November 2020 me and a few of us thought the wave of ‘great post lockown releases from producers stuck in their studios’ had passed but within another week or two a load came out. And I seemed like I had the time to look at it all.
Reality:
- Sometimes tracks are actually great, you’re listening to too much and a bit uninspired / sick of hearing beats loud (it’s a thing!) - too much of a good thing isn’t always a good thing. It can literally depend on your mood which can be affected by normal life and who you associate with. It can also be uninspiring when great gigs are behind you and there is very little in the diary to make you want to work as hard at it.
Solutions include: Look after yourself better, get outside in nature / parks / beach / cycle / get moving.
Put the music you are seeking down. It’ll be there when you return. Come away from the studio and do other things. When at home just have normal radio in the background and stop buying tunes for a week or two then come back. Sometimes just a few days break is enough to get that pallette-cleanser effect on how you perceive your music.
Maybe they really all aren’t that great at the moment, again give it a week or two as a lot can happen in that time.
Look backwards to go forwards. Say you own 10,000 tracks, but regularly played 1500 of them. Go into your History and return to some of the basics on your music sourcing admin.
Make sure:
- Artists Am I really actually following/subscribed to all the artists who’s music I’ve played? e.g. their new releases should all be appearing in this page and you have it ideally bookmarked checking every day or two (and their equivalent on other sites).
Are you following those artists on soundcloud as that resource is getting way better at suggesting new music once you Follow enough of who you like. Are you following the labels on soundcloud?
Cross Reference Get a cross section of new inspiration by finding out which other DJs played your tracks next to other tracks you haven’t heard. Put aside an hour or two and find out what Looking on things like https://www.1001tracklists.com/ - type in tracks that you have not just bought but PLAYED and look for similar sets. It’s not just for the purpose of copying DJs but genuinely finding artists and tracks you can subsequently follow when you weren’t.
In Beatport and other websites, go back and find one track you bought, open the page for that track and scroll down to Recommended Tracks. You will possibly like 10% of them, again follow those artists.
Do the same with labels - you should be following labels even if you only like 10% of their releases, that is normal.
Has a producer you have loved for years actually changed genres / gone away from the sound you love (more than once or twice)? Perhaps it’s time to unfollow and allow more new artists in.
Much of the above is teaching DJs to suck eggs but even the way I source tracks I’m amazed at how sometimes I’ve simply forgotten to press follow or have only looked in my pool of ‘currently following’ without doing the cross-section over it to find new artists.
And many times I just need to turn off my computer/headphones and move.
Sorry it’s long but hope this helps someone.
