popping up is like not anything because there's no handle that exists there you know so it's important that you that you make that consistent across the board cool uh next slide that we have ok we talked about this with the making sure you have your ah your own domain name and ah google aps for business this is a good thing I use this service I think I just found out that the now are charging for it before that was free I've got to look into that a little bit more but you know they offered this great sweet that is really helpful so like everything that you would have on gmail you then have with your own you were out with your own you know domain so like with my hop a world domain I have my calendar I have google documents like I have all of the stuff that comes with like the google suite and it might be worth even if they're charging it might be worth it just because so many of those platforms are really useful on and they're constantly updated and they're constantly improving so all right cool we next slide here search engine optimization again this could be an entire topic just on search engine optimization there's services out there that you can pay teo optimize your search um one of the best things to do though comes from the name you know, if you've got a name that if you got a name that nobody else has, then when somebody types that in that you should pop up, you know, so like the optimization there doesn't have to be crazy and honestly I don't know I mean, you have to figure it out, you know? And it really just depends on your business and your business strategy or what not, but you know, if you want to be the number one d j wedding d j and you know, in idaho that maybe you are paying for search engine optimization because you're competing with, you know, twelve other wedding d j companies that are out there and you want to make sure that you pop up high on that ranking sites so you spend a little little bit of doted to do that that might be something to look into ultimately, though, you kind of then it's important when you optimize search to then really, like, be specific you have to choose what you know what terms that you want tio pop up on and you know that you really then have to make a decision with like, where you're going, which direction going um and then yes, obviously like where things are at, like, if you've got content on lee in one place like you're not going to pop up nearly as much if you've got content and other places, if you're contributing to other places, if you're being featured on other blog's, if you're being if there's ah link to your web site on somebody else's website like all those things are going to increase your, um how you pop up in the search um but yeah, this could be an entire thing. And again, I personally know for a fact that there are that there are other people that could lead that workshop and I want to be in that workshop as well go through the next one and this is a social media figure. A stat knows this is active monthly users um this is as of what last year, so obviously this is probably I mean, this is changing so fast, like in twelve months, these numbers of probably much, much different than they are right now are are much different than they were back in november of last year, but you can even see that, like while one point, one nine billion users on facebook, no one billion users on youtube um, and again the numbers are what they are. I mean, you know, just because there's that many people on that network does that mean that that's the right place for you to be spending your time as a deejay, maybe, maybe not you know, I mean, like, you know, it's not like this is a bit more specific in terms of, like, your audience and who you're trying to cater to ultimately I'm going to say this your gig, they're going to come from people, you know, I'm gonna repeat myself because that important your gigs and I come from people that you know, um or friends of friends it's going to come from your network, and this is also why, despite all of this stuff, what's the most important form of you getting gigs and doing and getting to some of these goals that you might have is you going out and shake jean hands with people you going out and making friends and making connections in different places in or in specific places that you want to be encircles, you want to be in that you find a way of providing value to those circles and that you get out there and actually be fit, be physically there, you know, it's going to be very rare that somebody is going to be in some city somewhere and be like, I need a deejay let me google for the best deejay in this area that's going to be very that's going toe not happen very often, most times when people need a deejay, they're going to go to somebody they know they're going to go to somebody that hired a deejay recently they're going to go to the deejay that they saw play uh last weekend and try and see if they were bill because they liked they liked what that d j did like it's going to come from these types of sources so it's really important that you recognize that that this is all going to come from your network probably ninety five percent of my gigs come from that type of think and even then like the other five percent are like instead of one degree of separation or, you know, two degrees of separation it's like four, five degrees of separation somebody I've never met that knows somebody that I think I met a while ago that like it's some sort of thing like that you know or somebody that saw me doing something on tv and responded that way like that happens like that's in that five percent you know, somebody saw that uh some video clip of this and that and they decided to reach out and it's super random like that happens five percent of the time so keep that in mind is that like, you know, not only is it important that you get out there and that you meet people and that you like shake hands that you and I and honestly one of the biggest resource is what do you think is like a group of people that is like one of the biggest resource is for gigs have any idea you promoters, other performers, other djs, other djs like I would say that other djs are a huge, huge piece of that. So like, you know, I'm I've got a regular saturday night, I can't make it this saturday, I'm going out of town who I need to bring somebody on that I trust, that I think will do a great job that I think knows the crowd that's seen the crowd in the venue that on that that's, the person I'm going to call guess what you're now filling in for me on saturday night, like, now you're playing there saturday night or even more so, like, you know, um, we gave this example earlier, like you're opening up for me on saturday night let's say, um and it's, maybe just one saturday and then later after that, like, I'm just like, man, you did a great job with that, like, I'll definitely have to bring you back some time like you come back and you play like, you know, another time and then, you know, all of a sudden it's, like management likes what you're doing. It is like a like we really like the guy that you had in here what was his name again? Cool like, well, we've got you know we've got an off night we've got like a tuesday night that we're really trying to start up do you think like he'd be into something like that? You know? And this is how this stuff goes like it literally this is how this goes so like well, just the same as while you're spending all this time unlike let me create my you know, uh, my content, my video on youtube and do all of that like it's almost just as important if not even more important that you're then let me make sure I go out and see these people let me go out and make friends and meet these people and whatnot that's the biggest, biggest source for how you can be successful in this industry um cool, I think do we have anything else on there? Do we have one question about the best spot to get popular stems for doing remixes? Are there good sources to do that and get him? Yeah, I mean there's a ton of like now there's a lot of places where like people are doing remakes contest um no, if you're remix or you're interested in getting into remixes, I really recommend I really hope to do a remix course um here at creative live and like to be able to, like, really talk more about remixes in particular, but, um, you know, if you're remixing tracks like there's, a ton of remix contest out there, as I was saying, though, make sure that you're like, you're really putting time into what is defined as a remix because a lot of people are just simply like slapping a beat on top of another capella and calling that a remix um, I guess in theory you are remixing this, but like ultimately, like I think, you know, really spend time to, like, define your sound and remember, like, I think this is a good sort of ways that kind of like pull us all together, which is ultimately like you really only have one shot to make that first impression. I know that's a cliche, but like it really is true and in an environment in which, like there are so many djs that are out there and there are even mortgages that are being bred um every day that you are fighting for position, you're fighting for space, you're trying to find ways of differentiating yourself and a big part of that is going to be your sound but a big part of that more than your sound even or just a cz important is you and so I think it's important that like as you go down this path and you you know, attempt tio up your deejay game that you really keep in mind all the things that we've covered over the last two days you know and everything from stuff that's actually on the turntables to stuff that's off the turntables to you as a person and like the idea and the concept around like how can I be of value how can I show my value how can I show my worth like how can I go out and actually like own this little space that I call mine and then once you own that space or once you kind of get this little space around like this is me then how do you grow that space and really taking like some of these tools that we're talking about to help grow that space whether that be getting better here or whether that means doing mohr here um and all of that is going to lead to like, one foot in front of the next and hopefully you've been ableto obtained those goals that you guys said so I think that this is sort of a good waiter to wrap everything it's awesome yeah, thanks so much to you know, probably zillion down the knowledge and all your experience and you know, I can't say it enough I mean this is something that like I said this the first day and I didn't mention it today, but like the big goal of scratch dj academy, which is also in line with my own personal goal, is that like d jane has given me so much, I haven't entire career that's been built off of me as a deejay and I'm big, incredibly grateful for that, and the idea of like, giving this back and paying this forward for this next generation of djs is incredibly important to me and this idea of creating this this education and access tio to learn more about what our art form is and what our culture is, you know, to me that's more important than ever now that like d jane is everywhere and because d jane is everywhere, I think it's even more important for djs that are out there also promote what this is like, what the essence of this is like as a community as a culture as an art form and that's something that I really hope that that message goes far, um, and that people the audience becomes much more educated also about like, what a deejay is and what d jane is all about because I think it's an art form that most people don't understand, I think the more that they understand it, the more they'll value djs, the more that djs are valued a lot of us who wish to have these ten year goals will have them and those who have not even thought of that well then look up to those who have valued that and appreciate that a lot more so yeah I mean that this has been an awesome experience and I can't think you know, everybody who's in studio I can't thank you guys enough for spending you know time being here laughing at our jokes just being here and around and participating and what's going on everybody that tuned in as well like we really appreciate thea the time that people put in you know totally we have some thank you's it takes a lot tio put on these courses of course we're thankful tio all of you watching out there as well but we have some gear people who send this gear and we're really grateful to them so thank you to audio technica cerrado deejay for some of their gear native instruments and tractor um rain big thank you to them as well as pioneer and thank you teo everybody who's watched online as well as our in studio audience uh and last but not least dude thanks to you for finally up here for sure it's been super awesome it's been it's been amazing and I don't know you know to reciprocate that as well like thank you to everybody here at creative live because it does also take a team here make this whole thing work. And, like the guys who are behind the cameras in the studio, like, you know, it takes a lot to put this on. So thank you.