The issue of money is becoming really frustrating...

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

The issue of money is becoming really frustrating…

I’m 17, and I really love all this Djing, music production, new gadgets, etc.

but in a nutshell, this has got to be one of the most expensive hobbies there is.

I don’t even have my own laptop, I have money towards one, but not nearly enough. My rig consists of a mixtrack pro, monitors, a borrowed ipad, an old casio keyboard i got for Christmas when i was probably 12, and a DVD sound system that needs the highs all the way killed in order to be at all listenable.

It’s impossible to get a job anywhere I feel like, every weekend im applying to grocery stores, mall stores, skateshops, even fast food. I never get called back.

I consider myself a tidy looking fellow, all the apps ask for grades and I always keep at least honor roll, make sure the application looks nice, etc.

On top of it being an employers market; I have no job experience, because of this it seems I will never get hired, but in order to get said job experience I need to be hired. This is kind of a loop as you can see.

How can I break this cycle? Is anyone else having similar issues? My parents won’t loan me money because i wouldn’t have a mode to pay them back, i don’t blame them of course.

This all probably sounds like immature venting haha, which it sort of is I guess, but i’ve always been taught that if you really want something you can work hard and earn/achieve it, but in this situation I cannot take part in said hardwork. I digress…

2

Don’t know where you’re located but the job market sucks in most places right now, especially for young people, so you’re probably not the only young DJ in your situation. My advice is to forget about gear lust for a while and learn to ROCK IT on the gear that you have or can acquire used. Focus on developing skills with whatever you can; if you have friends with gear learn everything you can from them. It’s incredible what people can do under conditions of constraint. and hit up garage sales or flea markets or thrift stores with what little money you can scrape together and see what you can find used. Sometimes people are basically throwing away gear they will never use and you can get it cheap. Let people know what you want for your birthday or whatever and be reasonable and things might happen. I believe that if you dive into it wholeheartedly and believe in yourself, the gear you need will find its way to you eventually.

3

I’m 10 years older than you with a degree and a half from a top tier school, and I’m in a similar situation. The closest thing to regular work I get is being an extra on some crappy TV show…plus dividends on some stocks that I got as a HS graduation gift.

The good thing is that you’re getting into music at a very cheap time. DJ gear is cheaper today than it ever has been in the past…if you’re willing to go the controller route, a few hundred has you set…and a mediocre laptop is plenty good. Production is the same way…$2,000 today goes farther than $20,000 did in 1995. Unfortunately, that means that everyone and his dog is doing it–usually really badly–and ready, easy communication has opened up markets that promoters and labels would have killed for 25 years ago, meaning that actually making/playing good music is one of the last things that matters.

So, in that realm…my suggestion is to save up/work/scrape/whatever for a decent laptop and controller…and spend whatever budget you have on marketing first and music second. I sure as fuck will be hiring a PR/Promotions firm or agent long before I even pretend the quality of my gear matters beyond the level of not pissing me off.

So, as for jobs…IHNFC what to tell you except that unless you have damn near a 4.0 with work/co-op/internship experience in your field at one of the top 1-2 collges in your field, then it’s all about who you know…no matter what it is. In High School…IHNFC how people get hired other than talking to family friends or begging.

I honestly have no idea how we’re all supposed to get out of this shit. Fortunately, music and alcohol keep me sane-ish. And somehow I manage to afford them.

4

Well, the laptop is such a fucking must at this point. The amount of time i get to practice is cut to a fraction of what it could be when you’re sharing the household computer with an MMO-addicted brother who will kick and scream for every last half hour with it (Familiar with LoL?), which makes it even more discouraged to even attempt music production seriously when you only have so much time and have to work with pirated software (Am i going to get banned for saying that?) hat can hardly function.

Friends? I have one semi-friend who is loaded and his parents kind of buy him stuff, he’s not even really serious about DJing, just buys the stuff and posts pics of it on facebook. the other acquaintance I’m not sure how he gets his stuff but he just does, and a lot of it

you guys say get gear cheap, but I have next to zero money. My only form of money is.. My parents laptop fund for me when I go to college (which is in about a year and a half so it’s still not much), and the money I got for grades last semester. That added up is about 650 at the most, which HAS to go towards a laptop.

650 does not get me anywhere near a laptop that will not handle what i want it to do, or last through all my colege. so I think the smartest route is to sit on that until it gets 1000+ and i can buy something that will truly last.

At this point, i just wish i had known I was serious about all this when i bought the mixtrack, how I’d love to have that $250 towards something less of a toy.

5

I used to pay 7 pounds for a 12 inch. DJing has never been cheaper

6

But if you were wiling to pay that much, you must have had the money to do so.

Point i’m making is, I have no way of getting money period, and its starting to get ridiculous.

7

Where are you located?

8

this is true. cost me just shy of 1000gbp when i first got my 1200’s plus crappy mixer and headphones. plus bugger knows how much on tunes at between about 8 and 10quid a pop.

no reason to use illegal software if you’re willing to use linux. plenty of stuff around and u can use a live cd with usb stick if u only have access to a windows pc. mixxx isnt bad dj sofwtare and is pc too ofc.

sure laptops are expensive, but then they’re not only for music/dj’ing ofc… i’ve just bought a macbook but it’s actually for work - the upshot is that i’m now also using it for traktor etc.

if you can code u can always find work online…

9

Damn, I totally missed the pirated software bit. I was about to give you a laptop that i don’t use anymore but… Thanks for pointing that out Zestoi. Sn0wday, you should try to be legit with your hardware/software and music. It’s bad form to mention pirating on a site where many of us make our living by programming software or making music. Just sayin’

10

I’m graduating this spring, and I’ll be in mostapha’s situation. Here’s a few things I’ve found that have helped me scrape a respectable rig together while in college:

If you’re using a controller, literally anything can be one. I know someone on here had a USB numeric keypad mapped to fully control Traktor. Use your surroundings and get creative.

Whore yourself out to non-permanent jobs. Unsteady income is better than no income at all. Spring is coming, and the lawns are ripe for the mowing. Over the summer when I wasn’t in school, I worked as a day laborer digging foundations and hauling buckets of gravel from the pit to the dump truck. It was brutal, but at $10/hr it was a good job. That and I got really tan and really buff really fast :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Really…? DJ’ing is actually a VERY cheap hobby/investment. A few grand will get you top of the line equipment, software, and all the legal music you could ever want. Unless you’re into puzzles or games, it doesn’t get much cheaper than DJ’ing - especially today.

12

At least you’re not into photography…

(My poor, poor wallet)

13

As a guitarist, I feel I can firmly say that guitar is definitely a cheaper hobby :stuck_out_tongue: Entry-level equipment starts at around $100

14

Brb while I dig out my VDJ trial disk.

But in all seriousness, I appreciate the gesture, but I was trying to make a point more so than “hey torrented xyz”. You cannot (or I couldn’t) make do with cracked software simply because of how it crashes, glitches, or simply doesn’t work well. There are many perks to actually buying the software, which I plan to. If I really like a program, i’ll probably end up buying it anyways, if I don’t, then I won’t use it, pretty much the same as downloading said demo. I just don’t have hundreds of dollars to allocate to a program I may not even end up wanting to use. And I bet if you looked at statistics, I doubt much real profit is lost from pirated software because many people (like me) simply wouldn’t buy it anyways because they can’t afford.

But consider, if pirating software was impossible and unheard of, there was no way one could utilize a program without paying full price for it. How much talent would be lost? How many artists would have NEVER even taken up music production?

Not that I can really justify it, I just don’t want to offend anyone.

15

i’m into photography too… good lenses are not cheap :wink:

16

OP, $650 will buy you a laptop that will run what you want just fine. Save up for headphones and a not-crap audio interface, and you can do everything with the computer keyboard if you need to.

I actually have more money tied up in Guitar gear at the moment than DJ gear…and I’m much better DJ than guitarist. I just can’t let go of my G&L because I’m not sure I’ll ever find one that sounds like that……they kinda got lucky with the wood.

No kidding.

17

never mind all my speedlights and money wasted on various lighting modifiers… i just have two camera bodies and i’m sure the cost of those is a fairly small % of what i’ve spend over the last few years; i don’t have any really impressive gear but it all adds up for sure…

18

Gods no…

“Hey, want a long-range tele that doesn’t suck absolute bollocks? Well that’ll be £1700 for the 70-200 2.8 please”

Hell, even third-party glass that’s somewhat decent is pricey as hell.

19

You have no job and complaining about lack of money?

When I was 17 I was working 8pm to 2am in the morning 3-4 nights a week at McDonalds in order to support my hobbies.

I was doing 18-24 hours a week working for youth wages while going to school every weekday 9am to 3pm.

If you want money you will find a job.

20

indeed… i picked up a sigma 2.8 24-70 the other month that was actually pretty cheap for new at 300quid. haven’t been able to splash out on a fast 70-200 yet, tho my constant f4 is fast enough for me but manual focus. plus my venture into “lets buy old manual focus glass as its cheaper” ended up costing me a bomb anyway… ah well… i would say that my “coding” hobby for stuff like midimasher is cheap - but all the time i spend on that i could be earning money coding for paying clients, so guess i don’t have any really cheap hobbies :stuck_out_tongue: