At the start of 2021 I set the goal to post a new DJ set every week. Initially, this was just to hold myself accountable but it ended up having many added benefits. It is because of these benefits that I continue the practice to this day.

Dancer: “Wow, I loved that set! When is it going to get posted?”
Me: “It’ll probably be a Wednesday.”

Normal dance event interactions

Accountability

The first benefit of keeping a schedule is obvious: it keeps me accountable. Like the idea of “not breaking the chain“, a schedule encourages me to always be making sets. This means that by the end of the year I have 52 more sets in my portfolio and, given the consistent practice, have hopefully improved along the way!

On top of that, deadlines are a great way to fight perfectionism. Without a deadline, there’s a temptation to endlessly tweak the details of a set. With a deadline, eventually I’ve just gotta say “f*ck it” and hit record or risk missing the deadline. It reinforces the idea that done is better than perfect (since there’s no such thing as a perfect set anyways) and can encourage creative problem solving.

Avoiding burnout

The second benefit is probably the most important: it helps me avoid burnout. After a live event I might have a handful of separate sets recorded which means I can relax the next few weeks while these sets release one after the other. Uploading a set itself takes a lot of extra time and effort (most of which is invisible) so these breaks in my production schedule means I can actually feel ahead of schedule instead of constantly feeling behind.

Predictability & virality

The third benefit is predictability. Since I’ve held myself to a schedule this long, my friends and followers on Mixcloud know that when Wednesday rolls around, there’s going to be a fresh new set for them to listen to! This builds both habit, returning to my music frequently, and anticipation, which can only be created when you have that release predictability. These (in addition to the music being good, hopefully) are what keeps folks coming back to listen as frequently as they do.

A follow-on benefit is that the Mixcloud trending charts refresh each week. On Mixcloud, when you tag a set with a genre (e.g. brazilian-zouk), the most “viral” of these sets get promoted to the top of the weekly “Trending charts”. I didn’t realize this at the time (since it took a while for my music to trend regularly) but now this keeps my music consistently promoted highly in Mixcloud which draws more listeners in a virtuous cycle.

Why Wednesdays?

This all leaves an unanswered question: Why Wednesday?

For a long time, my target audience was in NYC. Their weekly socials are on Tuesday and Thursday so Wednesday was a day that didn’t conflict, but could fulfill the Zouk music itch between those socials. If a set landed really well on a Wednesday, it would (hopefully) also be a talking point during the Thursday social. This also avoided busier days (like Monday / Friday and weekends) where a posting might get lost to other noise, or I may be traveling and unable to actually click the “post” button.

Conclusion

The schedule I landed on, posting one set a week, every week, has helped me monumentally. It has helped me build a portfolio, practice more consistently, manage my stress levels, and build a cohort of engaged listeners. I truly think that building a schedule that feels manageable and authentic (while being just a bit daunting) is one of the not-so-secret tools to growing and improving.

Do you have similar tricks for practicing or delivering sets? Let me know in the comments 🙂