If you're an upcoming DJ, you need to hear this. I got booked for the Tomorrowland main stage before I'd ever had a hit record.
Everyone thinks you get on that stage by making the biggest song in the world. I honestly didn't. In 2022 I'd never played at Tomorrowland before. I didn't have any huge hits. I wasn't dominating the charts. And I still got the main stage.
Here's why. For the two years before that, I was doing something almost no one else was willing to do. Twice a week, every week, I did two-hour live streams — and I didn't miss a single one.
Thousands of hours playing music, talking to people, trying new things, building a community. Eventually it wasn't a live stream anymore. It was a global group of people who genuinely just wanted to hang out and listen to me DJ.
And Tomorrowland noticed.
One thing I've learned about them is they don't only book the biggest artist. They do that too — but they're actually paying attention to who's building something real, who's creating momentum, who's making people care.
A lot of DJs think the only route in is a viral record or millions of followers. That's not how it works. If you're consistently giving people a reason to come back, the industry eventually starts coming back to you.
Stop asking how do I get booked, and start asking how do I build something they can't ignore.
