#this says Promo CD Only but i can find no evidence of the album ever getting an actual normal cd release. hilarious

[hellkitepriest]

you wish you were me

[thegentjimmy]

A shitload of unnecessary music.

Being a DJ is easy right? You just press play on whatever record is next and stand there looking cool drinking champagne. Right? Right? 

But what record is next? Panicking blindly, you stumble through your collection, scratched old CD’s, dusty vinyl, iTunes full of rubbish your friends tell you is going to be great and a collection of your parents favourite records from that time you agreed to make a playlist for some kind of family function. Running out of time, you bat away requests and bored looking punters, to sling on what is surely about to become the biggest record of the year, only to clear the dance floor completely. They don’t know this one yet. 

Building a collection of music takes more than a lifetime of work. And it’s difficult too, I remember my indie phase, my dubstep phase, my underground hip-hop phase, I go through spats of stumbling upon a particular sound which I really like and then digging around within the parameters of that particular song to find others similar. Other DJ’s will disagree and argue that they are far more specific, but generally, I’d say a great DJ will have a thirst for all kinds of great sounds, and great rhythms. And a really great DJ will also understand their crowds and realise that half or more of DJing is encouraging other people to have a good time - and realising what the crowds want to hear from you is a big part of that. 

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Currently, you’re sat in your bedroom in your pants. You’ve decided to become a DJ. You’ve not touched any decks, or bought a kangol flatcap or developed the facial expressions of a thousand dying souls as you stand grumpily haunched over in a dark sweaty club corner somewhere yet, you’re fresh faced, excited - and you know a shitload about music. Or so you might think. Here’s a little guide to help you build your music collection, based mostly on my own experiences and some bits of advice I’ve been given along the way. 

The first thing to understand when it comes to building your music library is, no matter how much you think you know or understand about all kinds of music, understand willingly there is always more to be learned, always someone that knows more than you - and always new music being made, as well as millions of hours of unheard “old music” that you’d do well to discover. The best way to discover this music? Talk to people. Talk to your friends. Talk to their friends. Talk to your parents and your parents friends. Strangers on the bus, on the tube or in the pub. Be as open minded as you can, but remember that there’s guaranteed to be a lot of bad suggestions to sift through, simply because not everyones taste buds will be aligned with yours when it comes to music - not because the music is necessarily bad, you might later come to enjoy the sounds they are recommending! (it’s happened to me many, many times) 

Word of mouth is a great way of figuring out what people are into and finding the odd rare track that you might not have heard before - but from the first beat it changes your life. 

So now, you’ve begun to build a library based on music you know, music that has been suggested to you by friends and family and the scary woman with the neck tattoo and no teeth on the 92 bus. You’ve hand picked your favourites, songs you think will encourage people to have a good time and a dance, made some playlists, arranged your charity shop vinyl collection (more on this later) but you’re still hungry for more music? 

The next resource I would suggest for finding great music is DJ mixes and new music radio shows. BBC Radio 1 for example has some particularly good late night programs for all sorts of new music and their listen again function is a marvellous invention. Mixcloud houses a tonne of your favourite DJ’s and their mixes, as does Soundcloud, YouTube, Mixcrate and other platforms such as Beatport - here’s a great article from Fact about alternative places to find and host your own DJ mixes in a world where Soundcloud became complicated! These all have apps, so you can listen on the go - you can become as anti social to the general public as you want, lost in the best or worst mixes you’ve ever heard.

http://www.factmag.com/2015/05/16/six-alternatives-soundcloud-dj-mixes-uploads/

There are also plenty of smaller online radio stations that play great new music. I listen to these far less than I should, I’m a pretty avid night time Radio One guy personally, but here’s a list of some “cool ones” to get you started. 

http://londonist.com/london/music/a-guide-to-london-s-internet-radio-scene

It’s also well worth your time checking DJ and music magazines, either online or in print, perusing suitable online blogs for your favourite kinds of music - Google is your friend here, following the Twitter, Instagram and Facebook profiles for your favourite music press and DJ’s - and also, looking up who your favourite DJ’s favourite DJ’s are - because a DJ’s favourite DJ are tastemakers unlike any other, there’s hours and hours worth of digging you can do here (if you have the time!)

Another great source of new music is promo companies. I use several, which I was unaware of early on in my DJ years, YourArmy is a great starter promo service, Hear This is incredible - there’s many other free sites out there you can sign up to, a lot of them you have to evidence the fact that you’re a DJ and play in clubs, so maybe not ideal if you’re just starting out - but you can join DJ pools such as DJ City - probably one of the most useful tools I’ve discovered in my legal music downloading years, for a small cost and have access to thousands of tracks and remixes. It’s best to shop around and check which options are most inline with your tastes music wise, but record pools and promo services often send me some of my favourite music. 

Here comes an old mans suggestion - go to a record shop (if you’ve got one close by that is any good) Independent stores are usually better than chains, but don’t be afraid to pore over the overpriced ABBA re-issues in HMV either, make notes of bands, artists or albums/singles that look interesting - I usually take some headphones with me and sit on YouTube listening through to songs or artists I think I might like to see if it’s worth buying the album or single. If you ask the owner of these shops, they too are like treasure troves of knowledge, you can suggest particular genres or artists you might like and they will no doubt pluck out 800 more artists you’ve never heard of (I’ve lost a lot of money on records I didn’t really need but simply had to have after hearing one song from them in record shops because of this) 

As well as record shops, check out charity shops, pound shops and car boots, market stalls and any secondhand stores - You can pick up some serious bargains for next to nothing, again, it requires a lot of sifting through rubbish, but I’ve found some gold in Oxfam’s around the country. If you’re a vinyl collector and see re-issues in HMV of albums from the 70′s and 80′s, it’s always worth checking a charity shop before parting with £30 for ABBA’s greatest hits, it’ll probably be sat collecting dust in a chazza shop for a couple of quid.

Check your mates, your family members, strangers and your parents music collections (which they probably don’t use or need in this day and age) too - There’s another gold mine to save you spending hundreds of pounds on buying albums your parents have had for years. They might even have some old vinyl knocking about that they no longer require, if you’re really lucky and ask nicely. I was blown away at how cool my Dad’s record collection was when I first pilfered through it in my teenage years. There’s lots of discs that went missing from his CD rack that are still to this day in my possession. Poor Andy. 

Finally, getting back to digital, check out all the online stores and streaming services. My personal preferred streaming service is Spotify as I enjoy the suggested artist options and the user interface - the playlists are also excellent and there’s lots of well curated new music featured every week. Apple music is also good, as is Soundcloud, Napster, Google Play, Deezer - et all. Streaming has changed the way people access music and now more people can listen to more music than ever before, but as a DJ, you’re going to want to own music too, so probably better to pick your favourite platform and save your pennies on the others, you only need one streaming service, pick a good one for you! 

Another incredible resource for finding great new music is YouTube. This may seem like an obvious thing to say, but finding some decent channels on YouTube can change your life. I usually begin with following record labels that I like, for example Domino, Rough Trade and XL (my personal favourites) then from that, artists that I like, then YouTube’s algorithms work their bizarre magic to find you more new bits that you like. Also worth checking out radio stations channels, as there’s often unique content on there and interviews with artists you like. 

A Bandcamp account is always worth having. There’s lots of re-edits, remixes and other stuff up there for free download - or pay as you feel downloads, the same used to be true of Soundcloud, although unfortunately increasingly less so in more recent times. Bandcamp also gives you a great platform to host your own music on for sale for free, should you be looking to get into production. 

Finally, my favourite way of discovering music - reading copious books about the history of music, artist autobiographies, band biographies, tour diaries, interviews, photo books... I often compile spotify playlists to listen to as I read books about specific artists, eras or sounds - which I’ll listen and add to as I’m reading. 

Also, I’m personally a huge fan of music documentaries, as they give you a feel of how the music was initially received, if you weren’t around to remember it, interviews that reveal more about the artist, and a whole heap of interesting footage often from behind the scenes of performing. 

I’ll sign off with suggesting you spend as much time going out to listen to DJs and live music performance as possible in these library building times. I still do, even though I’ve had my library kind of established for a while now, there’s still loads of new and unheard music for me to discover.