How do I determine what to charge?
Hey Guys,
So i’ve been spreading my name like crazy around campus and stuff, and a few buddies of mine in a frat wanted me to DJ for their frat. We discussed it briefly, and they asked me what I charge. I told them I would talk to them later on and then discuss the price then along with all the other details such as the venue, type of music, and what not.
So my question to you guys is, what should I charge?
Thanks.
$5000, cash and 20 virgins
$200 and free drinks doesn’t sound bad.
how much do you think you are worth per hour?
how much gear are they going to supply, or are you supplying everything?
how may hours are you expected to dj for?
this
frat parties carry too much risk…I say chales.
Well what would you suggest as a base price - without the speakers and lights and all that jazz. I’m not sure how much other DJs charge, so I don’t even have any idea as to how much “I think I am worth.”
If I had a ball park figure in my head, I wouldn’t have started this thread and I would’ve worked with that 
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Thanks guys!
depending on if you dont need to provide additional equipment … $150-200 would sound about right for a socal frat party … just watch for drinks around your equipment!!! 
Probably $200-$500 depending on what your supplying and how long.
EDIT: I’ve never done a frat party 
yeah 200 is base price in most cases. bars private parties and whatnot.
holidays you can jack the price up 
what (frat)house is it if you dont mind me askin?
well you want to know how many people are going to be there. Make sure there is somewhere safe for your stuff.
ask them what there budget is and how much they want to pay. Then turn round to them and say you can do it for another value but a little bit higher.
so lets say they say we would like to pay 150 turn round and say I can do it for 180
are they charging people to come to this party? If so you should go a little more or organise a bonus for all the people you get to come
ColdF, dont risk it buddy! Underage drinking is always done at frat parties and they will go after you if the party gets busted. A while back one forum member got busted for djing at a party cuz of it. Be smart homie, its not worth it. You can get a ticket, and be fined, poss kicked out of school and ur gear can be taken by the cops./
Ohh damn. Really? That and after reading a few responses I got worried about my gear as well. Guess i’ll try my luck at Tia Juanas this week 
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Thank you all for your responses!
That’s strange because if you are sober and just a paid DJ the cops have no right to give you a ticket for being around underage drinkers. So whoever it was that said that either doesn’t live in California (the only laws I’m familiar with) or he did not know the law well enough and got fucked over. I am in a fraternity at SDSU and we are going through a brutal police crackdown but if you are sober (or not too drunk and of age) they will not give you any sort of ticket (personal experience).
what equipment do you have to offer? In my opinion, if you only have a laptop/controller I would not pay anyone more than $75. If you have your own pa system/legit equipment, then at least $150. The reason I say this is because there are WAY to many kids here with pirated VDJ and a laptop calling themselves a “DJ”. And once again, not implying that this is you
Completely understandable.
I will be offering my S4, and depending on how large the venue is - i’ll just say I can bring my monitors and play off those. However, i’m not sure if the Monitors will do. I’m slightly worried about the sound part to be honest.
Tia Juana’s?
Dude your right by me!
What genres you playing?
Are you lookin’ at playing for Merge there on wednesdays?
Lol…
Lots of stuff is just starting to hit south OC, nightlife wise.
Tight to see someoen on here so close to me!
this.
never DJ at frat parties, especially if you don’t have EVERY fucking lame radio song there is. if you’re a house DJ, people won’t stop bothering you with hiphop requests, and when you’ve finally found a couple of hiphop tracks to drop they’ll come up and request rock at which point other people will want some electro. the list goes on - they won’t stop bothering you. from my experience, it’s best to have them rent a small PA, then set up a table and fucking bolt someone’s shitty laptop to it, start winamp or itunes in shuffle mode and get the hell out of there.
Dude, near field monitors will NOT cut the mustard if you have more than 30 people.
Bodies soak up sound and with 50 people there, you wont be able to hear music yourself, let alone the rest of the party.
If you want your party to rock and you want to get a good name for yourself turn up with at least a 15" sub and 2 12" tops. That’d give you good headroom and great bass.
You could even include this in the price youre charging, it costs around £50 to rent a proper system for the night in the UK. So probs about $70 over the pond I guess.
After what I’ve read. I wouldn’t take any expensive gear there lol.
Plan B: tell them you charge $200, show up really late and when everyone is really drunk. Then tell them you will only charge $150, so they don’t beat you up. Make some fake cdj out of cardboard and paint them black. Put a ipod in there and put Like a G6 on repeat. Haha