How to get your music to DJs (and get it played)

Getting your music to DJs is less about reaching the biggest names and more about reaching the right ones, through the route they actually use. A DJ who receives a hundred promos a week opens the ones that come from people and places they trust, and the ones that are clearly meant for them. Everything else waits, and most of it is never opened.

This guide covers the routes in, how to find a real contact, which DJs to start with and the manners that get you opened next time. For what to put in the message itself, see what to send DJs with your promo.

Where DJs actually get new music

Most DJs take new tracks from a handful of places. Roughly from the most trusted to the least:

• Friends and other producers. Music from people they know, met at a gig or were introduced to by someone they trust.
• Labels. A label sends each release to a promo list it has built over years, with the label’s name on it.
• Promo services and platforms. Some labels and artists pay a promo company or use a promo platform that sends to its own list of DJs and collects feedback.
• Their own digging: record stores, radio shows, other DJs’ sets and the labels they follow.
• Emails and messages from producers they don’t know. This works, but it is the hardest route, so it has to be done well.

The first three carry trust with them. If you can get your track into one of them, do. If you can’t yet, the direct route still works, as long as every message is personal and every track fits.

Find the right contact, not just any contact

• Look for a promo address. Many DJs list one in their Instagram bio, on their website or on their SoundCloud profile, separate from bookings. That is the one to use.
• Booking agents are for bookings. Don’t send promos to a booking email unless the DJ says to. They are rarely passed on.
• Radio shows and podcasts often have a submission address on the show’s page. A play on a show gives you a recording with a timestamp, the easiest support to point to later.
• The DJ’s own label. If they run one, its demo address can be the best way in. Read the demo rules first.
• Direct messages last. One short message with one link, and only when there is no other contact.

Respect what the profile says. If a DJ writes “no promos” or “promos through my label only”, follow it. Ignoring it is the quickest way to be muted for good.

Start with the right DJs, not the biggest

The best first DJs for a new track are the ones whose sets it fits right now, and who are close enough to your level to listen. A local resident who plays it every weekend does more for you than a headliner who never opens the email: their plays get filmed, tagged and noticed by the DJs one step up. A first send might look like this:

• Five to ten DJs who already know you, your label or your music
• Ten to twenty who play your sound at a similar level, or one step above it
• A few bigger names who play this sound now, and only with a reason: they played your last track, you share a label, or someone can introduce you

Our guide to building a DJ promo list covers how to choose these DJs and how to keep the list current.

Ways in that build trust

• Be in the same rooms. Play at the same nights, go to the gigs of DJs you would like to reach, say hello after the set rather than during it.
• Ask for an introduction. If a DJ who supports you knows someone the track would suit, a one-line intro from them gets your email opened.
• Sign it first. A signed track goes out on the label’s promo list, with the label’s name and reputation behind it.
• Get on radio shows. Hosts are DJs, and other DJs listen to them for new music.
• Send only your best. If each promo you send is strong and fits, your name starts to mean something in their inbox.

Etiquette that gets you opened next time

• One DJ, one message. No group emails, no long CC lines, no mass tags.
• Use their name and say in one line why this track is for them.
• Never add DJs to a newsletter without asking. In many countries, marketing mail to people who didn’t agree to it also breaks privacy and marketing rules.
• Send finished music. Works in progress only when someone has asked to hear one.
• Follow up once, about a week later, then stop.
• Don’t ask for anything in return: no reposts, no reviews, no shout-outs.
• Say thank you when you find out they played it.

How many to send, and how often

Send a new track to a small first group, wait a week or two, then send to the next group. It keeps each message personal, lets early plays help with the later sends, and keeps the number of copies in circulation low before release.

Don’t send every track you finish. A few strong promos a year, each to the right list, build more trust than a new file every month. DJs remember who sends music that works in their sets.

Know whether it worked

The send is the start, not the result. Keep a send list (who, when, which version), then watch the DJs on it after their gigs: our guide on knowing if a DJ played your track shows where plays turn up. After four weeks you will know which routes worked, which DJs played it, who passed it on and who should get your next track first.