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If I had to start my DJ project over from scratch again today this is exactly what I would do to grow fast and get to my goals.
At the core of a successful DJ project, there's 3 main things you need to do that power everything:
Music + Brand + Consistency.
Everything else falls in place after these three things are met.
Ok so my 0-100k plan simplifed.
1. Create professional quality brand assets and differentiate yourself. I would first make sure my brand assets all looked clean and pro. High quality press photos with good art direction, brand guide with logos and colors and vibe set. Use these and stay cohesive across all platforms. The project needs to have a feeling and vibe thats unique. For me I work in ocean/surfing in to my brand assets a lot for example. For reference, go look at Anti-Up's assets. Clean, yellow, ravey, punk. Simple and perfect art direction across all assets.
2. 2+ free Soundcloud remixes per month. Next I would start cranking out free remix downloads and fire away as consistently as your music output allows you. I think 2 remixes a month is good, if you can do more great. I would be particularly remixing songs that have appeal for DJs that they can rinse in their sets, but also some stuff that has a bit of trend behind it too. This can be classics, current pop songs, trending social media songs, New releases from big DJs. This is hard to nail on the head, but really ask yourself if the big DJs were going to play the new Sabrina Carpenter vs. Baddadan for example.
3. 3 social media short form posts per release. The part that's the most dreaded but will get you to your goals fast. For each remix, I would spend the next week after creating short form content. Easy content that allows the remixes to be seen as if you just made them. Play it in the car, play it in studio, make a comedy skit, clip a live set. Whatever works worth your brand. Just make it in the format thats not promotional or spammy with a simple hook caption. No "link in bio" "out now" BS or boring ass artwork posts only, that drives people away. Make it fun and make it feel organic. If you can do a remix every week, drop it Monday, then Tuesday-Friday all short form stuff promoting that. Then jump to the next one. ONE post is not going to get you to your goals I hate to say it. I have seen artists do like 15 posts before for a release. If you want to get discovered and live your dream, you need to act like this part is depending on it...you get what you put in. Put in 1 post and you will get 1 post type results.
4. Evaluate and Analyze your insights. If you have made it this far, time to now go back and start looking at what worked and what didn't. what remixes on soundcloud popped off and which ones didn't? What social media posts worked and what didn't. After just two months you should now have a minimum of 4 releases out + 12 social posts. Plenty of data to look at there. Every single business on planet earth assesses data like this and starts doing more of what is working. Why shouldn't a musician striving to be a pro? Make the necessary pivots to what's working.
5. Create demo bank of originals and shop to labels and make a release plan. After running this type of consistency for say 6 months now at this point, you should have a good feeling of what the original music feels like. If you stuck to the plan, you would have 12 releases out and like somewhere around 30-40 social posts in just 6 months. I can guarantee you you have a way better idea of what you want to do now. This is the point you start building your bank of originals and have those ready to shop. Maybe after 40 posts and 12 remixes big labels and artists saw your tiktoks and asked you for collabs and demos? See what I am getting at!
Keep this whole thing simple, good brand assets + tons of free remixes + adequate social posts per remix + analyze and refine + originals. Imagine what doing this for a year looks like? 2 years? Stay the course and stay consistent and you guys can do this!
-Henry
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