Club Residency - Anyone?
Does anyone have a residency at a club? Just curious to know how you came about it.
I know its a pretty vague question but, I’m trying to learn more about going about this. 
I’ve had a few residencies at club events. The most recent being Asylum Guild, which I am taking a small sabbatical from to get my head straight. Travelling to Manhattan every week is starting to really get to me.
I got this residency the old fashioned way. I was moving down to Jersey from Albany, left all the club nights I was working on there, and e-mailed ALL over the area. I had a demo recorded that I sent around, and one of the guys I sent it to was this DJ at Asylum Guild. They liked it, invited me for a guest spot, and I spun. The downside was that I was spinning during the Skinny Puppy after-party (if you guys don’t know Skinny Puppy, you should)… while Skinny Puppy was STILL playing. That night I did a DJ battle with their “star” DJ (my good friend, now, Jai). We were talking shit to each other in a playful manner. He was talking about how no one was up for battling him and I laughed in his face. He challenged me. It was cute. I looked at my friend and rolled my eyes, he looked at his friend and rolled his eyes. He was guaging it by my set, which, to be fair, was really fuckin weird. I was playing really obscure breakbeat-metal (Drumcorps) and Celldweller, Angelspit, bizarre dance music. So we did a back and forth, two tracks a piece and we matched each other track for track. It was fun. They wanted to have me back.
Eventually two of their residents quit (one for ‘retirement’ and the other for military duty) and they asked me to join.
So, I did what I had to do. I went to all their parties, hung out with them, talked them up, myself up, promoted, did what I had to do.
Yes, I promote the night. It’s a delicate balance, though. Hand fliers are best, but I can’t be the only one passing them out to people. I work with three other guys, thankfully, but even then there are limitations. The internet works wonders but it’s limited. You only find those people who you know to ask (that sign up for LJ communities, join MySpace groups/friends, are on forums). Street promotion still, to me, is key, but it’s so hard to do, what with the day job, the desire to practice and eat, and life responsibilities. Fliers are fucking expensive.
The key is to make yourself known, either as a DJ or as an event. It’s different for me cause the clubs and events I work for are really small right now. I’m working with some people to bring the udnerground back to NYC, but it’s rough, what with prices and a general apathy. But if you get your name out (demo’s, remixes, mix’d CDs, fliers, business cards, etc.) and rub shoulders with people in charge (buy DJs drinks, talk to them, get their info, see if you can get pointers, etc.) you’ll get yourself there.
Feel free to ask more.
great story! - I’m curious to know, when you promote your own night, where is your revenue coming from?
hahahaha… revenue… hahahaha
That’s funny.
So… I think in the 3 years I’ve been DJing regularly, including the few concerts I’ve booked, I’ve walked away with… MAYBE two thousand dollars. MAYBE. Now that’s not including money spent on CDs, gear, fliers, gas, transportation, etc. etc. etc.. Keep in mind my situation, though. I’m working in a very small underground scene without a lot of help from people. I’m one of the few that I know who has a job, let alone a job that pays more than $15/hour. Now I also work in one of the most expensive cities in the world, so… yay!
The money I have made comes from different sources depending on the venue/arrangement. I’ve found the best arrangement to be 100% take on the entrance, venue takes 100% of the bar. The club I regularly work in, and am now taking a break from, only gives us 20% from the bar in the room we spin at. It’s a bad deal cause it’s a small bar with one bartender. The upstairs is a larger bar, better selection, and more bartenders. We lose quite a bit of money that way.
I also refuse to sell my mix CDs. They are a promotional tool for me, and the bands I spin/promote, and I have no right to sell them. The hope is that people will hear the mixes, talk about it and come out to hear me spin, therefore making me more money in the process.
A lot of this, for me, is a losing venture regardless of what I do. I’ve lost thousands of dollars, not even accounting for time spent, and will lose more. I do this cause I love it. Am I doing this the smartest way? of course not. But if I turn this isnot a serious business, start DJing hip-hop and weddings, I’ll slowly lose my mind, and my passion
Post of the month! Thank you for sharing.
Isn’t in encouraging?
i have a brand new house event every friday, i knew the manager of the place a little bit and told him about my idea and their possibilities of making better profits in the bar. im educated in graphics design so i could therefore present a whole package with poster, flyers etc. i do all the promoting myself, sometimes with help from the staff and i do ofcourse get paid to do it. first night was last friday and they made a record sale, so now im even more exited about next time.
the entrance is free, and i could never dream about taking payment for other peoples music = my mixes!
So your danish like me
Where is this House night? I’m guessing Aarhus…
wow depending on which scene i wish to play to i get $50-$100 nz a night. not too shabby. this is lil old new zealand tho…
The problem with music is that everyone thinks that you do it for the love of it and should give it out for free, not something i quite agree with as musicians need to eat and have a roof over their heads too. So its very very hard to make even $2000 in 3 years and i congratulate you for that I hope all your hard work eventually pays off more for you !
See, I’m not even interested in making a profit. And that $2000 is a REALLY high number. Most likely it isn’t anywhere near that. I could probably sit down and average it together, being the majority of my money has been made in the past year. And it’s also not counting money other people have lost for me in shows they booked that I decided to back shakes head
I do this cause I love it. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to stand to lose thousands of dollars on what amounts to a really expensive hobby. I am not a musician, and I am more concerned with the musicians that I promote (by spinning their music) making the money than me. However, it would be nice to just be able to augment my income slightly to not have to worry. To, y’know, make enough to cover my expenses or something. I do this crap enough, right? 
Party Planning 101
Another way to make some money is throwing your own parties. Here’s a little bit of what me and teh homies do-
1- Find a mansion or large venue (Warehouses suffice) that does weekend rentals
2- Find out what the capacity is so you stay within code
3- Find out what weekends have little competition in your genre
4- Contact a named DJ to see if they’ll spin and find out they’re fee
5- Contact potential vendors (We usually take 10-15% of vendor sales +vending fee)
6- Apply for a city permit to do such event (unless it’s a mansion party, then you’re pretty much in the clear). You may need a lawyer for this if you haven’t done this before.
7- Secure location, permits, and DJs
8- Calculate your costs
9- Adjust peripheral expenditure according to desired profit margin (10% is a good number)
10- Calculate potential door costs
11- Do the alcohol work around: Have a “bartender” guarding drinks. They cannot be taking orders for these drinks and you should use crap alcohol unless you have the money to dish out for an alcohol permit. There should also be a sign that says something along the lines of “Donations for alcohol = x amount”
12- Marketing, marketing, marketing
13- Throw the party
14- Call the cops on another party across town; J/k =p no… but seriously, the party doesn’t really need to exist. Just needs to be called on an area in a club district.
15- Hire a cleaning crew
16- Pay everyone. Remember to pay everyone or you’ll probably get your ass kicked
17- plan for the next party.
Hope this helps =)
Good post .
I think the important thing is, where do you live.
In NYC all the venues pretty much want whatever promoter will bring in the most money for their space. If you are drawing 200 people and someone else comes along and says that can bring 300 then you will be looking for another venue. Sorta hard to build up a following if you are always moving around.
I’m coming on 10 years now spinning for a NY night called Contempt. It’s only around cause everyone volunteers which keeps the overhead down. I’ve tried to my own thing a time or two but I don’t have deep enough pockets to keep the event going long enough to break even.
Now I’ve been traveling to many cities this year. I went to clubs that played similar music to mine in was in Salt Lake City, San Antonio. Those places had venues that had similar music almost every night of the week. The drink prices were like 1/3 of the NY prices. I went to a weeknight event, and the SLC club seemed to have more staff than patrons. Maybe 50 people in San Antonio. If this were in NY that would probably be the last night.
NY venues have this scary thing called a bar guarantee. Want a weekend? Well then they want maybe $10,000 in drink sales. Lets say it’s bad weather and only 50 people show and drink $1,000 at the bar… well you now owe $9,000. I’ve had security keep their eye on me at certain places when the bar guarantee was missed to make sure that I didn’t skip out without paying up.
Every venue is different. Normally you keep all at the door, but I’ve been to some places that wanted a cut of that too. It’s been years, but there was once a place that gave the promoter a cut of the bar once it got over the bar guarantee.
So your best bet is to follow some of the other advice posted and be nice and promote your way into a spot… unless you live in a town with a low cost of living or you have money that you are willing to lose.
The biggest money I have made so far was spinning for a party at some venue that Marilyn Manson threw for Dita Von Teese and spinning as the opener for a Mindless Self Indulgence show. Both of those were just calls from someone who recommended me when a venue was looking for a certain style of music and their resident dj’s couldn’t handle it.
Great advice !
Been a resident at clubs in Amsterdam and now, Puerto Vallarta
When I first started trying to break out of the bed room back in 2006 I convinced several local clubs (that already played my ‘kind’ of music) to give me a guest spot on a more ‘dead’ night. If I could ‘improve’ the night’s attendance or bar sales I would get invited back.
Get invited back a couple of times and then bring up the possibility of becoming the ‘alternative’ resident, or the guy that fills in when the current resident fails to show up, etc.
DO NOT MISS THAT CALL!
After that it all just fell into place for me. I recently repeated this method with success in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. You can currently find me spinning Dutch, Electro, and Complextro at Roo on the Malecon!
^ Same as this guy. I knew a guy that was one of the promoters at a club. I asked him to take a listen to my demo and let me open on a slow night. I hyped the night up and all my friends came to support. I played a good set and the main promoter brought me back to open on their busiest night. It became the spot for my friends to come and eventually they gave me a primetime shift. We made it an even bigger event for my friends and packed the house. Now I’m the Friday resident. I do “some” promoting. Mostly just posting on Facebook a few times a week and sending some emails/text messages to my friends.
Word got around and another club where I knew someone contacted me to open on Saturday nights. I’ve been opening there every Saturday for about 2 months now and the plan is to do the same. Bring a few people on Saturday nights, work my way into a prime time slot, eventually become the main shift resident.
I’ve also found that part of selling yourself is staying busy. Another DJ hooked me up with a Wed night that he had, and another club has brought me in 1 saturday a month. Clubs/Promoters notice this as I post it on my facebook and mention that I am booked at various places. Some of these though are for shit pay, crappy shifts, bad nights, etc — but to the average person it just looks like I’m booked alot of places so I must be pretty good. It also helps create the “following” clubs are looking for.
I’m on my third residency. My first two came about by just asking for slots.
My latest one came around as i was friends with everybody in the club as i was a regular and one night the club held a ‘DJ Hero’ competition and i entered for a laugh. I came 2nd by 1 mark (now i think back i’m shocked i got that far!).
2 weeks later got a call to come in for a ‘mix’ and been there since. The club doesn’t promote nothing. It’s the biggest of 3 clubs in my town (i’v been a resident in them all).
Every Friday we have around 300 people and every Saturday we have around 500-700 people. £5 to get into the club and i get paid my amount alongside the head DJ and happy days!
Now i used to run a club night which is a totally different thing!!
Not when you consider networking e.g. going to clubs, getting pissed with promoters n 'djs, having a general laugh and getting “involved” in the scene (being seen) could set you back 2k easily in less than 6 months
… then include your gear :eek:
Actually scub that .. just being a punter is going to set you back 2k 
But of course in the underground scene hardly anyone gets paid properly except headliners and (sometimes) residents.
I’m sure theres plenty of wedding, top 40 club and sweet 16/wedding jocks on here earning a reasonably decent living out of DJ’ing mind you? …something I just don’t have the skills for (and yes it defineltly takes a ton of skills to be able to do it IMHO).
[quote]Get invited back a couple of times and then bring up the possibility of becoming the ‘alternative’ resident, or the guy that fills in when the current resident fails to show up, etc.
DO NOT MISS THAT CALL![/quote]
But don’t sell yourself short on your fee’s when it happens either or you will end up playing for buttons in the long term. Co-worker jocks won’t be happy either. Try to find out what the regular fee is, reduce it slightly for the first gig or two if its an issue.