Remember back in the day when DJs received promo copies? There was only vinyl format available, white label was the label with most value and if you got a promo copy in your hands (yes, despite the name, you could find them in your local record store, too), you had to mention it in your tracklists.
And think about the value – labels could print 20 vinyl promos, send them to the biggest DJs six months before the official release and the best case scenario would be that the track would become a highly sought-after gem.
The scenario a slightly different today. I’m receiving 40-80 promos a week and would have sold my mother to get that amount of music when we were still living the vinyl times. Now I’m considering it more as music spam than getting something valuable and rare.
Why?
Out of those tens of tracks I get, normally only very, very few are playable. Also, when I listen to them, they are normally already published. Most of the labels tend to send their promos only some days before the actual release date (this surely isn’t correct if you’re on the A-list – then consider this a month or two before the release), which makes me wonder what is their real motive to even send the promos this late.
In Finland there are very few EDM DJs who have so many gigs that they have the possibility to play the unreleased promos always when they still are unreleased. And despite of having a very good audience here, most of the clubbers really don’t realize or care if you play “that track I just received as a promo”. For most DJs – and I’m not only talking about Finns here – promos are just a way to make you feel important when posting tracklists afterwards even though those tracks didn’t really make your set any better.
Also – promos tend to fool you to think you’re receiving something much more valuable than you’re actually getting. This is the trick of getting something for free and from a source from which you want to get more and more music in the future.
This leads to two things: 1) when giving feedback, most DJs tell that also the bad track is “pretty good, might give some plays” instead of telling the label & artist never to release something like that again (which would be more helpful, to raise the music quality over quantity) and 2) DJs even forget to ask themselves “would I pay money to buy this track?”. If the answer is “Maybe” or “No”, I don’t even consider downloading, let alone playing the track.
A good question here is, why do DJs pretend the promotional tracks they receive would be better than the music they buy from online shops? If you think it isn’t, then tell me why do DJs spend so much energy in trying to get promos, listening to the promos, giving feedback on the promos and telling everyone they received promos instead of using all that time in the online shops where all the good music is (and all those “promos” too, just in a couple of days).
Now again – from the labels’ point of view – I asked already what’s the whole point of sending the promos very close to the actual release date. “We want to prevent piracy”, the labels answer. And then again – most of the labels see their releases appear on warez sites once the first promos are out.
Tell me, what is the real difference between a DJ, who gets a free promo two days before the release and gives a feedback “Cool track, will play, 10/10!” and a guy downloading the torrent of the release for free and not giving any feedback but possibly supporting the release as much as the DJ? Nevermind the difference, both are as (little) valuable for the label.
Wouldn’t it be the same for the label not to send out any promos (except the A-list), but to advertise that the track is available for one hour for free two weeks before the actual release? That would attract more fans, give some good publicity – and in best case, raise the sales. Exactly what the promos are failing to do. As well as the artists these days, I think labels should also reconsider updating their marketing & promotion strategies to 2010.
For DJs – what counts, is no more who has the tracks first, but who creates hits out of tracks no one else realized were there. Being different and standing out of the line of promo-hungry DJs is fruitful for the culture, audience, labels – and you.
If you think this post hit the spot, let me know in the comments. If you think it sucked, add me to your promo list.
This is a good topic, and should raise some discussion.
First of all, it’s obvious that back in the 12″ days the promos were more rare and labels focused on sending them to high profile artists. I know that some big names receive (only) the same amount of promos today in digital format, than they did back in the days as vinyl (which was a lot too). This is most likely because they keep their email addresses relatively secret, which are not being given out by others either. This is what everyone of us can do, instead of whining about them getting sent free art.
The scenario was very much different from today, tracks were signed maybe a year before their release and pressed six months before. It also took a lot longer for the tracks to end up to the shops, and finally to be purchased. I believe, that the slower lifespan of records was one the reasons why DJ’s used to play over a month old tracks too. This will get us to the next part, why B+ lists get their promos just few days before the release.
With at least most of the DJ’s playing only the “freshest” new choons, there’s absolutely no point in giving a track to DJ Bedroom DJ two months before. The DJ spins the tracks once, might put it out on a tracklist to his myspace and moves on, putting out a new tracklist with new, new tracks next week. Why bother sending them tracks at all then? Because the competition is fierce, and even that DJ Bedroom DJ’s tracklist might caught someone’s attention (radioshows, tracklists, charts etc. have far bigger impact than live gigs). Therefore, he gets the track just before release, so he still thinks its a new one and puts it on his tracklist. He most likely buys only top10 stuff anyway.
If the B+ list DJ feels himself important for getting and playing out the promo, label has succeeded.
I don’t know why DJs spend energy in trying to get promos instead of browsing shops (other than what I stated before), I never have but when I get a promo, I try to feedback as many of them as possible. Purely out of appreciation for the music I’ve been sent, for the inspiration that has been poured into the art. Specially trance scene seems to revolve around forums, and web portals, so I guess promo services have become part of that synergy, where a bunch of Bedroom DJ’s compliment each other. House scene is so different story, it’s weird.
You ask the real difference between a DJ and a guy downloading the torrent. There’s no real difference, until the DJ drops a chart to his website or plays the track on his radioshow from which someone spots the track. You are not getting promos because we like to collect those one-liners! ;)
Giving out a free track, is exactly what we did during holiday season, to hog email addresses (there is no free lunch). Torrent downloader might support a warezed track and buy it, but if you give it to him legimitely, he won’t. It’s a good strategy for the artist, if your income is based on gigs but I don’t see it increasing sales.
Promos however do increase sales. I have examples, even numbers on how it can affect, although it’s most likely very different between genres. From my point of view, it seems that when it comes to trance, there’s less actual taste-maker DJ’s but probably more promos being sent out (trance = webnerds!) than in house scene for example, where there’s more actual taste-makers, a lot .. LOT bigger sales and therefore more impact. This is just my point of view though, from the border of both worlds.
Most of this was written very early this morning, but I hope my points came out clear enough. I think “your post sucked 0/10” – Timo Juuti (See? That’s honest feedback!), and therefore will keep sending you our promos … just that from now on, you will be getting them only few hours before the release. ;-D
cheers,
Timo
Promo sender guy