How to get on DJ promo mailing lists

What a promo mailing list is

A promo mailing list is a label's list of DJs, radio hosts, journalists and curators who receive releases before they come out. For each release the label sends an email with a link to a private promo page, where the people on the list can stream the tracks, leave feedback and download the files. In return the label hopes the music gets played in clubs and on the radio, reviewed or added to playlists, and it uses the feedback to plan the release.

Most lists belong to a single label. Some are run by artists for their own releases, and some by PR agencies that send promos for several labels, so one request to an agency can reach a group of labels at once. Promo pools, where many labels share one list, work differently: Promo pool or your own list explains the difference from the label's side.

What labels look at before adding you

Every name on a list costs the label something: a promo copy that could leak, a contact to keep clean and a share of the attention it reads in its listening data. So most labels add DJs who are likely to play or feature the music, and they check a few things first.

• You play their genre. A deep house label wants DJs who play deep house. A request that shows you play the label's sound gets further than a large following in another genre.
• Where you play. A residency, regular club nights, a radio show or a streamed series, with names and how often. A label can picture where its track would be heard.
• Recent mixes with tracklists. A mix from the last few months, with a tracklist, shows what you play now. Labels look for their own releases and those of similar labels.
• You credit labels. DJs who list tracks with their labels in tracklists and radio show notes are easy for labels to find and easy to say yes to.
• Charts and reviews. DJ charts on download stores, radio playlists and written reviews show that you pass music on to other people.

A smaller DJ with a weekly show and complete tracklists is often a better fit for a label than a bigger name who rarely shares what they play. You don't need a large following. You need to show that a promo sent to you would be heard by someone.

Where to ask

• The label's join page or sign-up form. Many labels link one from their website, their social profiles, their release notes or the footer of their promo emails. If there is one, use it rather than emailing: it goes straight onto the list the label actually uses.
• The label's promo address. If there is no form, look for a promo contact on the website. Labels often keep demo and promo addresses apart, so don't send a promo request to the demo address, or your music to the promo address.
• PR agencies. The agency handling a label's releases is often named in its promo emails or press releases. Agencies take requests for all the labels they work with.
• Artists you play. An artist whose tracks you play can introduce you to their label or add you to their own list. A request that comes through someone the label knows is easy to accept.
• In person. Label nights, conferences and gigs where label people play. Ask for the best address to send a request to, then send it.

Ask the labels whose music you already play, or would play, rather than every label in your genre. A label that recognises its own releases in your tracklists has every reason to say yes.

The request email

Keep it short and specific. The label wants to know who you are, where you play, that you play their kind of music and where to hear you. Here is an example.

• Send one email per label, to that label only. A request sent to twenty labels in one To or Cc field tells each of them you didn't choose them.
• Leave out attachments. Link to a mix instead of attaching one.
• Skip the long biography. Two sentences about where you play say more than a page of history.
• Don't ask for a specific track the label hasn't announced. Ask for its promos in general.
• Follow up once. If there is no answer after three or four weeks, one short reminder is fine. After that, leave it: labels get many requests and some don't reply to any.

The signature does part of the work, because it is where the label checks your music and your profile. DJ email signature: what to include has examples.

Why promo lists are opt-in

A label should add you only because you asked for its promos or agreed to receive them, for example by accepting an invitation or confirming a sign-up. Data protection law in the UK and the EU expects a lawful basis for emailing someone, and labels that build lists from bought or scraped addresses get spam reports, bounces and poor delivery. A list of people who asked is one where promos arrive and get played.

For you as a DJ, that means three things:

• Ask, or accept an invitation. Being on a list is something you agree to, so you can expect each promo email to say why you are getting it and how to stop.
• Unsubscribe from labels you know but don't play. If you know the label and simply don't want its promos, use the unsubscribe link instead of the spam button. A spam report counts against the label's delivery to everyone else on its list.
• Report real spam. Promos from senders you never heard of and never agreed to are what the spam button is for.

Once you are on a list

Getting on a list is the first step. Labels review their lists, and the DJs who stay on them are the ones who show the promos reach someone.

• Listen and give feedback. A few honest lines on what works and where you would play it are worth more to a label than a rating with no comment. If a track isn't for you, say so or press Pass where the promo page has one: silence tells the label nothing. How labels ask for feedback ends with what useful feedback looks like.
• Keep your email address working. Use one address for promos and keep it. A full mailbox or a closed address bounces, and a bounced address is removed from lists. Promo tools usually block it automatically, because sending to dead addresses hurts delivery for everyone.
• Make sure promos reach your inbox. Check the spam and promotions folders for the first promo from each label, mark it as not spam, and add the sender to your contacts.
• Tell labels when your address changes. Ask them to update it or sign up again with the new one.
• Keep the files to yourself. Promo downloads are for your own sets and shows. Many are marked with your name, and a leaked promo is the quickest way off a list.
• Credit the label in your tracklists and show notes when you play the release. It is the support the label sent the promo for.
• Unsubscribe instead of ignoring. If a label's music no longer fits your sets, leave its list. It keeps your inbox manageable and the label's list accurate.

Many labels stop sending to people who never open their promos. On Dubsend, labels see a contact as paused after they ignored the last 3 promos from that label, and paused contacts are left out of new promos until they engage again or the label resumes them. Opening or playing any of that label's promos is enough to start getting them again.

Your promos from Dubsend in one inbox

When labels send their promos through Dubsend, every promo and invitation sent to your email address is also in your inbox at dubsend.com/inbox, from every label, and it is free for DJs. You sign in with a link sent to your address, which works once for 15 minutes; there is no account or password.

The inbox helps with the problems in the list above. A promo that went to your spam folder, or that you deleted by mistake, is still there. Invitations show the label's card, with its genres, how many promos it has sent and its rating from DJs, so you can see what a label sends before you join its list. And you can unsubscribe from any label in one place. The inbox shows promos sent to the address you sign in with, so use the same address you gave labels. Labels don't see whether you use it.

How DJs get promos from labels covers what to do when a promo arrives, and the For DJs page lists what labels see when you open one.

For labels: making it easy to ask

If you run a list, the DJs above are looking for a way in. Give them one that keeps your list clean:

• Have a join page with double opt-in and link it from your website, your social profiles, your release notes and the footer of every promo. People who confirm by email are added, with their consent on record.
• Answer requests, even with a short no. A DJ who asked and heard nothing often asks again, or stops crediting the label.
• Say what you look for on the join page: the genres you release and what you expect from people on the list, such as feedback on promos.
• Invite the DJs who already play you, and add only the ones who say yes.

How to build a DJ promo list with consent covers the rest from the label's side: where contacts come from, recording consent, what to store for each contact and how to keep the list clean.

Questions