Beginner DJ Tips?

Hey guys,

I'm wanting to become a DJ for a job in Second Life, and as I understand it, I need lots of HD Space, RAM, an audio server (preferably on SL itself), and as many songs as I can get. Correct me if I'm wrong.

A question I've been meaning to ask is that should I only download the music I, myself, enjoy? Or should I download evrything I can (including songs I don't like), in case of requests?

Now, I need you guys to tell me if my computer is fit for DJ'ing on SL.

Specs:

-8.00 GB RAM
-832 GB of Hard Drive Space
-SAM Broadcaster installed
-Windows Vista SP1 64-bit


If you need any more info, just tell me.

Thanks,

ZD

bump.

Hey Zephyr,

Certainly the comp in not a problem. Yea ytou need a stream (server). I use Luch Audio. Very happy with the performance and the service, but there are many to choose from in SL.

For me, if it's free, or you happen to be a millonaire, get all you can get your hands on to a certain extent. If you are playing rock then get as much rock as you can, ie classic, alternative, metal, etc. No matter what genre you are playing at your gig ppl will request stuff outside what you are playing. Even playing rock you wil get requests for pop. Just my opinion.

Butch

thanks butch.

I'm only a beginner though, prolly 4 days old, and I dunno where I'm going to get the money to pay for a stream. Most ppl have an age limit of like 30 days.

I use Serverroom.us, it's $12.00/mo. and enough bandwidth for about two hours a night at moderate listening.

Some clubs in SL have their own streams that the DJs can use. If you can't afford your own stream, you might look for the clubs that have their own.

There are also DJs groups that share a stream, maybe you can hook on to one of those.

I DJ on an old system that sits next to my SL system. Any computer that can connect to the internet can be used to DJ on. I ALso keep my music on an external harddrive. We all have had that sinking feeling when 2000 songs go bye-bye when doing a forced re-format.

Although no one wants to hear the Dark Side of the Moon LP that you love - you should probably not go into genres you are not familiar with. Stick to one era and one genre:
Like Classic Rock (meaning 70's or 80's or 90's - not a combination of all of them in one set). If you are going for the Top 40 Crowd you need to constantly update your playlist - That sort of playlist will get you the most gigs - but remember - don't just do EVERY song on top 40. YOU can mix some R&B with Pop - but stay away from ballads and rap with explicit lyrics.

Okay, so, can I use this computer to play SL and DJ on at the same time? Because this is the only one I have, and I don't have ANY money left to spend.

Hopefully by download you are using I-Tunes or Rhapsody.

Sure you can. But don't be on SL and Yahoo and WoW all day and then just start DJing. You will buffer (freeze up) and then have to restart everything in the middle of your set.

Before you start DJing (at least 20 minutes beforehand), restart your computer and get your DJ system up and running and sound-checked. Then start SL.

Also remember your upstream rate will have an effect on performance.

Er, if you haven't got the money to pay for a stream, how are you going to pay for the music you are planning to download?

Setting up as a DJ is inevitably going to have quite a lot of overheads, I would have thought.

I have a friend who does it and I know it has cost him far more than he has ever earnt from it - he does it for charity things only, for fun.

He spent a fortune just getting a licence to stream into SL, and only plays a limited range of stuff simply because of the costs of getting more music etc.

I would strongly recommend you talk to some of the existing DJs inworld first to find out more - especially if you are hoping to actually end up making money not just spending a heck of a lot on it.

What do you mean?

I'm talking about what my library of music should be like, because I don't want to have the embarrassment of not having a song that someone requests.

There is no correct response to this.. Everyone has different tastes in music.. I work at a Radio Station RL and I can't Stand Maroon 5.. Though others love them... Everyone has different musical tastes in just the US.. You will be DJing to people all over the world.. So to try to narrow it down to a Genre / Artist etc is impossible.

EDIT TO ADD: Also you may want to visit www.loudcity.net and see what your license's will cost you.. It's best to get a Rhapsody account and have it up and running so when someone makes a request you don't have you can quickly obtain it by legal purchase.

ALL online US Broadcasters must comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

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Your station must not be part of an "interactive service". This means no personalized on-demand streaming or downloading of content. Sound recordings can't be performed within one hour of a request by a listener or at a time designated by the listener.
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In any three-hour period, you should not intentionally program more than three songs (and not more than two songs in a row) from the same recording; you should not intentionally program more than four songs (and not more than three songs in a row) from the same recording artist or anthology/box set.
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Archived programs (those that, when accessed, always start in the same place and play in the same order) should be at least five hours long, and should not be available for more than two weeks at a time.
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Continuous "looped" programs (those that always perform in the same order, but are accessed in a continuous play stream) should be at least three hours long.
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Rebroadcasts of programs can be performed at scheduled times three times in a two-week period (for programs of less than one hour) and four times (for programs of an hour or more).
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Do not publish advance program guides or use other means to pre-announce when particular sound recordings will be played. However, a webcaster may name one or two artists to illustrate the type of music on a particular channel; and, DJ "teaser" announcement using artists' names are permitted, but only those that do not specify the time a song will be played.
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Use only sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the United States (e.g.: do not play bootleg recordings).
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Provide some means for the end user to identify the song, artist and album title of the recording as it is being played.
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Lastly, the DMCA also requires that you accommodate technological copyright protection measures or pass through any identification, which may be included in the song recording itself, as long as it does not impose substantial costs or burdens on the webcaster. Also, do not deploy or support technological means to evade these requirements; and, do not explicitly encourage home taping.

"ALL online US Broadcasters must comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act"

Seeing as he is from Canada. does that change things? how do the laws apply to people from other countries around the world?

Just curious im a bit of a rookie DJ as well. though I just play Jrock and Jpop.

It's hard to strike a balance between playing requests and playing what you think fits in your set. You kind of have to play it by ear and see what works for the venues and crowds you are playing for.

I think specializing in an era or style of music is the way to go, something you already know well and love and have a good broad base in. That will also focus the types of requests you get. For example, I play world music, so I don't get requests for top-40 or 70s rock or whatever. I don't have to worry about having those songs on hand. However, I do have a couple of Gipsy Kings tunes (for example) even though I don't really like that band, because they are very popular, they fit my theme, and I know it's likely someone will ask me to play Gipsy Kings.

You can't possibly anticipate every request, so if you want to take requests you have to be prepared to do some acquisition on the fly. I often wind up visiting Amazon.com and buying a couple of songs during my set to accommodate requests. Sometimes I'll say "I don't have that at the moment, but I can play ____ which is similar and you might like it." I do the best I can on the fly, and I'm nice about it, which I hope makes up for those times when I can't hit a request on the head.

From what my friend told me at BMI.. yes it would apply being that LL servers are based in the US. But we all know how that goes with say the market place here..

Many DJ's do it illegal in SL there is no doubt about that.. But notice I didn't say ALL.. I know a lot of DJ's that pay for a license and pay for each track they play..

But how many times have you heard this rule broken?

In any three-hour period, you should not intentionally program more than three songs (and not more than two songs in a row) from the same recording; you should not intentionally program more than four songs (and not more than three songs in a row) from the same recording artist or anthology/box set.

Also you don't "have" to take requests. i know some DJ's who do theme music to go along with a contest (like song with the word black in them for a best in black theme) they play a set.

I rarely get requests because i play only japanese rock in western club and not many know any bands to request (though i am totaly thrilled if someone makes a request for some J-rock!!)

It makes me a nitch DJ i know and may not get a lot of job offers, but i just do it for fun and to bring good music to people that they may not hear it in RL.

For sure you don't have to take requests.. But lets be honest a DJ that takes requests and gets them out faster makes more in TIPS.. heck the same with Terrestrial Radio.. the faster we get a request played on air they more props we get.. Nature of the beast.

I already had a lot of music...thousands of CDs and 10s of thousands of DL'd tracks...so DJing in SL came as a natural extension of my RL passion. I have almost 8000 tracks on my iPod, for instance. I'm not sure how satisfying it's gonna be for somebody who has to start from scratch with a music library, has no money for a server, and doesn't really know how to tailor a playlist to a club or crowd. It seems like you're as well prepared to be a brain surgeon at this point as you are to be a DJ.

But anyway.

I don't play the same sets for every venue or crowd. Sometimes I promote my show as being devoted to a particular theme or artist, and then I assume at least SOME of the people in attendance know that going in. Other times I just try to tailor my set to the crowd, by taking into account their reactions to what I am already playing. For instance, if I play a Van Halen song, a Katy Perry song and a Flock of Seagulls song, and one of them gets 3 "I LOOOOOOOVE THIS SONG" gestures, that will give me some idea of the crowd's tastes. Look at profiles, too. Of course, the easiest way to take the crowd's pulse is to take requests. This can be risky, especially if you're not sure of your music library's robustness, but it can be very satisfying if you get requests rolling in and you can spit them back out. DJing is fun when you're interacting with the crowd and everybody is loving the set, but it can be the most miserable thing in the world if you aren't and they're not. Oh yeah, if you play people's requests, they will tip you.

What Carter said, too.

"In any three-hour period, you should not intentionally program more than three songs (and not more than two songs in a row) from the same recording; you should not intentionally program more than four songs (and not more than three songs in a row) from the same recording artist or anthology/box set."



I broke that the other night! but i think i may get away as it was my own bands recordings and i co-wrote the songs.

Well I gotta start somewhere. All I need are lessons from someone on how to use SAM and a loan for the first server payment and I'm set.

Keep in mind I'm only like 4 days old LOL. Should've mentioned that earlier.

Hook up with Simkast Radio. You can get some great free training from them and use their stream to DJ on. Contact Delileah Charming, Marissa Candour, or Rusty Opel in-world and tell them you're interested.

I think it's great that you are psyched to get involved in SL and make a contribution. But being as new as you are, the best thing you can do is hop around to a bunch of DJ's sets and listen to what they do, how they handle the crowd. Ask them how they handle requests. There are lots of different approaches. Go hear DJs with different styles, different genres.

As to the server loan, I rent my stream from Neo Streams. It's 1000L for 30 days. That's about 4 bucks (US). They have weekly and daily options that are just a couple hundred lindens. If you can't afford to invest less than $5US to get yourself started, you're probably not ready to be a DJ in SL. If you're willing to spend US$200 on SAM and however much you expected to spend to expand your music library, I'm not sure why you don't want to lay out for the stream.

I use Amazon because I can play the song on whatever I choose and the sound quality is 256 kbps. I also have a subscription to Emusic because the prices are very low and bitrate quality is good as well. Emusic has more indie type music though, but it is great for jazz and blues, as well as some other non-pop type music. In other words, you won't find much top forty shit there, but I don't listen to that anyway.

I won't use Itunes ever again. Apple has proprietarized themselves right off my radar. Itunes is a joke. Rhapsody also has, or at least used to have, DRM which limits the usefulness of the music you buy from them.

Hey Zephyr, welcome to SL. As someone else already said, you're set for hardware it seems. I also run two computers while DJing, one for SL and my old tower I use for streaming music out. That being said, your machine may very well be able to run SL and stream out music. You will probably want to test it yourself and with friends. If you get any chirping, etc, you can turn down your graphics settings in SL which will cut down on your bandwidth. You can also turn down your bitrate on your stream, but I would do that last, as good sound quality is a good thing. On a side note, don't stream more than 128 kbps out of your computer as SL only takes 128 anyway, so any more is overkill.

As far as music and licensing, I pay for my music, as well as have all my physical CDs ripped to my hard drive. I'm not a radio station so I do not pay hundreds of dollars for licensing. We've discussed this before and I've got no definitive answer about the legalities of what we do here in SL. Some say it's akin to listening to music in your home with friends gathered around. Some say it's a business and we should pay royalties and licensing fees.

As far as what music to play and how to handle requests, here is my take. I am in SL for fun. Hence, I do not play music I do not like. I could probably make more money whoring myself out playing stuff I don't like, but then that would not be very fun, would it? I have a job in RL I'm not particularly fond of, I don't need that here. So I play music I love....jazz, blues and rock. If someone requests Justin Timberlake, I may or may not download it. It depends on a number of factors. Is the requester a regular? Does he tip for requests? (I mention that because a download costs about $1, and if I'm making say 1500L for a gig, how many requests am I going to download before I am losing money at this?) In other words, I'm not going to pay to DJ music I don't like. But, if you request some Buddy Guy I don't have, I'll gladly download that, normally, since I love Buddy Guy. Also, I generally always DL requests for friends and regulars, for obvious reasons. If someone asks for something completely out of my genre, I tell them that respectfully.

Bottom line is I DJ for the love of it and the love of music. My advice is play what you love, and your crowd will find you. I started out spinning rock and blues, and I'm much more well known for my jazz now. It's not the most popular genre, and I'm thrilled to death with that. And I never get requests for Britney, so it's all good.