First Gig few questions

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

First Gig few questions

So… I feel prepared for this event, been practicing in the bedroom for bout 10-11 months and have officially accumulated enough gear and practice to get it on! So my first gig is going to be a relatively small sweet 16 party and im scheduled to be mixing for 4 hrs from 7 to 11. ive done several 1 hr mixes but no more after that usually stopping due to time constraints. May be a dumb question but im guessing that the vibes on the dance floor should make it easy to continue feeding there hungry hears…but am i wrong my library is fairly larrge with top 40’s BS for the event..so that part shouldnt be an issue..i guess im just worried about getting burnt out or something… any tips of any kind are greatly appreciated. oh yea what would you think is a fair price for that? located in the US

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In my opinion you are too much prepared :sunglasses:

What i can add is stay calm and do it simple ( people just want music so they can dance and… :smiley: )

cheers and good luck

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+1. i played at some frat parties and its pretty simple. drop a big hit everyone knows and run the whole song if you need a breather…

4

beers help too…

typically i charge about $200 for 3hours (play time) so that covers setup and takedown.

holidays you can charge more. float $50 an hr and you should get it nbd.

5

Thanks for the responses guys, its for an ex co worker of my girlfriends and i have no lighting effects so i let it ride for $150. figured its my first gig and it seemed a bit reasonable. and thats the one thing ill do differently then my typical mix i think is let the songs play out fairly longer then i normally would. thanks again guys should be a fun time

6

Mix top 40’s with club for the first and last hours and the middle to let songs play out and mix em in. Just don’t cut the songs up too much

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Fair enough if it’s for a mate and all that, but as a general rule don’t undervalue yourself, it’s almost impossible to raise your prices, so start charging what you think you’re worth from the start!

8

I agree. That’s very very cheap for a 4 hr party. The cheapest you want to go with all your gigs would be 200$. In this case I’d charge 250$

9

but in a situtation where you need a first gig, you cant charge alot or else some other better DJ will undermine you with better skills.

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yea I asked what she had in mind and she said she heard 100 from one and 150 from the other…and i wasnt trying to lose my opportunity by telling her i was thinking like 200, so i went with 150 especially keeping in mind i have no lighting equipment yet.

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hey, I’m a lighting technician so if you need my help feel free to ask me… Just putting that out there.

12

Good luck mate! It may be helpful to get some business cards to hand out to people if they like your mixing/music. My first gig was 3 hours and the time just flew by, so don’t worry about it. Have fun, enjoy yourself, and ROCK THE FUCKING CROWD!

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First Gig few questions

Sweet sixteens aren’t much mixing besides intro/outro mixing. Just keep a steady flow of songs. Top 40s from the past 2 years, 80s music, etc… You’ll get a lot of requests, I promise you. I’ve never djd a sweet 16 but I’ve been to them. Just have a bunch of different music on hand. Ask the girl what music she likes before hand. Maybe have her send you a track list and use it as a jumping off point. Some Michael Jackson is good (Billie Jean, thriller) maybe some beast boys. Older boy band shit might go over well but these kids are a bit young for that. Try and find stuff that was popular from when these kids were 8-12. You need some slow dance stuff too. hopefully you have a mic as well. If not, pick one up because the parents always like to say stuff.