Heres One For The Boys In The Smoke

[Norfolk DJ 0]

Even some medium class venues actually. I've just booked a wedding, locally, for Jan 2008 at £435 for 4.5 hours - my usual rate. OK, strictly speaking I'm in West Anglia.

 

It is a fact about hotel rates though. £250 seems to be tops. It's dominated by agencies each undercutting the other. By the time their commission comes off there's not much left for the DJ.

 

Yep. In Norwich there are 2 main agencies.

 

eg Tonsk and myself are doing gigs at Dunston Hall just outside of Norwich for £165 NET FOR 1.00AM finish.

 

Not enough, but if you are free and you need to cover your outlay, then you take it on.

[Norfolk DJ 0]

 

Thinking about the variation of fees we are charging, a point that is overlooked is that whilst £250-£300 is the norm in and around London, you have to remember that disposable income is a lot lower outside of the home counties as a rule.

 

Eg a loaf of bread from Tesco is the same in Wick as it is in Oxford Street, London. Council Tax is higher outside of London,and the average salary is a lot lower. With that in mind sometimes people have a firm eye on what they are having to shell out for a disco and about 75% of them won't pay more than the 'going rate' for the area.

 

There are ways to get round this, eg people who will pay £250 plus because they want you regardless, however there tends to be a point (£200) where people will be reluctant to pay more, and think a disco is a disco. They are not bothered that there extra £50 will bring somebody with a top sound system, quality lighting, vast music selection and a person who will use the mic !

 

regards

 

Bob

 

 

[PEDJ 0]

Hi

What is the going rate for other services such as a top venue room hire, photographer hire, and so on in your area?

 

 

[Norfolk DJ 0]

Hi

What is the going rate for other services such as a top venue room hire, photographer hire, and so on in your area?

 

I think as a rule, thiey is also a little lower. A Lot of the photographers are not full-timers.

 

People will spend £15,000 on a wedding but try and £50 on a disco and ruin the day!

 

As I said I think my comments will be true for a lot of DJ's elsewhere in the UK.

[PEDJ 0]

I think my comments will be true for a lot of DJ's elsewhere in the UK.

A lot of DJs in the UK are great at being a DJ which is also true. Only a few are great at selling themselves but still DJ no-better than the rest. I read on some wedding forums that the budget for a DJ in UK is £500.

Who sets a rate? The client, the venue, the other services or the DJ themselves? Interesting thread.

 

 

[Norfolk DJ 0]

A lot of DJs in the UK are great at being a DJ which is also true. Only a few are great at selling themselves but still DJ no-better than the rest. I read on some wedding forums that the budget for a DJ in UK is £500.

Who sets a rate? The client, the venue, the other services or the DJ themselves? Interesting thread.

 

Posh wedding magazines!

[PEDJ 0]

Posh wedding magazines!

So who sets the lower rate then?

[UKHero 0]

So who sets the lower rate then?

 

Beer Money DJ sets the rate...

 

As to C.s. Post a few posts back...

 

I know what you are saying and I have invested a lot of time money and effort in my roadshow..

 

I use quality Sound equipment, I have a very good lighting rig, offer free photographs and also now use TFT screens....

 

But still when customers call they still want to know how much and they still say but this other guy said he will do it for X amount.... There are only so many times you can say well I wish you well with your function and sit at home another Sat night with many thousands of pounds of equipment sitting in my trailer...

 

So I have to reduce my rates or work only once a month or give up Mobile DJing....

 

I understand some peoples views on agents, but I think they have there place, as long as they do a good job. Some agents are no better than our friend the beer money DJ. Taking a phone call passing it to a DJ and thats it job done 15% or more thanks very much... And if it goes wrong its your fault...

 

A good agent sorts everything out for you even down to the power supply etc... Pete from A&K is a very good agent pays good money and sorts everything out. He runs an agency as it should be run, and I dont begrudge him his fee for his time and effort..

 

I do feel sometimes people on here fudge there prices a little and give there top price and not what is the minimum they would work for... I have done disco's for £500 but on the whole my average is £150 - £200 but i have gone out for £125 so what is my rate do I say its £500 as I have done gigs for this very few and far between like maybe one a year or do I say £150 or £200 or as I have also worked for £125 again few and far between do I say £125....

 

The guys who charge £500 if a client calls you and says will you do it for £490 will you do it? £480? £470? £460? £450? What is your cut of point and is this not your true charge. ????

 

On another point I have a friend who DJs for £80 a gig he works 3 nights a week in the last 3 months since new year I have done 3 discos... So who is the Mug me for trying to charge more and do it all above board or my friend who works full time and DJs on the side for extra money????

 

Nik

 

[Norfolk DJ 0]

Beer Money DJ sets the rate...

 

So I have to reduce my rates or work only once a month or give up Mobile DJing....

 

I understand some peoples views on agents, but I think they have there place, as long as they do a good job. Some agents are no better than our friend the beer money DJ. Taking a phone call passing it to a DJ and thats it job done 15% or more thanks very much... And if it goes wrong its your fault...

 

A good agent sorts everything out for you even down to the power supply etc... Pete from A&K is a very good agent pays good money and sorts everything out. He runs an agency as it should be run, and I dont begrudge him his fee for his time and effort..

 

I do feel sometimes people on here fudge there prices a little and give there top price and not what is the minimum they would work for... I have done disco's for £500 but on the whole my average is £150 - £200 but i have gone out for £125 so what is my rate do I say its £500 as I have done gigs for this very few and far between like maybe one a year or do I say £150 or £200 or as I have also worked for £125 again few and far between do I say £125....

 

The guys who charge £500 if a client calls you and says will you do it for £490 will you do it? £480? £470? £460? £450? What is your cut of point and is this not your true charge. ????

 

On another point I have a friend who DJs for £80 a gig he works 3 nights a week in the last 3 months since new year I have done 3 discos... So who is the Mug me for trying to charge more and do it all above board or my friend who works full time and DJs on the side for extra money????

 

Nik

 

Nik

 

Totally agree with your points. We proabably have similar circumstances when it comes down to what we can charge. Very few above £250 around here.

 

The other key issue here is not necessarily 'beer money DJ's', but people who just doit for a hobby eg they are happy to go out for £100 as it extra to them as opposed to 'full-timers' who have to charge £250 to pay the rent.

 

Those quotes for £500 are rubbish on the whole. These magazines are written by people who have no understanding of what really happens apart from large posh hotels who fleece people if they are happy to pay. Maybe I should advertise in these magazines!

[Corabar Steve 0]

I those quotes for £500 are rubbish on the whole. These magazines are written by people who have no understanding of what really happens apart from large posh hotels who fleece people if they are happy to pay. Maybe I should advetise in these magazines!

& get fleeced yourself, have you seen how much they charge?

[Norfolk DJ 0]

& get fleeced yourself, have you seen how much they charge?

 

Yes I have, and I can't afford it!

[wizard 0]

Nik

 

The other key issue here is not necessarily 'beer money DJ's', but people who just doit for a hobby eg they are happy to go out for £100 as it extra to them as opposed to 'full-timers' who have to charge £250 to pay the rent.

 

 

I do it as a hobby but charge £250........ the only difference between you and me is I wont go out for £125. So maybe I am doing you a favour rather than spoiling it for you !!

 

Not all part timers are beer money or cowboys. The big difference is I can afford to say ...No thanks pay my price or I will watch t.v. .....It happened yesterday Got phone call ....when I told her the price she says I can get one for £180 can you match it...... the answer was a flat yes I can but I wont. If you want me you pay the price. To be fair I was more polite than that. This morning I have now filled the date with someone willing to pay the price.

 

I do appreciate some areas are poor payers. I used to live in Norfolk ( Gt Yarmouth ) and it was always difficult getting a good price there. I found the best way to make money in that area was target the holiday camps & weddings. Steer clear of the pubs, as the pay is rubbish

[UKHero 0]

I do it as a hobby but charge £250........ the only difference between you and me is I wont go out for £125. So maybe I am doing you a favour rather than spoiling it for you !!

 

 

And that is why I said Beer Money DJs set the level.. I know there are part time DJs who do a good job and charge a good price and yes I guess there better off as in your example, you have the money to pay the bills so can afford to say no.... Sadly I can not. So should we all become Part time DJs with another job to pay the bills maybe its what the punter deserves then we can all say no when asked to work for less...

 

Makes you think as I say who is the mug the full time DJ or the part time DJ i think it might be the former at this point in time.....

 

Nik

 

[Norfolk DJ 0]

I do it as a hobby but charge £250........ the only difference between you and me is I wont go out for £125. So maybe I am doing you a favour rather than spoiling it for you !!

 

Not all part timers are beer money or cowboys. The big difference is I can afford to say ...No thanks pay my price or I will watch t.v. .....It happened yesterday Got phone call ....when I told her the price she says I can get one for £180 can you match it...... the answer was a flat yes I can but I wont. If you want me you pay the price. To be fair I was more polite than that. This morning I have now filled the date with someone willing to pay the price.

 

I do appreciate some areas are poor payers. I used to live in Norfolk ( Gt Yarmouth ) and it was always difficult getting a good price there. I found the best way to make money in that area was target the holiday camps & weddings. Steer clear of the pubs, as the pay is rubbish

 

I am part time, but what I earlier said remains true. Wizzard, you are in the home counties, therefore £250 is easily up for grabs, elsewhere that becomes more difficult. People as a rule are paying £150-£180 here. Anything above £200 is good going. As for Gt Yarmouth probably £150 is good, but that's due to high unemployment and local competiton.

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

Those quotes for £500 are rubbish on the whole

 

No far from it, this price is charged buy wedding planners and party planers and good agents very easerly, they then pay the disco ...

 

I did a 17th birthday party two weeks back, my fee was £325 .. agent charged the party planner £405+vat, party planner must have asked for over £500 for the disco...

 

Its all about selling the product...

[Norfolk DJ 0]

No far from it, this price is charged buy wedding planners and party planers and good agents very easerly, they then pay the disco ...

 

I did a 17th birthday party two weeks back, my fee was £325 .. agent charged the party planner £405+vat, party planner must have asked for over £500 for the disco...

 

Its all about selling the product...

 

Fair enough Marky, but I notice also live in the home counties. Therefore you have 'the rich' at your doorstep, particularly in Surrey and they probably think that are are getting a bargain at £325, but on the wider scale that is not the case, and I doubt whether you could break £250 here even through a lot of advertising and effort. They just don't want to know. As for the £500 in the magazines, as I said maybe in Surrey on London area but not the case elsewhere.

 

The average fee survey seems to back this up with 71% of us getting less than £250 per night.

[C.S 0]

The technical side of your show is appreciated by only a few of your customers but if you make your show a little bit different. Stand up, quizes,karaoke ,games not to mention some of the things that richard rendezvous mentioned a year ago here, but adapted to your market. Its all different from the next dj and means more money. To be fair my market is higher priced and a mobile gig starts at 600 pounds. I have put a lot of work into the entertainment side of my show and only do between 10 and 20 mobiles a year.I set a limit to the number of weddings i do thus making it a bit more exclusive. The rest of the time i do club work and get on average 250 pounds a night but i only take my cds with me ,no equipment. I know a couple of guys on here are on the 800 pound price range for wedding in the uk and they get it. I think preparation is a secret on a lot of gigs eg,just did a 40th birthday where i did a 10 minute stand up that i wrote about events from the year the guy was born and comparing him to famous people born in the same year. I made a music quiz based on music from his teenage years. I presented his mum with a medal and a bottle of asti for giving birth to him! I gave his wife a set of ear plugs etc etc ,just small things but even so extras that i charged for. I also have an agreement with an equipment hire company and pa is hired by my customer and i just provide cd players, mixer and lights. Saves storage , maitenance etc as well as not having to make the initial investment.

Edited March 25, 2007 by C.S

[spinner 0]

Fair enough Marky, but I notice also live in the home counties. Therefore you have 'the rich' at your doorstep, particularly in Surrey and they probably think that are are getting a bargain at £325, but on the wider scale that is not the case, and I doubt whether you could break £250 here even through a lot of advertising and effort. They just don't want to know. As for the £500 in the magazines, as I said maybe in Surrey on London area but not the case elsewhere.

 

The average fee survey seems to back this up with 71% of us getting less than £250 per night.

 

The last gig I did in Norfolk was in excess of that figure, even more so by the time the agency I got it through had added their charge.

 

The couple were both professionals. The bride was a radiographer, the groom a surgeon.

 

Maybe they fall into the "rich" category.

[Eskie 0]

...you have to remember that disposable income is a lot lower outside of the home counties as a rule.

 

...Council Tax is higher outside of London,and the average salary is a lot lower.

You've gotta be havin a giraffe matey! have you any idea of how much council tax is in London?!?... and property prices, parking charges, restaurants, theatres/cinemas/gootball grounds etc, most prices are more expensive in London than most of the rest of the country, ESPECIALLY property!!!

[Norfolk DJ 0]

You've gotta be havin a giraffe matey! have you any idea of how much council tax is in London?!?... and property prices, parking charges, restaurants, theatres/cinemas/gootball grounds etc, most prices are more expensive in London than most of the rest of the country, ESPECIALLY property!!!

 

Ah ah, another response from the home counties!

 

Yes; council tax here is higher than what you are paying. I bet I pay more than what you are paying!

 

Property prices; well ok they are more but average wages are about 30% higher at your neck of the woods.

 

Yes, we have car parks and they are expensive. In fact similar to London prices.

 

Cinemas - aren't these national chains, therefore similar pricing policy, a bit like the Tesco bread and MacDonalds scenario which I posted above?

 

The point I am getting across here is that we would like to charge £350 per night, but for various economic factors, apart from one off jobs, as UK Hero said you won't get the work. Good luck to you if you can.

 

regards

 

bob

[Paul Smith 0]

On another point I have a friend who DJs for £80 a gig he works 3 nights a week

 

Ask yourself this - your friend does 3 nights a week at £80 a gig, someone else does one night a week at £240. Who's the smarter businessman?

 

in the last 3 months since new year I have done 3 discos

 

From reading your comments thus far I get the impression that your solution to this is to lower your prices to compete. I don't know you personally or your DJ skills either but from a business point of view if your sales technique relies on price to secure the booking then you will always have someone who can/will come in at a lower price.

 

I suggest that you concentrate more on the marketing/promotion side (there's some great books out there) and you might find that lowering your prices to secure work is (without doubt in my mind) the wrong way to go.

 

Statisically I live in one of the the poorest regions of the UK so whenever I read all this stuff about 'not in my area' I think are you trying to convince me or yourself?

[C.S 0]

I dont mean to be rude but lets cut the "mines bigger than yours "side of the discussion as its not all that benificial to the thread. I think, and of course this is only my opinion, that you guys tend to say "its poorly paid here and thats just the way it is so i accept it"instead of seeing what you can do to improve the situation. Wherever you live there is always a market for the best entertainers and there are people willing to pay top money to get them.As said before, if what you do is no different than the 80 quid beer money djs (thats enough money to buy 10 beers here!)then to be honest you aint worth more and perhaps its time to talk to said djs and get them to put up their prices !. 80 quid barely covers the wear and tear on the equipment and yourself for a gig.

Edited March 25, 2007 by C.S

[Norfolk DJ 0]

I dont mean to be rude but lets cut the "mines bigger than yours "side of the discussion as its not all that benificial to the thread.

 

Ok, but the point which I have been trying to bring out here is that there are (like it or not) economic factors which simply prohbit DJ's particularly from certain areas of the country from charging quite as much as others. I don't think there is any particular argument here, it's simply a question of knowing why this happens. I think we all agree that there is a rate which we would all like to earn, and more various reasons, that does not happen all the time.

 

regards

 

bob

 

 

[Paul Smith 0]

I dont mean to be rude but lets cut the "mines bigger than yours "side of the discussion

 

I don't think you are rude Chris however one part of this debate is circling around the 'not in my area' argument and several posts (including mine) are attempting to show that this could be more in the mind-set of the DJ rather than the geographical area he/she operates in.

 

Your posts about improving the service offered to increase income are also equally valid and I think the two can happily run in tandem on the same topic because they are both designed to get DJs thinking about where they are now and where they'd like to be.

 

I don't mean this to be a 'everyone should rise their prices' topic either because I accept that many DJs are happy with what they do/charge. Those who do feel they are not charging what they are worth though may find inspiration/ideas to help them achieve their goals. smile icon

[shakermaker 0]

I look at it like this. If I get an enquiry for a date that I already have stuff on then I stick to my price because I am going to have to get someone else to do it and pay them.

If I get an enquiry and the date is only a couple of weeks away and it's free then I will ask the enquirer the best quote they have had so far. If it is really too low then I won't match it but if it is respectable (say..£200 at the lowest), I will agree to it because it is my belief that I would much rather be out working and earning than sitting at home twiddling my thumbs with all of my gear sat there doing nothing. Luckily, I don't have this happen to me that much as I am getting busier and busier.

 

This topic seems to be turning into a 'them and us' type topic. If you are down here in the south then apparently you are in the rich territory? I have just been booked for a wedding in Bristol. Yes, it's quite a trek for me as I mainly stick to my area but I said £350.00 and they said yes so why not!