The reason I do this sort of thing (well, I don't have an intro track, but I do announce that I'm starting and ending) is to promote myself at multi-DJ events. It's no good to me if people go up to the promoter and say "there was some good music and some bad music", what I want them to say is "I really liked Ian's music - best DJ of the night". The only way they can do that is if they know when I start and when I stop. So, what I will do is talk over the end of the previous DJ's last track, saying something like "thanks to DJ X for the last two hours of music, my name's Ian and I'll be taking you through until 2am" and then go into my first track (which I try to make obviously different from the previous DJ's last track, so there's an obvious changeover).

Sometimes you have to be a bit shameless in your self-promotion. Another thing I do is try to encourage people to mention me to the promoter. Although it's nice when people come up and say how much they enjoyed your set, it doesn't count for anything unless they tell the promoter. So, if someone compliments me on my tunes, I'll say something to them like "that's really nice of you to say that, but do you know promoter X? Well, if you want me at another event, then you should really tell him how much you enjoyed my set too". They will often say "good idea" and go off and find the promoter.

I also do something similar in slightly different circumstances. Sometimes I'll be at an event as a punter, rather than working and someone who's heard me DJ will start talking to me. Sometimes, they will say something like "music's not very good tonight - wish you were DJing here". I use that as an opening to say something like "well, you need to tell the promoter about me - then I might be". One person might not make any difference, but if a few people mention me to a promoter, then I might get a booking out of it.

When this happens i try to leave the club as soon as possible as i think it not very loyal to the performing dj and if i cant get work on the reputatation and talent that i have then i am certainly not going to do it at another jocks expense. Not a criticism of you Ian because you obviously do not slag the guy off but its a principle thing for me, the gig might be the only income the guy has and i dont want to contribute to him losing it. I think an intro and then let your talent do the talking should be enough. I have been working clubs from the 80s until the present day as both a dj and an agent/promoter. If you are good enough then people know your name. I also think using an intro is something we did in the 8os but I would never do it now.

Hmmmm ... food for thought!

I guess that at the end, it comes down to what you are comfortable with in yourself and what would stop you sleeping at night. But if I wanted to rationalise it, I'd probably be thinking along these lines ...

Firstly, these situations aren't regular gigs, they'll be monthly with a different DJ each month. So, I'm not getting rid of a regular DJ and getting myself in place instead, it's more trying to get myself in contention for one of the gigs in the following year. I know that I'm still possibly contributing to the guy losing a gig, but I'm not trying to replace a residency, which would make me feel uncomfortable.

In fact, I go out of my way not to do that with a residency. On Tuesday, for example, I filled in at a local club for a guy who was off on holiday. When the bar staff were telling me that my music was better than the resident DJ's music, I was saying things like "it's easy for me to turn up one time and do something different, it's much more difficult for the resident to keep it fresh and exciting week after week".

The second thing is that whenever I get a gig, I'm contributing to some guy not being the DJ there. It's not as obvious and face to face as in my other example, but the end result is still the same.

The third thing is to think of the promoter. With a bad DJ, the numbers will fall and the event will fold. The DJ will still lose that gig, but the promoter will too. Now, in the ideal world, the promoter will spot this early on, kick out the DJ and think "I'll get in Ian, he's got a fantastic reputation". If the promoter doesn't do this, then maybe he shouldn't be a promoter. But if people are already telling the promoter there's a problem with the DJ, I don't feel too bad if they're also saying "Ian is a wicked DJ" at the same time.

But like I said at the start, this is all rationalisation after the event. The bottom line is that I don't feel uncomfortable doing this (bearing in mind it's something which may happen a handful of times during the year - I don't regularly go out looking to displace resident DJs). I think that I feel more like I'm giving things a nudge, rather than doing dodgy, underhand promotion. Perhaps that will all change now, and next time I am about to say something, your words will ring in my ears!

Without wishing to open up another "this is how they do it in the US" argument, I got the idea from US DJs when I've worked with them or seen them in action. When I asked them about it, they basically said that you need some way of letting people know that the last DJ has stopped and that you have started, so the crowd knows what you are playing.

All I know is that since I've started with intros, I've got more positive feedback and people will recognise me more. So, suppose I DJ on a Friday night and I'm hanging out on the Saturday afternoon. In the past, people might not recognise me as a DJ at all and discussion about the music would be more general, about the music all through the night. Now, people recognise me as a DJ and comment on my music specifically (and compare it with the music from the other DJs).

You could argue that this could simply be because I'm a better DJ now than I was before and it's that improvement which has caused this change in attitude. I don't know, but my gut feeling is that a brief intro at changeover time has something to do with it.

I can see what you are saying about your talent being enough, but I don't see any harm in giving it a little nudge with some promotion too.

Thanks for the comments though - it's definitely given me some stuff to think about.

That's fine in principle, but in practice it's more difficult than that.

The big problem for me is that the people who are at the event aren't the people who would be booking me for other events. It doesn't matter how many people at an event think I'm great and start talking to me, they aren't organising other events themselves, so aren't in a position to book me.

The people that can book me (the promoters) tend not to come to each others events, so it doesn't matter how great I am, they don't even see me play.

So what I need to do (as I see it) is establish a reputation so that even if a promoter never sees me play, they will have heard that I'm a good DJ to have at their event. Everything I've mentioned here (doing an intro when I start playing, telling people to mention me to promoters) is geared towards building up a reputation for that reason.