How long does it take to make it big in the music industry?

Hey Jakiel,

Great question! I feel confident in my ability to answer it for you but let me give you a bit about me just to help you trust in the advice I'm about to give you.

I've been DJing since my freshman year of college (2010) and have since been a resident DJ in nearly every club my city has to offer, I've won Redbull DJ competitions, I've played on some big stages with great bigtime and local talent, and I currently perform at festivals on behalf of two silent disco companies based out of the UK. Additionally, I'm gearing up to give a 2-hour lecture at Eckerd College on entrepreneurship and the economics of DJ'ing. However, while this might seem like a successful run at being a DJ, I've in no way made it "Big"

I guess I would like to answer your question by first stating that "making it big" is a very subjective term. When people who have never really tried being a musician think of this word they often picture the greats (in your case maybe Skrillex, Bassnectar, Calvin harris, whatever DJ you prefer) However, having been in the scene for 5 years now I think of making it big in a completely different way. To me making it big would simply be creating something I felt proud of, something other people can enjoy, and getting paid to do it. My point, I guess, is that you should start by not letting this idea of being a superstar DJ get in the way of learning how to first DJ and be happy with your work.

Now, enough about me. In my opinion, to make it big (whatever you decide "big" is going to be as a DJ) you need to be ready to support your local scene. DJ'ing is 100% a networking game. You need to go to every show and make yourself known. You need to create your image/brand and push it to every club owner and promoter you can. You need to be prepared to play in front of empty rooms because no one ever jumps right to the 200+ plus crowds. You need to invest in your equipment and learn how to use CDJ's, controllers, Traktor, Serato, everything because chances are depending on where you play the equipment they have for you to use won't always be the same. You need to spend money on photo shoots, flyers, headphones, and sometimes your own ticket sales. You need to take every opportunity thrown at you and you definitely need to learn how to get through long hours playing other peoples music. But above all, you need to know this....

You need to learn how to produce your own music. All of these "bigtime" DJ's that inspire you to take a shot at it are 8 times out of 10 just producers who picked up DJ'ing in order to play out their music and make more money off of those tracks they spent hours and hours in their bedrooms alone making. DJ'ing is just not the same thing as it used to be and these days the only sure fire way to success as a DJ is by producing as much of your own music as you can. You need to learn this fact about your dream to become a big-time DJ. "DJ" is an umbrella term these days and you need to decide if you want to be a real DJ (someone who works tirelessly to perfect the art of mixing others peoples music in clubs where people might not even notice his talent) or if you want to be a musician (an artist people pay money to go see because he/she makes his/her own music) . I can almost guarantee these big time DJ's you aspire to be are probably producers who are called DJ's by the mainstream media and whatnot because, like I said, it's an umbrella term.

Hopefully, I've made myself clear and I sincerely hope this ends up helping you a little bit. Best of luck!

Hi Jakiel,

Hope uou doing good. To answer your question, I'd like to ask first: Why do you want to become a profesional DJ? If it's because you want to become the next ''superstar'' and have a luxury life, then you will need tons, TONS of really good connections and a luck out of this world.

If you want to do it because you feel passionate about it, then you are making the wrong question; it's not about HOW LONG it takes to get there , some have a huge breakthrough and accomplish in a couple of months what it took yeas or even decades to other artists. A lot might not even make it big at all.

Your question should be HOW CAN I GET THERE? My answer is with practice and knowledge, you will need those two as much as you can get, and how do you get those? By having time. If you study a non-musical career and have a job, you will not have much time or energy to practice and study music, in that case you should look to use as much of your time as possible studying music until you get to a point where you can get a job related to music, for example, teaching music, or djing in bars or events.

Once you start walking the path , you will find many opportunities you didn't even know existed, it's all about showcasing your skills to the world. That will eventually lead you to become a profesional, and even if you don't become a superstar, you will no regret it.

If you have any other question, please feel free to contact me :)

Hi Jakiel,

This article can help you a lot. Take a look:

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2015/02/10-secrets-highly-successful-djs/

Best of Luck!

Typically it could never happen. You can get popular locally and that seems to be the most usual experience. You have to get lucky and work your tail off to even have a chance to make it big and even then the odds are stacked against you.