DJs get into DJing to play good music to good people to help them have a good night out. It's that simple.
But increasingly DJing has become promotion. Both self promotion (hmm, gotta love endless self aggrandizing) and promotion of the event you're playing.
And both are fine - necessary evils if you will, especially for producers turned DJs, happier with their head in a copy of Ableton than shouting said head off. If you're good, there should be no problem telling people about it. And presumably as you've been booked to play a night, you're happy to be associated with that event, so telling people about it isn't going against any DJ code of omerta.
Having DJ'd and run events in Dubai for 6 years, I like to think I've got a handle on what it takes to promote a night reasonably well (the main thing is passion for what you're doing - without that, you're dead in the water), but over that time, the lines between Djing and promoting have got blurrier than a night out with Brandon Block.
Increasingly, promoters want their DJs to co-promote the event - to invite their FB database to the event, send round email blasts to your friends, and put the word out on their social networks.
But in return they're offering, well, nothing. There's none of the financial gain that a promoter has (or possible losses, equally), and you're certainly not getting paid per click as you literally invite each FB friend by clicking through a list well into the thousands. And if the event goes tits up, people will come to you for answers as you've been so visibly pushing and promoting the event.
Shouldn't the DJ's time be spent hunting down tracks, making dancefloor edits, remixes and their own material, sorting out their record collection so they've got the right bombs to drop at the right time?
I'm as guilty (if, in fact, it is something to be guilty for) as the next person - Loaded runs on a pretty low budget, so word of mouth is key and that starts from the ground up meaning me and the resident DJs. Conversely, we play a niche night which we put on largely because no one else is playing the tunes we play, so it's not a financially motivated night (even more so when you consider the drink deals and free tequila we give out). Where do resident DJs fall into though? Should they spam their followers, friends and interested internet bystanders, or is it their job to, you know, play music? Does the number of people they bring down to the event impact the way that promoters look at them?
Equally, do those who do the most shouting get the most gigs, even if, for example, they're a more limited DJ than those who prefer to let the music do the talking? Not all DJs are socially adept, some probably prefer the sanctity and solitude of the DJ booth where they don't have to answer to questions (apart from fielding crappy requests).
The worst though are those who brag and promote without substance, just shouting 'look world here's me doing stuff, and here's me again doing more stuff,' the inane drivel slowly mounting into a torturous mountain of promotional babble. And some are just offensive: 'Yeah, smashed that gig in the FACE. Who's your Daddy now?' Really?
And then you get those that either buy in their promoting powers (1 million Facebook fans, a sudden rush of 20,000 extra Twitter followers?) and those that abuse their powers by telling their Twitter denizens that the club was packed to the rafters last night, when in actual fact the bar staff were quietly mopping the dancefloor at 1.30am.
In effect, it's a null and void question. Social networks are such an ingrained part of our life now that if you refused to help out on the promotion front, it would surely mark you out as the black sheep of the Djing family. Promotion is the art of making noise, and noise is something all DJs know a lot about. But with sifting through all the garbage out there increasingly becoming a full time job, alongside your normal DJ duties, it's never been harder to make yourself heard.
