WHY DO I NEED A PROFESSIONAL PROFILE?

Not having a professional standard DJ/PA profile/biography/CV is as bad as not having a professional standard demo. The competition is fierce out there and you MUST match up to industry expectation to stand a chance of getting major promoters or professional agents interested.  Marketing is key - it's not enough to be a skilled DJ, your marketing materials have to be a match with the product - and whatever you are not doing to sell yourself someone else definitely IS!

A profile sells you before your music is heard, sometimes it will determine if your demo is listened to at all. Venues and promoters get sent hundreds, agents get sent thousands, of demos eachyear and they simply can't listen to them all. They will often decide only to listen to the DJ's who have sent the slickest most professional looking demo/press packages, or the ones that stand out the most. So spend your money on great pictures, a well constructed profile and a great looking/sounding demo CD.

Remember - this is the entertainment industry, so entertain the recipient from the word go - visually and aurally, it's show biz, so show you mean business too.

SO WHAT MAKES A GOOD PROFILE?

Eye-catching, day glo paper or curiosity provoking images or designs are good, as are eye-candy colours. Text fonts should be plain and easily ready, spelled correctly and punctuated and paragraphed to make it easy on the eye.  A bit of tongue in cheek humour is good if gauged right but remember not everyone laughs at the same things. Avoid writing in street jive or slang - you won't look professional, you will look 14 innit.

Profiles should be no more than two or three sides of A4 - anything more and your recipient will get bored!  Keep it short and to the point, avoid hype and vague references - quote facts and figures where you've played, when, capacity, who with etc. rather than long life stories about how you got into the music and how many raves you went to.  Describe your style/styles, don't bother including playlists they date too quickly . (TIP don't automatically add agents, or venues to your mailing list and bombard them with weekly playlists - they are treated as spam and binned along with your chances!).  

Write your profile and then edit it down to the essentials.  Be warned - agents and promoters can detect bullshit a mile away so don't do it - you'll be seen through straight away.  Never forget your profile is effectively a job application form - so would you really mention drugs, or send pictures of you and your mates off your nut if you were applying for a job - nope didn't think so!   Promoters and agents look for reliable and professional performers, so make sure that's what they see in your profile.

References and contact info from satisfied promoters are good to include and of course don't forget your contact details!

WHAT FORMAT?

Biographies should be graphic, document, or web based - ie in .jpg format, web format i.e. .htm/.html, or in printable document style in .pdf or .doc formats. Remember you may be sending by email too and anything else is probably not going to work universally.  (TIP: Biogs put together in Microsoft Publisher or Powerpoint are rarely opened - they best converted into Word (.doc) or web .htm/.html formats).  

If in doubt stick to .doc (Word) or .jpg - just about anyone worldwide can open them.All email images should be in a resolution which fits the screeen - 72 dpi (dots per inch) 800 pixels wide is best - if you send 300dpi pics by email the receipient is only going to see a small part of the top left hand corner of your picture. (TIP: A common mistake is to use CMYK format for images - always use RGB format for your .jpg's. as most computers don't have the level of imaging software to read CMYK format images). Keep file sizes down to the smallest possible - the best size is the max size file you can send as an attachment to a hotmail free email account usually around 500kb - by far the commonest free email providor.

An excellent and imaginative printed format profile is shown here (smaller than actual size - this is actually an A3 printed profile which folds in half)

Word documents (.doc) are more common - probably because most of us now have the program on our PC's and a few typing skills or know some one who is pretty good at putting great looking documents together. be careful of embedding large graphics files into documents - optimise your graphics before adding them in to keep the file size of your profile down to the lowest possible without compromising the look.

Download a good example of a Word DJ/PA profile by clicking HERE

Download a good example of a 2 page emailable .jpg profile by clicking HERE and HERE

Download a good example of a .pdf DJ/PA profile by clicking HERE

If you are interested in knowing more about DJ profiles, press pictures or are interested in these and other services we offer commercially to help you make get bookings click the ARTIST SERVICES button below or see our advert in the Music Industry Manual in the Flyer Design section.

PRO DJ CAREER COACHING DAYS

Experienced club DJ, great deck skills, awesome tunes - but still not getting the bookings you wanted? DJ'ing professionally for a few years and can't work why less experienced DJ's are making it?

For the first time we are delighted to offer a one-to-one industry coaching day offering a complete career action plan for your DJ career.  We show you where you are going wrong and what is really required to get bookings and be recognised in the professional sector. This is for the serious DJ only - a DJ who has the technical skills, a couple of years public performence under their belts and simply isn't getting the bookings/getting on/getting enough money and who really wants to do something about it.  This is the only course of it's kind currently on offer within the industry and exclusive to Sparkle - click HERE for more details.