I'm often asked where to find music, so here are some of my top tips of places to download music for your DJ sets.
Where Do DJs Get Their Vinyl Records?
If you're playing vinyl, you can find them from a number of places from charity shops or car boot sales, to specialist vinyl record shops, and eBay.
Try to keep an eye out for bulk sales where people are selling off their entire record collection—these tend to be great value for money.
Music Research And Finding New Artists For DJs
Music research is a really fun part of DJing. Within the process of music research you can find new artists, be inspired and make an effort to stand out from the 'DJ crowd' with tunes that haven't been played to death.
My favourite platforms for music research are:
Spotify, YouTube, and Mixcloud are awesome ways to discover new music.
And if you're out and about, and love a song you hear, you can open the Shazam app on your phone to find out the artist and song name, and save the song for later. It's as easy as pointing your phone towards the speaker where the tune is playing!
Once you have an artist's name, it's pretty easy to find their presence online. Simply Google their name, and see if they have a website, or they might only have social media accounts.
Either from their website or social media accounts you can discover where they sell their music. Most artists sell or stream through Digital Service Providers (DSPs) nowadays.
Don't be afraid to message the artist if there's a tune you love but can't find anywhere. You won't always get a reply, but sometimes you do!
Where To Get Music For DJing
When it comes to digital music, you have quite a few options for purchasing and downloads depending on your needs and preferences...
SoundCloud is a great resource to download music from, but it can also be a really good research tool.
Bandcamp is an online music store, which offers the best direct route straight to artists. Artists get the best financial percentage when you buy music on Bandcamp—so if you’re keen to support other artists Bandcamp is a great choice.
Beatport, Juno Download, Traxsource and iTunes are great for purchasing and downloading music, they offer a variety of different file types including MP3 and WAV files.
CD Pool and DMC are great membership services that offer exclusive music and mixes that are hard to find elsewhere.
Some artists have now taken to Patreon to sell their tunes—some great examples are WBBL and Jimi Needles, and I'm sure there are thousands more!
Music Streaming Services For DJs
On DJ software, you can now stream directly into/from the software.
Beatsource, Tidal and Soundcloud offer streaming subscription services where you gain access to an entire music library and it integrates seamlessly with your DJ software.
This does rely on WiFi so it’s not suitable for all scenarios such as venues with poor internet signal quality, such as basement venues and festivals.
However, streaming subscription services can offer you wider access to a larger music library, for a reasonable price.
If you go down this route, be sure to double check that the music can be played offline, particularly if you're playing at a festival, in a basement, or any other venue without a strong internet connection.
At the time of writing, Tidal, and Soundcloud require an internet connection.
Beatport and Beatsource both allow music to be played offline, but please still do your own research, check out the compatibility with your version of software, and test it all out before you expect to play at your gig.
Don't just assume it will all work and be thorough in checking this out well in advance of your DJ performance.
Hope this helps!
Sophie x
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