Being a popular DJ isn't about grabbing your favorite tunes and using your home stereo system turned up to the point of exploding speaker parts into the next millennium. If that's your bag then your a hack. The sort of people that give DJ's a bad name. No DJ'ing is many things depending on your venue. May it be a club, wedding reception, School dance or a corporate party. There are some things that all professional DJ's need to do. Not just to survive, but to become popular enough to be working every week or weekend and making a decent living while doing it. Here at DJ Drop Ins we want to help.

First of all ditch the ego. I know, I know you don't have an ego. The one thing I know after working with hundreds of DJ's over I think a hundred years (whoops there go's my ego) is that putting the letters DJ in front of your name, is going to make you Immediately act like your the coolest (or hottest) thing around. I mean where else can you get a title in front of your name just because you own 3 records and a state of the art sound system from Sears. Nobody actually gives you the title DJ for something you've done. No, just one day you decide to say your a DJ because you played your younger sisters birthday party on the back lawn and now you think your ready for the big time and your name in lights. Guess what, It's so much more than that. You might think I'm kidding but I've seen wannabe DJ's do it many times before. It should be a title you earn be being consistent, above average and given to you by your peers. But the majority of record players (old school) just take the title DJ as their own.

So what does make a Great DJ or at least Good DJ?

1. Knowledge first: You can't just like a certain type of music and expect the world to revolve around you and your tastes. Many a fine young man (or woman) have been cast out of the imaginary DJ Hall of Fame for being to much in tune with themselves. Wake Up Call...Life is variety and if you can't fathom playing tunes that your mother and father used to dance to then maybe this gigs not for you. Now I realize that you may want to just play at a local club and do techno all night long, that's fine for a few but to really keep the money rolling in you need to diversify and be able to deliver on music for everybody s taste. That means having a musicale knowledge of the greatest hits from the past as well as the top hot hits of today. Simply: The best DJ will know what to play and when to play it. They will fill 99% of requests and be able to talk it up with the year and background on every song in their collection. It takes awhile and you don't need to be on your “A” game right from the start. But you'd better at least know the basics and use that knowledge to play the hits for all age groups.

2. Voice and personality: It's one thing to play great music. That's why they hired you but your vocal speaking talents are why you get rehired. I've seen the shows where there are great lighting effects and massive sound systems but the DJ never speaks a word all night. A “live” DJ means someone who can excite the crowd and whip the club or hall into a controlled frenzy. If he or she can motivate the dancers and the listeners then that person is going to get rehired time and time again. Listen to the radio jocks to get an Idea of how to use your voice in a commanding way. Don't over talk, just add bits and pieces throughout the night. Turn the music down a bit during the intro and make a quick announcement, state the year of the song or just ask the patrons to get up and dance. Timing is everything. Projection is paramount. Your voice is what sets you apart from the rest. You can also use DJ Drops inserted between songs. These drops will give you a second voice. DJ Samples and bass voice effects DJ Drops and Sweepers can be used instead of your voice. In any case use your voice talent wisely.

3. Equipment: You need to be professional in every way and this relates to your equipment as well. You don't need to have the best but you do need to have the right stuff. You will very well be hired to do various halls, clubs and maybe outside venues. You need enough power and the right speakers to handle it all. More power means that you will have some to spare so that when the volume is high your speakers will not distort. Lighting sets the mood and accents the kind of music being played. The visual is Important, but second to the sound. There are various ways you can go with DJ equipment. The landscape of DJ'ing is changing. Find ways to make your job easier so you can spend more time exciting the crowd, not searching for music.

The DJ Success Formula - Tips And Tricks Have Different Value by Norman Freeman

 The first impression how today's DJs grow up to be so popular often fools you. Too many times people talk about the happily quoted luck - being at the right spot at the right time and so on. You want to know my opinion about this? It is all nonsense.

Success has nothing to do with being lucky. The universe is fair. If someone succeeds, this someone has earned it 100%. This luck is almost without any exceptions no success that comes over night. A popular DJ and Producer said something very wise to me some time during my research:

'Success over night is just great, but unfortunately it usually takes about 10 years.' I have been talking to Moguai, Tom Novy, Special D., Marcel Woods, Mark Norman and many others. They all just agreed.

Faith and Vision
You have to believe in yourself, which means, considerably longer than up to the first disappointment. You make mistakes to learn from them! Stay focused on what you want to achieve. Make a clear plan of it. Make a mind-map of where you want to go. Go in details! It will help you to believe in it.
Do not let anything or anybody lead you astray. If you take a closer look on the DJ success stories of each single professional in the DJ business, you will find the most diverse ways to achieve their goals and even more diverse possibilities to go on from there.

Nevertheless, there is a common denominator in all of these stories. Little, sometimes casually mentioned sentences, will tell you about the small factors that caused something big to happen and that could possibly cause something big for you.

During my research over the last 18 months, I tryed to outline these small factors, these different variables that could provoke success. The 'DJ Success Formula'!

The provocated luck
It is mostly a concurrence of circumstances that leads to success. I want to show you how you can use the circumstances, which have potential to 'accidentally' lead to success, in a deliberate and goal-oriented manner. These circumstances have often more to do with marketing, promotion and psychology than with music.

You should not be startled by that, but motivated to learn some principles. A simple, solid basis is all you need. I am not giving any guarantees that you will find yourself among the Top 100 DJ of the world in the next DJ Mag Polls evaluation. How could I do that anyways? There is still the weakest factor in the system: YOU yourself.

Be honest: How often did someone give you really useful tips and you thought to yourself 'Yeah that could really work'. And more importantly: How many times did you really try to use them?

From now on I want you to move your ass and work on achieving your goals. The only promise that I can give you is that you will go faster, more determined and straighter towards the right goals, that you will recognize them and that you will avoid mistakes that hundredth of other DJ had to make.

The most important DJ-skill
Your 'mindset', the inner attitude, is your most important DJ-skill. Some 'old hands' will be arrogant, because your biggest role models might not be 'Kraftwerk', 'Lfo' or 'Harthouse Label'. Funnily enough I still experience this: Clubbers over 30 years of age label newcomers with imbecile comparisons and try to impress with rave-historical general knowledge. This is the biggest nonsense.

Do not let yourself be dominated by people who did not make it themselves. It is all about music, entertainment, and fun. For everyone to one's own liking. In conjunction with me there will be no music-racism. No over- or underground nonsense.
Be aware. Whichever style you prefer and however old you may be: you walk your own way. I will remind you of this over and over again. However, mind that you will not be disrespectful. YOU should always be friendly and polite and have respect for every person and every style that you will encounter.

Take action and make your own way! That is exactly why I am going to take you to the other side of DJing, the "marketing" which in my opinion is even more interesting, because this is really about DJ gigs, travel, foreign countries and leveraging your very own DJ success. DJing itself is pretty easy to learn by yourself. Getting booked for gigs is difficult.

Norman Freeman, active DJ, label- and club-owner since 1994, did dozens of video-interviews with top-DJs and combined the knowledge in a unique website/eBook project called where members can download the eBook and 20+ hours of DJ-Video-Interviews.
DJ Book and DJ Interviews

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