How to Avoid Burnout In The Electronic Music Industry

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If you’re an artist trying to break into the industry, you’re going to make acquaintances and friends along the way, and whether you like it or not, that’s going to be your competition. Some are going to break through and make a name for themselves faster than you will. Don’t worry, don’t let it deter you either, success looks different on everybody. Conversely, you will see that some are going to wither away and give up entirely.

That’s where you should be worried.

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The 4 Key Reasons Why Promoters Fail

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Every promoter wishes for a successful event, be it a concert, a live performance, a club night, a warehouse party or a major festival. After all, promoters spend considerable time and money to plan and execute events of all sizes. Yet sometimes, despite these efforts, there are instances that the events end up being a disappointment. Of course, there are some that failed because of circumstances beyond their control. In many cases though, such failures were a result of promoters not knowing the intricacies that make events successful in the first place.
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10 Strategies To Create A Social Media Brand

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We have reached a time where anyone can create videos, take pictures, create music, create art and then share and discuss their creations with the world instantaneously. This has resulted in an overload of content and it can prove difficult for anyone to stand out. Every day an estimated 95 million photos are shared on Instagram with 100 million people using the stories feature. Facebook has over 2 billion active users with 75% of them spending over 20 minutes on the platform every day generating over 8 billion daily views with more than 100 hours of video watched.

Although we spend a tremendous amount of time watching videos on Facebook, the average person only spends 2.5 seconds with each piece of content. That could be 2.5 seconds listening to your track that is 2 minutes long or watching your latest video that is an hour long. If you’ve ever hosted a livestream, you can immediately see how short of an attention span the average user has. You may have 5, 50, or 500 people watching but many don’t stay watching for long. Many users also may not listen to your track or set for very long either. For this reason, it is essential to capture one’s attention within the first few seconds.

In order to gain the average user’s attention, your videos, pictures, music, and art all have to be not only instantly recognizable but also of high quality and shared by a trusted source. It can prove difficult at first and take time to become that trusted source but by properly developing a relationship with your audience over time and delivering quality content, you can eventually grow your brand and instill a certain level of integrity.

We put together 10 strategies to assist with branding yourself on social media whether you are a new DJ or producer or promoter and playing or organizing your first event or you are a seasoned professional with countless releases or events.

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8 Methods to Stay Focused in an ADD World

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Every time we hear a new tone, our brain receives a signal, causing us to immediately diverge from whatever task we are doing at that time. In today’s digital world, we have the ability to converse with those across the world instantaneously. With our many different electronic devices, we are always connected with family, friends, colleagues, significant others, and even brands and celebrities. By being on constant alert, our brain switches gear every single time we get a new notification.

Having become so obsessed with constant communication among each other, the average person can now recognize over 10 different notification sounds. Each time we hear a new ping or ding, our minds automatically shift focus to whatever app or program the sound is coming from. This can result in a great deal of stress and anxiety, ultimately causing us to lose focus on the task at hand.

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Top Careers in Underground Music Production for College Graduates

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Breaking into the music industry is notoriously hard, especially if you don’t have a ton of work experience. Music is a business and studio owners; musicians and other executives want people who they know can bring in money.

However, you don’t have to be an experienced professional with connections: you can bank in on your potential and aim for the right position to achieve success at. To do so, you have to know what the best careers are there.

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Editorial: No More Crowds In The DJ Booth Please

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I remember enjoying the DJ booth life back in the day, when I was transitioning from being an avid dance floor attendee at local nightclubs and shows to working in the nightlife industry. It felt special, cool, exclusive and gave me a completely different perspective of the parties I was attending. I could meet DJs, talk to their managers and other promoters or chat with the nightclub owners and staff. At times it was just nice to get away from the crowd and to have a little more space to enjoy myself instead of having to fend off drunk patrons and raging elbows accidentally aimed at my face.

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The Courage of Bradley Gunn Raver: An Important Lesson for Mental Health in Nightlife

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“There will come a time in your life when you ask yourself a series of questions: Am I happy with who I am? Am I happy with the people around me? Am I happy with what I am doing? Am I happy with the way my life is going? Do I have a life or am I just living?”

Those immortal words were first placed over an intoxicating four-on-the-floor beat by Galaxy 2 Galaxy back in 2005, and they have been remixed and sampled countless times since. Pretty much every raver has heard them in a room with minimal lighting full of swaying bodies and taken a moment to reflect on these hauntingly truthful queries.

The culture you loved when you were younger might not be the culture you love today. The idea of spending your weekends in a dark warehouse until the sun rises may not be as appealing as it once was.

Someone who recently came to terms with these choices is Bradley Gunn, better known as Bradley Gunn Raver, who recently announced in a heartfelt Facebook post that his days of raving are coming to a close:

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Most Common Pro-Audio Pitfalls At Electronic Music Events

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Originally issued on March 17th, 2017, this article was revised on March 7th of 2018, and reposted the following year to provide further advice based on years of experience working in the event production and audio industry.

Producing an electronic music event is no easy feat. There are a million and one things to properly execute that could go wrong at any time. From taping down the power cables to artist pick-up, many factors contribute to a successful, or not so much, experience.

We’ve done our rounds of event production and know there are common professional audio pitfalls at electronic music events of all sizes and kinds. Subtract Music founder Anton Tumas has been DJing and curating his own events for years now, gaining valuable experience in the process as both an artist and a party-curator. We put our experiences together to compile a list of common issues that can arise at any electronic music event,  and thus could be thought of and prevented beforehand.

Learn from our own and other’s mistakes. A lot of these issues are resolved simply by hiring a competent sound company to do the work for you.

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Discover Smaller Markets in the U.S. Booking House and Techno Acts

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If you live in the United States of America, you might be well aware that the demand for techno in the country has been on the increase. Although the general population throughout America still tends to listen to more mainstream sounds, the boom of EDM is slowly churning out more and more techno and house listeners, especially as fans begin to dig deeper for their music fix.

When artists, their manager and/or agent begin scheduling and booking tours in America, many tend to focus on the major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Miami, and San Francisco. Although these cities might have a larger selection of venues as well as promoters, there are many other cities throughout the U.S. that are booking international techno, tech house and house acts.

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Why The U.S.’ Zero-Tolerance Drug Policy Was Never Going To Work

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 The Failing War on Drugs

During the 1960’s, “Hippies” and celebrities popularized the use of marijuana, LSD, and other drugs. “During the Civil War, troops used morphine, uppers dominated World War II, the Vietnam troops shot heroin”, and their addictions didn’t stop there, as the U.S.’ demand for drugs kept on growing.

The term “War on Drugs” was coined in the summer of 1971 after Ronald Reagan ordered law-enforcement officials to directly target drug consumers rather than producers or suppliers.

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