I recently got an email asking me to DJ on an opening night. After further investigation it turns out that the deal is for the DJ to pay an amount upfront (which is refundable if you bring 10 or more people otherwise it is lost) and you get £2 per person you bring as your commission. They said the reason for this was that they have so many DJs that its the best system for them to try out new DJs and that if they thought I was good, I could have a residency under what seemed to be the same or similar system.
I will admit I am newish to this game (I have down some work at one of the bigger clubs in London) but surely this is utter BS. I would be happy to accept a pay me to perform but if I am not up to standard then no compensation is required. Is this a common thing?
I did a search and couldn’t really find anything on this.
Well I used words that had similar effect. I guess part of the problem is every man and his dog is a DJ these days and will do anything to get a break.
that my friend is an REALLY old promoter trick.
Theyll even ask you to sell PRE-entry tickets
they arent pre-entry
they are just the same tickets sold at the door on the night but you have them in your hands BEFORE the night.
The trick is that when you get there, you have to
A) turn in the tickets you DIDNT sell
and
B) turn in the money you made from the tickets sold.
Then…
A) if you dont have enough ppl showing up that night, you dont get paid (but did all this work to sell tickets)
and
B) if you sold tickets but those ppl decided not to come, it seen as YOU DIDNT GET ANY PPL so you still dont get paid
and
C) When the ticket holders get to the door, their tickets are taken but often NOT accounted as YOUR tickets that were sold.
Instead they go to the promoters list (remember who gave you the tickets? those ticket numbers were assigned to him, didnt ya know?)
and in the end it STILL looks like you are not going to get paid
If your desperate to play out then I would do it but the offer sucks. But when there are dozens and dozens of DJs wanting to play out the club owners have their pick and can decide to hire however they want. If there wasn’t DJs paying to play there they couldn’t do it. So the question should be is this something new they are trying or have been doing this for a while?
The truth is, most clubs don’t care how good a DJ you really are. You just need to be good enough to keep people dancing. It only really matters how good you are at MARKETING. I am a classic example of this. I am very good and have years of experience with a lot of things but DJing is not necessarily one of them. I am 43 years old and an experienced skydiver with over 10,000 parachute jumps and also a US National Champion. I also run my own marketing company for the past 10 years.
I decided I wanted to start DJing less than 1 year ago.
I already have a residency at one of the largest nightclubs where I live and DJ at several other club each week. I own all pioneer gear and do pretty good job DJing but there are better DJs then me with a hell of a lot more experience. Some of these other DJs have been doing it for a decade or two!
What is the difference between us?
All the other DJs focus on getting better a DJing and spend time trying to learn new techniques & tricks. In contrast, I focus on promoting my gigs and improving the show as a whole. I focus on my own marketing & advertising for the shows I play PLUS I act as a marketing consultant for the club as well. I am an experienced event organizer and have organized many large outdoor festivals so I no my way around organizing an event. I created my own club flyers, stickers & poster to distribute around town. I do my online online advertising and cross promotions with other clubs & businesses.
The truth is, the club owner doesn’t care how many DJ tricks you know, the gear you use or how well you can scratch. The business owner only cares about his BOTTOM LINE and all the things that affect that bottom line. How many extra people will you bring to his business? How many more drinks will you sell? How much more publicity will you bring the club? MARKETING IS EVERYTHING…trust me.
You want the best advise I know to be true? Do you want to get ahead of all those other DJs out there including the ones with years of experience more than you?
No problem, just follow these five simple rules…
#1-CONTINUE TO GROW as a DJ but don’t go overboard with learning all those special extra tricks, scratching & such (if you make it big your gonna be a button pusher anyway
#2-START PRODUCING YOUR OWN MUSIC. Learn the most popular DAWs and start producing the music you like to play. When you get a gig and have a chance to play out you should use that time to play some of your own tracks. Do you know any mainstream DJs that made it to the top without producing their own music?
3-LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT MARKETING of small venues and events (specifically online marketing & SMS marketing).
#4-STOP THINKING LIKE A DJ & start thinking like a business owner & promoter.
#5-START USING INDUSTRY STANDARD DJ GEAR as soon as you can. Bigger clubs & events won’t let you bring your own DJ gear and you’ll be forced to use theirs. The standard gear is currently Pioneer CDJ 2000 Nexus with Pioneer DJM 900 mixer. Start saving up. Several music stores online offer “Play as you Pay” deals where you can get the DJ gear you want now and pay for it over the next 8-12 months. They typically only require the first month’s payment to get the gear shipped to you and there is NO CREDIT CHECK. Several people I know have done this.
I hope you guys don’t take any of this the wrong way, just trying to help…
i have heard of this trick, but always thought it was kind of an urban legend.
I’ll be honest, I kinda have a rule, I tell all club owners I will ALWAYS play my first night for free, If they like what they hear then we can talk about future bookings, and signing a contract.
And NO im not one of those guys who plays for pennies… but the technique has gotten me more re-bookings than i can count.
the funny thing is that most people dont get
i know my wife often doesnt get this but
if you spend say $50 to do something
you need to earn $100 to make $50 out of it.
if you gave him £35 to play
still brought the “X” you were supposed to
and got paid back your £35
you still played for free (actually you played for free after doing a TON of work before the gig)
and the promoter still walks away with his cut from the door…but what did you get? nothing
It’s actually even worse when trying to get booked at “mid” level festivals in the U.S. I’ve been approached by at least 5 different festival where they offered me a gig. The deal would be I buy 10-20 tickets and then I get to play. Then I sell the tickets myself. Festivals that cost $200 or so a ticket and they want me to spend $2K just to play a 1 hour set.
disgusting practice.
I’ve seen promoters throw people off a line up because they didn’t do ‘Facebook invites’ (spamming all their Facebook friends to join) or because they haven’t sold enough tickets.
It is a double edged sword though… if you are still at a stage where you must prove yourself then playing for free is your best bet… and i would still try and take people with you to help pack out the club… if you are unheard of then nobody will go to see you and it may take longer to build some traction, word of mouth can be a slow process and if you don’t start showing numbers you wont last long.
There are of course those lucky guys that promoters are willing to push.
I was once read a Q&A of some DJ in a scene i follow, he was asked how he got his break: he wasn’t being taken serious, he sent demo’s was eventually given a shot, he then went crazy promoting in his home town and took lots of coaches full of people and packed out the small secondary room he was playing… promoters seen this and thought WOW, we need this guy, he’s filling venues… now he plays at 99% of events in the scene he is involved in and actually one of the biggest promoters in his scene, he’s gone quiet now but not long a go he was the scene, involved in every aspect of it and probably earned more money than anyone else involved… sometimes you just need to do the foot work yourself no matter how good you are.
Either way, if i was outright asked to pay to play i’d tell them to stick it.
