DJ marketing is essential and Carl Cox is the living proof
Making a sustainable career from DJing relies on a lot more than just your mixing skills and track selection; you’ll also need to know how to promote yourself as a brand. Social media is one of the most important tools you can use to build your career. Whether it’s using it to get bookings, drive traffic to music, or any other reason, branding is absolutely key to success in the industry. In this article, we’re going to take a look at Carl Cox’s career, and understand how he built up a persona to become one of dance music’s most respected artists.
Throughout his many years as a DJ, Carl Cox has been respected as one of the most prevalent people within the music industry. After all, his tireless energy and legacy-inspiring mixes certainly proved to be a hit amongst anybody on the dance floor of a club or event. For many people attending his shows, it does not feel like they are buying a ticket to see a DJ perform. Instead, it feels like they are donating money to become a part of a beautiful experience – shared by hundreds/thousands more people. In almost a religious way, many nightclub goers feel like it is the chance to be a part of something meaningful and wonderful within the music industry. All of this is of course complemented by Carl’s extremely warming personality. At the current age of 56, he is certainly able to remain relevant – despite the saturated scene in which many producers are trying to establish a career for themselves.
One of the driving factors behind his ability to sustain a legacy is undoubtedly his ability to appear authentic and true towards anybody he meets within the music industry. Whether it’s a club promoter, artist manager, or simply a fan wanting to talk, it is certain that each of them encounters the same loving and attentive personality during the conversation. During what is arguably the prime of his career, he was playing pretty much everywhere you could imagine. Whether it was a rave in Germany, the United Kingdom, or pretty much anywhere else in the world for that matter. His ability to understand the crowd and reverse engineer them, no matter the venue or location, is absolutely tremendous. With the skill to be able to play multiple genres of techno, multiple audiences can immediately be catered for. As a DJ, you should be constantly trying to expand your palette regarding the genres of music in which you’re able to play during shows. Essentially, if you’re able to show the promoters and fans an abundance of talent, there’s a high probability that you’ll get booked multiple times due to being someone in the minority of producers with that skill. A good example of this is Above & Beyond: their ability to play both trance and acoustic music allows them to cater to multiple audiences.
Despite his 25 or so years as a DJ, Carl Cox has always remained true both himself and his artistic brand. At no point during his career has he “sold out” to another genre in order to capitalize on financial gain. Instead, his ability to remain authentic is most likely what has captured his audience’s hearts, and made them dedicated fans for life. Without the need to become an “entrepreneur” and establish clothing lines and merchandise sales, Carl Cox is simply doing what he loves the most. That is undoubtedly one of the reasons as to why his brand has remained so strong over the years.
Another reason why Carl Cox has remained as one of EDMs most iconic DJs is his ability to constantly identify problems, and improve a situation so that it yields a better result for everyone. As a person and as a DJ, he is not afraid to step up and take control in order to establish a solution. As an example, Ultra Music Festival used to be an extremely American festival driven by contemporary electronic dance music. However, Carl Cox managed to arrange a deal which saw him playing underground music to a large audience in Miami. Creating the symbolism of what Ultra Music Festival is today, he was able to help introduce more unknown acts, and varieties of music to help compliment the entire festival.
Another point worth mentioning is undoubtedly his efforts in Australia to create a better music scene for the country. Due to the financial and economic crisis, many music festivals within the country were having to shut down to a lack of funding or revenue. However, his “pure” concept resonated with people as it simply wanted to establish how things used to be once more. After playing big shows, festivals, and helping to establish an electronic touring scene (predominantly the big cities), Carl Cox was able to help build the electronic music industry of Australia back up to its fine form. Of course, all of this incredible innovation does come at a large financial risk to the British DJ. However, his authenticity and passion towards the electronic music industry allows him to understand these risks, and create meaningful opportunities for the entire underground electronic music scene.
The answer is simple: Carl Cox’s passion and love for the electronic dance music scene is what has helped sustain his brand throughout his multiple decades as a producer. His ability to have a genuine passion, and create meaningful change when times are tough is what inspires his fans to purchase tickets, listen to mixes, and remain a lifelong fan of his artist brand. Despite incurring many sleepless nights and hardships (like anybody would in the music scene), his ability to maintain focus whilst on stage is truly awe-inspiring. Whether it’s a small intimate club in the United Kingdom, or one of the biggest dance events in Ibiza, his humbleness and lack of ego is something rarely seen within entertainment these days.
Becoming a well-respected DJ in the music industry is about so much more than simply releasing music and playing shows. As Carl Cox has shown from his evergreen career spanning multiple decades, staying humble and true to yourself is extremely important when it comes to up-keeping your brand. Whether it’s the simple practice of replying to social media comments, messages, or simply putting out a video telling your audience that you are grateful for their support, social media is an extremely powerful tool that can boost your artist brand in order to drive streaming plays, bookings at shows, and many more things.