6:54
Getting records sent to you
On YouTube this video is called How to get free records/cd's sent to your door
What this lesson teaches
The honest answer to a question a lot of bedroom DJs ask, and he answers it by performing both versions of the call.
The call that gets nothing
Hello, my name's Johnathan, can you send me some free records please?
Where do you work, sir?
In a shop during the day, and then I've got my bedroom and I play music.
Do you play in any nightclubs?
Not really. I've been to quite a few.
I'm sorry, we can't send you any music.
The call that works
Same request, completely different conversation - and notice how much of it is them asking verifiable questions.
Is there any chance of getting on your mailing list? ... Do you work in any clubs, any radio stations?
Yes, I have a dance show on a radio station.
And then the checks:
The station's telephone number. The name of the head of music. What kind of music the show plays. How many people listen - twenty to thirty thousand a week. What time it goes out.
And at the end: thank you very much, I'm writing all these details down.
What they are actually assessing
Stated plainly: you would be playing to a lot of people.
A club DJ plays to a lot of people. A radio show reaches a lot of people. Even a rave DJ, if they can prove the audience.
That is the whole test, and the word that matters is prove. They asked for the station's number and the head of music by name because they intend to check. A promo list is an advertising budget, and the question is whether sending you a record puts it in front of anybody.
His own summary: for a company to warrant investing in you - and that is what it is, an investment - there has to be a return.
What promotional material actually is
Useful vocabulary, and he clears up a common confusion with the records in his hand.
Promotional CDs - advance copies of releases sent to DJs and stations.
A white label - and the correction: not all promos are white labels and not all white labels are the same thing. The term is literal. The label on the record is white, with nothing printed on it.
A test press - the interesting one. A company presses only a hundred, two hundred, a thousand copies and sends them to DJs and radio. The DJs report back on how the crowd responded; the promotion company relays that to the label; and if the response is good, the label commits to pressing twenty thousand.
His point about why that matters: it costs a lot of money to press twenty thousand copies and discover you have sold one. The test press is market research, and the DJs receiving it are the research panel.
Which reframes what a promo is. It is not a gift to a DJ who deserves one. It is a question being asked of somebody whose answer is worth having.
Promo only, not for resale - printed on one of the records he shows. Those should not be on sale in a shop at all, because they were only ever meant to go to DJs and stations.
So how does a bedroom DJ get there
His answer, and it is consistent with the whole of this stage: you do not start with the records. You start with the audience.
Get on the decks, get as good as you can, promote yourself. Get into a club, even if it is only the first warm-up slot - that is one rung, and it leads to the next slot, and eventually to the last one of the night. If people like you, you will be working at the club next door, and then the one after that.
And when you are playing to two or three thousand people a week, you can ring the record companies and the promotion companies and they will throw music at you - because at that point, in his words, you are a commodity. They like people like you, because you play the music.
The order, which is the lesson
The free records are a consequence of having an audience, not a step towards getting one.
Which is why the answer to "how do I get on a promo list" is the same as the answer to "how do I get my first booking" in the first course of this stage: do the work in front of people, and the rest follows.
Contents of the video
0:00 It's Jonathan here, aka The DJ Tutor
Alright folks, it's Jonathan here, aka The DJ Tutor. Now this video is going out to all the people out there who would like to get promotional records, alright? Are you a DJ and you think, yeah, I could do with half a dozen records for free? Well, it doesn't work like this. Excuse me. Hello, hello, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my name's Jonathan. Can you send me some free records please? Okay, where do you work sir? In a shop during the day and then I've got my bedroom and I play music. Ah, fine. Do you play in any nightclubs or anything like that, sir? I'm afraid I don't, not really. I've been to quite a few nightclubs. I don't play in any though. I'm sorry, we can't really send you any music then. Sorry. Okay, bye. It's not like that. What it's like is this. Hello, hello, who am I speaking to please?
Yeah, OK. Is there any chance of getting on your mailing list, please? OK, so where do you work? Do you work in any nightclubs? Do you work on any radio stations? Yes, I work on a radio station. It's called Radio Doodly Dada and I have a dance show on there. OK. First of all, we'd like a bit of information from you. Could we have the telephone number of the radio station? Also, could we have the name of the head of music? Certainly. Telephone numbers 99999999 and the head of music is Mr Gobbledygook. Ah, thank you very much. Can you just tell me a little bit about your show please? What sort of music do you play? I play house, hip-hop, soul and R&B. Oh that's wonderful, excellent. What do you think, how many people do you think actually listen to your show? Probably twenty to thirty thousand a week. Excellent. And what time is your show on? It's on from about
2:40 What are promotional records?
2 to 5 every weeknight. That's excellent sir, I'm just writing all these details down. Okay, thank you very much. That's what they want. Now the be-all and end-all of that particular second conversation is this. I would be playing to a lot of people. If I was a nightclub DJ, I would be playing to a lot of people. This is how it is. Even if I was like a rave DJ, if you can prove you're playing to a lot of people, Thank you for watching. For these companies to warrant investing in you, because that's what they're going to be doing. Right, now then, what are promotional records? What are promotional bits of material? Because there's a few of you out there probably thinking, well, what the hell is he on about? Well, there's these guys at the moment. These things are promotional CDs. I had these sent recently. Jamelia, Mika, etc. They're promotional CDs. Now then, there's this sort of misconception...
A white label is a promotional record. And they're all white labels. Well, they're not. This is a white label. This is where the terminology comes, white label. Because the label is white. The other side there's a bit of an F. But that is a white label but it's still a promotional record. Now then, this here is a promotional record. But this is a test press promotional record. Why is it called a test press? Simply this, what a company sometimes will do, they will only make 100, 200, 300, 1000 test press white labels, test press promotional records. They will then send those 1500 whatever to DJs, to radio stations. If the DJs, radio stations get a good response from the people... Then they will relay that information from party one, the people, party two being them, to party three being the people who are promoting the record. If that's the case and the promotional company, which is what they're called, find that they're getting a good response, the promotional company will then contact the people who've made the record, the actual company themselves, and say, yep, go ahead with it, it's worth making 20,000 copies because at the end of the day...
4:24 Mind you, I don't think they'll just sell one
It's a lot of money to make 20,000 copies to find you've only sold one. That's how big it is. Mind you, I don't think they'll just sell one. Now then, again, here we go, here's another one. This is on Champion Records, DJ promo only, not for resale. Now then, that theoretically you should not be able to go into a shop and buy that because things like this should only be sent to DJs. If you're a DJ, alright, and you're in your bedroom, the only way really you're going to start getting free music is to work, to practice and enjoy, to get your ass on those decks, on those CD players and try and get as good as you can. Because it's all works, they're all little little facets that work together. It's like I've said in so many videos behind there.
You know, get promoting yourself. Again, a lot of people have said if you know the aunt or your uncle who owns a nightclub then your foot's already in the door isn't it? If you can get into a nightclub and even if you're only doing the first warm-up set that is one rung on the ladder to get to the next set and eventually to get to the last set. And if people like you and hear you and think you're good, then you might be working in the club next door. And then the one next door to that. And when you're in a position whereby you're playing let's say to, I don't know, two or three thousand people a week, then I guarantee you, you could phone up record companies, you can phone up promotional companies, and they will throw music at you because you, to them, are a commodity. They like people like you because at the end of the day, you're playing the music
Thank you for watching. Bung it underneath, constructive, criticisms, whatever, it doesn't matter. Jonathan's the name, having fun is my game, practice and enjoy, I'm going to knock on the door. By the way, going back in time when the beat began, it started with a drum, a hand and a man, he hit the drum with a steady beat, giving Strive and the ladies some people body heat, saying people of the world come together as one. Clap your hands to the beat and have some fun. To the black, to the white, the red and the brown, to the purple and yellow. Here we go, cheers.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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