Create Your DJ Community ⚡

On this week’s episode of Grow My DJ Business, Cream & Purari discuss:

• Cream's gigs in Washington DC and the city trending toward more house music.
• How to infuse your personal DJ style into any venue. 
• Do you play for you or play for the venue? Why?
• Cream's transition to DJing on USBs and how it effects his sets.
• The intersection of Afro house and hip hop is creating refreshing and unique music experiences. Finding your sound as a DJ and artist is crucial for success.
• Building a community around your music can have a significant impact on your career.
• Creating exclusive content for fans can help generate a dedicated fanbase.
• Having a strategic approach to releasing music is essential for success.

🧠 Enroll in a Purari Production Academy Course

00:00: Introduction and Podcast Impact
03:00: The Rise of House Music in the DC Market
09:03: Finding the Balance: Personal Style vs. Venue
14:24: The Transition to USBs for DJing
19:04: Exploring Genres: Hip Hop and Afro House
21:39: The Refreshing Fusion of Afro House and Hip Hop
28:28: The Power of Building a Community
34:46: Creating Exclusive Content for Fans
43:20: The Strategy Behind Releasing Music

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Podcast Impact
• 3:00 The Rise of House Music in the DC Market
• 9:03 Finding the Balance: Personal Style vs. Venue
• 14:24 The Transition to USBs for DJing
• 19:04 Exploring Genres: Hip Hop and Afro House
• 21:39 The Refreshing Fusion of Afro House and Hip Hop
• 28:28 The Power of Building a Community
• 34:46 Creating Exclusive Content for Fans
• 43:20 The Strategy Behind Releasing Music

Transcript

0:01

All right, what's up guys? Welcome to the hundred and sixtieth episode of the Grow My DJ Business podcast brought to you by Digital Music Pool, the Grow My DJ Business Discord, also Parari Production Academy. My name's Kareem. My name is Perari and we are back. I'm like the, no Gary dub. I'm happy to fill in like always, but you know, I kind of am the unofficial third host of this thing now. know, no, it's always good to be back. love shooting the shit with you guys. It's always, it's always fun. Yeah, man, we had a really good conversation last week and we always have good conversations. So it's fun to just like actually record them and we're talking shit like this when we're just hanging out. Yeah, I still can't believe like the reach sometimes of your guys's podcast, which is so awesome. Like I just had Bobby Wusche reached out to me actually. He's like, yo, dope podcast. Rick texted us like, yo, podcast was awesome. So I love that. I like how it really impacts other DJs and it makes us feel good that like other DJs want to hear our perspective and we're coming from our market. And I think that's why podcasts really like Excel so much is because you get a different perspective of what's going on from each and every market that if you don't have the opportunity to travel there, well, at least you could get in that mindset and be like, well, that's going on there. Let me bring that back here, you know? I think it's not only the markets too, because I listen to a lot of the DJ podcasts and some podcasts are more hip hop focused, some podcasts are more private event focused. This podcast is sort of more EDM and dance focused. I know we kind of talk open format too, but so it's cool to kind of check into the different worlds because, you know, we've been playing in this EDM world for a while and like, I sort of don't know what's going on in the hip hop rooms or the Latin rooms or even though big more open format rooms at this point. So it's like good to get perspective from the DJs that are playing in those rooms, you know? Yeah. And I mean, I'm listening to podcasts like all the time. Not I've always listened to podcasts, but definitely more now because my studio days are just so long. Like I'm working usually. I'm get up at seven 30 with my daughter. So let's call it nine o 'clock and put her down for a nap. And I'm working from nine to six hard pause at six. And then if I have to go back after that, so like when I go to the gym, I kind of go like, I raw dog the gym sometimes. I was just telling people about the other night where like I put my AirPods in and I just put the air canceling on and I listen to straight nothing like a psycho. funny that you put the AirPods in but play nothing. It's just nothing. the silence is like silence is golden. Like again, I drive in the car with my wife and she puts the radio on. I'm like, please no music. Like I can't take the music right now, but podcasts are like that other thing for me where I can listen and you know, do other things. I won't necessarily say it pumps me up, but you know, it works for me. So. I agree. have like a whole routine of all the different podcasts I listen to every day. Yeah. And you know, it's funny, like I used to, like, I've always had the Apple podcast app, like on my phone, but it wasn't conversations like you and I have, or, you know, we have a Gary. was DJs radio shows and really it started when Hardwell and AR and W and W and I Need Rehab came out. Cause that's how I would find the new music. I feel like they don't, there's not that much hype around the radio shows anymore because the music is so accessible now. And it's like, I used to listen to the BBC radio one mixes and all of that stuff. just don't do it as much anymore because I feel like that exclusivity of the songs is now tick tock based or Instagram real base where they're creating that excitement through that and not through the radio show with like, you know, Annie Mack or, know, any of those people. So. you know what I liked about the radio shows though, and it's the same thing as going to listen to DJs live, but you sort of get taken on a journey, right? So if the radio shows an hour, you know, the energy and the style in the beginning is probably going to be different than the energy and the style at the end. And it's like, all right, well, how do you get from that point A to point B? And it helped me sort of curate my own stuff and curate my own sets and also curate my own mix show or whatever else I was putting out. I haven't really done my own in a while, but Yeah. ask me, like, now I sort of know how to do that because I've listened to so many. It's like the same with festival sets almost, think, because I do listen to those a lot. Like after an ultra or something, I always listen just to hear what, you know, they're playing. Obviously we can't attend it most of the time. So I always try and listen for that. But like, I remember specifically like the Hardwell or the Nikki Romero essential mix when they did that on BBC radio one, it was like ID ID, Hardwell mashup verse this ID ID. mean, when I was like 18, 19, I used to like rip part of it and then like, play that in my sets, even though it was like a rip for the radio. But as long as it was clean, because I wanted those IDs like back then, you know, I would put my own intro on it, maybe string it along with another clip from a different radio show that he played it in. And I would be like, look, I have calling early. I remember I did that with calling actually. I played at surf club T night. Like this is way back 2011, I guess. And I played it and people like, how did you get that? Little did they know, like, I literally took it. from three radio shows and like spliced it together in Cubase is what I was using at the time and I was able to play it. So. there's always buzz around a few sets from all the festivals. So it's nice to be able to go and just check out like what people really enjoyed from that, from that particular festival. When I used to SiriusXM, they would always live stream it, which was amazing. Yeah, yeah. again, I don't... My car has SiriusXM now, but I didn't like resubscribe for it. Like, again, just for that reason. But yeah, I don't know. I still... you know, EZoo would have been happening here coming up this weekend, Labor Day weekend. That was a festival that I used to attend religiously every year. And it's sad for me to see it go after the disaster from last year. Yeah, that was pretty bad. I think we touched upon it a little bit. The last time I was on the podcast, besides last week, I think that was the last time I was on. Yeah, yeah, RIP. RIP is right. Man, so this past weekend, I was out in DC on Saturday. I played two shows, one at 12 after 12. It's like this, they do like this big day party once a month. And my night gig was sort of just like a tack on gig at this spot called Zoo's, like a super high end restaurant. They got like a little rooftop, like it's pretty dope. But what really stood out for me, I've been going to DC for like three years. This was the first trip. where I didn't play one hip hop song. And DC to me was one of those markets where it's like, this is a hip hop market and there's a few spots where you can go and play house music or EDM, but you're probably playing open format where it's like 40 % hip hop and Latin type thing, but like not one track hip hop this time. do you feel like you didn't play a lot of hip hop? Was it just like when you got there, you just saw the crowd and was like, this is a hip hop room? Or did you start with EDM and they were just like kind of vibing to it or? few reasons. think number one, I think the city is just transforming a little bit where house music has become more popular, where there's more house specific venues. That's number one, it's just more popular in the city. There's still hip hop venues, but I think there's just more of the EDM spots. I think that's part of it. But I think the other part of it is like, I don't really want to play a whole lot of hip hop anymore. So whereas in past trips, I would make it happen because I knew that it would work. This time around, like I only played USBs both shows this weekend. I played a headline set at Birch, USBs last week. I'm trying to make this transition to like USB DJ cream and not computer. So I think that's part of it too, where I've changed a lot, just like the cities changed. Yeah. mean, you, brought up a good point, right? Like with the USBs and I think I want to say it was vice. I heard vice say this with the USBs when he was transitioning over around the same time I was right when the 3000s came out. And it's like, use that computer, at least I can speak for myself for one reason. It's just because it holds more music, right? Like I'd net, I don't necessarily need Serato. can mix on Serato or tractor or vinyl or CDs. I I've done it all. You know I'm saying? So I don't need it for that, but I do use it for the music. And when you, it's almost like when you have too much music, it's like, yeah, I, you feel the need that you have to bounce around, but with the USBs, it's like, you really have to be selective with the preparation and what you put on it. And it's kind of like with music production with plugins, like everyone is always hitting me up like, this is the best plugin. This is the best plugin. Like, but do you need it? Like I'd rather have 10 good plugins that I know, and I know work and I could bounce around them. than have 400 plugins and then, you know, spend how much dollars on them and maybe I won't grab them, you know? So I think that having that smaller crate and trying to make the party work with this amount of music also works, whether that be EDM or hip hop or whatever it is. I think that's like a huge advantage of USBs is like you're only dealt with a limited arsenal because yeah, you could get these. one terabyte whatever USBs or whatever, but I stick to the 128 gigabyte ones and I just kind of keep a certain amount of stuff there. Yeah, I mean, you're only really playing two or three hours of music, probably maybe four hours on like, at this point, right? You're not playing long. rarely play these four hour sets, but like still within those two hours sets, you only have that. still play like two, 300 tracks a night. It's just that I have this limited list now and I try and, you know, focus it a lot on that, but like, do I still play hip hop? Yeah. But I also haven't really been out on the scene a little bit since my daughter was born. Cause I did have to take some time off. I'm really curious to hear more about like how, you know, these rooms are really focusing more towards that and less on hip hop. But I also do think that some of the hip hop coming out right now, at least what I hear, it's not good, right? There's just less, there's less hits that come out, think, personally. There's stuff that works, man. There's stuff that crushes, for sure. It's just not stuff that I wanna do anymore. that's, I think really at the end of the day, that's sort of what it is, right? I can do it, I used to do it, I just don't wanna do it anymore. Yeah, I mean, I used to play a lot of hip hop in college and I think that's kind of like what separated me because I was an EDM DJ for like three years already doing that. And when I got to college is when the EDM bubble really hit, right? Like, you know, just started exploding onto the scene and every DJ at Rutgers was like trying to be this EDM DJ. And I was listening to the mix and I'm like, these guys, like they could barely even put two 128 tracks together. But then when I used to play the fraternities, I used to purposely play hip hop, not because I wanted to, but I actually liked that era of hip hop. Now we're talking 2012, 13, 14, like this is like the DJ Mustard, Fetty Wap, Trap Queen, like 95 to 105 BPM stuff. I still play that because I love the bounce on that hip hop, but like, Some of these other hip hop records I think are coming out. don't necessarily love them. I think the last one I really liked was the Nicki Minaj, the Jersey club one. I can't think of the name right now. With J hood, is that what J hood who I forget who produced that or DJ Smalls? I forget who it was. But anyway, long story short, that one was dope because it had Jersey club influence and I still like Jersey club or the Uzi record. Just want to rock like still. energy when I play those and I'm still trying to work those in but the new stuff I don't want to play because I don't like it you know those are both Jersey Club records that have, they're much more up tempo and not only that, they can kind of weave pretty seamlessly into the styles of music that you're currently playing, right? As the house music is kind of sped up and there's some more techno and speed house stuff, it's very easy to just dip into, you know, that 70 or 75 BPM Jersey Club or even hip hop. is equivalent to the 140 or 150 realm. And if I'm already in there, it's easy for me to go back and forth. It's not like I'm going from 140 dipping down or using a transition edit to go to like 95. And I have to like slow the energy down. can maintain that energy. But if it doesn't fit that I either look for a Jersey club edit of the hip hop song, or I just kind of avoid it now. So it's interesting that DC was like, you know, mostly dance music. And I believe Is glow the club in DC like that big EDM venue? Have you heard of that one? so it's it's a Echo Stage and Glover like the big that's that's where all the huge artists come through. know like Tiesto has been through a bunch of times and like the biggest artists go through there for sure. I'm surprised that like it's just catching on now, especially with those big venues, because I know those venues are massive. there's always been big venues like that in DC. I remember when I was younger, I went to go visit a friend in college there and we went to another venue. I think we saw Afrojack. I also saw Tiesto down there once at another venue that's no longer there, but it's always been there. I think it's just some of these other venues that kind of fill in around around that place that are now leaning more house music. know Angelo just played at Zebi's Garden recently, Luke Alexander played there. Like that's another one where like you're not playing mainstream house music in there. Yeah. So that was my next question. Are you playing like, what are you considering non mainstream and mainstream is like John summit considered mainstream there, or are they looking for deeper stuff? Like, yeah, I mean, that's what I think. I think John summit, Dom Dalla Fisher, very mainstream stuff. Yeah. Like I would consider that the pop of dance music right now, you know, but like when you're going to DC, what are they looking for? Are they doing more, you know, mainstream stuff? Are they looking to go deeper or is it like not? Is it like Speedhouse or like what was your like approach to that? Well, the room I played during the day was a day party. I played a more commercial like EDM, tech house, little bit of techno, little bit of Jersey club type thing. The night party I played a lot of like Afro beat and deep house and more chill like 124 BPM house music. I don't think I broke like 126 BPMs for that particular party. Yeah, it was more of like a sunset like rooftop vibe up there. Yeah. Cause like I personally, I don't have the, just started playing the, the, the Kani music move record. I just started playing that like as of like a month ago, but I'm playing the Danny Avila remix, which is like super techno doubt. It's like the only version I could play, but I'm not really fitting like many Afro house songs into my personal sets, but I really enjoy the Gordo album. was talking about this the other night. Like I think a lot of those records are really refreshing. And I like how the Afro house world and the hip hop world are kind of colliding a little bit. Like when you have the Drake's coming onto that stuff or like, you you combine the black coffees. Like I think that has been very refreshing and I don't necessarily like to play it or do I want to play it, but I like listening to it. Yeah. Yeah, you told me to check out the Gordo album. I'm excited. I got to do that this weekend. Really good. mean, that album, like I'm not the first person to jump on carnage or Gordo and be like, cause I know him as like the festival hard trap guy. Yeah. Like, and I, I missed that. Like with like the, the, the rock in the spaceman festival trap edits. used to love that, but like, then he got a little bit harder, harder style. Like I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite anymore. And then, you know, I gave this album a chance and I, and Mostly because one of my mentors, Luca Pradolese, he's a mixing and mastering engineer out in Las Vegas at Studio DMI. He actually mix and mastered that. And, you know, not only am I listening it for the experience of like the music, but I also like listening to, you know, understand like how these records are being mixed and stuff like that. But I'm finding myself more enjoying the music than actually sitting there and being like, how did he get those transients to snap like that or whatever? So I'm actually really enjoying it. It's been really refreshing for me. Mikey and I have gone deep into Discord and some battles on the Afro house and kind music thing. just a hater guys, I'm sorry, I don't get it. I think the one dude is really awkward when he's dancing. And then the other guys are completely oblivious to him. He wears a baseball cap and the other guy's got the bandanas on, the pashminas. I just don't get it. I feel like it's very hippie Burning Man music and now it's coming. Keep it. and Burning Man, keep it in Mykonos on a sunset, I'm all for it. it's the summer that I think that's also why you're seeing a lot of that pop up like it's summertime and that they play main stage EDC or something, I'm going to lose it because I just don't understand it. Maybe. Yeah. get it either, but they could Toneset is gonna be killing us after this one. I know all good. So so yeah, I think like just to kind of put a wrap on the DC thing for for that market, which I've always known as more of a hip hop market for me to go there and just see so much more house music. It just kind of like confirms what we've been talking about a lot on this pod is like EDM and house music and techno and all these various sub genres are really, really popular right now. And more and more rooms are allowing you to sort of play that style and for you and me, that's a great thing. I think, I think we were really in our, in a time like, and maybe I'm just like noticing this now, but like, I think we were really in a time where we really like had to play for the venue. And we were always so concerned about like, well, I want to come back. So I'm just going to play with the venue once right. Where I think now is a really great time, especially with like TikTok and what's like trending where you could really play whatever you want. And it's weird to say, because DJ should always do that. If you want to be about house music. play what you want to play. If you want to be about hip hop, play that, like do it, you know? It's, that's always been the thing with DJing. It's taste making and finding records where like, yo, I think this record's dope, let me play it and see if other people react to it. And I think we got away from that a little bit. And now we're kind of, again, things come in cycles, right? So we're kind of coming back to that now where we could kind of play what we want and we could be known as like, he's like an EDM DJ. He's a hip hop DJ. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all DJs, right? I don't want to put a label on anything. I think that's just, it is what it is, but I think you could really play now what you want to play. listen, if you got to play Taylor Swift, okay, make a techno edit of it. Like I have to play the Kanye music song move. It's popular right now. Right. But I played the Danny Avila remix and if Danny Avila didn't do that hard techno remix, I probably would have made a remix to fit that. Right. So, you know, That's where being a producer has an advantage is that I could do that or being an editor where you could make like an edit or whatever to make it fit your set. you know, you don't have to play the original Taylor Swift love story. You know, it's a cool time right now. I'm put the Gary W hat on right now because I know if he was here, he would say, yeah, but for a cream and for Ferrari, you can do that because you've been able to build up a name where you get hired to go do a certain thing, right? And like, we can go and we have a little more leeway than the local DJ that's fighting and trying to like continue to get booked at a certain venue or build a name in a smaller market or just build a name in general, right? So I think there's a fine line. If you're a younger DJ and you're just trying to break into a market or trying to build your name up a little bit, you sort of got to do a little of what the venue wants to. If you want to, if you want to be a working DJ and you want to work in that particular market, right? Now what Mikey said is right. There are ways to put your style on what the crowd wants or what the venue wants, right? Maybe it is that pop vocal and that's how you kind of bridge the gap to from your style to what the venue wants or what the customer wants. I think for me, that's always been my thing, right? Like find the remix or make a version that fits my style and what I like. I mean, that's literally why you started making edits or mashups or wherever you want to call them. Like I started making mashups for the one reason that I was playing T -Nights and T-Nights we had, we talked about this a little bit last week. Like there were certain rooms for certain music, but I was always like the EDM guy. was playing the Dutch house, the, you know, the, the Swedish stuff, like the, really like, you know, Steve Angelo's Axwells, Avicii's, Hardwell's stuff like that. But you know, as I started, was 16, 15 years old when I was doing that and I needed to play Sweet 16s and I was doing all this other stuff that we all naturally do to fall into this DJ space, right? So I still wanted to play that. So was I going to play Taylor Swift 22 or whatever? No. So what I started to do or Black and Yellow with Khalifa was really big. And I'm using that song specifically because One of my bigger mashups was I took this song by Chucky called like Mutafuka, I think it was called. And I just put the loop on it.-huh. You know what it is. Black and yellow, black and yellow. And it went right into the drop. And that was one of my most played edits because I was now combining this pop world with black and yellow to my friends in high school. What you got to remember, like there was no EDM bubble yet. You know, it was just starting to happen. And I was showing them that side of me while combining the commercial hits they liked. And then when I got to college, I was light years ahead of all the guys trying to do the DJing or whatever, because I already had like these crazy edits that were combining people's favorite songs with the dance music stuff that that was so new to them. And I think that's why it works so well and why we do the mashups and edits. And that's another great way for you know, you to still play you, but still make the room happy. And it's been working for the last 15 years. It's going to work today, you know. Yeah. And I think the goal is always finding what your sound is too. And that's just the evolution of you as a DJ and an artist. And there's so many different ways to do that, right? If you want to be open format, that's fine. There's plenty of rooms that you can go and play open format and put your style on it. If you want to be a tech house DJ, there's plenty of rooms where you can make your own tech house and make edits and go play that music, you know? it's just to do everything can be hard. Right? So that's why, like, like we're saying, we're more focused and more kind of one lane and it's been working for us. And I'm hoping that, you know, we're going to see more and more of that. and It takes a while too, right? Like it took you a long time to find your sound. It took me a long time to find my sound a little bit, but I think defining your sound, like sitting there with a piece of paper, be like, who are my top three artists? Let's say James Hype, Chris Lake, Fisher. Okay. Now let me play the tracks that they play, but let me put my twist on them. And I think if you can define it like that and see what you're doing. Great. Now you have a clear vision, but like where the disconnect I think happens is like a lot of guys. DJ to make money and they're taking gigs that don't necessarily, you know, fit that. Like you're playing a Latin room and you're playing Latin music, but you want to be about this. Okay. There's a way to blend it, but the problem is, is you haven't defined what you wanted to be. So now you're just conforming to what the Latin room wants. And I think that's a conversation I've been having with a lot of DJs right now, especially my students is like, you are conforming to the venue. You are taking your brand. And you are saying this is what the venue wants. So I'm just going to do what they want rather than you booked me to be me because I'm a unique individual. I'm going to do this. I'm going to work with your venue and I'm going to play the stuff that your venue needs. If I have to adjust, I can do it. I'm not going to conform to you, right? Like I'm not going and playing, you know, Taylor Swift night or bad buddy night because I'm not, don't want to play that. But like, if I have to play that stuff in my sets, I will, but I think that that's a big. issue right now is conforming to the venue. Like you don't have to do that. And I think we were talking about this, the one takeaway, you know, we had from the other night, we had a little boys hang out with a bunch of DJs. who was there? Rick, Wonder, Clutch, Encore, Marty Rock, Chachi actually hosted everybody. And I think one of the big things, you we were, you and I were talking about it with Rick and he said, quote unquote, I don't give a about any of this stuff. I'm playing me. And you know, Rick can do that because Rick is a great open format DJ and his edits now, he has so many great mashups and edits that like he could play a full Rick Wonder set and you're still hitting the bad bunnies, the commercial stuff, but it's house music. And I love that. I think that was so fucking cool. Cause like to have that confidence and say, I don't give a fuck if they don't like me, fuck it. Like I'm playing me. And I think that's so fucking awesome. I wish more guys thought like that. Yeah, I've definitely been taking that outlook a lot more in the last couple months here, especially this summer and beyond. like, yeah, he said that I'm like, man, I agree. Like, I'm fuck this. I'm just playing. I gotta play how I want to play because most places are booking me because they know who I am. They know who you are. They know who Rick is. They want to bring you in. Right. So like, they're expecting you to play you. I would think. I don't know. I think it would be weird. our careers, they would expect, I'm Perari, you're a cream. You have these edits or mashups that have done so well. I have these tracks. Don't book Perari if you're expecting to hear, you know, a certain sound. If you're booking Perari, you should know you're going to hear 140 BPM, hard style, EDM, speed house, whatever you want to call it, energy. That's what you're booking me for. You book Rick Wonder, you're going to hear house music. You book cream, you're going to hear bass house, you know, like that sound. These bookers know what they're getting, but like, again, it goes back to that quote. If you don't stand for something, then you stand for nothing. Right. So put your foot down and stand for something and you know, you could find ways to make it work for everybody. I like it. I love it. It's been it's been refreshing to have that outlook, man. Honestly, like it's been refreshing because I'll go and do something that I don't want to do. And I'm like, why did I even do that? Because I don't like if this is what they want me to do. I don't want to play here anyway. So why not just do do me and obviously, I'm keeping in mind who's in front of me and what like the style of music that I'm playing. But let me do it my way, you know, not your way. When Rick said that, think you and me were just like, Jesus. I was like, fuck. Like, Holy God. Like that's, that's like some confident at shit, you know? And like, you need that confidence. And even me, like I consider myself a pretty confident person. I've always done what I wanted to do in the rooms. mean, I was playing, you know, Mills Tavern when I had that residency for seven years, eight years, and I was making big room EDM 140 back in 2019 and I'd be ripping like my track Beast before it even came out and Cy Trance and this I didn't care but then when I heard Rick say that I was like geez like Yeah. I loved it. I loved every second of it. it was great. It was great. Alright, so you and I both, you have a Discord, right? You have a whole community you've created around music production and coaching. We have our Grow My DJ Business community. We're seeing more and more DJs and artists create these communities. Why do you think that is, number one? And how can people who are listening to this either create their own community or find communities out there that fit what they're trying to do? Well, I've always been involved in community with whatever skill I've done. Right. So that's like all I've known. Like, so before I was even DJing, this is like, I was like 10 or 11 years old. One of the skills I was really, really like proud of even still today was like using Photoshop and graphic design. Like I was always like, I remember my dad actually got me a cracked version of Photoshop six from some guy at work that he worked with. And ever since then, I was obsessed with Photoshop. Like because I was on these gaming forums, right? Now think of forums, if you guys are too young, they were basically like giant reddits, right? And it was community. Like I had friends, I was a little bit on Nike Talk. was like a little bit like, like it kind of died out right after I got into sneakers, I guess, because I was really more into sneakers in high school. And yeah, I knew about Nike Talk, but I was never like full on it. I had to ask you that question. that I would be on it but like I just heard about drops from like my friends or like whatever because my boys were sneaker heads too and they'd be like yo we got to get the Concord 11s or whatever it is and I'm like all right I'm showing up but Nike talk was another one there was community I can't wait I can't wait we gotta get clutch on that say we gotta bring clutch. know there's a bunch of DJs that are heavy in the sneaker world too. off topic, off topic, but like, you know, like these communities, like I was a part of these like graphic design communities at like, you know, 10, 11 years old, I probably shouldn't have even been on the internet. Like at that age, when the internet started to come out, which was crazy, but like community was so big. And then when I got into music production, you know, we didn't have YouTube tutorials, we didn't have any of that, but there was the laid back Luke forum. And I recently just had a really great conversation with Luke about his forum and there were so many. superstars that were made on laid back Luke's forum, Afrojack, Avicii, Diro. I mean, the list goes on. He was even telling me a story in Miami about how Martin Garrix, his manager used to be producer on the forum as well. I was always involved in community and I like having community and there were communities for video games I was in where I was like modding the community. So people trusted me to you know, bring people together and make the community a great place. And I think with music right now, it's all about like connecting with your fans and being your authentic self. And what better way to do that than to start community, you know, whether it be through discord, a lot of guys use Patreon. Granted, some of these you have to pay for, which is okay, but you're getting that inside look, that inside exclusivity that some of these other DJs don't, you know, do like I don't think Fisher has some type of community at least I don't just for an example but Afrojack does and he has a discord and there's a free one and then there's one you have to pay to get into and then the one you pay to get into he's posting like videos of him in the studio like like you're sitting right next to him and how invaluable is that to be like in the studio watching Afrojack create a hit I mean no money can really and the fact that he's like charging and only a little amount of money, a couple hundred dollars is like insane to me, you know? But community is so important. Every big DJ has that. You have the hype fam, you have this, you have that. It's really important. And you guys have the whole get down thing. Yeah, I mean, we all have had like the in person community, right? The DJ community is one thing we go out, we hang out, we listen to each other DJ, sometimes we have open decks, whatever the case may be. But I think now in this era, this digital era, it just makes the world smaller. So we can connect with an Afrojack, we can connect with people that are across the world doing really cool things. And you can learn not just locally or in person, but you can learn on a discord or a patreon or whatever and I've been like pumping money into Patreon lately because I feel like there's been so many artists that are on there and but just like our friends and people that I really look up to or I like their music and you're right, you get this glimpse into how they work and you get a glimpse into their mind which is priceless like getting that little that little like tidbit of information like a producer that uses this one thing on their vocal chain or watching Afrojack and how he you know, whatever how he like, puts a kick or you know, put whatever word he puts on his his kick chain or his his drum chain or whatever it is like, that stuff's invaluable that you can't learn unless you know Afrojack but now they're allowing you to see into their world and it's awesome. And you're not getting that from YouTube still. Like, they're putting clips of like, you know, a 10 minute clip on YouTube of like a 50, you know, minute video that you can get from Patreon, you know. And I personally am not familiar with Patreon or Bandcamp or any these other ones. But what I am familiar with is Discord because I like Discord because it is almost like a Reddit and a Zoom combined, you know. You could host video chats, calls. You could bring in guests. Like I always bring in guests for my happy hours, I call them. and I like it because now they saw what kind of, you know, Patreon was doing and they now have subscriptions as well. And when you subscribe to like the prior production Academy discord, you get access to one-on -ones with me. You get to the higher tier, you get access to like my sample packs and my exclusive edits and tutorials that like I did for like, I thought this was cool. Like how to sample any kick drum from any song. And then you go to the highest tier and you get like, live streams of me, like I made my whole track insomnia in three live streams on discord. Now, not everybody tuned in because everyone has their own separate lives, but you could have saw how I made that track from start to finish if you were on my highest tier, which is so fucking cool and invaluable. A lot of people will give feedback on demos, or you and I in Revis Ron, and we were giving some feedback on some mashups. like, I don't know. It gives you an access that you would never ever ever in a million years have access to. if you're trying to get on hardware, I don't know, if you're trying to get on one particular person's label, If they have some sort of a Patreon or a Discord like, I would highly suggest you getting in there, whether it's free or paid, because it's one step closer to getting your music in their hands. You know what I mean? I just had a student who recently joined Tritonals discord, did a demo stream and he was pretty damn close. It didn't go through, unfortunately, but he was pretty damn close to having a track signed to Tritonals label because Dave loved it. They wanted to make some changes, but like that wouldn't have happened. Like in the demo stream, if there was no community involved around it, right? Like that that person's name. So the next demo that they submit, they're gonna listen to. his name come through the inbox and be like, we got to listen to this one. He was so close. Like he makes good stuff, you know, or he types in the discord, even just being active. Like I know who's active in my discord and who isn't like who's always in there, but even in your discord, even in the revealed discord, I know who the top people are because they're constantly engaging with everybody. So, you know, community is so important, especially in this time, because you don't need 50 ,000 fans. You just need a hundred. ride or die fans that are going to ride or die for you. And I think, you know, what better way to do that than start and make them feel part of your brand as well. Yeah, if you guys are not familiar with discord or you're not on bandcamp or patreon, I would highly suggest just go and do some digging. Because it's, it's, it's helped me for sure as an artist, it's helped me for sure finding music that I would not find on any of the record pools. I've watched a lot of videos that have helped me become a better producer for sure. So I would highly suggest just digging a little bit and seeing what's out there. Join the girl my DJ business discord. Join the Ferrari discord and start there. Yeah, I mean, who is doing the Patreon? I remember, I thought this was like genius when I first saw it like a couple years ago, but I don't know if it was Beatbreaker or Nick Spinelli, but they were like joining their Patreon for whatever was $5 a month, you were getting their Serato like crates. Yeah, I Beatbreaker was doing it. I think he still does it. Yeah, that's awesome. Like, so, you know, for someone like me where I don't organize any music, like I organize my music based on like, what's new. And then I put like the last gig I played and I'll title that and I'll be like, okay, like that's my Serato crate. I'll play this set for a couple, you know, rotate through that a couple like weeks or whatever. But as far as organizing music, like to have like a Latin crate and to join the Patreon and be like, wow, like these are in this guy's crate and he's playing in Vegas and this and that, like I'll, you know, I always say everyone can have the same songs, which is true. Everybody can have the same songs, but no one's going to play them like you do, but one step closer and playing them how like you do or he does, or the next guy does, you could have those crates and work through that. And I think that's just like, it's like cheat code, know, especially for like open format guys. It's like $2. Yeah. It's like my coffee at Starbucks, my pumpkin spice. coffee was like... also look at it now like I'm supporting the artists who I believe in or whose music I play a lot or like I've they've given so much in the world of edits and mashups and stuff that I played in my sets like I can contribute $5 a month to beat breaker or whoever it might be you know what I mean? for sure. My pumpkin spice coffee, like I was saying was that I got in August on the 69 degree day was, I think it was like 650 for a pumpkin spice cold brew. You're getting information that you could take to make money with for half the price. So One thing I'm seeing though, is because all of these Patreons, a lot of like the exclusive artists are now just putting their own stuff out, you know, they're not sending their music to record pools. I'm finding that that a lot of those exclusives that you would once always found on the record pools, you have to go to the Patreon for. So I don't know, it's it's a great thing for for the artist for sure. It's a new revenue stream. It's a way to create a community. It's a way to find your fans. But it's definitely hurt the record pools for sure. Yeah, definitely. mean, I think they saw like, you know, like, yeah, that we have their exclusive record pools, like, you know, you're on DMP and other guys are, you know, other places, but like, maybe they just saw an opportunity to be like, well, you know, DMP has this great community whenever, well, I could create that for myself. And I'm a little bit like biased on that because I don't give out my edits anymore. I just thought that like, if I gave out my edits, everybody would sound like me or my mashup. So I keep them to myself and I, you know, the thing that separates me as a DJ is that I'm playing edits that are mashups that nobody's going to hear. But yeah, I do think that like the record pools are severely hurting from that because I go on the pools and I can't find anything that I can really play anymore. you know, artists like Wookiee who are doing these Patreons and you're getting these like awesome Wookiee leaks and stuff like that. Yeah, they're great. And, you know, I think Benzie was doing it for a while before he started his own pool as well. Yeah. So, you know, it's, it's It's definitely a weird time for that, but like, that's why I think it's also cool. Cause you, I'm encouraging you guys again to make your own stuff and do that because it, it'll separate you in the long run. Yeah, personally, I used to make edits and then send them to DMP like the same week or the week after. Whereas now I'm sort of holding edits and playing them and seeing what's hitting and certain intros that I used to just give away. I don't really give away as much anymore. But usually I still give stuff out eventually, like after it's been mined for a few months and I've kind of rinsed it enough. Yeah. mean, you know, you, you could also put these edits out with like these free marketing tools, like hyped it, whatever. And now you're converting that from like a download that a DJ is going to play to an actual fan. That's going to keep listening to your music when you start putting out originals. So I think I've seen a little bit of a burst with like these edit mashup packs on sound cloud and stuff. And they do really well because people are like, Wow, it's free. You know, I don't have to subscribe to a record pool or whatever it is to get them now. I just have to just follow this artist on, you know, whatever platform it is. And I think when you're at the beginning of your career, a fan is much more valuable than a dollar amount for sure. So create as many fans as you can. And then you could start, you know, using whatever you can do to start creating revenue for yourself. Yeah, I mean, we've we've talked about that in the past, like hyped it a lot in SoundCloud and stuff. But that's the number one way that I've built a fan base on multiple platforms is creating edit packs that go on SoundCloud that go on hyped it and that I require people not to pay me in a dollar amount, but to pay me in a follow or a like or a subscribe to various platforms like The cremix Spotify playlist would not be at whatever the number is now without that, right? My, my. you like use that to pre -save one of your new songs, right? Like if a new song coming out, you put up a Moushup pack and every one of those sort 3000 downloads are now pre -saving your songs that when it comes out, even if they just listen to it once and whatever, it's 3000 streams right in your pocket. So super smart marketing strategy. and artists would think more about strategies and of, you know, when they release music in packs, be more strategic about it, you know? Like, I know you talk to your students and I talk to my team a lot about it, but like, this is like a 30 -day marketing strategy kind of thing. It's not like, my release is coming out Friday, I'm gonna promote it all week and then it's gone and done with kind of thing, you know? weeks in the future. When we start releasing stuff in the prior production academy, we create a release plan. I show them what the major labels do. And I say, look at this detailed release plan. Now we're not a major label, so we can't hit all of that. But there is a marketing strategy behind every single release, whether you're putting that remix out to gain a certain amount of followers on TikTok, because they're following you on TikTok through your download gate, or you're doing it to pre -save your new song, like We are scheduling releases three, four, five months in advance for some of these students because there's a strategy involved. Like you take a look at like one of your guys who also works with me, Zay, doing such a great job. He finally nailed his Latin house, like Latin influenced sound down. And he's got release after release, after release, after release coming out, uses the remix to help people pre -save his original. Now his original is coming out, I think this week or next week. And then he's got that one Friday. Beautiful. And then he's got that song using pre saves and whatever to go generate his next one. And now he's creating buzz, but also a lot of potential fans that will come back every single time for that Latin house stuff. Now, if you're doing that and you're doing dance pop, then hard style, then this, then that, then it's not going to work out for you because you came to go buy a coffee, but they're serving ice cream the next time. So It's really important to stay consistent with that and understand that there's a strategy behind all of that stuff. Every song. shout to say I hit him up this week, because I saw his release was coming out and we were talking for a little bit. But, you know, I know both of us have had conversations with him about his sound and I like he sent me a bunch of tracks that he's got coming out and sent some previews out and like, I love where he's at. It's great. It's unique. It's it's like his style. And I know he was trying to figure that out for a while. And it's just great to see his artist journey. You know what I mean? yeah, I love it because it took him, you know, three years to find it. And every time he was like doubting himself, I'm like, it's okay. It's going to happen. It's not going to happen as fast as this guy, that guy, but you need to find your sound and finding your sound is trying a bunch of different things, seeing what sticks. And then when you find something you like, and it starts to stick and you're passionate about it, there's your sound and he's doing a great job with that. I'm really excited. for you guys to even listen to the podcast, check out his stuff. And if you haven't, it's just Zay, Z -A -Y. He's got a really dope remix of Bongo's. I was playing a lot, but check out his stuff, man. It's really, really cool if you're into Latin house. Yeah, I don't know. I don't remember the name of the track, but I know there's one track that has like a demo breakdown that goes into house music, Superfire. Now, it's a different one. I don't I don't remember what it was. But there was something where like, you know, it kind of took from other styles of music and genres that he was really into. have been To The Ground. That was like a Big Room kind of song. okay. Again, you're talking about a guy that's cranking out music. It's hard for me to just reckon. And it's funny because he's doing a lot of Latin stuff and the titles are all Latin and I don't know a lick of Spanish. So I'm like, what's the name of that one again? And he's like, Keto by Larr. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. What's the of that one again? So it's hard for me to grasp it a little bit. Yeah. that R -roll, bro. Get the R -roll. that. I'm Italian. I should be able to, but like my dad's off the boat. I don't know the lick of Italian, but I, I, I took 12 years of Mandarin Chinese. So where that's useful, you know, yeah. 12 years of Mandarin Chinese from first grade to senior year high school, AP Chinese. That's wild. Why? Have you ever been there? I'm from Verona, New Jersey, by the way, guys. Verona, like the most Italian town, like in North Jersey. I don't know. First grade, like my elementary school was the first year when I got into first grade that they started Mandarin Chinese. And I had the teacher, Mrs. Chang and Mrs. Ho, shout out to them. They stuck with me the last 12 years, but like everybody took it. And then, you know, once you get into middle school, you got to stick with whatever language, but you had a choice of three. Spanish, French, no Italian or Chinese. So I stuck with Chinese. then, you know, high school, you were able to only think I take two years of a language and then you could stop. So my class went from like a lot to a lot to a lot. And I think by the end of it, I was one of six or eight kids in AP Chinese. And I really think that like one of the reasons why, you know, well, I won't say that's why, because I was a pretty generally, I consider myself a pretty smart guy graduated like top 10 in my class, but I think one of the big reasons why I got into college was because my Mandarin teacher, Mrs. Ho, wrote me the most insane like recommendation letter. It was like the best thing I've ever read in my life. Like, and, you know, I think it's awesome because I love Chinese culture. I think it relates with music a lot too, like in fashion. I, I love that. I would love to go to China one day and, or Japan or somewhere in Asia and just like, you know, taking that culture, but wishful thinking, hopefully one day. think DJ goal, like biggest goal for me is to go play Japan. That's that, you know, I'm putting that out into the world because I want to make that happen in the next like three years. So. food, fashion, central. Like, dude, I'm all for it. We should try and take a big trip. Yeah, let's do it. I want to do it. right, man, I know you gotta go. You have lessons. I appreciate you stepping in today as our unofficial official co -host of the show, so I appreciate you. Thank you guys for listening to this episode and we will talk to you guys next week. Peace out. me. Peace out.