JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum I pity today's DJs

I joined late in this thread, and have read part of it but not all. I would like to comment on a few things that I read.
Someone asked if any DJs still program their own stuff. You bet they do. Small town America is full of dinky, low wattage stations that just cover the city limits. I've had great luck getting them to play my stuff when I was on the road. Did it feed the bulldog, no. But as an 80's Country dance band, it did fuel the fan base in each town. And in terms of marketing, it may have taken 150 years to amount to anything, but the theory worked, on the surface. Remember Chris LeDoux, while it wasn't intentional that's exactly what he did. And it would still work today, but work is the key word there. Lots of hard, grinding, work. Gone are the days when any old gig would do. There has to be a method to the madness. The problem with that theory, aside from the obvious hard work; everybody wants to be a star. Whether as a writer or performer, too many egos. Yea, the biz is absolutely brutal, one just has to be creative. Remember The Tractors? Marketing brilliance. If you don't know the story, ask me about it. My whole point is there isn't a machine made that can't be rebuilt. Maybe I'm just delusional, but I've been close enough to the business to know that it's all about marketing anymore. If yer a 5 foot 8 inch cowboy with original teeth, half-shaven, and can make a song yer own, yer marketable. If you can write songs for that guy, like no one else can, yer marketable. You just can't use a marketing chain to get there.
I read a lot of stuff here, and most of it is dead on. But as Kevin said, we're just resting between meals. Someone, somewhere, is gonna get creative and change the way these money-grubbers do business. I just hope I'm alive to see it.