How to lose my respect as a DJ

There are really 5 ways:

1. Consistantly play tracks for more than 7 minutes. I understand if your first track takes a while, especially if your playing a trance mix. But if your only packing 10 songs into a 70 minute mix, I am probably going to get bored at some point. Yes, this means you have to actually figure out how your songs are laid out, and it may even mean you have to have (gasp) a few seconds of dissonance.

2. Tracks are not beatmatched. Nothing ruins the immersion like blatant trainwrecking. Considering how much software is out there that will beatmatch your mix for you, there is really no excuse for this. It sounds terrible, I would rather hear you simply shove the fader all the way across in one go.

3. The tracklist is a rearrangement of the Beatport top 10/ASOT/itunes top 10/MTV top 40. Supposedly your into music, I would imagine you have at least 5-10 tracks that haven't been played to death. I mean good god, theres just so MUCH music out there, far more than any human being could ever listen to in their entire lifetime, the entire POINT of a DJ is to aggregate a certain style of music into a mix. All good DJs stay away from tracks played on last weeks state of trance - including Armin himself.

4. Many tracks by the same artist who is not you. Your a producer? Fine, play as many of your own tracks as you want. But once you play your fourth Paul van Dyke track, your set becomes a Paul Van Dyke tribute set, and you should really make the next 8 songs PVD tracks as well. I suppose I can make an exception for legitimate tribute mixes.

5. Repeatably remind the audience who you are. Atleast get an MC to do it for you.