05/19/2026
π― this is why I'll never "make it" as a DJ. I don't want to. The VERY small number of people that make it in this scene are owned. A LOT of them use ghost producers. Most of them already have money from some other source. The few genuine ones that rise from the bottom of the heap often do so by selling off parts of themselves that they'll never get back, and constantly be influenced by that part (owned). I saw it first hand. Once you "make it", you aren't DJing anymore. You aren't digging for tracks - they are being sent to you by your manager, label and other DJ's in your same spot. You're required to play them, or at least coerced. You can't be on a flyer anymore without approval from your owners - and giving them their cut. DJing mistakes are magnified on socials, which influences DJ's to be more conservative, perhaps by making safer transitions, preparing a setlist instead of playing what you feel the room wants to hear, or the biggest sin of all: prerecord the set. All the small time DJ's argue about using the Sync button while most of the "made it" DJ's turn it on as the first act they do when entering the booth. Now Im sure some will @ me in the comments saying "oh so and so isnt like that" or "I've done pretty well and never seen any of this.". Go on, let's hear it! Of course there are exceptions, but they are exceptions. For me, I've seen enough to know what's true. It's all a production and not what I came into the scene for, nor what it used to be.