How Hard Is DJing? Count To Four

When heiress and reality star Paris Hilton made her DJing debut at a music festival in São Paulo in June, many observers wondered – just how difficult is it to DJ, really? Not at all, according to outspoken dance music producer Deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman: “It takes two days to learn, as long as you can count to four,” Zimmerman told Rolling Stone. I took on the challenge to see if I could learn to DJ – in one hour.

Scratch DJ Academy hopes to teach anyone how to spin. The brain child of former businessman-turned-music-enthusiast Rob Principe, the academy began when Principe successfully pitched his idea for a DJ school to legendary Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay in the green room at the Late Show with David Letterman.

“Despite DJs being ubiquitous in our culture, there was no on-ramp to the art form,” explained Principe, co-founder and CEO of Scratch DJ Academy. “The equipment was expensive and confusing and the demand to learn outweighed any supply of teachers.”

Jam Master Jay soon jumped onboard as a co-founder and instructor at the New York academy. A decade later, close to 15,000 students a year nationwide fork out an average of $350 per six-week program, the most popular of which is a DJ 101 course that covers basic scratching, mixing and the use of prominent industry technologies like Serato software. A certification course, which can take over a year to complete and aims to produce club-ready DJs, costs just under $2000.

DJ Noms, a teacher with 17 years DJing experience, introduced me to a $3,000 deck consisting of two turntables, a mixer and a laptop. “Place your hand at the 9 o’clock position and all you’re going to do is start to push forward and back,” instructed DJ Noms. Performing this motion every quarter beat created a scratching sound known as the “baby scratch.”

“That simple movement is the foundation for everything related to DJing,” said Noms. DJs use baby scratches to move tracks so they release on time with another, and build upon this basic scratch to create more complicated turntable sounds.

In the first five minutes of the class – an hour-long session that retails for between $80-$150 – I nailed the baby scratch. From there, I counted to four a little faster and mastered a “scribble scratch” – a double-time version of the baby scratch – and a drag, which is a half time count. DJ Noms then showed me a slider on the mixer known as a cross fader, which can be used to flip back and forth four times a beat between turntables to create a percussive sound known as a “transformer scratch.”After 30 seconds of trying, I had the transformer scratch down.

Zimmerman, number six on our list of highest earning DJs, recently criticized several of his peers for “button-pushing” during live shows. With the increase in ease afforded by technologies like Ableton and Virtual DJ, which can be used to queue and sync tracks, Zimmerman claimed several DJ/producers rely on pre-recorded tracks rather than recreating their music during so-called live sets.

DJ Noms estimated that about half the working DJs in New York city use just mixers and their laptops, while the rest rely on a combination of turntables and Serato technology, a mock-vinyl software that lets DJs manipulate mp3 files on their laptop while using turntables as a control interface. There are even iPhone apps such as djay which let users mix tracks directly from the iTunes library. A popular Android version called DJ Studio 3 had over232,000 downloads in June alone.

Serato makes mixing simpler by queuing up two songs of the DJ’s choice. When an icon on the display goes green the DJ has to release a track on time with the other song. Then the DJ just has to turn down the bass and fade out the initial track.

“If you get this, I quit, I’m running out of the building,” Noms joked. Sure enough, less than half an hour into the lesson I completed my first professional mix.

Still, there can be more to DJing then mixing. DJ Noms exhibited an advanced method of using the turntable as an instrument. Known as Turntablism, this skill combines feverish scratching and beat-juggling to get unique sounds out of the discs. A-Trak, superstar DJ and winner of five DJ world championships, said Turntablism took him years of practice and “monastic discipline” to learn.

Scratch DJ Academy sees no shortage of customers wanting to learn a range of techniques. “Our enrollment numbers actually increased during the recession, because people were losing jobs left and right,” explained Noms. “They were looking for a secondary source of income so they were coming to us.”

Customers have included accountants, lawyers and even a brain surgeon. With outlets in New York, L.A., Miami as well as on 7 cruise ships and four Caribbean resorts, overall enrollment at Scratch DJ Academy has increased around 25% since last July. Scratch Music Group also maintains a database of over 900 DJs across the country, booking those DJs out to over 7,000 events last year. Scratch Events takes a cut of the earnings and pays DJs a negotiated rate per gig, although they declined to disclose any figures.

To be sure, Scratch DJ Academy are not the only ones in this space. In New York alone, Dubspot DJ school offers similar lessons and online courses, as does DJ4Life Academy.

While the basics of DJing can be learnt in an hour, the skill required to scratch takes several more. Even if it might seem that technology makes a DJ’s job easier, the musical know-how required to play what an audience wants to hear before they know they want to hear it is a talent difficult to teach. Being able to count to four does help.

-Courtesy of Forbes

Gym, Tan, Money: Inside Pauly D's $11 Million Payday

Paul DelVecchio’s résumé doesn’t scream “Master of the Universe,” at least not at first glance. The Rhode Island native never attended college, instead taking a job at a car dealership after high school. For much of the last decade, he spent the bulk of his nights and weekends DJing small clubs in Providence for a few hundred dollars a pop.

But something changed in 2009, when he was selected to be a part of MTV’sJersey Shore. Three years later he’s got a slew of eponymous products, his own television show and a DJ career that earns him an average of $40,000 per show from club gigs, private parties and a stint opening for Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour. Over the past year, Pauly D pulled in $11 million, enough to earn him the No. 7 spot on FORBES’ first-ever top-earning DJs list.

“Everybody was skeptical at first, because how everybody heard about me is probably from Jersey Shore,” he says. “But now I’m six seasons deep in the show and I’ve been touring all over the country, touring with major pop acts and stuff like that. That legitimizes everything, and they’re starting to say, ‘This kid isn’t just a reality star, he’s an actual DJ.’”

In addition to being an actual DJ–one who’s played 132 gigs over the past year–Pauly D has figured out how to extend his brand better than any of his fellow Electronic Cash Kings, and perhaps better than many Hip-Hop Cash Kings. After Jersey Shore’s first season, he and a friend launched a clothing line called Dirty Couture, followed by Pauly D Bronze Beats tanning lotion. Next came his spinoff series, The Pauly D Project.

In May, he announced that he’d be launching a beverage called REMIX Pre-Game Cocktails in partnership with Grey Goose cofounder Tom Bruno and Skinnygirl cofounder David Kanbar. Earlier in the year, Pauly D also unveiled plans for an SMS Audio headphone line with 50 Cent, signing to the rapper’s G-Note record label to produce three solo albums. 50 Cent had some words of wisdom for his newest recruit.

“Business-wise, he told me the same thing I kind of already knew: don’t put your name on something you don’t love,” says Pauly D. “We were basically on the same page in that regard.”

Pauly D certainly loves DJing. And like his peers, he generally has very low production costs, needing little more than a laptop to play a show. That means he can take home the bulk of his hefty performance fees, unlike rockers and pop stars who generally take home about a third of gross ticket sales.

But a high profile and high earnings come with high levels of scrutiny, particularly from other DJs. Earlier this year, Pauly D’s “Night Of My Life” soared to the No. 3 spot on the iTunes dance charts, passing a tune by Deadmau5. After a few days watching his song languish below the Jersey Shorestar’s, Deadmau5 made a snide remark about Pauly D’s work, saying “There’s nothing creative about it.” Pauly D, an admitted fan of his rival, replied with a tweet: “T-shirt $40. Jeans $100. Hair gel $12. Getting hated on by deadmau5: priceless.”

The dustup connects Pauly D to another controversy that Deadmau5 had been involved in, an issue with far-reaching financial implications for his fellow Electronic Cash Kings: if DJs are only playing pre-recorded music, can an EDM show truly be “live”? And how much skill is involved, anyway? Deadmau5 touched off the debate with comments in a July Rolling Stone cover story.

“If I wanted, I could play a f—ing .wav file and just stand there and fist-bump all night, and no one would give a shit,” he told the magazine, also disparaging “button-pushers” while admitting to being one himself. The comments drew the ire of top DJs including members of Scandinavian trio Swedish House Mafia, who reiterated the latter point about Deadmau5. In the face of this firestorm, Pauly D remains adamant about his credentials.

“I’m definitely not a button pusher,” he says. “I use turntables. Yes, I use [DJ software] Serato on my computer that only holds the music, but I’m still controlled by vinyl, and I’ll never lose that art form. Because that’s what I love the most.”

Like Deadmau5, Pauly D believes that anyone can be taught to DJ fairly quickly; becoming an expert is another story. “Anybody can change their name to DJ whatever, but they won’t be able to blend two songs together and make it sound right,” he says. “You have to have that talent in you to be a good DJ.”

Though perception of talent changes depending on the eye of the beholder, there’s no doubt that a major component of skill is practice–and Pauly D has had plenty of that. He’s been honing his craft since age 14, when he received his first set of turntables. Two years later, he DJed a sweet sixteen party and was hooked. “When I felt the energy from the crowd, I didn’t want to stop,” he says. “I wanted it to be the rest of my life.” Earning $200 for a few hours’ work was a nice bonus.

He quickly landed a regular gig at Providence club called Renaissance, pulling in as much as $500 per night. After high school, he got a job at Metro Honda, starting out washing cars. He moved up the ladder, eventually becoming a used car buyer, then a used car manager. Some nights, he’d DJ into the wee hours and get up at 7:30am to run sales meetings at the dealership.

Pauly D probably still would have been working there by day if it hadn’t been for Sally Ann Salsano, the creator of Jersey Shore (and now executive producer of Pauly D’s spinoff). She came across his MySpace profile while casting the show in 2009 and sent a crew to Providence to follow him around. Pauly D took them through his typical day: trips to the gym and the tanning salon, followed by a DJ gig at night.

“That blowout, that tan, that Cadillac tattoo, all of those are the reasons I was attracted to him,” says Salsano, who remembers that there were turntables—and no dining room table—in Pauly D’s apartment at the time. “He was making his living as a DJ. This show shot him to superstardom and now he’s a quintessential celebrity DJ.”

Even when Pauly D found out he’d landed the part, he worried about leaving his regular DJ gigs to film the show. It would only be a 40-day absence, but someone might move in on his turf. So he carefully selected fill-ins who’d happily step aside when he returned.

But when Jersey Shore went live after he came back, demand for his DJ services exploded. His Rhode Island gigs were more packed than ever, and by the end of the show’s second season, he’d landed a residency at the Palms in Las Vegas. He also performed on Good Morning America, Live! With Kelly and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and appeared in a commercial for Miracle Whip (like his boss at Metro Honda, he still signs all his checks himself).

The show goes on. In February, Pauly D announced new residencies at The Hard Rock in Vegas and at Harrah’s in Atlantic City. Though he generally considers himself an open-format DJ, spending at least half his show playing other artists’ work across all genres, he’s working on his debut album, which he describes as “David Guetta meets DJ Khaled.”

In the meantime, he still pulls in upwards of $100,000 per episode of Jersey Shore, and he’s the first character with his own spinoff—a fact he attributes to his musical abilities.

“[The other characters] didn’t have anything to base anything off of, I think,” he says. “That’s the difference. I went in there with an actual talent.” Adds Salsano: “The one common thing that they all had is that they were very tan.”

As of now, Pauly D and Snooki are paid more than any of the other characters on Jersey Shore. Should we expect to see the diminutive mother-to-be joining her blown-out counterpart behind a pair of turntables anytime soon?

“No,” says Pauly D, laughing. “She’s better off dancing.”

-Courtest of Forbes Magazine

Skrillex Getting Animated for Disney's 'Wreck-It Ralph'

Skrillex is set to make a cameo in the Disney animated film Wreck-It Ralph, Total Film reports. The dubstep DJ-producer is already contributing to the score of the video game-themed cartoon.

Film producer Clark Spencer revealed this week that Skrillex will appear as a DJ in a party scene. "We built his model, we put on his look and we sent it to him to have him give us comments. And he said he would never wear non-black tennis shoes... so we changed the tennis shoes to black," said Spencer. He added that Skrillex has seen the animation and is "very, very excited about it."

Wreck-It Ralph is set for release on November 2nd.

-Courtesy of Rolling Stone

Djing for a Homecoming Event

Djs I do apologize for having been away for a couple of weeks.

This has been a busy month for my company VIP Sound Entertainment and it’s disc jockeys.

As I mentioned in the post: “How to knock’em dead like Clint Eastwood . . .” your local schools are a great start to building up your clientele.

This past month we have had back to back bookings and this will continue into October.

Homecoming is a festive time for teens and tweens as this becomes one of the first times that they begin to party. Imagine you being the first dj that is introduced into their lives. If you make the right connection you will have a fan for life!

Djing for a homecoming event is similar to djing for a wedding. Listed below are a few rules to follow.

Rule#1 – Keep it Clean – The purpose of any dj gig is to get a referral or another gig in the future.

Make sure that you are playing radio clean edits for this type of event. I can guarantee that any slip of profanity that comes out of your speakers will have you banned by the school board. Homecoming events can be a very easy gig to play  because you are mainly spinning Top 40 music for this event.  A little Katy Perry, David Guetta, and Chris Brown will put you in the right direction of the music selection.

Rule#2 – Remember you’re an entertainer – Younger crowds like to have contests with songs. If you can host a “Limbo” contest to see how low the crowd can go, you will be the life of the party! Be creative and not raunchy on how you select events. The chaperons are likely to get involved in this type of activity and if they are happy also, I am sure you will get called back to host their next event.

Rule#3 – Dress the Part – A big pet peeve of mine is a dj who thinks he can go to any event in a t-shirt and jeans. Big time fail! Invest the money to get a suit for events as a wedding, homecoming, or black tie event. It makes you look more professional and will boost your image to your customers.

Follow these tips and you will be the talk of the school circuit for the upcoming weeks. Remember to have some preprinted flyer's or business cards to hand out. If you do an excellent job there will be upcoming Birthday Parties, Halloween and Holiday parties for you to dj. It’s all about referrals in this business and this is how you get them.

Rock out DJ and I will touch base with you soon!

-Robin G. Miller f.k.a. DJ Rob G

Photo image courtesy of blogue.us