Fing song lists*
So I did the winter dance for my school and of course they gave me a song list for 90% of the event. It was pretty irritating. Now I get another gig for this exchange student dance and guess what? 42 song playlist. Why the fuck do they need me when they can just rent some speakers and use iTunes? jeez.
Get a better gig?
I do heaps of house parties, and the way i look at it is that if their paying me for my skill, speakers, lights etc. They can tell me whatever they want played.
Posted this a while ago, but i charged this girl my normal price for a completely Indian party playing Bollywood stuff etc.
If you don’t want to do it though, decline or just pass on the gig. but it all helps you put your name forward and get more gigs.
You could always say no.
Use it as a jumping point and see how far you can take it. Find some remixes. 42 songs isn’t gonna last you very long anyway.
I mean Im charging 100 an hour for 3 hours so the money isnt bad at all, but its just irritating lol. I feel like the point of a DJ is for his/her track selection AND mixing skills, just just mixing.
Well don’t complain if you feel that your missing a crucial part in your work that you’re still getting paid for(;
ill take the money, heck makes my job a whole lot easier to buld a playlist and drop the tracks in the order they want. BOOM & POW/
Take the job, make a pre-mix cd, do what the ‘big names’ do, raise your hands and turn knobs…get paid!
I wish I got payed 100$ an hour to play some choons. I could understand the concern if you weren’t getting payed, but frankly I don’t understand otherwise. I’d play tunes at a funeral if I was getting that kind of cash.
holy fuck…100 an hour?
dude, you’re playing for 3 hrs…they are giving you 42 songs to play - if you let each song play for 1 hook and 1 verse and mix out that’s like 1.5 minutes per song at most…so that takes up an hr. That gives you 2 hours to kill with your own mixing.
Guess what, I get paid nothing for playing my music.
Stop whining man, if you dont like it, dont do it. Let someone with some passion left have a go.
moan moan moan
the ‘i think im bigger than this’ attitude will get you nowhere.
Last night i made a setlist for a 3 hour gig i have on sat, took me near enough 2 hours to compile the setlist.
They’re doing the work, all you have to do is hit play, why not do what a few others have said and pre-mix some of the set, means when its dead you dont have to do any work, not like they know what your doing anyway.
Ive got 2 45 minute generic top40 dance CDs in my cd wallet for when im playing long sets and the place is dead an hour into the night.
I am totally failing to see the problem here.
You get paid to play tunes to a crowd that will definitely love the tunes and all you need to do is press play and collect a cheque that you can use on more DJ gear.
This is what happens when you are booked/hired for a specific purpose.
You arent being booked to show your skills or take the crowd on a journey. You are being booked as a human jukebox. Suck it up and think of the money, or if your artistic integrity is so frail, just dont do the gig and leave the $300 for someone else to spend on great stuff.
I see the point that your making, i really do. But I see no need for complaining about it.
Jees ive done private hire gigs with a list of 200 songs and only played songs from the list. Had a great time cus everyone at the event had contributed to the list so everyone loved the music, loved me and i got paid. All it took was 4 hours out of my life.
play music you dont like, $100 an hour
get a real job, $10 an hour
/thread
I know he has a song list but still, don’t do this.
You are a DJ. It sucks that you have a song list and it’s probably crap but try and make something good out of it. Do some mashups or something. Don’t do what we all bitch about big name DJs doing.
I would do it.
You’re not being booked to play a club. You aren’t being booked because of your mixing skills. You are being booked because you have a mobile set up, you’re willing to travel with it, and obviously you are doing something right when you play.
If you want to get booked and show off your skills, you need different types of events. I have never heard a wedding dj complain that he was given a set list, and paid to play those songs. It comes with the territory.
You are a DJ, your job is to play music for people. If they give you a 100 track set list and there’s a few tracks you despise, don’t play em. They will love the tunes, and you could even drop your own in there once and a while. Don’t play grimey electro for 10 minutes, but drop some fun once and a while, and then bring it back with partyrock anthem. As long as you drop their “bangers”, you should be able to get away with your own tracks here and there.