What DJs Get Wrong About the Music Business | 30 Years of Lessons from Don Rimini

My FREE PDFs: 🎯 The 3hour Weekly Signature Series ( Brand Growth Strategy ): https://freebiee.highbloo.com/ 🎯 The 60 Minute Booking Machine: https://freebie.highbloo.com/ 🎓 WORK WITH ME 1-ON-1: Ready to stop playing in your bedroom and build an undeniable DJ brand? Apply for my 1-on-1 coaching program, where we install my complete content, network, and outreach system for your specific situation. 👉 https://inevitable.highbloo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- What does it actually take to make it as a DJ; and what are most young DJs completely getting wrong? This episode is in French. Activate subtitles for English translation. In this episode of In Alignment With Highbloo, I sit down with Don Rimini — Belgian DJ and producer who has been shaping electronic music since the 90s, toured the world, built his own label, and seen this industry from every angle imaginable. We go deep into his real story from mixing in his bedroom as DJ Red, to finding the Don Rimini name at 30, to the one evening his best friend Alex agreed to manage him and changed everything. The work, the talent, the luck factor and how he created that luck himself. We also go into the darker side. The sponge metaphor. Getting squeezed dry until there was nothing left. The French booker who moved on the moment things slowed down. The Diplo email he found 10 years too late. And what he wishes he had understood earlier about how this business actually works. In this episode we talk about: — The one thing most young DJs get completely wrong about the business — The work, talent and luck formula what actually gets you there — Why most DJ careers stall and it has nothing to do with talent — The TikTok DJ phenomenon and what it means for real artists — When DJing became a product and a brand rather than just music — Why talented DJs have no excuse not to figure out social media — The psychological danger of success coming too fast — The sponge metaphor getting squeezed dry by the industry — Who actually holds the power in the music business — The AI software he's building to organize 66,000 tracks — The vinyl content strategy that builds credibility in one hour a week 00:00 Intro 00:20 The one thing most young DJs get completely wrong about the business 01:57 The work, talent and luck formula — what actually gets you there 03:18 How Don Rimini started — from bedroom DJ to DJ Red to Don Rimini 06:30 The evening everything changed — how he asked Alex to manage him 08:14 What made his DJ style different from everyone else 09:24 The luck factor — and how he created it himself 10:39 Why most DJs need someone else — and what that means today 11:55 How social media completely reshuffled the cards 13:57 The TikTok DJ phenomenon — followers vs. actual skill 16:14 When DJing became a product and a brand — not just music 18:26 Why talented DJs have no excuse not to figure out social media 20:01 DJ Snake sleeping in the studio — what real commitment looks like 20:21 The DJ Snake email he found 10 years too late 22:27 The difference between making music as a hobby and living off it 24:36 Why the lottery analogy applies to a DJ career 27:32 Finding the Don Rimini name at 30 — why starting later was a gift 29:49 Being king of the world too fast — the psychological danger 32:04 The dark side — hypocrisy, the sponge metaphor, getting squeezed dry 38:12 What the music industry actually is — and who holds the power 39:46 Why it's always about the people — in music and in content 41:27 What Don Rimini is building right now 48:07 The 66,000 track library — and the software he's building with AI 01:06:04 The vinyl content strategy — how to build credibility in one hour a week