Hi friends,

For many years, I used Zippyshare as my main method of obtaining music (almost exclusively). I would go through my Beatport/Tracksource crates one by one and google "[song title+artist] zippy", download what I could find and then purchase the remaining 10% that I couldn't.

Since Zippyshare went down, I have been paying for 100% of my music, and as an underpaid DJ only playing a couple of sets a week, I'm actually spending more than I'm making.

So, my questions to you all are:

- Have any other file sharing sites picked up from where Zippyshare left off or has this golden era come to an end?

- If so, what other methods of obtaining current electronic music (tech/bass house/etc) are there that won't send me bankrupt.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses

 

File sharing by commercial bands is illegal!!! Just stop buying for 1-2-3 months and make sure your cash register is filled again.

You can also try to write to bands and introduce yourself as a DJ and offer to play their songs, you might then get free CDs etc. as a promotion for the band. You can also sell old CDs second-hand. We used to charge €5 for a CD when buying CDs.

Spoiler: Below are some tips copied from the Internet:

Below are some tips copied from the Internet:

If you buy a CD NEW from Amazon, you even get the digital MP3 download for free. The audio CD usually only costs a few euros more than the MP3 download alone. You could then sell the CD new and original, keep the MP3 download and have a new album for just a few euros.

Digital Download
Buy individual albums, samplers, compilations or songs via digital download from Amazon, iTunes, Beatport, etc.
That's probably what most DJs use these days. They go to the relevant platforms and buy their music digitally.

Whether that's on Amazon or, for example, Apple's competitor iTunes, is up to you. I started with Amazon at some point and have stuck with it. On these large platforms in particular you can get music from the last 60 years. However, you can also buy your music on special platforms that specialize in certain types of music, such as Beatport (which only deals with electronic music).

The advantage of digital downloads is:

Here you can also just buy individual tracks. If, for example, the new David Guetta song is in the charts, you can buy it here individually without having to buy the whole album. You can also buy some songs individually in special mixes that aren't even on the normal album, for example. We DJs in particular like to use "extended" or "club mixes".

Promo Pools (Record Pools)
You can also sign up to Promo Pools (so-called Record Pools) and always get the latest music from them as a promo - download as much music as you want for free - cool, right?

Some pools only charge a small monthly fee to provide you with music from them, others are free, but you have to rate every song you want to download from them. You have to answer a whole series of questions about the song. In return, you can download it for free.

Tip:
A list of the best promo pools that you can use as a DJ straight away - and what music you get there - can be downloaded from me here www.djmikehoffmann.de/48/hier.html for a short time for €0. You can see straight away where you can get what music from.

Facebook Pools
Since Facebook has been around and Facebook groups have grown so much, some DJs and producers have also used them as promo pools. Individual artists use these, for example, to bring their latest hits or remixes to DJs as a promo and offer them the song for free download. In return, the DJ should give a short review of the song in the download thread.

Here, the artist alone decides who he wants in his group and pool and who he doesn't.
Since these pools keep coming and going, I'm not listing any pools here. The easiest way to find pools is to use the Facebook search. You might even know one or two of them, so write them in the comments.

Soundcloud
You can also get music here.
Some artists, remixers and producers offer their songs not only for listening, but also for free download.

However, it often takes a lot of searching to find something decent, as anyone can offer their music for download here, and you can't tell whether the song was produced by a big artist or whether 13-year-old Kevin uploaded his Virtual DJ recording, which he then named after a current top hit.

Just give it a try. I know DJs who spend a lot of time here finding great mixes. But I also know others for whom their time is too valuable to waste "looking for a needle in a haystack".

Spoiler: NO GOs | What you should NOT do

NO GOs | What you should NOT do

Especially as a beginner, you don't know where to get your music from. Of course, you think of the easiest way first. But that is often not very advisable or even illegal. Since I received several emails and questions from DJs about exactly these topics, I want to show you here what you should NOT do:

Rip songs from YouTube
1. It's not well received and
2. The quality is terrible

Buy hard drive copies from other DJs
This is illegal and really stupid because you don't know your music. You've never heard it and you don't know which song will go down well at a party or not. Who knows if they're not all illegal YouTube downloads

Why is this illegal?
Short version: First and foremost because the purchase of the music is avoided and the artist who produced the song doesn't earn any money. That means (to put it simply): He doesn't get paid for his work. And you want to get paid when you work, right?!

There are no excuses as to how it can be used! If you use "unpurchased" music to play in public, then it is illegal. You can only use it for private use at home! Anything beyond that, i.e. distributing, copying or making it available to the public, is a violation of copyright and is therefore not permitted.

 

Last edited: Feb 1, 2025