How to find videos of DJs playing your music on Instagram

For house, techno and most club music, Instagram is where the evidence of a play turns up: a 15-second reel from the booth, a fan’s video of the drop, a venue’s recap of the night. The trouble is that it is spread across many accounts, and nothing tells you which clip has your track in it. Here is a search routine that finds most of them.

Before you start: know when and where the DJ played

Searching is much faster when you know the date and the venue. Note the gig dates of the DJs you sent your track to: their profile bio, pinned posts, their booking agency’s page and event listings usually show them. Then search the day after each gig.

The search order

1. The DJ’s own posts and reels

Open the DJ’s profile and check the grid and the Reels tab for anything posted since the gig. Swipe through carousels to the end: the video with your track is often the third or fourth slide. Play everything with the sound on.

2. The Tagged tab

On the DJ’s profile, tap the Tagged tab (the small person icon). It shows posts that other people tagged the DJ in: fans, photographers, other DJs on the line-up, the venue. For many DJs this is where most of the footage from a night lives.

3. The venue and the promoter

Clubs and promoters post recaps, sometimes days later, and don’t always tag every DJ. Check their profiles and reels for the night in question. Festivals often post short clips from each stage throughout the weekend.

4. The location page

Tap the venue’s location tag on any post to see other posts tagged with that place. Look at the most recent ones from the night of the gig. This finds fans who tagged the club but not the DJ.

5. The event’s hashtags

Festivals, club nights and tours often have their own hashtag. Search it and look at the recent posts. This is less precise than the steps above, but it can turn up clips nobody tagged.

6. Stories, the same night

A lot of DJs post their best moments as stories, which disappear after 24 hours. If a DJ on your list is playing tonight, check their stories tonight or tomorrow morning. Highlights named after an event or a tour are worth checking later.

Read the comments under clips from the night. When fans hear a track they don’t know, they ask “ID?”. On an unreleased promo, that is often your track.

Listening to phone audio

Club clips are hard to listen to: the phone’s microphone clips the bass, the crowd is loud and the clip may start mid-track.

• Use headphones, not your phone’s speaker.
• Listen for the most distinctive part of your track (a vocal, a lead melody, a chord change), not for the kick or the bass.
• Play your own track at the same point and compare. If it lines up for more than a few seconds, you have it.
• If you made an edit or a remix, listen for the parts only your version has.
• Watch the booth too: DJs sometimes show the track on their screen. Treat that as a hint, and still confirm by ear.

Save it properly

When you find one, save it the same day, because posts are archived and accounts change their names.

• Copy the post’s link (the three dots, then Copy link) and note the second where your track starts.
• Note the DJ, the venue, the city, the date and who posted it.
• Use Instagram’s own Save button to keep it in a collection for yourself.

The clip belongs to whoever filmed it. To share it, send the link or use Instagram’s share button. If you want to repost it on your own account, ask the poster first and credit them. A DJ who sees you crediting fans and venues fairly is also more likely to tag you next time.

How long this takes

For one DJ and one gig, the six steps take ten to fifteen minutes. For fifteen DJs playing two or three nights a week each, it is several hours a week, and still easy to miss a clip posted three days later by someone who didn’t tag anyone.

Once you have a few plays saved, they become proof you can show. Our guide on how to prove DJ support to a label explains how to present them.