It can be difficult to know exactly what the best method of promotion is for electronic music releases. There are so many promo options available and locating the ones that are valuable and effective is often a tough task. We got hands on with the Reaktion DJ Promo system from www.reaktion.net to see first hand how the service works and most importantly, if it’s worthwhile.
WHAT IS IT?
On the face, Reaktion looks a lot like many other DJ promo services and pools out there. Their model is split into two parts, the first is dedicated to a constant effort to always have the latest and greatest DJs on the system to ensure that their campaigns are reliable and always up to date and the second being the online platform.
We tested the ‘Ultimate Reaktion’ campaign which is the flagship package consisting of an 8 week DJ promo campaign. The package consists of promotion to Reaktion’s pool of:
DJ Mag or Resident Advisor Top 100s
International DJs/AAA
International Radios
Festival & Touring Club DJs
FM Radio DJs In Every Continent
Key DI.FM/Mixcloud/iTunes Shows
Influential Podcasts
Ibiza Residents
Tastemaker DJs
Internet Radios
Tastemaker Radios
Buzz Charts (Music Week Cool Cuts, DMC, Billboard)
Regularly touring DJs
& More
SETTING UP
From activation to having the promotion live and running took less than 48 hours. Upon submitting the files and details for the release Reaktion had the promo live the next day and provided a tracking link where we could keep a close eye on incoming comments. The system holds the promos in an embedded media player where DJs can listen to each track on the promo. All DJs are asked to leave a comment before being able to download the MP3, you can assume then that anyone that has left a comment has also downloaded the release which helped to prove that the promo had indeed been grabbed by a large number of DJs which was our main concern. DJs also leave a rating, these are combined and an average is calculated to give you a score that’s the media rating of the combined DJ pool.
The promos are added to the directory upon upload and split into genres and sub genres. This smart system ensures that DJs on Reaktion are only sent promos for genres that they have expressed an interest in. This is a plus for the Reaktion system as we have found that others tend to send music that is perhaps unnecessary to some DJs. If a DJ doesn’t ask for Tech House, then any releases marked as Tech House will not be sent, the same goes for all other genres and this helps to keep things orderly.
TRACKING & REPORTING
On the first week of promotion, Reaktion sent the release to a large pool and we saw comments coming through in just a couple of hours. This continued for the first 2 weeks and the promotion began to take shape. From 2 weeks and every 2 weeks after, Reaktion sent out another layer of promotion called Feedback Reminders which were sent only to DJs that had not already commented or downloaded the promo. These extra layers of promotion made sure that anyone that missed the first or subsequent mails heard the release eventually. After 8 weeks (the period of an Ultimate Reaktion campaign) we had a full promotion report with 150 comments from DJs ranging from large international names, right through to podcasts, radios, popular genre DJs and others we’d not heard of but support was more than welcome all the same.
In terms of big name DJs that checked the release, we could see the likes of Fat Boy Slim, Above & Beyond, EDX, Don Diablo, Sean Finn, Tocadisco, Kissy Sell Out, Chicane, Vanilla Ace, Paul Oakenfold, Bobby Burns, Sick Individuals, Cedric Gervais, CamelPhat, Annie Mac, Fedde Le Grand, Gareth Emery and many more all checking out the release. Reaktion told us that every release and genre attracts different DJs and whilst they can’t guarantee any particular one DJ will specifically react to any release, we were pretty happy with the names we saw checking in on the promo for the genre we were working with.
When combined it was clear that the promotion had done a fine job of making sure that the global DJ community knew all about the release and that anyone that was potentially going to support it, was doing so. There was a noticeable boost in Google search results, Facebook insights, Soundcloud plays and general attention which left us feeling positive about the process as a whole.
PRICING
With promos starting at £99 per release and available for less with a monthly subscription, the service falls into the medium pricing tier. You can get promotions for less, but we found the communication, speed to put things into action and quality of the overall experience worthwhile. The service is not designed to replace one of the top level services available, but with those kind of promotions coming in at around £500 and above per promo, Reaktion certainly has a fair and valuable price structure considering the depth of promotion offered.
WHO SHOULD USE REAKTION
In conclusion we’d say that the perfect artist/record label for Reaktion would be the ‘up and coming’ guys. If you are already a big international name that’s already getting heavyweight DJ support on every release then Reaktion might just be a replica of what you already have. However if you’re at a stage where you feel like getting a large global reach to a huge number of similar level and above DJs, then Reaktion can be a powerful tool.
What the service does well is put together campaigns that result in a high number of DJ supports from a large pool of mid to large level DJs. This is an area that a lot of artists and labels fail to take advantage of and as a result, people miss out on potentially hundreds of thousands of fans that could be reached. The fact that using Reaktion we secured about 150 DJs of varying sizes saying they would support our release is a big plus. Even if a lot of the DJs here were not A-list DJs, when you combine their followings together, you actually end up with a bigger reach of people achieved than if we had 2 or 3 elite tier DJ supports. We never really thought about our promos in this way but Reaktion clearly has and it does work well.
The promo market is a crowded and unreliable and oversaturated one, but it’s good to know that there are still some services out there doing a good job. The Reaktion promo system does a fine job of getting new promos out to large numbers of DJs. They’re responsive, reliable, well-informed and easy to work with. With their pricing starting at very reasonable rates for single releases and a much more affordable system for monthly subscribers, we’d recommend Reaktion for all electronic genres. If you’re problem is simply that not enough DJs around the world know your name and music, Reaktion might be one of the better options to build a solid foundation of DJ support and recognition.
SUMMARY
PROS
Great value for money
Large pool of DJs
Lots of feedback
Strong communications & customer service
CONS
Some DJs we’ve not heard of
More suited to up and coming names
OVERALL RATING – 8.5/10
“A powerful promo system that delivers long reports with a large reach of international DJs”
Reaktion DJ Promo Online
www.reaktion.net
www.facebook.com/ReaktionDJPromotions
Enquiries: info@reaktion.net