A hanging survey introduced at this 12 months’s Worldwide Music Summit in Ibiza indicated that 61% of rising DJs consider social media numbers carry extra weight than precise musical ability relating to profession success.
The info comes from a 15,000-person survey performed by the Pete Tong DJ Academy, per Mixmag. It illuminates rising issues of a music trade so saturated and insular that breaking by typically relies upon much less on artistry and extra on whether or not or not you’ll be able to strike idiot’s gold with gimmicky viral moments.
62% of respondents really feel the music trade operates like a “closed club,” based on the report, leaving little room for these with out established connections or advertising and marketing muscle. Many pointed to a rising reliance on metrics like follower counts and engagement charges as gatekeeping instruments for bookings, label signings and playlist placements.
Whereas 35% of respondents stay hopeful that persistence pays off, the numbers paint an image of an ecosystem more and more formed by optics over originality, main hopeful producers to consider that long-term sustainability hinges as a lot on algorithms because it does on the decks.
Elsewhere within the survey, over half reported experiencing burnout or anxiousness. “Every post feels like a test,” one 24-year-old French DJ lamented. “If it flops, I feel like a failure.”