French DJ David Guetta is celebrating after hitting the UK number 1 spot in the music charts – his fifth #1 in the Official Singles Chart since 2008. Lovers On The Sun, featuring US singer-songwriter Sam Martin, has gone straight to the top of the chart, increasing the amount of interest in the DJ’s forthcoming album.
Guetta first hit the top spot in 2008 with When Love Takes Over and since then has racked up four more chart-topping tunes, as well as collaborating as a guest DJ on Flo Rida’s Club Can’t Handle Me in 2010, and as the producer on the Black Eyed Peas hit I Gotta Feeling in 2009. To date, the French DJ has sold over nine million singles in the UK alone.
So why have international DJs taken up residency in the UK Singles Chart so successfully? Surely the audiences they play to are not that influential in the grand scheme of things?
From zero to hero…
Well, although audiences in the clubs where top DJs play may be proportionally smaller compared to the number of people who actually buy music, the influence they have, (as well as some pretty clever marketing techniques from the DJs and their record labels), means that tunes played in a club in Ibiza can be hitting the download listings within hours and boosting the sales numbers. And it’s all thanks to the Internet.
Before downloads were considered as part of the weekly sales in the Singles charts, DJs had much less of an impact on the type of music being bought online. However, now that downloads play a key part in the sales figures, you are starting to see a lot more DJ-inspired records topping the charts. The bands may not like it, but the simple fact of the matter is that dance music is a massive influence on the music-buying public, and to compete against the slick marketing and the power of word of mouth on social media, bands are going to have to step up their own efforts in order to stand shoulder to shoulder with the DJs.
Obviously, those number one spots are usually the preserve of top flight DJs, and most ordinary DJs can only dream of such success. But the advent of YouTube and other social media outlets means that if you hit it lucky, even a humble ‘jobbing DJ’ from a small town can make it big.
If that does happen, be prepared to deal with the instant fame and the commercial pressure that it could entail. If you’re already organised with everything from good PR and a marketing plan right through to DJ insurance and some clear spaces in your diary for the sudden rush of bookings a hit record can lead to, then making that transition from bedroom DJ to international star can be much easier and less stressful.