Thoughts on the #djtankboy experiment.

Thoughts on the #djtankboy experiment.

So I finally had a successful test run of tweeting my DJ set last Saturday. I marked everything with #djtankboy so anyone that wanted to cold easily follow along, or reconstruct everything the next day. (I've also, as is my custom, archived the whole set with my thoughts on the evening here.) I just noticed last night that Joshua Pressman live tweeted his DJ set following the format I introduced and that's caused me to reflect on why or why not the practice works.

I've experimented with the notion of tweeting sets for a while, for a number of reasons. At first I was cautious, and afraid I would clog followers streams with something they found annoying. Then I realized that people following me had opted-in to do so, and probably expected to hear something about music from me, right? Also, my DJ sets are at night, and that's when the folks who are probably most interested in that sort of thing are still active on Twitter. Finally, I'm creating a musical narrative, so it's not some annoying bot saying "I just listened to [song], or [username] just loved [song]!"

And then a tweet by the Rev made me realize something else; while it's annoying to see certain clubs or nights spam you all day with requests to come on out (something I refrain from doing ... once or twice is usually plenty) it's something else to actually be able to interact with a gig. I'd get tweets during the set encouraging me, complimenting my picks, or making virtual requests. The next day I got even more feedback, quite a bit of which was "wow, I have to make it to your next gig!"

So overall I think it's a positive idea, at least for me. Since I only DJ a handful of times each month it seems like a worthwhile thing to do. That said, not EVERY set needs to be tweeted. Especially if you're DJing more frequently. There's a fine line between engaging people with your sets in hopes of getting bodies out next time orr building new contacts for future gigs, and annoying the fuck out of everyone to the point they cease both following you and attending your gigs.

What do you think, am I right about this?