Hello, my fellow DJs! Spring is here and business is about to pick up. Over the past few years, I have written some solid articles to help you in your DJ’ing endeavors, such as negotiating your DJ rate, preparing for the slow season, and achieving your DJ goals. With 2024 in full swing, I wanted to create a checklist you can follow to ensure you have a very smooth year. 

You’ll find that when it comes to being a stress-free and successful DJ, staying organized and on top of things is key. So let’s jump in. 

5 Ways to Prepare for the DJ Busy Season

1. Visit Your Primary Care Physician

Now, I know this might not be the first item you expected to see on a DJ checklist, but it’s crucial to take care of your physical and mental health to have a successful and possibly lifelong career as a DJ. 

As one example, over time, our hearing can worsen, and being in loud rooms does not help at all. So start by making an appointment with a doctor or audiologist to have your ears checked out. I also recommend buying earplugs to protect you when at loud venues. 

On top of getting your ears checked, you also want to go for your yearly physical before the year gets very busy and you can’t lock in the time to see a doctor. Knowing and having a benchmark for your health status is extremely important. The healthier you are, the more you can work consistently without the risk of downtime due to health issues.

2. Check Your Equipment

Our next checklist item is making sure your gear is healthy and ready to go for the busy season. It’s likely been weeks or maybe even months since you used your equipment for gigs, so before things get busy, check everything out and see if you need to schedule any repairs for equipment. Nothing would be worse than getting back to DJ’ing and your equipment fails on you. Repairs take time, so take the time now to check your gear and get ahead of the game!

3. Write Down Your Goals

I’ve shared tips previously on why having goals as a DJ is so important. You should understand and have a clear focus on what your DJ mission is before your DJ schedule starts filling up. If you want to grow as a DJ, you can’t keep taking gigs with no long-term plan. You will be a hamster running on a wheel and not going anywhere – trust me! So take the time to write down your goals and figure out the plan, whether it’s getting more corporate clients or making DJ edits. 

4. Organize Your Music Library

This one is crucial! Because as you know, our most important job is making sure we play the best music for our intended audience. By taking the time to organize our music libraries and crates, we can also make it easier for ourselves to play that music. Try to spend at least 20-30 minutes a day going through your crates, naming them properly, checking the bit rates of songs (delete anything under 256), making sure your Cue Points are in the proper places, and getting rid of those yellow files in your Serato.

5. Prepare for Travel

As DJs, we all travel, whether it’s local, out of state, or sometimes even out of the country. To make sure we have less hassle, let’s prepare better, especially if we know the dates ahead of time. If your clients are booking any travel for you, they will also appreciate you being on top of things and providing them with the necessary information early, such as preferred flights, date of birth, government name, and loyalty numbers.

If you plan on driving to a lot of your gigs, take your car in for a tune-up or oil change. Nothing is worse than having your car break down on you when you’re en route to an important gig. When it comes to flying or taking the train, make sure to book your tickets early, because the earlier you do, the cheaper it will most likely hit on the wallet. 

These are five tips to help you get started in having a successful year in your DJ career. I hope these are helpful, and if you have any suggestions for future tips or articles you’d like to see, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Now go off and have a great busy season!

About the Writer

Brooklyn native Cory Giles has a ten-year history in the music industry, working with companies such as Def Jam Recordings and Hot 97. A graduate of Jam Master Jay’s Scratch DJ Academy in NYC, Giles has worked with brands like Louis Vuitton, Mohegan Sun, The W, T-Mobile, and the WWE. In 2018, Giles joined Dash Radio as a weekly host and DJ on Dash Hip Hop X & Taste Radio Channels. Also, he is a member of the Shadyville DJs.