How much time invested until profitability ; Earning a few bucks in graduate school.
I’m new to the forum and seek to learn all that I can while on here. I’m currently a newbie to the DJ world with the aspiration of becoming a performing dj / producer. I am also currently a senior level student finishing up my bachelors degree.
I currently am faced with a dilemma and you guys can be of tremendous help.
I am currently on track to work in the business world within marketing. After getting a taste of practical business experience, I realize, that in order to get ahead in corporations and agencies you have to put in a lot of hours, we’re talking 50+. If I don’t find a job within 40 -50 hour range, it’s not really worth it to me. My true aspiration is to make something out of DJ / Producing, not earning 100k+ by working 60+ hours in an industry thats mildly interesting. In the mean time, I know I need to make a living. The goal would be to go to grad school in a career that allows for a work/life balance. Im not sure marketing will allow me to get that.
Do you guys think it’s it is possible to become skilled enough to land paid gigs within one years time of learning how to do to dj? Could it be enough to pay your bills as a broke college student?.. Post - grad, I would fall back from DJing for money and focus on producing. Figuring the sequence of it all is crucial to my game plan.
How do you even know you like it? This sounds like a ridiculous plan, though yes it is definitely possible to get there in 1 year time if you invest a lot of time.
Unless you DJ for the love of it, you won’t get particularly far. I say that because actually getting to a point where you can earn reasonable money from it is both time consuming and annoying, so it’s something you would need to enjoy doing anyway as a hobby if nothing else. You also need not a little amount of luck.
Speaking personally, I was a legend in my own bedroom 7 nights a week for 3 years until I landed my first, well paid, residency. Before that I had done gigs on and off but never for much more than fuel money. I would study your arse off and get that behind you and treat DJ’ing/Production as a secondary venture for fun and, if/when the situation allows, a source of income.
TLDR; Yes it’s do-able within a year but I wouldn’t bet on it.
@OP: If you are a cold blooded business guy with a few good connections to the night life, i guess it is very doable within a year. Hell, you wouldn’t even need to be able to dj well to get your name out there with a dope marketing strategy and the mentioned connections.
If you aren’t the above mentioned i doubt that you’ll get very far. I know so many guys producing awesome music and dj frequently, but have trouble landing the big gigs, because it is all about who you know.
It’s possible, but you’re going to need to build a network first. There is a good amount of leg work that needs to be done on that part, but once you’re there you can leverage your current skills (marketing) and build a platform that sells.
You’re probably going to find more success in genres that cater to young adults that are a little less responsible with their money and are looking for cheap thrills (hiphop / dub step / electro house). A lot of the sell there isn’t about who you are, it’s about how you sell yourself. That’s the crux of the value proposition.
get some startup capital together to find DJ logos, head shots, and other marketing material.
Also expect to fail, because this is an incredibly volatile market and figuring out where you belong in the market is something of a trial and error.
The article is from last year only but it is EXACTLY how producer/DJ’s are “making it big” in the last 5+ years, I was surprised it took that long for somebody to publish something like that.
What’s more depressing is seeing people fail to make a brakethrough with EDM doing exactly that (like described in the article and in advices here) and then making a switch to deep house or under a different alias and trying it again
Really…this is the most stupid request/question I have ever read in a DJ Forum. (SORRY)
You are too lazzy to do a +60h/week Job for +100k and ask if you can be a famous DJ/Producer in between a year and apparently you think you can make it with less than 60h/week???
If you wanna be on the top of the Pops as DJ/Producer there is no longer any “Work-Life Balance” because YOU are the Product that is sold and YOU are gonna be on the Focus and under the Spotlights 24/7. YOU gonna be in representation 24/7.
Apparently You only see the fun part of the Job: Being on Stage and pushing Play Buttons…but Never being Home more than 3-4 days in a row, having for example 3 Gigs a Night (1 in Berlin, 1 in Paris and the last one in London) only being jumping from Private-Jet to stage from stage to Jet to next Stage to the Hotel it’s like the Fatboy Slims “Eat, Sleep, Rave Repeat” Song.
Oh yes I missed something, You dont only wanna be DJ You wanna become Producer…Great: In those 3-4 days in a row you finally got to be home you gonna lock yourself into your Homestudio, certainly somewhere in the Basement with no Windows and natural light, to work on your next Album because your Label is putting huge pressure on you 'cause Long time Release Date is approaching really fast.
NO Sunbathing with Bikini Girls, No time for Wife or Children, NO WORK-LIFE BALANCE!!!
I do not even talk about stupid Fans, Lousy Promoters, idiotic Journalist, and many more…
So if you are not passionate into Music…just rethink the fact about the +60h/week Job because being a TOP DJ is a 168h/week Job.
you would be amazed at what having a ghost producer can do to help reduce the load.
no one is discounting the amount of hard work that has to go into this, but you can make a modest income to support yourself while in grad school.
If youre a student that just graduated college, its actually wise to take these huge risks while you’re young. It’s only foolish to do something like this if youre 35 and have 2 kids to support.
don’t listen to this guy, if you really want to do this then give it a go. this is a great life experience of starting your own micro company, which is quite relevant experience going into your MBA program.
Yes and here we come to the biggest Prank since Music been invented: Don’t call yourself DJ/Producer if you use a Ghost Producer.
If I sell a product and Tag it “Made in Germany” and it is in fact made in China, then I can be suited for false customer informations, If I do the same in Music it is normal 'cause everybody does it??? Bullsh** It is exactly the same fraud.
And the Story about taking risks being Young and unbounded and not when married and having 2 Kids is just simple common sense.
And yes it’s a good idea to look at his own Business as a Project you can use for your MBA Programm.
But the Point is there are many things you can do without having a Passion for it but when it touches something that is mainly emotionally loaded like Music is, then a Minimum Passion for it is definitively needed. And in the start of the Topic I can feel no Passion except for making Money easyer than with a +60h/week Job and so someone had to tell him that the DJ Job is not only Standing on stage and throwing Cakes surrounded by Victorias Secret Models.
no, its not. you can still give credits to the ghost producer as a co-writer, and in fact most of the most successful artists use 10+ co-writers/“ghost producers” to release their music.
look up the name Max Martin or how Porter Robinson got his start.
youre completely making assumptions onto how “easy” we’re making a DJ career, when we’re not saying that at all. its a lot of hard work, and making your own music isn’t actually necessary to be successful. the number one resource is going to be networking, and thats something you can’t “ghost produce”.
passion = hard work. they’re synonymous, because you can work hard for a couple of days with no success, but try working for years with no success. thats hard work, not working hard. and if you can’t the paralells @Stephen Nawlins, then i wish you the best of luck in life.
honestly dude, stick with your potential job prospects and/or graduate studies. Buy some cheaper DJ gear/controller and practice at home for bit. You say you’re a “newbie” to the DJ world and I don’t really know what that means. You’re probably going to want to spend as much time practicing and learning as possible, but what if you hate it? What if it’s just not your cup of tea? To me it makes sense to have a bit of security elsewhere if DJing doesn’t work out.
I know the cool new thing is for there to be young 20-something DJs, but all the DJs/producers I really cherish have been working at this for years. Success won’t come genuinely overnight or even over one year.
You’ve misinterpreted where Im coming from. Unfortunately , in our world more hours spent working is looked at as worthy of repsect. On top of that wanting a work-life balance is seen as being lazy. The point of having a work-life balance im my case is to spend as much free-time as possible building your own brand and perfecting the dj craft. They old saying goes follow you passion right? So if a fashion designer is working 70 hours a week then its worthwhile for them to put in that work. So that said, theres gonna be that guy making 100k+ as a marketing manager, sitting at home on the weekend, listening to music, smoking a doobie or drinking a beer, thinking, “If I was young again I would’ve tried to follow my passion.”
