DJ’s need music!

That is probably the overstatement of the year. Without it, a DJ is just a lonely guy (or girl) in the corner with complex-looking equipment.

Thanks to the invention of the internet, there are many places to source music of every genre from every decade. Still, getting some songs can be easier said than done.

There are the main options that most people turn to such as iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, etc. There are the simple, less legal options like YouTube ripping and torrents. Then there are Record/DJ pools.

These services are generally designed to give the user an unlimited number of downloads of the latest and greatest songs as well as some older tracks too, for a simple monthly fee. This has been my experience with Franchise Record Pool, Digital DJ Pool and My MP3 Pool.

Unfortunately, I can’t quite say the same for DJ City.

After asking many of my DJing associates where the best place to find UK music online is, many of them directed me to DJCity.co.uk. (There is a .com site as well, but they don’t provide UK music). After quite a bit of consideration, I decided to take the plunge.

Straight away, I discovered that DJ City wasn’t like the others that I’d experienced. First, there was the fee. Even though the pricing was similar to the others, once you sign up, you’re locked in for three months, and they take the payment for that quarter as a lump sum, there are no monthly payment plans here.

Second, they only allow for each track to be downloaded a maximum of three times. This generally isn’t a problem, but on the rare occasion that I had to replace or borrow a laptop and I had to download music again, I may be stuck, unable to get an important song because I have exceeded my number of downloads through no fault of my own.

Third, they only keep songs for an average of 6-8 months. Basically, anyone who is just starting their DJ career can only obtain new music from DJ City, so they have to find other ways to fill their back catalogue. This is completely fine, but when you consider the fact that you pay the same or less for the DJ pools mentioned earlier, and they have vast libraries of music, some stretching back to the 60’s, you really have to question whether you’re getting value for your money. This is also no good for wedding DJ’s, as they will likely not find many tracks that they can use on DJ City either.

Now comes the frustrating part. Many of my clients request music/versions that I can only find on DJCity.co.uk. So as long as the competition is not supplying this music, I have no choice but to turn to DJ City for it. My way around it is to only subscribe once or twice a year.

I’m sure that this may seem like a completely pointless rant to some, but I want others, particularly new DJ’s to know exactly what they are signing up for, so they don’t have to feel the same frustrations when they part with their hard-earned cash.