A team of three Penn students is starting a DJ company called Penn Beats.
Engineering junior KJ Jaisingh, Wharton sophomore Zach Slavitt and College sophomore Dhruv Raman — Penn Beats' founding members and Co-Presidents — formed the company in an effort to create a platform to connect student DJs at Penn with venues in Philadelphia.
There are currently 11 DJs listed on the Penn Beats website, and they cover a variety of musical genres such as oldies, hip-hop, and progressive house. The website allows potential customers to book a DJ or create recurring event agreements.
Along with helping current DJs find events and grow their brand, Slavitt said Penn Beats also seeks to educate growing artists, and added that the company is also focused on education — and open to DJs of all experience levels.
"We are also focusing on mentoring and teaching people who might not even know that they have a lot of potential to be good," Slavitt said.
Jaisingh, Slavitt, and Raman came up with the idea to create Penn Beats last summer, after noticing that the Penn community lacked this type of on-campus group.
“Over summer break, we realized that there isn't necessarily a central hub of DJs [on-campus]," Slavitt said. "A lot of people have asked us to teach them. So we realized that's something that the community is lacking."
Slavitt — whose DJ name is Slav — started learning to DJ himself from Jaisingh. He said that in the beginning, it was helpful for him to learn the fundamentals of DJing from a friend who already had an existing setup.
Slavitt added that his advice for new DJs — other than working on the fundamentals with a friend — was to purchase an entry-level controller, such as a DDJ 400, and learn more about the art form on YouTube.
“Since we have both the training aspect, and the more rental aspect, that gives us the opportunity to have a consistent flow of high-quality DJs,” Slavitt said.
Those who wish to join Penn Beats can fill out a form under the community tab of their website.
As the company continues to grow, Slavitt said Penn Beats hopes Penn Beats will be a resource that connects DJs with the community.
"We wanted to establish an organization for people to book and contact DJs," Slavitt said. "We know so many of them, but then when there are events, people can struggle to find one."
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