How to know if a DJ played your track

You sent your track to twenty DJs. A few wrote back “nice one, will play”. Most said nothing. Did any of them actually play it? DJs are busy, they play late, and the moment your track comes on is usually captured on someone’s phone, not in an email to you. The good news: plays leave traces, and you can learn where to look.

Here are six ways to find out, roughly in the order that finds the most for the least effort.

1. Ask once, and make it easy to answer

A short, specific question gets more replies than “any feedback?”. A week or two after sending, try something like: “Did the track work in your sets? If you’ve played it out, I’d love to know where.” One line, no pressure, easy to answer from a phone.

Don’t rely on the answers, though. A DJ who says “will support” may never play it, and plenty of DJs who play your track never tell you. Use replies as hints of where to look, not as your record.

2. Check the DJ’s own posts the day after their gigs

Many DJs post a clip or two from each gig: a reel of the crowd, a short video of the booth, a carousel of the night. Find out where your DJs are playing (their profile, their booking agency’s page or the event listings), and look at their posts the day after.

• Open their profile and go to Reels and the main grid. Carousels often hide a video on the second or third slide.
• Play every clip from the night with sound on. Most are 10 to 30 seconds, so a full gig takes a few minutes to check.
• Check again a few days later. Some DJs post a longer recap at the end of the week.

3. Look at the posts that tag the DJ

Most club footage isn’t posted by the DJ at all. It comes from the crowd, the venue and the promoter, and they usually tag the DJ. On Instagram, open the DJ’s profile and tap the Tagged tab (the person icon) to see posts other people tagged them in. Then check the venue’s and the promoter’s own accounts for the same night.

Fans often ask “ID?” in the comments when they hear a track they don’t know. On an unreleased track, a clip full of “ID?” comments is worth listening to closely.

4. Check tracklists and set recordings

If the DJ records sets, radio shows or podcasts, those are the easiest proof of all: a full recording with a time you can point to. Look on the DJ’s SoundCloud, YouTube and Mixcloud, and on the radio show’s page if they host one.

Tracklist sites such as 1001Tracklists collect sets that people have written up. They are useful for bigger DJs and famous sets, but an unreleased track usually appears as “ID – ID” until someone names it, and many club nights are never written up at all.

5. Don’t expect recognition apps to name it

Recognition apps compare a recording with their own catalogue. A released track is often found; an unreleased promo usually isn’t in the catalogue yet, so the app has nothing to match it with. If your track is out and widely distributed, a fan’s recognition app may help; before release, your own ears are the most reliable tool.

6. Keep a simple log

Whatever you find, write it down the same day, because posts get archived and links get lost. A spreadsheet with these columns is enough:

• DJ, and the date you sent them the track
• Date and place of the play (venue, city, event)
• Link to the post or recording, and the second where your track plays
• Who posted it (the DJ, a fan, the venue, the promoter)
• Anything that helps later: the view count, a comment from the DJ, a repeat play

After a few weeks this log tells you which DJs really play your music, and it is exactly what a label wants to see. See how to prove DJ support to a label.

How to be sure it really is your track

Club audio from a phone is loud, bass-heavy and full of crowd noise, and many tracks in the same genre share sounds. Before you celebrate:

1. Find the most distinctive part of your track: a vocal, a lead melody, a break. Listen for that, not the kick and bass.
2. Play your own track at the same moment and compare them with headphones. The arrangement should line up for more than a few seconds.
3. Check it isn’t the original you sampled or a track with the same sample pack sound. If you made an edit, listen for the parts only your edit has.
4. Don’t trust a caption or a tag on its own. A post can tag you and play something else.

If you are not sure, leave it out of your log. One wrong play shown to a label costs more than one missed play.

When checking by hand stops working

For five DJs and one track, the routine above takes maybe half an hour a week. For twenty DJs, several tracks and weekends full of gigs, it becomes a part-time job, and plays slip through: a fan’s clip from two days later, a carousel you didn’t open. That is the point where producers start to look at tools. Our overview of tools that track DJ support explains the main kinds and what each one is good at.