Adam asked the following questions about creating a DJ’ing website:
Hey man, excellent post. I really appreciate the effort and information! (He’s referring to this post, in case you’re wondering).
I’ve been looking into this myself for a while. I’ve been DJing for over 30 years and am pretty fortunate in that I’m not looking to make money at all, and I don’t DJ out in the wild anymore, so I’m not looking to get gigs. I just want to create a site where I can host my mixes (and accompanying artwork and articles for each mix!), talk about music, production, share related articles, discuss the culture and really just share some great records and love for the scene, if it costs me 20-30 bucks a month to run I’m also fine with that as it’s been my passion for over 30 years.
I also need to get off Mixcloud… it’s just so limiting for what I want to do.
So with this in mind (paid options) what would you say is the best route?
Mix Storage and access for listening or downloading, and presentation / creative possibilities etc are super important. I’ve built a Wix site in the past and have very strong Graphic Design capabilities so have experience in these areas which is obviously a bonus.
Cheers, and happy new year!
My response:
Glad you found the article helpful. And thanks for leaving a comment and for the questions. I’ll do my best to give you some advice.
Firstly, I agree with you about Mixcloud. The platform is limiting, and now they’ve limited their free tier, I expect more DJs will be looking to build their own websites.
So what’s my experience with running a DJ site? Well, I’ve been running DJKippax.com since 2007. I hand-coded my first website using Dreamweaver, a few years later, I moved my site to Joomla v1, and around 2012 I migrated my site to WordPress. And I’ve been using WordPress ever since (that’s the full version and not the free one hosted at WordPress.org).
Like most WordPress newbies, I initially relied on shared hosting for my first WordPress sites but have since moved over to using Linux-based VPSs (Virtual Private Servers).
I’ve setup 100’s of sites over the years and have a side business providing hosting, web design and marketing services for local companies.
All my sites run using an optimised Nginx stack provided by CenMinmod. I don’t recommend this for new WordPress users. I only include this and the other info to show you that I have a lot of experience in web design, DJ websites, WordPress, server admin and hosting.
Anyway, moving on…
Table of Contents
Mixcloud vs Having a Website
So, is building a website worth it, and how does it compare with a Mixcloud account?
There’s no comparison really. Mixcloud is more of a social media site that can store audio. I won’t go into the features of Mixcloud, as most DJs know what it can do.
You can do the following things with a DJ website (this can vary depending on what you use):
- You can publish blog posts – written and visual content.
- Distribute large files, including big audio files like mp3 mixes.
- Use can use your site to build up an email list, push notification list, and encourage people to follow your social media profiles (this can include convincing people to follow you on Mixcloud/Soundcloud etc.
- Track your visitor numbers and downloads for free (this varies – more details about this below).
- Publish gig dates.
- Add media players to any page or post.
- Start or host a podcast for mix distribution.
- Sell merchandise – this might be music, tickets, clothing, etc.
- It can be cheaper to run your WordPress than have a Mixcloud premium account.
- Lastly, it allows you to compete in a less crowded space with DJs.
This is just a tiny example of things you can do with a website that you can’t do with Mixcloud.
One downside of running a website is its complexity. Likewise, the choice of what you use to build your website will be determined by how averse you are to complexity and if you’re willing to learn new skills.
To summarise: The more you are willing to do yourself, the cheaper your website costs will be.
Uploading Mixes: Mixcloud vs Your Own Website
Firstly, Mixcloud is a more straightforward solution than running your own site. To upload a mix to Mixcloud, you simply upload the mix via your web browser, track mark the mix, add titles, tags, and artwork, and finally publish.
Uploading a mix to your own website is trickier. It may also require the use of other tools and programs.
How you upload and add mixes to your site will depend upon the website building platform or CMS (content management system) you choose. Some website builders will allow you to upload your mix via the browser, whilst others may require you to use FTP (file transfer protocol).
FTP isn’t hard to use. But it can seem a little daunting if you’ve never used such a system to upload files before. Because depending on how your web hosting and the CMS is set up, you may have to place the files in specific directories, and you may even have to alter the permissions of the files before they can be downloaded. Also, the filesystem in your hosting account might be Linux based, which can be confusing if you’ve never used it before. Again, all this will vary depending on your service or system.
If anyone reading this is looking for an FTP client, I recommend this free one. It’s called FileZilla, it’s open source, and I’ve been using it for years.
The Social Aspects of Music Hosting Sites
Mixcloud, Soundcloud and Hearthis also have another advantage. Namely, they’re social sites to some extent. It’s possible to build followings on those sites and notify users when you’ve released something new.
The downside is that (like every other walled garden service) you can’t export your audience elsewhere. So, if a service ever changes for the worst, you can’t take your followers/fans with you.
The easiest way to gain a fan base with your website is to build an email list. Regardless of the website-building tool/platform you use, most of them have the necessary tools which will allow you to build up an essential email list and send emails to fans.
One great thing about having an email list is that you can export it to another service provider if you want to switch. If you can export your list from your service provider you’re never locked in.
Wix, Squarespace or WordPress: Which is the best platform for a DJ website
Before we go any further, I’d like to say that I’ve never used Wix, Squarespace or a similar platform. So, I don’t know how good/bad they are for a DJ site. I base my answer on the features they offer on their sales page and my experience running my own site over the years.
Firstly, Wix, Squarespace, and similar, are all good platforms, and they’ve improved a lot in recent years, but they’re not designed to distribute large files like MP3 mixes. And if you want to share your DJ mixes, keep this in mind.
Bandwidth
When it comes to building your own DJ site disk space and bandwidth are your main concerns. Because unlike a typical business website (which don’t often use much of either), storing and distributing large music files eats bandwidth and disk space up for fun.
If you want an example of how much resources a modest site like mine can consume, I suggest reading this post I wrote a while back. I have about 5 gigabytes of mixes on my site, equating to around 1TB of bandwidth per month.
So before signing up with Squarespace, Wix, or similar, check their T&Cs and find out if bandwidth limits exist. Also, find out what happens if you exceed these limits.
One of the significant advantages of building a site using WordPress is that you can find hosting companies that have generous bandwidth/disk space allowances, and some even provide unlimited bandwidth.
Furthermore, it can help if you scrutinise their T&Cs and offers regarding bandwidth. Because some web hosting firms can pull sneaky tricks like offering unlimited bandwidth for photo and site files but not unlimited data for things like music files and video.
Diskspace
Likewise, you’ll want to pay attention to the amount of disk space they offer. Be aware that whatever space they offer might also be used by other site elements like images, videos (if you choose to host them on your site, not on YouTube), and other media.
For example, the ‘unlimited’ package Wix offers has 10GB of space. But this space might also be used for your site files, backups, images, music, and video files. So, although you’re paying for 10GB of disk space, you might not be able to dedicate all this space for DJ mixes as it’ll be shared amongst the other things on your site.
Also, keep an eye out for hidden restrictions which may affect things if you’re building a DJ site. For example, Squarespace only offers 30 mins of video hosting on their platform. So, if you’re planning on using your website for hosting/distributing video mixes, you’d only be able to offer a 30-minute mix which isn’t great.
You could try to upload your mix to YouTube, but as we all know, YouTube is sketchy for DJ mix hosting or video DJ sets which contain copyrighted songs.
WordPress Diskspace and Bandwidth
Things are different with WordPress. Because WordPress is just software, it can be installed on the servers of most web hosts.
Competition is fierce in the web hosting industry, so finding a provider with generous monthly bandwidth and disc space is not hard. Also, the monthly cost for WordPress hosting will often be much cheaper than Wix or Squarespace hosting of similar specs.
I’ve seen WordPress hosting for as little as $5 per month. That’s cheaper than Wix/Squarespace and even the premium versions of Soundcloud and Mixcloud. As you can see, a WordPress website will cost much less over the long term.
And because WordPress is an open platform, if your hosting company service turns to crap, moving your site to a new host is a trivial task. Again, you’re not tied to a specific service or platform.
If you’re looking for a good WordPress host, I can recommend Bluehost. Stay away from companies like GoDaddy and the other big names.
And if you don’t like Bluehost, look on Reddit for hosting reviews. Just be aware though some companies try to shill Reddit as they know people commonly use the site to find trustworthy hosting reviews.
Lastly, hosting companies can change for various reasons, and their services can start to slip and worsen. So, learn how to back up and restore your WordPress website because this makes it easy to move your site if needed.
Ease of Use and Getting Started
You won’t beat Wix and Squarespace for ease of use. Likewise, you’re likely to be able to get a site up and running much faster with these services.
The primary goal of these platforms is to allow users to build a website as quickly and efficiently as possible. They’re designed for people who don’t want the headache of setting up their own website or don’t want the cost of hiring a developer to build them a site.
Wix and Squarespace take care of a lot of the more complex stuff like security, themes, and updates. So these are things you won’t need to worry about if you go with one of these services.
WordPress is excellent, but it has a learning curve. It’s up to you to take care of the complicated stuff like hosting, site configuration, security, choosing a domain name, email, backups, etc.
But where WordPress shines is its plugin and theme ecosystem. Because WordPress is the most widely used CMS and has been around for years, the number of plugins and themes available is massive.
If you don’t know what a WordPress plugin is, I’ll explain: a plugin is a small piece of software which can be installed in WordPress to give it extra features and abilities. One way to think of them is like the apps on your phone.
You can find WordPress plugins for pretty much anything, including media players and enabling users to download large music files from a website. So, it certainly can produce a fully functional DJ website that can host and distribute music files and videos.
If you want to learn how to use WordPress, I’d recommend learning how to install it locally on your PC first. And then learn how to publish content and use the CMS’s basic settings. After this, learn how to install themes and plugins. All this can be done on your PC, and you won’t have to pay for hosting. It’ll also be much more secure as you won’t have a live site out in the wild, so you won’t have to worry about bots, hacking attempts or other malicious things attacking your site.
Website Builders & Blogging Features
Wix, Squarespace and WordPress all have decent page builders. I’ll explain if you don’t know what a page builder is: A page builder is a drag-and-drop editor. You drag elements from a side menu in the back end (non-public facing part of your site, the admin interface) onto a page to create your web page. Once you’re happy with the arrangement of things, you can publish your page, and it’s then available to the public (the front end).
Most page builders will have common web design elements like a picture gallery, social media links widget, and link button elements. And many page builders will have elements useful for DJs building their own sites, such as Soundcloud/Mixcloud player embeds, the ability to embed download links in a page, and social media follow buttons.
So, when it comes to blogging and page design, Wix, Squarespace and WordPress are all a good choice
However, WordPress has a few advantages. For starters, a few page builders are available for WordPress: Elementor, Beaver Builder and the default Gutenberg are just three free examples. All have their strengths and weaknesses.
Also, WordPress is an open platform. As such, it has tools which allow the export/import of blog post files in a standardised format. This allows you to easily export your data to an alternate CMS (or WordPress site) if needed. Wix, Squarespace and most other proprietary web builders offered by web hosting companies won’t have export tools as they don’t want to make it easy for you to move your data elsewhere.
For anyone considering using WordPress for their first DJ site, I offer this advice for building pages (not posts): Use Elementor for page design instead of WordPress’s own/default editor Gutenberg. And for straightforward blog posts (like what you are reading now), use the Classic Editor plugin.
Elementor is much more user-friendly and intuitive than Guttenberg. And the Classic Editor brings back the old WYSIWYG editor, which is much better when dealing with large amounts of text.
And if you’re like me and you do most of your writing in MS Word or equivalent, I recommend using something like Mammoth .docx converter, which allows easy import of Word docs into WordPress.
Security and Site Admin
Now we’re on to the serious bits, namely website security and admin.
One significant advantage of Wix and Squarespace is that they take care of the complicated stuff like admin, updates, and security.
With Wix and Squarespace, you can’t access the important parts of your site or hosting, which helps prevent accidental screw-ups which can take your site offline. Also, this limited access reduces the attack surface for hackers – there’re fewer ways to get in and gain unauthorised control of a Wix/Squarespace site.
With WordPress, things are different. You are responsible for your hosting, website, and plugins, all being fully functional and secure. You are responsible for site updates. You are responsible for backing up your site and restoring it when needed.
WordPress gives you much more freedom and features than the propriety page-building services. But it’s up to you to manage it correctly, have good working policies, and deal with problems if they happen. As the saying goes: with great power comes great responsibility.
Here are some tips for WordPress admin and security (this is by no means an exhaustive list):
- Play with WordPress locally first, and don’t deploy a live site until you feel you have the hang of the basics.
- Learn how to back up AND restore your site, as this will help in an emergency. There are backup plugins for WordPress which make this task easier. Again, check Reddit for reviews. I can’t recommend anything. I do backups using Cron and a bash script on my Linux servers.
- Keep a few weeks’ worths of backups, not just one. Sometimes hackers infect sites and wait a few days or weeks before activating a hack and seizing control of a site. They do this because they hope to infect your backups (infected backups are compromised because if you restore them, the vulnerability or back door will still be present).
- Distribute your backups. Keep some on your server and keep copies on your PC. This can often be automated either using FTP or via a plugin.
- USE SECURE AND LONG PASSWORDS WITH RANDOM NUMBERS AND CHARACTERS FOR EVERY PASSWORD. I often don’t write things in full capitals, but I cannot stress how important this is. Use a password manager like KeePass to keep track of all these big and hard-to-remember passwords.
- Install Jetpack on your WordPress website. It gives you some decent stats for your site and has some good features for securing the admin login page. The free version is all you need.
- If your server is Apache based, you can install something like Wordfence to protect your site further. I recommend you subscribe to their blog as they publish updates on compromised plugins and other WordPress security threats.
- Don’t just install any plugin/theme at random. Installing plugins is like letting strangers into your home – each must be vetted and verified as safe. Check reviews, check Reddit, and keep an eye on how often the plugin is supported and updated.
- Don’t install hacked or nulled plugins on your site because you are asking for trouble. You might have installed pirated software on your PC and might be wondering why you shouldn’t do the same for your WordPress website. The difference is that your PC is hidden away from the public internet behind a firewall via a router. By contrast, a website is online to the public 24/7. It will get probed by hacking bots several times a day. This website alone receives probably hundreds of scans/probes/crawls per week by unknown (and likely) malicious actors. Often, nulled/pirated plugins are supplied freely by hacking groups as they’ll have compromised them. The nulled could potentially contain a backdoor which might allow someone to gain control of your site and use it for bad stuff: like distributing malware, spamming or other bad shit.
If all this seems like too much hard work, then you might be better off opting for Wix, Squarespace or some similar service.
Hidden Limitations
Another thing to watch out for if you’re considering Wix, Squarespace or related services is that they sometimes charge extra for standard features.
One example of this is Squarespace; you only get simplified analytics with their paid packages. However, it’s likely that these stats probably won’t include audio file plays/downloads which are important metrics for a DJ site.
Also, when choosing a website-building solution, check the upload limits for file types. Wix only allows 50MB audio files (unless Wix music is used), and Squarespace only allows a max of 500MB audio/video file uploads with their base package. So, if you’re planning to upload lots of long DJ sets to your site, you might struggle with these limitations unless you upgrade your package.
As you can see, sometimes these sites have hidden restrictions which probably wouldn’t affect most normal websites, but a DJ site isn’t a typical site. A DJ site requires obscure features like allowing the distribution and streaming of large music files.
So, if the site you’re planning to build requires more obscure features, it’s up to you to ensure whatever website builder you can choose can do what you want. You don’t want to get halfway through building your site only to find it’s missing an essential feature you require.
So, plan out your site and make sure whatever solution you choose can achieve your goals.
Cost
Without a doubt, a WordPress site will be much cheaper to run in the long term. WordPress is free to use, and there are many great free plugins and themes for WordPress. And even the paid plugins/themes for WordPress don’t break the bank.
Your primary monthly cost with WordPress is hosting. And fortunately, there’re lots of hosts to choose from – resulting in more competition and, thus lower prices. Also, as long as you learn how to back up and restore a website, you can move hosts if you find a great offer elsewhere.
Wix and Squarespace have much smaller disc capacity on their cheaper packages. And if you want more, you will require one of their more expensive tiers. This could be a significant cost over the long term.
Conclusion
Ultimately what you choose is down to your tolerance for complexity and willingness to learn.
If you are prepared to pay, costs are less of an issue, and you want to get a website up and running ASAP, choose Wix or Squarespace. But be aware that you might one day exceed their disk space and bandwidth limits or even find them lacking features as your site grows and your goals change.
And remember, Wix, Squarespace and other proprietary site builders do not make it easy to export and move your data/site elsewhere. You’ll be looking at an entire site rebuild if you want to move.
WordPress is harder to use, and you need to learn more than just the CMS. But over the long term, it’s much cheaper to use, and you own your site and its data. It’s also easier to hire a developer to set up your site and ensure it’s configured correctly (if you or anyone else would like to hire me to build you a full DJ site, get in touch here).
If you like learning new skills and don’t mind getting your hands dirty and if this is a long-term project – I’d be liable to learn and use WordPress. It’s a much better and cheaper solution over the long term.
I’ve written about using WordPress for DJ’ing websites a while ago, you can the article here.
So, Adam, I hope this answers your questions.
If you or anyone else has any questions, leave them in the comments below. If it’s a good question like Adams I might even turn it into a long blog post like this one?.
Keep on scratching
James DJ Kippax
