How to get your record played on your own for free, or with very little of your own money
Purchase some premium download space with no ads, and brand it with your own logo.
Since we are in 2011 and most people send out download links, seeing that the DJ gets hundreds of links everyday, make sure yours don’t end up in the trash.
Make sure your server offers immediate downloads with no advertising and a speedy server. The email links that go in the trash are the one’s where you have to view and ad first or
get redirected to another website, or have to wait for a download counter to run out. If its free then its probably not worth what you paid for it!
Get rid of the Cd's
Stop wasting your money on Cd pressings. Most real working dj's dont use them anymore....have your ever heard of Serato, Traktor, Virtual DJ? Make it your business to know more about what the dj does, and what tools he works with to play your music. CD's make no impact and go in the trash. The CD's are for your consumers and fans. If you want to service a DJ with your music buy a bunch of flash drives and brand them with your logo and put your music on it. Then all the dj has to do is copy it into his program. And then he has a gift with your log on it. I promise you he will remember you for your effort.
Tag your music correctly
If you don’t know what a correct music tag is and how to do one, I suggest that you figure it out pretty quickly. Since a DJ uses a mp3 data file make sure you tag it correctly with your artist name, title of the song, BPM (beats per minute) Too often a DJ gets a digital file that may be good but since the person didn’t tag it correctly it says Track 1 and Unknown? why the hell would a dj play track that unknown? ITUNES is your friend. its free and it creates the correct music tag that is read by all of the major DJ software.
The proper way to break bread with a DJ
When you meet a dj at the club remember its the same thing as a dj on the radio. He has is crowd to play for. Now there are occasions where he can play some new music, but no DJ is going to jump out of his set a play a record that he hasn’t had the time to listen to. And no...listening to it in the Dj booth while he is working dosn’t count. If you really want them to hear your record get his contact info and email the song to him and then follow up. But make sure to go back to question1 and tag your song and upload it to your own server with no advertising.
You want to get your song on the radio
Then you need to make it blaze in the streets and the club. Produce a record that the Djs in your city are getting mad requests from his club patrons and get that song played 2 times a night in half the clubs in your city and I promise you that the radio stations in your area will come looking for you. If you are really hot you will have no problem booking shows in small venues, which are actually profitable than big venues if you manage it correctly.
Have patience
If you don’t you are destined to fail. Even if you had the hottest record in the country with 500 spins a day, you are not going to see any real money right off the back.
Social media is definatly your friend.
If you meet a dj and he has face book or twitter make sure your follow them, give them a mention and so forth. And shoot him that link to your song again that uploaded on a server with no advertising.
Make friends not enemies
Know the Dj by name, buy him a drink, get him some wings, come to his party, host his mixtape, sell his mix cd's. its all about the grustle....part grind. part hustle.
Get honest feedback on your song
Don’t get a bunch of your friends to listen to your song and tell you how great you are. Look for the obvious signs. Do you have a clean, instrumental, acapella, and dirty? why would you only make a dirty edit. you've killed your chances of radio play right there. Sure you have satellite radio but the same rule applies they want the songs that are trendy, hot, captivating, and get peoples attention. Its never been about how much talent you have. The hottest songs out right now you as an artist probably cant stand to listen to.
