What to do when a big DJ plays your track

You open a clip and there it is: a DJ you have followed for years, a full room, your track. It is a great moment, and an easy one to waste with a rushed repost of someone else’s video, ten tags and an excited message to the DJ. Here is what to do in the first hour, the first week and the month after.

1. Make sure it really is your track

Before you tell anyone, check it the way a label would:

• Listen with headphones to the most distinctive part of your track (a vocal, a lead, a break), and compare it with your own file at the same moment.
• Make sure it isn’t the original you sampled, someone else’s remix, or a track built on the same sample-pack sound.
• Check when and where it was filmed. A recap posted today may be from a gig weeks ago, and the caption may name the wrong night.

If you are not sure, wait. A day late is fine; announcing a play that turns out to be someone else’s track is not. Our guide on knowing if a DJ played your track has the full checklist.

2. Save it before you share it

Posts get archived, accounts change names and stories vanish after 24 hours. Save the details the same day:

• The link to the post, and the second where your track plays
• The DJ, the event or venue, the city and the date
• Who posted it (the DJ, a fan, the venue, the promoter) and the view count if shown

3. Thank the DJ, briefly

One short message, sent once. Something like:

Hi [name], saw you played [title] at [event] on Saturday. Thank you, that made my week: [link to the clip] If you'd like the next one early, just say. [your name]

Don’t ask for a repost, a quote or the name of the track they played next. If they reply, great. If they don’t, they still saw it, and your name will be familiar the next time a promo from you arrives.

4. Repost fairly

• The video belongs to whoever filmed it: a fan, the venue, the promoter or the DJ.
• Share the original post with the platform’s share button. That is always fair.
• To put it on your own grid, ask the person who filmed it first, and credit them in the caption.
• Tag the DJ once, in the caption. Don’t tag them in every story for a week.
• If the track is unreleased and the DJ is keeping it an ID, check with your label before you name it in public. Some releases plan the reveal.

A fan who filmed the moment will often send you the original, better-quality file if you ask nicely. Credit them every time you use it.

5. Tell the people who can use it

• Your label, or the labels you are pitching: one line, one link.
• Your manager or booking agent, who can use it to pitch you for gigs.
• Your support sheet. Add it with all the details. Our guide on proving DJ support to a label shows how to present it.

In your next pitch, lead with it: who, where, when, and a link. One checkable play from a DJ who fits the label says more than a long list of names nobody can check.

6. Use it in press and promo, carefully

• “Supported by [DJ]” in release copy is fine once you can link to the play.
• Keep it factual. “Played by” is true; “loves this track” is something only the DJ can say.
• Quote the DJ only with their permission, and use their exact words.
• Use stills or clips only with the permission of whoever filmed them.

For when to announce support and which assets to make, see using DJ support in a release campaign.

7. Follow up with the next track

Mark the DJ as a core supporter on your promo list. When you have a track that fits their sets, send it to them a few days before everyone else, with one line that places you: “You played [title] at [event] in May; this one came out of the same sessions.” Send them the right track, not every track. If they play the next one too, that is the start of a relationship, and those matter more than any single play.

If the DJ gets in touch

Sometimes the DJ writes first, or answers your thank-you with a request. Answer quickly and keep it simple:

• They want a file or another version (a WAV, an extended mix, an edit for their set): send it the same day, named clearly.
• They ask you to keep it quiet for a while: do, and tell your label.
• They want the title so they can name it in a tracklist or a set list: give the exact artist name and title.
• They want to sign it or remix it: that is a conversation for you and your label, if you have one, before you say yes.

What not to do

• Announcing the play before you are sure it is your track.
• Reposting a fan’s or a venue’s video without asking or crediting them.
• Inflating it: a warm-up becomes a “headline set”, an afterparty becomes “the festival”.
• Chasing the DJ for a quote, a repost or a follow.
• Sending them every track you have ever made the next morning.