Archiv der Kategorie: DJing

Djing ist seit dem Re-Launch meines Hobbys am 13.5.2013 zu einer durchaus spannenden Freizeitbeschäftigung geworden. Gleichzeitig habe ich mir auch einen kleinen Traum aus meiner Kindheit erfüllt, denn ich habe bereits relativ früh (Ende 2014) festgestellt, dass ein DJ, der sich seriös und ernsthaft (ein Widerspruch in sich: DJ, seriös, ernsthaft?) mit Musik beschäftigt, selbstverständlich auch seine eigene Musik macht. Am 13.5.2019 veröffentlichte ich meine allererste EP mit dem Titel Gasherbrum. Meine ganzen künstlerischen Aktivitäten wandern ab Ende 2019 in einen eigenen Blog, error262.com. Wenn Sie Lust haben schauen Sie auch mal dort vorbei.

RAVE the TH Deggendorf – Tag der offenen Tür reloaded.

Veröffentlicht am 02/11/2015 von christian zich

Der Sommer 2015 war ein echter Traum. An einem dieser heißen Tage fand der Tag der offenen Tür der technischen Hochschule Deggendorf statt, mit dem Ziel, eine möglichst breiten Öffentlichkeit zu zeigen, was wir für eine tolle Hochschule sind. Ich habe mich sehr gefreut, dass ich bereits vor einem Jahr angefragt wurde, ob ich nicht auch an diesem Abend auflegen könnte. Klar, selbstverständlich – da musste ich nicht lange überlegen. Es war eine tolle Party, die leider schon ab 23:30 Uhr zu Ende war. Wir hätten noch so gerne ein paar Stunden länger die andere Donauseite beschallt. Am meisten hat mich jedoch das Feedback der Studierenden begeistert, die der Meinung waren, dass sich nicht nur die Hochschule von der besten Seite gezeigt hätte, sondern dass auch endlich mal in Deggendorf anständig etwas los ist. Bereits während des Sommers habe ich mir vorgenommen, dass ich in der öden Winterzeit dies noch einmal wiederholen möchte. Here we are. Auf ein Neues, mit der gleichen Besetzung und viel neuer Musik. Ich freue mich schon auf den 16. November im C2.

Stay Tuned.

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Movie-Night-2015 – mein neues Live-Set.

Veröffentlicht am 24/10/2015 von christian zich

Ein neues Live-Set: meine Runde zur Movie-Night im Sommersemester 2015. Zuhören, Abhotten, aufs Wochenende freuen!

Movie-Night Summer Term 2015 by Christian Zich on Mixcloud

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DJing, management, and marketing – what is your big plan?

Veröffentlicht am 07/10/2015 von christian zich

A few weeks ago I promised you a bunch of exciting articles on these three major topics.But before we start to dive into the details, I´d like to give you an overview of the process as a whole. It´s a simple one, but it holds lots of useful ideas and success factors in those four boxes being:

POSITIONING

This is about how to find your focus as a DJ/producer, about distinguishing yourself from all your competitors with regard to tracks, sets and your whole exciting image.

CORE COMPETENCIES AND VALUE CHAIN

The Standard competencies are pretty much well known to every DJ and producer: how to operate your controllers, work with effects and synthesizers, how to find cool tracks and create great sets etc. But there´s a lot more to it, like developing a competitive marketing strategy to communicate your capabilities, building up your own successful brand name and the whole complex of selling and sales as a DJ.

GAP ANALYSIS AND ACTIONS

Though GAP analysis is among the most well-known management tools, it is very often misunderstood and applied poorly. This topic is for you to get straight on your priorities, and the actions and activities leading you to your goals. In other words: Stop dreaming about your career, go and get one!

MONITORING AND OPTIMIZATION

Nearly every DJ I know spends a lot of time after a gig musing about his or her performance, were the transistions fine and the crowd happy? But what about all the other issues I mentioned so far, how can they be analyzed? This is neither difficult nor complex as I will show you with a few simple aproaches, thus making your path to the hall of fame a short and straight one.

Stay tuned!

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A new member to the digital family or Who wins? Apple IPad versus Microsoft Surface Pro

Veröffentlicht am 02/10/2015 von christian zich

I remember vividly standing in an Apple shop in Toronto, Canada, four years ago, finally hugging my new ipad and being completely happy. For years I had been waiting for this, a computer that needed neiter keyboard nor stylus. In this state of happiness I remained for the following 12 or so month, checking out one app after the other, playing around with games, surfing the internet, watching videos. Quite a few apps I tested under a professional perspective, trying to optimize my work life, but getting more and more disappointed, because in all the thousands of apps the app store offered there seemed to be nothing that really met my expectations.

For another 12 months I used my ipad frequently, having stopped playing games completely due to being over saturated, but trying out databases, creating and giving presentations, maintaining my schedules. The uneasy feeling that despite the plentitude of apps there was, simply nothing was what I was looking for, grew. Finally, well in my third year of possession, I understood the ipad to be a nice and smart thing, but just not for professional needs.

From the moment I aquired the new iphone6 last September I have hardly touched my ipad at all, and at last decided to go for the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. And now, at long last, I honestly have the impression that I have found my holy grail, the touch device that does work for my business life.

In the four weeks to come I would like to tell you about my experiences, comparing the two devices with regard to…

Application and Use Cases: IOS vs. Windows.
Application and Use Cases: Organizing and managing a business life with the iPad and the Surface Pro 3
Application and Use Cases: Producing Music/DJing with the iPad and the Surface Pro 3
Conclusion, recommendations, and final thoughts

Stay tuned!

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When Worlds collide or the structured DJ

Veröffentlicht am 20/08/2015 von christine zich

With summer going on – and especially a REAL summer like this one – it seemed my usual sources of inspiration were running dry. But then, all of a sudden, after discussing with a fellow DJ who happens to be a master student of mine, the idea was there, bringing together my favourite three topics: marketing, DJing and management.

We were talking about the life and career of famous acts. Now if you look at those people´s vitae, it very often seems that their career is mostly a mater of sheer luck – being in the right place, having the right contact at the right itme. Would they also be famous if their contact with an important producer had happened two weeks later? Maybe, but maybe not!

Now you could of course say, that´s life and so on, but I´d like to show you a different approach, starting with this very article. Bringing together management and marketing knowledge with the beginning career of a young and ambitious DJ. Very often you´ll hear that is impossible, you can´t combine creativity with structure, but that is exactly what all those successful(!) people working for advertising agencies do all the time. Producing a creative idea for a product campaign they integrate customer information, potential benefits with a lot of advertising psychology. Only following this road you end up with the great examples of advertising like the Marlboro Man, Frito Bandito, the Old Spice campaign…

Which brings me to another interesting similarity between artist and companies. In fact a DJ is a one man/one woman brand: offering a product, having a certain image and specific core competencies, communicating messages and negotiating deals. But compared to successful businesses most DJs DO NOT spend much time with structuring their path to success, it´s rather a mater of luck or none such. If you look into the „How to“ books of DJing you´ll find a lot of information on transitions, beat matching, building a set and so forth, but nothing about how to differentiate yourself from other DJs and how to make yourself attractive for club owners.

But who ever said that structered marketing approaches, working so well for companies, do not work for an artist? Stay tuned!

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Play only what you love and strictly go for it during every gig! Part 2.

Veröffentlicht am 15/07/2015 von christian zich

INTRO (125 bpm): Last week my first english post went online, here ist part 2. You remember, I wanted to share a few moments with you…

#1 It was during our University open door event, I was the main act –as a DJ- for the after party. For this I had prepared a very moderate, not too wild House set of old Chicago House and some contemporary tracks. I started to play, people started to dance, everything seemed ok. After a while my co-DJ teased me “Dare to speed up a bit?”, which I did playing Hinz & Ruhmhardt/Doch. The crowd liked it and so I tried a bit more, Alcatraz – Giv Me Luv (Nicole Moudaber Remix). Then Mattew Jay/Javes and this game continued throughout the night: I gave them my favourite music, they loved it and it was the perfect rave for a perfect night. Which I never would have guessed when the evening started.

#2 This happened at an event second to last weekend, where I was booked to play directly after the main act, who happened to be a quite popular German hip-hop DJ. Of course I had asked the promoter my standard question, being “Are you aware of the kind of music I play (completely non-commercial, that is)?”, to which he replied he was, having seen me at that above mentioned University event. Still I was mulling over what to play for more than a week, wanting to please the –rather senior- host without getting off my track too much. I even prepared alternative sets to be ready for everything. Then, driving to the location that night, I had an epiphany: Of course I would play “my” Techno. Maybe a bit risky, but when life gets boring – risk it. Taking over then from the hip-hop main act I joked to him how my music would empty the dance floor in a few minutes. I made my start with Joseph Capriati’s The Gallery (Original Mix). I love this track, and – to my great joy – so did the audience, people rushed TO the dancefloor and we shared a marvelous 90 minutes. Afterwards the popular hip hopper came to me to compliment me for a great (hard) set that he would not have dared to play on such an event.

So you see, the message is quite clear: Concentrate on what you really love, if you say yes to everything, you get to places you never wanted to be!

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Play only what you love and strictly go for it during every gig! What managers could learn from DJs and vice versa. Part 1.

Veröffentlicht am 09/07/2015 von christian zich

Last week I read an interesting article about the habits of successful people. This article was full of bright and absolutely excellent recommendations, but to me one vital aspect was missing: You should only commit to those things you really love! Let me show you that managers and DJs have quite many things in common.

Steve Jobs said something similar his famous commencement speech: „You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.“ What has that to do with DJing? Well, over the past two years I met many DJs, playing all kinds of music, just for making money with it. Very often they didn´t even have a special liking for their music, it was just business. Exactly like a lot countless managers who will do everything just for business, money and their career.

When I had picked up Djing again in 2013 after a long break of 25 years, my mentor DJ told me to play few commercial EDM for my very first gig – only 10% of the entire set. I complied, but hated it and decided for myself from then on to focus on House and Techno, the music I love. Unfortunately that dramatically reduced the locations in my area that would let me play, but in the end I found a club where I´m now a main act once a month. I´m very aware of how lucky I am to be a professor for marketing and sales at Deggendorf University in the first place, so don´t have to feed my family on my income as a DJ. But still this was the perfectly right decision for me, as the two moments I would like to share with you will prove. And it will show you how much Djing has indeed in common with managing, with regard to choosing the right career path. Stay tuned! Second part next week.

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Noch 4 x schlafen, dann ist es endlich so weit: Tag der offenen Tür, THD

Veröffentlicht am 08/06/2015 von christian zich

Am Freitag dieser Woche präsentiert sich die Technische Hochschule Deggendorf von ihrer besten Seite. Kurz zusammengefasst, wir können nicht nur gute Lehre liefern, sondern wir können auch gut feiern. Nachdem das Campus-Open-Air eine ganz gelungene Generalprobe für den Tag der offenen Tür war, kann eigentlich am Freitag außer dem Wetter nichts mehr schief gehen. Ich freue mich auf die vielen Gäste und natürlich auch auf meine Co.-DJs Charnaux und Tommy Loco. Dann zeigen wir dem Rest der Welt, dass wir wirklich gut feiern können. Bis zum Freitag.

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Das Live-Set vom Campus-Open-Air

Veröffentlicht am 02/06/2015 von christian zich

Letzte Woche am Donnerstag war es wieder soweit. Nach einer längeren Pause habe ich meiner musikalischen Kreativität wieder freien Lauf gelassen und eine Runde am Campus aufgelegt. Nachdem wir viel Spaß beim Aufbauen hatten, (siehe folgendes Foto) konnte natürlich der Rest des Abends nur noch ein Erfolg werden. Der nette Herr im Vordergrund ist übrigens einer der Co.-DJs, Charnaux (aka Stefan Birne). Wie man sieht, war Stefan im Vergleich zu mir deutlich ernsthafter bei der Arbeit. Vielen Dank an das tolle Publikum. Es hat wirklich wahnsinnig viel Spaß gemacht.

Nachdem ich ganz zufrieden mit meiner Performance war, gibt es hier wieder das Liveset zum anhören. Viel Spaß dabei.

Campus Open Air Summer Term 2015 by Christian Zich on Mixcloud

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Und noch ein Count-Down: Campus-Open-Air am 28.05.2015

Veröffentlicht am 21/05/2015 von christian zich

Ich freue mich schon wieder auf die nächste Woche, denn – vorausgesetzt das Wetter spielt mit – dann heißt es wieder Lärm am Campus. Genauso wie zu Beginn des letzten Wintersemesters spiele ich mit Charnaux und Tommy Loco. Und jetzt noch alle Daumen drücken, damit das Wetter mitspielt.

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