So Much Music I Don't Own...

To many ads? Support ODJT and see no ads!
Albatross

Albatross

DJ Extraordinaire
ODJT Supporter
Sep 7, 2016
3,098
8,347
My couple for Saturday sent over a couple of their Spotify playlists as inspiration lists...

I'm shocked how little of this music I own currently. But I'm having to buy an enormous amount of music to be able to play it. Part of me really enjoys when a couple shares some music I don't know very well. But this is kind of crazy how little of it I know.

This was their chill list, there is a separate one for dance tunes:

TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change
The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy - 2005 Remaster
MGMT - Weekend Wars
Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun
Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
Tom Petty - You Wreck Me
Yo La Tengo - Friday I'm in Love
Radiohead - Electioneering
Spoon - The Way We Get By
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
Warren G, Nate Dogg - Regulate
Pavement - Cut Your Hair
Grimes - Genesis
The Strokes - Automatic Stop
Interpol - If You Really Love Nothing
A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?
Talking Heads - Girlfriend Is Better - Live
Beirut - Postcards from Italy
Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire
Beck - Go It Alone
M83 - Midnight City
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
Talib Kweli - Cold Rain
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
Glass Animals - Gooey
The Black Keys - Tighten Up
Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Wilco - Jesus, Etc.
Broken Bells - The High Road
Yeasayer - O.N.E.
The xx - Intro
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart - 2010 Remaster
Santigold - L.E.S. Artistes
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Yelle - Ce jeu
Blondie - Call Me
Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating
Neon Trees - Everybody Talks
of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
Bon Iver - For Emma
Mayer Hawthorne - A Long Time
Klaxons - Golden Skans
The Flaming Lips - Fight Test
Doves - There Goes The Fear
Air - Kelly Watch the Stars
Phantogram - Don't Move
Ratatat - Loud Pipes
Pulp - Babies
Thievery Corporation - The Richest Man In Babylon
The Shins - Caring Is Creepy
Deerhunter - Desire Lines
When In Rome - The Promise
Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry
Kanye West - POWER
Peter Bjorn and John - Second Chance
Johnny Cash Experience - I'm on Fire
Miike Snow - Song For No One
Roxy Music - Avalon
Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy A, Jeff Romard, ittigger and 1 other person
Welcome to the age of the internet - where there are no roads. Perhaps it's cheaper to use a temporary streaming service than to buy stuff you are unlikely to use again?

Now that people can find just about anything online - they do. If I were you, I'd download the less desirable content from Youtube and then delete the folder after the gig - this has no more copyright impact than if you requested the the bride's personal copy or just streamed them from her own account. This is a private event and under copyright law the BRIDE is the express user - not the DJ. Don't keep the music if you didn't buy it - but, how you manage to play these songs at her wedding is of no legal consequence because the Bride and her event type are both protected classes.

99 out of every 100 mobile DJs think themselves "commercial users" but they are ignorant (not misinformed, ignorant of the legal facts). The user of fact is the Bride - and unless the reception is broadcast live over the air, or you start handing out custom CDs - she's exempt from any copyright intrusion.
 
I try to use it more to fill out a spot where I likely have holes. I'd call a lot of this music "indie" - even though that's a term I don't really understand because many of these bands are signed to labels.

I don't mind spending a few bucks if I have to so I can have good quality copies. But I'll just keep this all in a crate, and if I run into another couple that talks about some of these artists, I'll expand what I might reach for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
As the list is only for "inspiration", I would go through it and only purchase the tracks I thought were actually good.
You can then use those tracks for your own "inspiration" to complete the playlist with tracks from your existing library as you should be able to tell their likes and know what would be good to add based on their original list.

This way you minimize your expenses ( I personally loath purchasing tracks I know I will never play again), the client at least gets to hear some tracks they know and if your flow is good the client should still be impressed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger and TwinSpinDJ
Ross, that is a purely obscure list. Not worth it to go and purchase the entire list of tracks because you're going to play 4-5 of them before people start giving you glares about "that stupid music". List TJ said, I'd probably go thru it and pick out a sub-set, just enough so the couple doesn't fuss that you ignored their list entirely. Personally, I hate it when I get one of these "let's see if I can make a list that nobody has ever heard of before" type lists. Good luck with your event. I don't envy you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: andywilson, dunlopj and TwinSpinDJ
That is a long list of songs and you did say there's another list of songs to dance to. I seriously doubt you're going to play all those songs at this wedding. I would get all you can just in case so the couples isn't mad at you. I understand that list may be obscure to us here but you don't know if this list of songs is what the guest will enjoy or just what they want being selfish. The thing I don't like is springing this list on you so late. I apologize if I'm wrong but I'm just reading this on Friday.

Most people know here that I hate a client giving me a long list of songs to play at their event. Either they trust that I know what I'm doing or they don't. With that being said, do you have a cutoff time for someone to provide you with a play list of songs for their event? If so what is it?
 
MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
With that being said, do you have a cutoff time for someone to provide you with a play list of songs for their event? If so what is it?
Click to expand...

No, I'm pretty flexible with my clients. I obviously wouldn't want all of this information the morning of the wedding - but I don't put any formal cut off on when they send over their information.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
Gotta be honest....most of these were on my old "car trip compilation tapes" in the 90s-2000's ....There are some really good songs in there that i guarantee you have probably heard in movies and stuff.... a lot of soundtrack stuff in there... I bet once you hear it you might add it to your dinner/cocktail repitoire

I wanted to dance to The Jesus and Mary Chain- "Just Like Honey" as my wife and I's first dance... but she had fallen in love with some French song...so i conceded...lol

For a list like this....rather than steal it outright from youtube...i would grab it on something like IOMOIO ... 16 cents a song aint too bad...good quality recordings too...

cc
 
  • Like
Reactions: sonic-vision
djcrazychris said:
There are some really good songs in there that i guarantee you have probably heard in movies and stuff.... a lot of soundtrack stuff in there... I bet once you hear it you might add it to your dinner/cocktail repitoire
Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping for is to come up with some unique ideas that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. I'm sure it's not all gold, but if I can take 2-4 new tunes out of here for other couples I'd be pretty happy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SEDJ, MIXMASTERMACHOM and djcrazychris
Cap Capello said:
Get the pro edition of Spotify. Then get a program such as sidify. Drag their specific playlist into that program and it will bring all their songs into your system ready for play.
Click to expand...

I will definitely check this out. I'm already a paid Spotify user, so if the audio quality on this method is good, that would make life pretty easy.
 
Albatross said:
That's what I was hoping for is to come up with some unique ideas that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. I'm sure it's not all gold, but if I can take 2-4 new tunes out of here for other couples I'd be pretty happy.
Click to expand...

yeah....in an effort to seem obscure theyve actually just hand plucked some soundtracks from movies like Garden State... Lost in Translation... etc

Great tunes tho...

cc
 
Its a bit eclectic the list , some of it is not really "chill "like "Call me" Blondie ,which is more dance and much of it will undoubtedly be lost on most of the crowd .
Since the background music isn't as "specific"" äs the dance music usually is - depending on your motivation id make sure i had at least half the tracks and email them in regard to that information in a polite way saying you will be mixing in some of your own stuff as well.
In that way you don't just become another "push play" DJ.
 
I'm curious. Please let us know how well those songs go over with the crowd at that wedding.
 
I like that Notorious Big song other than the explicit lyric.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jas, dunlopj, ittigger and 2 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back