15:57
Which download services are worth paying for
On YouTube this video is called CD Pool Zipdj Wemix Music and Video Download Sites WHY I Use Them and Should Consider Using Them
What this lesson teaches
The most commercially useful lesson in this stage, and he deals with the obvious objection before anything else.
The disclosure, stated up front
He gets music and video from the three services he is about to discuss for nothing.
He says so in the first minute, and adds something that strengthens rather than weakens the point: he has been offered other pools on the same terms and declined, because he is happy with what he already uses.
That is the right way to handle a declaration of interest. Read what follows knowing it, and judge the reasoning.
What a pool is, and the economics
The case is arithmetic, and it is strong.
Buying tracks individually at about a pound each: one track is nothing. Ten is ten pounds. A hundred is a hundred pounds. A thousand is a thousand - and a working mobile DJ needs thousands, across sixty years of music.
A pool charges a subscription instead. Depending on the service, either you download as much as you like within your genres, or you get an allocation you can spend when you choose.
And he makes a good point about the allocation model: being able to take three tracks today and the rest next week is better than a daily limit, because the records you want arrive when they arrive. A daily allowance means using it on things you half want and then finding something you actually need tomorrow.
Why not just take things off the web
His answer to the free route - downloading from streaming sites and video platforms - is practical rather than moral.
You do not know what you are getting. A file that might carry something unpleasant, or - far more commonly - audio ripped at low quality that sounds poor the moment it goes through a PA.
That is the real argument. A 128 kbps file pulled off a video sounds adequate on laptop speakers and obviously bad through a pair of 15-inch cabinets in a function room, which is where you will find out.
The curation argument
The part worth paying for, and he explains it with a comparison to how he learned.
When he started, finding out what people liked meant begging, borrowing and sneaking into rooms to listen to what other DJs were playing.
A pool that publishes a genre pack - all the eighties records people actually dance to, as one download - has done that work for you. For a new DJ building a wedding-capable collection, that is enormous.
And his restaurant analogy answers the objection that being handed a selection is being spoon-fed: would you rather eat something unidentified from a roadside stall with your eyes shut, or from somewhere whose reputation depends on getting it right? The people compiling these packs are staking their business on the selection being good.
The three models he describes
Useful as a map of what exists, rather than as current recommendations.
A curated pool with physical discs and downloads. Monthly selections of current club, dance, urban, drum and bass, R&B, hip hop and chart material, plus the back-catalogue genre packs. Restricted: you must be a working DJ and, in this case, based in or around Europe.
A broad subscription pool, worldwide. Pay monthly and download as much as you like within your styles. The difference he draws is about depth: where the first concentrates on the well-known, this one also carries the less obvious - a track by a producer known only in their own area that is good enough to be there - plus acapellas and DJ tools.
A video pool. MP4 rather than MP3: the same music, with the video.
The forward-planning idea
The best thing in the lesson, and it costs nothing to act on.
Suppose you think you might want to offer video a year from now. Start downloading MP4s instead of MP3s now.
Because - and this is the detail that makes it work - a video file plays perfectly well as audio. The software plays the sound; the public hear it exactly as they would any other track. Without a screen they simply do not see the picture, and nothing is harmed.
So you can collect video files for twelve months, use them as your normal library, and at the end of it have a video-capable collection. And then the hardware for a video gig is, as he says, a frame, a screen and a projector. That is it.
That is a genuinely clever piece of business planning: the expensive part of becoming a video DJ is the library, and you can build it invisibly while doing your ordinary work.
And the thing he is honest about
He does not know how the money is divided inside these services, or what percentage reaches the artists, and says so - that is none of my business.
Fair, and worth noting as the one open question. What a pool is meant to give you is a licensed, properly tagged, good-quality library at a predictable cost, which is the alternative to the unlicensed compilation discs mentioned elsewhere in this stage - and a licensed route to music in bulk, which is the kind that stands up when a venue takes its licensing seriously.
Contents of the video
0:00 This video is hopefully going to help you make the right decision
Okay, so sometimes there are certain things that happen in your life that make you re-evaluate what you're doing, why you're doing it, do you need it, should you get rid of it, why don't you just like start afresh and so on. Now this video is hopefully going to help you make the right decision. Now my disclaimer here first of all is that the three websites I'm going to tell you about I do get music and videos for nothing, all right? So first of all, I'm going to be very transparent and really honest with you, okay? But what I would like to add is that I have been offered other websites, other pools where they have said, Jonathan, if you want to, you can just fill your boots with all your music and have it all for free.
But I've declined simply because I am happy with what I'm getting and hopefully during the course of this video you will, you'll get it. Alright? Now first of all let's talk about a music pool and also a video pool but if I just talk about a music pool in general that does mean a video pool as well because it's on the same subject. So what is a music pool? Alright, now at the moment let's say you're a new DJ and you've got 20 tracks and you want to get some more. Well there are ways of getting it, you know your iTunes and so on but you do pay a premium because a lot of these big sites they've got the money, they've got the backing to promote so much that a lot of people out there think they're the only place you can get music from but believe it or not
There are companies out there who are owned by one or two people who do not have the, not so much the backing, but they don't have all the investment and what they don't have that they don't really need to have is a lot of overheads. They haven't got a great deal of overheads. It could possibly be them. In their bedroom with a server and an agreement from the record companies to sell their music, and they get a kick-off for each one they sell. Now again, I don't know the workings of how they make their money, alright? And that's none of my business, alright? Because again, if you join a music pool, you pay a subscription or maybe you pay for a certain amount for a piece of music, but I do not know where that money goes, who has what percentage of that money.
2:38 You should use a CD pool
That is the business aspect. I need to talk about why you should use a CD pool, why you should use a music pool and what are the benefits. Right now, let's get back to what I said earlier on about, you know, you're a new DJ and you're trawling the web thinking, what the hell can I get? Alright, so you go on your SoundCloud, your Mixcloud and then you find free tracks or maybe you go onto YouTube and you download a whole bunch. Fair enough, I can't say you can or can't do that. But what you have to be wary of there is that do you know what you're getting? Do you know what you're downloading? Are you downloading something that's a great track that's got maybe a bug inside it? Or maybe you're downloading something from YouTube which is perhaps 128...
Sound quality and it's probably sounding rubbish. And you play it and you think, why did I even bother downloading this? On the other hand, what you could do is you could go onto YouTube and you could search for that favourite track. So for example, you've Shazammed it, you listen, you go on YouTube, you find the track and you think, yeah, I love that, let's go and buy it. You go to one website and they'll charge you. A pound, a euro, a dollar. Now, it doesn't seem much, alright? One pound for a track doesn't seem much. It's not bad. But then if you buy 100, that's 100 pounds, euros or dollars. Now, that's actually quite a lot for 100 tracks. That is a lot of money. And then when you buy 1,000 and you're doing this time and time again, to begin with, you know, if you buy one today and one tomorrow...
Two pounds, doesn't matter. You buy another one a week later, another pound, you buy 10 one day, 10 quid, it all adds up. But there are some websites out there where you don't have to do that. You can just pay a subscription and you can fill your boots. On the other hand, there are other websites out there that you will pay them a set amount for a certain amount of downloads and then you can download them. When and where you want. So, for example, there is a website that I'll explain very shortly where you pay a certain amount per month and you could download three files today and you could download the remainder of your allocated amount of files a week later because what you would do if you think about it, there are three tracks you like now and all of a sudden there's a whole bunch of tunes that come in the charts. You think, I like them.
5:19 I've stuck with these three sites
And then you can download them instead of, oh, today I can download 50 tracks. Down, down, down, there you go. Today, all gone. Tomorrow, ah bugger, I like that one. Alright, so let's first of all talk. I'd like to explain why I've stuck with these three sites. Now, one of them is a CD pool. It's known as CD pool, believe it or not. And what they do, apart from having a back... Now that is, that's... Big money, OK, for a new DJ. It's big money because, you know, back in the day when I started DJing, I'd have to beg, steal and borrow to find out what people liked. I'd have to sneak into rooms and listen to what the DJ was playing to get an idea of what I should be playing. Whereas now, CD Pool, what they've done is they've gone, you know what? These packages are great for you if you're a new DJ and you want to do an 80s set. Because you know what?
These are all the great 80s tracks that people used to and still play now. See? Simple. So what they've done, they've got rid of the hard work for you. Also what CDpool do is each month, as you know in my videos, they will bring out a selection of downloadable tracks or you can get the hard copies on CD of the latest dance, club, urban, techy sort of tunes, bit of drum and bass on there as well, bit of R&B, hip-hop. Also what they do... It's the modern day chart music. Now, what is great about that? What is? I mean, you know, you're offered music by someone. It's a little bit like being spoon-fed, isn't it? You know, it's a little bit, the analogy here is like going to a restaurant and they're going to feed you food instead of you choosing what you want. But, think of it like this. If you're not sure about what you're eating...
8:07 Bits off to get to that level
Would you prefer to go to someone who is a back street like, I don't know, the side of the road, all right? Who just sells burgers. Close your eyes and they say, right, eat this, you're going to love it. You don't know what you're eating. On the other hand, would you prefer to go to a Michelin star restaurant? And these people know what they're doing, all right? They've been there for years. The only reason they've got Michelin stars is because they have worked their frigging... Bits off to get to that level. And they know that if they feed someone something that doesn't taste good, their reputation will go. Well, that's what CDpool are like because when they bring out these latest CDs, they know for a fact that they are in vogue, good quality CDs, compilations that the users will buy and people are still buying them.
People are still subscribing, which means they must be doing a good job. So well done CDPool. Now the other one I use, and this is CDPool by the way. Okay, so this is the website and I will put all three websites, let me just get a bit closer into the description of the video. Now the other one here is ZipDJ. Now the reason I use this site, and I've been using this for a very long time. It's because what you have here, you have an eclectic mix of anything and everything. Now both sites I've mentioned, you can listen to soundbites of the tracks if you like them, you can subscribe to CDPool. Now first of all the difference with CDPool as to ZipDJ is CDPool to join that site you must be a working DJ.
Or prove that you're a working DJ and you must be living in and around Europe. If you're America or anywhere else, where else, I apologise, you're not allowed to join CDPool because, well, you've got your own pools in the States anyway. Now, ZipDJ, you can be on the North Pole and you can use ZipDJ. It's also recommended you are a DJ as well, but the difference with ZipDJ... is that what you do is you will pay a fee per month and then you can basically fill your boots so you could pay a monthly again i don't know the precise working so don't quote me here but let's say for example you sign up for a year so that's one year and you are a house dj what you can do is you can download house music Till the cows come home. It's an old sort of term. Now not only that, with Zip DJ what they have is a variety of styles of house music. So whereas CD Pool will concentrate more on the more well-known and the more sort of up-front and here it is everyone knows it, Zip DJ will have that style
11:19 This one is completely different
But also, they'll have that kind of maybe not so well-known track, and maybe it's been made by a producer who is well-known in their area, but the tune, the track is good enough to be on Zip DJ. So you can get all manner of tracks. You can get house, hip-hop, soul, R&B, techno, track, drum and bass, you can get acapellas, you can get DJ tools as well. So that is Zip DJ. WeMix.com. Right, now the other one is WeMix.eu. Now this one is completely different. It's absolutely, it's between black and white really. CDPool, you can get hard copies and you can download the MP3s WAV from their site. ZipDJ, you can do the same. You can download but you don't get the hard copies, the CDs. .eu is MP4. It's video, OK? So there is a complete difference, but there's also a similarity, is that it's still music, but WeMix has the MP4 version. So for example, if you are, say, thinking about becoming a VJ, a video jockey, a VDJ, whatever you want to call it, then consider WeMix.eu.
13:12 No, because the public will still hear the audio
Now also, have you ever thought about this? Is that let's say for example, you've got a whole bunch of MP3s and you want to maybe, and plan it, a year from now, you would like to also become a video DJ. So you're giving your clients the option of MP3 DJ just playing music or video as well. Then maybe consider starting to download MP4s. Now, excuse me. I use, most of the time, VirtualDJ. And I have MP4s and MP3s. And I will play both of them at normal gigs. And I'm not worried about anything. Because when you have an MP4 and you play it through VirtualDJ, and I'm sure other softwares as well, it will still play the audio. You will still be able to get the audio. And if you press the right icon on your software, you can see the little video, but that doesn't mean to say it's going to damage anything that's going on. No, because the public will still hear the audio. It just means that because you haven't got the correct hardware, i.e., let's say television screens or projector, it means that they won't be able to see...
The video image. So let's say, for example, today you have made the executive decision to become a video DJ a year from now. Then go to wemix.eu, start downloading the MP4 files, carry on using them as you would normally for the next 12 months and then after 12 months you may have correlated like got a massive library, you know, 10, 5, 6, 4... Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor. cue A video gig. The only difference being the video gig, it's a framework, it's a scrim, a big screen, and it's a projector. That's it! That is it! Alright, so, WeMix.eu, there's the one, ZipDJ.com, there's the other, and CDpool.com. So hopefully I have explained exactly why I am still involved in these three companies, and also I did explain...
Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
This video is part of
Related videos
-
How to Get a Better Fee for Your Mobile DJ Services
He disclaims it as not financial advice and notes that everything depends on where you are. Taken as a checklist of what justifies a higher…
