Is the promoter DJ killing our club scene

Back in May, inthemix asked the question, ‘What’s gone wrong with our clubs?’ The response to the five-part feature series provided plenty of food for thought, with ITMers debating the effect of festivals and the decline of weekly clubbing. However, the topic that generated the most passionate responses was the advent of a ‘pay for play’ culture in club-land, with DJs booked not for their abilities but for the length of their guest-list

http://www.inthemix.com.au/features/475 ... club_scene

“These kids have never researched labels, tracks, artists,” he tells inthemix. “They simply go to Beatport, download top 10, burn CD, rock out for fame and fortune. It’s all about who has the most Facebook friends and can reach the most potential punters.

“These kids have never researched labels, tracks, artists,” he tells inthemix. “They simply go to Beatport, download top 10, burn CD, rock out for fame and fortune. It’s all about who has the most Facebook friends and can reach the most potential punters.

I hate to point the obvious but for some people who go out sporadically and don't give a hoot about Djs, mixing, tracks and Top10, this formula works just fine. My husband is an example, he is not interested in this one iota and as long as the music works and people dance, he does not care.

Which one do you think I should quit brother? LOL

Donnie, you're a different kind... you're in for the music, not for the fame (That's the vibe I get at least) and I think that's fine. What kills me is people that can only spin on "Cheaterboxes" and spend their day on FB self-promoting themselves and just download top 10 on beat port and think that they are the shit..

this topic always stirs up some serious debate. At the end of the day, a night club is a business. They will look to book someone who can bring people to the party to spend cash @ the bar. Although typically that's a promoter's job, the DJ plays a significant role as well. You can be the best dj out there, but if people don't know who you are and they aren't willing to follow you where ever you play, you are out of work. Hence why there is a much bigger emphasis on productions now. Producing music isn't what pays the bills, but its what exposes your name to get you the paying gigs. Those are the DJ's that will surpass the fake promoter dj's at the end.

It's not the promoter-DJs that are having a bad effect. It is a *good* thing when artists of any type learn to use the opportunities available to them to help advance their work.

It is the BAD promoter-DJs that are have a bad effect. The problem is, the bar has been set so low, and so few people really understand the new reality, that any yahoo who can sucker 1000 friends onto their friends list is considered a promoter. I see horrible promoters daily on Facebook, in my email box, on Twitter, and even just regular hard-flyers.

The club owners need to gain a better understanding of new media, hell even of old media, so that they can vet their contracted promoters better. There are telltale signs of an amateur, know them and apply them.

I think on of the big issues is just the economy ("it's the economy, stupid"). Because everyone has less money, everyone goes out less and spends less. So, the venues become desperate, grasping at straws, rather than carefully choosing who they use. Were the economy better, they would not need to use every bozo who got banned from Facebook for spamming.

Plus, the bad economy is just having a bad effect on the scene, in general, so that is a lot of what is "killing our club scene".

only the ones who have have nowhere close to a clue of how to correctly open a room.

Well, for the most part, DJs have always been booked on their "draw". Now, it's just a little more direct. I've seen guys who have no business behind the decks get slots just because they have 5000 Facebook friends, or tweet incessantly about their activities.

Great article, thanks for posting..

The missed it, they still don't get it, it's the music stupid!

Will I am is not some celebrity like Paris Hilton, he is a serious musician that puts out pop hits that people love.

As for dj hell I have no idea who he is. Maybe he's awesome but .0000000000000001 of Americans know who dj hell is.

The vocal minority took over the edm scene with minimal, tech, techno, blips, bleeps, bloops, blops and noise. The big djs such as DD switched, they got away with it for a while, why not it's deep dish! But after the big djs switched to please the vocal minority the luster wore off and even a big dj name on a flier stopped packing in clubs. Just took a while, the DD's had to play out multiple times in each city before word got out. Toss in kids learning how to dj in 5 minutes with traktor all playing the same top 100 on beat port you got yourself a major problem.

If you want to fix edm fix edm, you know the dam music. LP refuses to now piss off the small local minority made up of all dudes because he can't get back the old crowd. What does he do? Nothing he's fucked. No one can defend that loco dice video or the shit patrick m plays, but he's stuck.

FIX THE MUSIC
Ban the cheater box
Ban techno, and blips and blops
Boycott beat port

If you do that the scene can come back to decent level.