The Digital DJ Tips Podcast

In this edition of our Your Questions podcast, we have a mobile DJ asking if it's even possible to play like James Hype for 5-6 hours...and whether he should... We then tackle the classic gain staging issue of not going "into the red" before discussing harmonic mixing and whether DJ gear should always be horizontal! (Yep, you heard me right.) It’s the usual mixed bag of absorbing questions from ou...

In this edition of our Inside Track podcast, we explored whether Calvin Harris ripped off Chicane for his latest single, diving into the ongoing debate around the derivative nature of pop music sampling versus simply copying the feel or essence of a track.  Next, we discussed the importance of DJs learning to use all different types of DJ gear. With so many formats and technologies out there, vers...

From how to deal with inappropriate music requests to the biggest challenges facing DJs in 2025, we answered a whole range of student questions here at Digital DJ Tips this week. Enjoy! As ever, this pod is supported 100% by the students of Digital DJ Tips, and it was recorded in a live webinar with lots of real-time feedback. If you enjoy it and you can, please do give us a five-star rating on Ap...

In this edition of our Inside Track podcast, we kick things off with the question, "Why are DJs always expected to be doing something? Is looking busy really that important?"  We also dive into why popular software platform VirtualDJ sometimes gets a bad rep among the wider DJing community. And finally, we look at the importance of recording DJ sets, alongside some of the challenges that come with...

By combining the best of the old way of DJing with modern technology, Phil feels he has an opportunity to entertain and educate a new generation of DJs about some of the most important fundamentals - and as you'll hear, he's taking it to a massive stage this summer. All is revealed in this special episode... Read the full article here: https://www.digitaldjtips.com/first-gig-on-vinyl-in-22-years/...

We get all philosophical right at the beginning this week, with a question about when (if ever) DJs should finally hang their headphones up. We also talk about music curation vs. creativity, what to do when the gear in venues is unreliable, and we try to answer the question, "Why does no one make separates in the DJ world anymore?" These and other queries asked by our wonderful DJ community are al...

The big news this week, of course, was the arrival of Apple Music as a streaming platform on all major DJ hardware and software. We then looked at the absolutely essential software that all DJs need before finishing up with a discussion on using laptop-free gear in 2025.  As ever, this pod is supported 100% by the students of Digital DJ Tips, and it was recorded in a live webinar with lots of valu...

In this show, recorded live to an audience of Digital DJ Tips students, we tackle some of the big questions our community has asked our tutors in the last few weeks. We cover how to record great mixtapes effortlessly, what to do when you've established a mobile DJ business but want to grow further, how to set all the different volume controls on DJ gear (so that your mixes sound loud and clear), a...

On the Digital DJ Tips DJ school Inside Track podcast this month, we're looking at three topics that the DJ community is talking about at the moment. This month we've got: 1. The real price of DJing - What does it really cost to take up DJing as a hobby? Not only getting the equipment but keeping up with subscriptions and so on. We do the numbers for you. 2. Lossy versus compressed music - What's...

An unusually busy podcast today with lots of questions so varied that I had to scattergun through them to a certain extent, but that made it more vibrant, and there was an awful lot of feedback from the community as well. As ever, this pod is supported 100% by the students of Digital DJ Tips, and it was recorded in a live webinar with lots of student feedback. If you enjoy it and you can, please d...

Should DJs scratch? - Some love it, some hate it, some can do it, some think they'll never be able to - but at the end of the day, how important is scratching for DJs? Have you got G.A.S.? - Gear Acquisition Syndrome is a trait that for some reason particularly affects hobby DJs. What is it? Is it a problem? And if so, how should you deal with it? The 3 ways to market yourself as a DJ - None of th...

In this first edition of our Your Questions podcast for 2025, Digital DJ Tips students ask questions ranging from how to play charity events, to what laptop is right for DJing, to whether record pools are a good way of building a music collection, and many more.  If you would like your question to be featured in one of these shows, become a Digital DJ Tips student - just head to the website and pi...

In this final Inside Track podcast of 2024, we're looking back at the year. All the big stories, the culture changes, the software, the hardware, shifts in how DJing is done, AI of course, and some trends that we think will carry forward into 2025. It's all covered in this final end-of-year wrap.  Let us just take this opportunity to thank everyone for being part of this podcast, whether you're a...

In the final Your Questions podcast of 2024 from the Digital DJ Tips DJ school, our students asked a whole range of questions, making it - as ever - a great listen for those learning to DJ. Tune in to find out why learning to DJ sometimes feels so difficult when modern gear is designed to make it feel so easy. We also cover how to improve the sound quality of DJ gear when DJing in clubs, and wheth...

We kick off this episode discussing the three main types of DJ, because when you boil it down, DJs usually fall into these categories - and one of these types often makes a big mistake. We reveal what that mistake is (and why it happens) here. Next we cover the five big things I learned working with DJ Jazzy Jeff for a week. Jeff is one of the world's most respected DJs, and I got to work and stay...

We start our podcast this time around with a question from a student who's bought an awful lot of gear but is stuck knowing what to do next!  We move on to talk about licences, insurance, dealing with requests, four channels versus two channels, whether it's wise to play five times a week, and many other topics all chosen by our fantastic students.  As ever, this pod is supported 100% by the stude...

Mobile DJing has changed in recent years, and so there are simple things any DJ can do to keep up with the times and do a great job. We kick off this episode with the five most popular tips as voted for by our students. Our second topic tackles whether we've reached "peak features" on DJ gear or not. With nearly every new DJ gear release, there seems to be some gimmicky new feature or other. But h...

With AlphaTheta having just launched the XDJ-AZ, it's not surprising that we had questions about that in this week's show. But we also had a wide range of questions from our students covering everything from how to transition with effects, to the height of DJ gear, to dealing with imposter syndrome. As ever, this pod is supported 100% by the students of Digital DJ Tips, and it was recorded in a li...

As Pioneer DJ slowly fades from view and AlphaTheta takes over, we start this episode highlighting what we see as the five big issues the brand has to address to continue its success. Most DJs opt for gear with four-channel mixing capability - but how important is this? We look at what those extra channels are for, and share the real numbers on how many DJs actually use them. It really does make s...

Welcome to our podcast answering another batch of questions asked by real students in our DJ school. This time around we started with a question about the best way to mix in just your headphones (out of the two most common methods), before moving on to talking about something that comes up again and again and doesn’t get any easier as our lives get busier – finding a way to fit DJing into your lif...

So you want to be able to DJ like a pro, but it's hard to know where to start, it's hard to know what to practise, and it's hard to know if you're getting better. This proven five-step formula, first popularised in our book Rock The Dancefloor! (which has now reached its second edition and is a global bestseller), is your answer. Each of the five steps in this teaching method identifies an area to...

So you want to be able to DJ like a pro, but it's hard to know where to start, it's hard to know what to practise, and it's hard to know if you're getting better. This proven five-step formula, first popularised in our book Rock The Dancefloor! (which has now reached its second edition and is a global bestseller), is your answer. Each of the five steps in this teaching method identifies an area to...

So you want to be able to DJ like a pro, but it's hard to know where to start, it's hard to know what to practise, and it's hard to know if you're getting better. This proven five-step formula, first popularised in our book Rock The Dancefloor! (which has now reached its second edition and is a global bestseller), is your answer. Each of the five steps in this teaching method identifies an area to...

So you want to be able to DJ like a pro, but it's hard to know where to start, it's hard to know what to practise, and it's hard to know if you're getting better. This proven five-step formula, first popularised in our book Rock The Dancefloor! (which has now reached its second edition and is a global bestseller), is your answer. Each of the five steps in this teaching method identifies an area to...

So you want to be able to DJ like a pro, but it's hard to know where to start, it's hard to know what to practise, and it's hard to know if you're getting better. This proven five-step formula, first popularised in our book Rock The Dancefloor! (which has now reached its second edition and is a global bestseller), is your answer. Each of the five steps in this teaching method identifies an area to...