DJ email signature: what to include

What the signature is for

Most people who read your signature have one of three questions: who is this, what do they sound like, and how do I reach them or book them. A promoter deciding on a lineup, a label manager reading a promo request or a DJ replying with feedback should find the answers at the bottom of every email, including replies and forwards, without searching for your website.

That makes a good signature short and plain. It is reference information, read on a phone more often than on a laptop, and it gets copied into long reply chains where every extra line is repeated.

What to include

• Your name and your artist name. If you use a different name as a DJ, give both, so people can match the email to your bookings and releases: "Sam Reed (Example Name)".
• Your role and who you work with. "DJ and producer", "Resident at Example Club", "Label manager, Example Label". One line is enough.
• One link to your music. The single page you most want people to hear: a recent mix, your artist profile or your own website if it plays your music. One link gets clicked. Five links make the reader choose, and many choose none.
• Booking and contact. If an agent handles your bookings, put their name and email address, so promoters go straight to the right person. If you book yourself, say so with your own address. Add the city you are based in: promoters plan travel from it.
• Two or three social profiles, written out as plain links. "instagram.com/examplename" can be read, copied and opened anywhere. Pick the profiles you keep up to date.

A phone number is optional. Add one if you take calls about bookings; leave it out if you would rather keep those conversations in email.

A logo or not

For a DJ or producer, a logo or photo in the signature adds little. People know you by your name, and your music link does the work. For a label, a small logo can help recognition, with three conditions:

• Keep it small, around 100 to 150 pixels wide, and light in file size.
• Host it as a linked image rather than attaching it to every email. Attached logos show up as attachments in replies, often named something like image001.png, and they fill the other person's mailbox.
• Never put information only in the image. Many mail apps hide images until the reader allows them, so your name, label and contact details must also be in the text.

What to leave out

• Large images and banners. Tour posters, release artwork and photos make every email heavy, push the text off a phone screen and are often blocked.
• Rows of social icons. Each icon is an image: they appear as broken boxes or attachments when images are off, and they are hard to tap on a phone. Plain links work better.
• Quotes. Inspirational lines, press quotes and lists of who has played your tracks take space and are repeated in every reply. Put support and press on your website or in a press kit.
• Long legal disclaimers. If your agency requires one, keep it to a line or two.
• Every platform you have an account on. Two or three active profiles are enough.
• Follower counts and fees. Numbers change and age quickly, and fees belong in the conversation about a specific booking.

Examples

Three signatures you can adapt. The names and links are examples; swap in your own.

The line with two dashes and a space at the top is the standard signature separator. Many mail apps recognise it and fold the signature away in long threads, and some leave it out when quoting a reply.

A label manager's signature does well to separate demo and promo addresses. Producers sending music they want released and DJs asking for promos then reach the right inbox, and neither request gets lost among the other.

Plain text or HTML

A plain-text signature works in every mail app, survives replies and forwards unchanged, and never breaks. An HTML signature lets you use bold text, a colour and a small logo, but it can lose its layout when someone replies from another app, and signatures built from tables or images often arrive broken.

If you use HTML, keep it close to plain text: a bold name, normal text below, links written out in full. Written-out links still work when the email is converted to plain text, which some mail apps and forwarding rules do.

On a phone

On a phone screen around 375 pixels wide, each signature line should fit on one line or wrap cleanly. Short lines of 40 to 50 characters do that; a single line holding your name, role, three links and an address does not.

Mail apps on phones usually keep their own signature, separate from the one you set on the web or on your computer. The Gmail app has its own signature setting, and the iPhone Mail app's signature is in the Settings app under Mail. If you send from your phone, set the same signature there, or your emails from a gig arrive with "Sent from my phone" and nothing else.

Signatures on promo emails

A promo email is different from a personal email. The DJ opens it to hear a release, so the release details and the listen button come first, and the signature should be short: one sign-off line with a name and the label is enough. The links to the music are already in the button, and repeating your socials and website at the bottom only lengthens the email.

Two things are worth adding under the sign-off, in a footer: how to reach the label with questions about the promo, and, if you have one, where DJs can ask to receive future promos. The unsubscribe link goes at the very end of every promo email.

When a promo tool sends your promos, your mail app's signature isn't used, so set the sign-off and footer in the tool. In Dubsend, when you send with your own branding, the brand's email settings have a Sign-off field (up to 80 characters) and a Footer text field (up to 300 characters), shown in every promo email from that brand; the unsubscribe line always comes after them. The DJ promo email template shows a complete promo email, and the free promo email generator writes one for your release, sign-off included.

For DJs, it works the other way round. When you reply to a promo with feedback or email a label to ask for promos, your signature is how the label checks who you are, so the music link and your residency or radio show belong in it. How to get on DJ promo mailing lists has an example request email.

Questions