If you are going to be a professional DJ, you have to be a professional. Professionals don’t steal (unless they are professional criminals). Now, I know music piracy has had a lot of grey area in the past few decades. But, you’re going pro here. You need everything in your business to be above board, so regardless of what you have done in the past, you will be doing everything the right way in the future.
With a plethora of digital music sources, it’s easier than ever to gather a huge collection of great music for a very reasonable amount of money. Here’s my top recommendations to bulking up your collection.
Digital DJ Pool (starting at $9-12 per month)
DJ pools are my first source when building out a great DJ library. There are pools for every genre and sub-genre out there, at every price point you can imagine.
When you are first starting out, look for a DJ pool that will give you access to a large back catalog of songs. This is a great way to get your library caught up to today without a huge upfront expense.
I chose to go with Promo Only for a few reasons. I liked the back catalog access I got immediately. In fact, I spend the first day downloading hundreds of songs that I didn’t have. I love the price point. You can pick and choose which genres you want access to, and there are packages starting at $12 per month. They have videos as well if you do VJ events. And, mostly, they were the pool that my first mobile DJ company used, so I was very familiar with their product and the songs they added. I knew it would fit well with my style of DJing.
I’ve previously used ERG Music as well. I’m a fan of their pool too. I only stopped my subscription there because I wasn’t doing enough events to justify their higher cost.
I’m always looking at what other pools have to offer, so I would also recommend Digital DJ Pool, Club Killers, and MyMP3Pool. All had good services that I just didn’t choose to join for one reason or another.
I use my DJ pool to keep my library fresh with new tracks that come out, and to search for specific event requests that I don’t already have in my collection. If the song I need isn’t there, then I move on to…
Streaming Music ($10 per month)
I was using Spotify Premium for any music I need that I don’t already own. But now that Spotify has discontinued support for all third-party DJ apps, I’ve personally switched over from Spotify to SoundCloud GO+. I first did so because they were offering a 90-day trial for $0.99. But as I use it, there are some features I really enjoy.
SoundCloud GO+ integrates seamlessly with Virtual DJ and allows me to create combined playlists using both local and streaming music. The songs I select can be stored offline with no limits. Services like Beatport Link only allow 50 or 100 songs offline, depending on your subscription level.
This is perfect for those songs that I wouldn’t want to pay for when I just need them for one event. I also use it for those songs I like to play all the time but don’t already own. You can create beat grids, cue points and all of the other edits in your DJ software, even with streaming tracks.
Your favorite digital music store (Apple, Amazon, Google Music, etc.)
Once I’ve exhausted all my other resources, I will purchase songs through iTunes or Amazon music. Usually whichever is cheapest. I probably only end up buying less than 10 songs a year this way.
BONUS: YouTube
OK, before you go thinking that I’m stealing music off of YouTube, that’s not why I listed it here. I strongly suggest that DJs do NOT get music off of YouTube. Besides the obvious legal issues, the quality is an issue. You may not discover how bad the track sounds until you play it on your larger speakers. How embarrassing!
No, I bring it up because I have had several clients ask me to play a track that was exclusively on YouTube. Many times, I will explain why it’s not legal for me to do that and offer alternatives. But, I’ve had some weddings where the song was particularly special to the bride or the family and I had no other way to get it. It gave me an opportunity to go the extra mile.
All I did was reach out to the artist by email and ask permission to play the song at the event. Most times when I can’t find the song anywhere else, it’s because it is done by an independent artist (who usually puts their contact info right on their YouTube page!) I’ve had multiple successes with this method, and the artists are so gracious and grateful that I asked. At the very least, if I get no response, I can go back to the client saying that I tried everything and we just have to pick another song.
All together, I spend about $22 per month on music, and I have way more songs than can fit on my hard drive. I spend most of my time deciding if a new track is good enough to bump something else out of my library. It’s a very cost effective way to manage my DJ music budget.
