Family party
My family does a lot of parties, about 2 or 3 a month, and since I DJ’d the last New Years party they always ask me to dj for the partys. The thing is that as we all know DJ equipment can be very expensive and we all want the new gear. Here is the big question, is it right to charge?
i would say no… family is family!
a tip jar at the dj booth could be acceptable, but i definitely wouldn’t charge my family.
..but that’s just me!
charge ur family? duuuuuduudeeeee
I would accept…
Washing Tokens
Ironing IOU’s
Car Washes
Dish Duty.
Squeeze the bastards for every penny they’re worth.
This is a difficult one i would say as if it was once in a blue moon then i would agree with above but 3 a month! thats one wekend off a month.
…but then again your doing something you love so it could be worse
is good experience…
Family as in mom dad bro sis, or as in 3rd cousin Louis, Mom dad etc raised you so i think you can dj and call it even. Infact you still owe them.
3rd cousin Louis, is someone you know who’s sort of distantly related, use the normally “i charge X, but because you’re family i can do it for X/2.”
try and be like… but i cant do a gooooood job wihtout speakers (insert other gear here)!!!
buy me some? and serato? i have a friend whos got a harddrive i can copy 4 u. 
i dont know how close the family members are to you,
but IMHO… you cant charge family…
as someone already stated, its good experince for you…
however, if you have a paid gig that is on at the same time as one of your family partys, do the paid gig. and see if you can get as many of your family/friends to show up to support you. if the family partys are becoming a chour or are effecting your personal life like time with GF or taking you away from paid gigs, then dont do them so much, but if your just floating around with notting much better to be doing, then just have fun doing them. use the oppurtunity to branch out to get real gigs, make up some mix cds and business cards and give them out to family and friends to give out to other people, even if they just talked about you, the word of mouth is bound to get you something, im sure there will be friends of friends needing a dj for a 21st/30th or something like that.and for gigs like that you can charge.
I pulled that string. Told him I needed new equipment.
I usually don’t charge with family its just that this time I have way more stuff to carry than the regular, bought a pair of Behringer speakers. Yes I know I will learn and expand my experience in every single party I do but as my mind expands my pockets gets jealous because its not expanding also.