Over To You: Is It OK To Hide The Names Of My Tunes?

Digital DJ Tips member DJ Ninja writes: “Would be interested to know your thoughts on having track names hidden when playing out live. I’m generous with my music – if people ask me the name of the track in the booth I’ll tell them the name. I do hold the view of sharing my music to a certain degree among people I trust. But I’ve had too many instances in the booth when other DJs I don’t feel the best of energy from come in and sneakily take pics while I’m playing off of my list.

“I spend hours searching for the crème de la crème and don’t appreciate others in the circuit doing that so I decided to make the track names invisible. Was in the booth recently with Eric Volta who was complaining to everyone that I did that. I guess it’s the age old debate, but what’s your view on it?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

I can understand the irritation, but my personal view is that if all the value you bring to a DJ set is in your tunes, then you are expendable. A good DJ brings personality, energy, mixing, programming, maybe a crowd, and deeper than that, a whole vibe that is uniquely theirs. Someone pinching the names of their tunes shouldn’t undermine that.

If you concentrate on doing the best job you can and leave everyone else to their own devices, you’re wasting no energy on stuff like this, which is a good thing, no?

Another way of looking at it is if you see the DJ as being a conduit for the music, a passer on of the message, then what right have you got not to share the names of those pieces of music? After all, the producers would thank you for it, and there must be karma in that, somewhere. If you really want to play stuff nobody else has (and can get), why not make your own remixes, re-edits and productions, and release them to the world when it suits you?

What do you think? Have you ever done this? Do you sympathise with DJ Ninja? Have you ever been refused a tune name by a DJ? Would love to hear your thoughts below.