£120 Djs

[warrenstuart 0]

Please don't all shout and throw rotten fruit at me for this

 

This is really aimed at anyone in the Birmingham & Black Country areas who like myself is a joe average part-time mobile DJ who has a day job and works mainly Fri/Sat nights.

I know of so many people around here who are going out for £120 for the average 4 - 5 hours function (40th birthday etc) in the local social club and to be honest they're pretty good, decent equipment (Mackie, JBL, HK, Denon), infact a number of them i'd happily book if i had a party. But WHY so cheap because it's almost to the point of being the expected normal price around here now.

But with PAT, PLI, tax etc, i know i don't need to list all of the expenses on here 'cos you already know them, is it really worth going out for when you take off all of the expenditure and break the profit down into an hourly rate??

 

So people of this area, can we all stick together and at least get it up to £150 for starters??

[Robster 0]

While I agree in principal this will never work this would be a cartel

and probably be illegal

 

[spinner 0]

Sounds like horses for courses to me.

 

At the lower end of the market price competition will always be fierce. Selling on price only, when that is clients' only criterion, leaves nothing else with which to persuade someone to book.

 

What price anyone goes out for is something that can't be controlled and is up to the individual.

[vokf 0]

Look at your marketing, does your website shout "working mans club" or "high end venue"?

Are there any DJ's working at the higher end of the market in your area?

 

If ALL DJ's in your area are really charging so little, then I guess there is no hope... but I'm sure there will be some guys charging a fair rate, leaving the low-end gigs to those that are marketing to them.

 

If you can find them, perhaps give them a call to discuss this - they may be glad that someone wants to raise the rate for the area.

 

Jason

 

[warrenstuart 0]

Thanks for the speedy replies folks.

 

My website is years old and really needs updating so TBH doesn't boast high end venue but i don't rely on it for getting work, most of my gigs are from recommendation and most of the time i do get a higher rate than most of the locals i know but it's hard work.

I have enough quantity of work but just want a decent rate (for everyone). I only have a small system as i work alone so i'm not expecting £250 per night but not happy with the local £120 culture either!

 

I mainly get dis-heartened when for example i'm on from 7pm - midnight for £140 then the self contained singer turns up at 8pm with a pair of SX300s, a powered mixer and a laptop, does their 2 x 45min sets and is driving home at 11:15pm for more money than me

 

I'm resident at a hotel that does pay much better rates but the bulk of the work is only at Christmas.

 

 

[Robster 0]

Thanks for the speedy replies folks.

 

 

I mainly get dis-heartened when for example i'm on from 7pm - midnight for £140 then the self contained singer turns up at 8pm with a pair of SX300s, a powered mixer and a laptop, does their 2 x 45min sets and is driving home at 11:15pm for more money than me

 

 

 

There's an answer to that learn to sing !

 

I had the same when a comic using my gear got paid £400 cash in hand for a 30 min set , He ate with the guests the lavish and expensive meal then naffed off to the pub , this was two years ago now with cutbacks they realised they didnt need the MC or the comic but they still needed a dj so this year it was just me. people with extra skills will always make on average more money. If i was as funny as that comic i too would have been earning his sort of money but i am clearly not.

 

if you are a musician and good it , it certainly takes more skill and bottle than playing a few records and if they hate the sound or set its you personally not the records your playing so a tougher skin is needed than if you just dj.

 

I have no problem with artists earning more, if you think you can do better as an artist then go for it! its not as easy as you may possibly think however.

 

back to the topic i do feel if we were properly regulated as an industry then prices would have to go up and we could all earn a decent living wage but as a pessimist i can't see that happening any time soon.

 

we all like a good rant and all get miffed about people going out for what we each consider silly money , i myself have done so on many occasions and it feels good to get it off your chest to your peers but the positive approach by Spinner and vokf are the best ways to approach it , they both have great experience in getting across the very valid reasons to hire both of them to their customers and for the customers to pay a great value rate for their services..but a good rant i find helps clear my mind before getting stuck in to what needs to be done.

 

Good luck in your endeavours may the future be profitable

 

[warrenstuart 0]

There's an answer to that learn to sing !

 

 

Absolutely LOL!

[MintyDave 0]

There's an answer to that learn to sing !

 

 

you can learn many things in life but if you cant sing then thats that. believe me i wish i could.

 

 

 

 

 

[superstardeejay 0]

£70 sounds about right around here for a budget DJ

[vokf 0]

..but a good rant i find helps clear my mind before getting stuck in to what needs

 

Nothing wrong with a good old rant Could be scope for a monthly DJ pricing discussion :devil:

 

Simply put, this really boils down to business skills. Know your target market. If you want to earn more money, analyse who you need to appeal to - it probably won't be the type of clients you currently have.

There is not much point in asking your existing market to pay more - they just want "any dj".

 

 

If most of your work comes from recommendations, you obviously have the DJ skills to provide a good night, but the business skills to plan the business and target the right markets normally the problem - this is common with many businesses, so its not a unique problem.

 

Depending on how you feel, you could offer your site up for review? (PM me for this), and get some hopefully constructive criticism (which you can ignore! lol)

 

Fixing the website is a great first step..

 

Jason

 

[Dukesy 0]

Sadly we live in an era of recession and price increases on everything from Fuel to Water, people are more keen to shop around on price and more likely to 'compare the Dj' than perhaps a few years ago when Jobs were slightly more secure, and cash was perhaps a little more on the hip.

 

If the lower end of the market didn't exist, neither would the budget end of our industry thats about as simple and logical as it gets, they exist in order to simply fulfill a public demand, nothing more nothing less. Its the public you need to (re)educate, not the Dj's and I reckon you'll get old, grey and bitter trying, but good luck if you do, but trying to buck a growing trend to the masses, is hard, tiring and solitary work.

 

Whilst you are at it, also get some of these 'compare' type adverts which appear every 20 minutes on nearly every TV and Satellite channel banned too, as these simply brainwash the public that comparing prices is the 'in' and trendy thing and a wise move, and of course, the cheapest quote is always king. When was the last time you saw a comparison site advising you to buy the most expensive product from their list or to compare on quality and not price?- Never thats when, wake up and take a good deep sniff, the coffee has almost brewed.

 

Unfortunately, our occupation is seen to the general public as one of being 'unskilled', and by that I refer to as far qualifications, student loans and obtaining offical certificates to back up passing some years' worth of training or study are concerned, this in turn may lead to some clients questioning why they are paying Solicitors' rates to people, who at first glance, purely appear to be playing music. But if you have the right answers available to these questions, either on the phone or in your marketing media or if you are pitching to the correct market, then it should never be a problem and 'how much' should not be the first primary question that a potential client asks you when the enquiry is sent or the phone picked up, because then you are appealing to the right client, in the correct market, who isn't purely shopping on price, and where cost, comes secondary to quality and several other aspects.

 

The rise of ipod dry hire's being farmed out to all and sundry also tends to encourage the 'anyone can be a DJ' attitude, and certainly does nothing to bolster our value or spell out to the clients that its more than pretty lights and playing music. But again, even these entities are just fulfilling a public demand and a Niche.

 

Then we still have the Robot Entertainer, being hired, leased and sold to the licensed trade, in the form of Mediathemes and Phoenix Touchmasters to contend with. These all-in-one multifunctional computer based systems, offer the venue manager everything from a Jukebox to Race Evenings, to Bingo to Large screen Video Discos and Karaoke, complete with free music and media disc updates every month and 24/7 use and licensing for as little as £70 a week on a long lease. Can any of us afford to provide 7 days worth of Entertainment to a venue for £10 a day?. To a cash strapped landlord, with a 1/4 full pub, under pressure by head office to lower expenditure and increase turnover then it comes to a stark choice of paying a DJ £150 for one night, or hiring a Mediatheme for £70 a week and getting a whole pleathora of facilties and entertainment available to your clientele at any time, with no booking hassles and no wondering if the entertainer will actually turn up. You can certainly see their appeal to the licensed trade.

 

So the crux of the matter and responsibility lies with us, as business individuals, selling our services to Joe Public and Venue Managers for exactly what we feel that its worth, and some prices will be harder to sell than others, depending on the local competition and whether you are preaching to the right target market. You reap what you sow.

 

More often than not, there are £120 DJ's happy with their £120 and £400 DJ's happy with their £400 and its all fine. Its when the £120 DJ wants to earn £400, that the effort has to be applied, and the business model and target assessed and those aspects can rarely be covered on one forum post. Often results aren't obtained overnight, it may actually take years to establish yourself into a new market, and this is where the wholly dedicated will win, and the ones after a fast buck get bored and move onto something else.

[MintyDave 0]

At my gig last night somebody genuinly thought a fair price for a DJ was £60-70. (i was booked to do a disco with karaoke in a big room for 50-70 people - only 20 turned up and had 8 for the last hour) This was after an in depth conversation about music, gear and all the associated costs involved with running a professional DJ Business

 

they then said "you should just download all the stuff instead of paying for it, you will save yourself a fortune mate"

 

They had already commented on how the sound and lights were awesome, which led to the initial conversation.

 

:wall:

 

 

Typical situation - if an email comes in saying the usual " how much for a dj" with very little info i can guarantee i wont get any further communication. What i do is send a nice email asking for specific details and that i would provide a quote on info given, usually no reply

 

if they do supply enough info (venue, time, no of guests, type of event) i do quote but rarely hear any more as i know there are a lot cheaper providers around here.

 

Its the phone calls that secures bookings. I dont submit a quote until i have extracted as much info as possible and had a good chat about the event. I can well imagine some will just say - yes im free for £XXX and they may be a lot cheaper than me but thats where i can sell myself and when it comes to the quote a few quid becomes irrelevant.

 

In a nutsheel to mirror whats been said above, attract visitors to your site and make them want to call you for a quote then sell yourself. it wont always work but you will get the odd surprise, i have.

Edited March 10, 2011 by MintyDave

[Dukesy 0]

At my gig last night somebody genuinly thought a fair price for a DJ was £60-70. (i was booked to do a disco with karaoke in a big room for 50-70 people - only 20 turned up and had 8 for the last hour) This was after an in depth conversation about music, gear and all the associated costs involved with running a professional DJ Business

 

Here is an interesting idea for an experiment.

 

Many people here are also members of non-dj related subject forums covering their other interests, and purely filled with ordinary, everyday non-dj'ing members of the public

 

If permitted within those communities then why not start a discussion / poll in the off topic areas of these forums, asking people to vote or post on how much they feel a Dj is worth and their expectations of a fee, should they wish to book one for a given example function.

 

If different examples are given for each occasion, such as Wedding, Family Function, Pub, Karaoke etc, then it will give a broader example of how the general public forsee each function to be worth, as well as their general idea of what a Dj costs, or rather in their eyes, what (s)he is worth as a service provider.

 

If you do choose to participate in this experiment, then post up which function you are going to use as an example, so others can perhaps use another one in their poll / discussion.

 

But remember that this idea will only work without any Bias or inside influence, on a completely non DJ, KJ or Wedding Entertainment based discussion forum, as DJ's will always vote in their own favour and defence and using their own fee platform as an example .

 

Once a few days have passed and assuming the poll / discussion is getting some interest, then post the links to these threads here on this thread, so we can all see and read what the public think we are worth :devil: .

 

Okay its not a wide ranging or indicitive poll of the UK population in general, but its a just for fun, experiment, and who knows, we may learn something from it, or it may help others to decide their fees or it may just be an eyeopener.

 

I think in some areas, they call this 'market research' :pro: :yes:

 

 

 

[MintyDave 0]

Here is an interesting idea for an experiment.

 

Many people here are also members of non-dj related subject forums covering their other interests, and purely filled with ordinary, everyday non-dj'ing members of the public

 

If permitted within those communities then why not start a discussion / poll in the off topic areas of these forums, asking people to vote or post on how much they feel a Dj is worth and their expectations of a fee, should they wish to book one for a given example function.

 

If different examples are given for each occasion, such as Wedding, Family Function, Pub / Karaoke etc, then it will give a broader example of how the general public forsee each function to be worth, as well as their general idea of what a Dj costs, or rather in their eyes, what (s)he is worth as a service provider.

 

If you do choose to participate in this experiment, then post up which function you are going to use as an example, so others can perhaps use another one in their poll / discussion.

 

But remember that this idea will only work without any Bias or inside influence, on a completely non DJ, KJ or Wedding Entertainment based discussion forum, as DJ's will always vote in their own favour and defence and using their own fee platform as an example .

 

Once a few days have passed and assuming the poll / discussion is getting some interest, then post the links to these threads here on this thread, so we can all see and read what the public think we are worth :devil: .

 

Okay its not a wide ranging or indicitive poll of the UK population in general, but its a just for fun, experiment, and who knows, we may learn something from it, or it may help others to decide their fees or it may just be an eyeopener.

 

I think in some areas, they call this 'market research' :pro:

 

it should have gone on the census forms, something worthwhile for a change!!!! too late now eh!

 

great idea Daniel, have you been on the red bull tonight?

 

Ok lets see

soundon... nope music related

djfor....nope full of idiots dj's

denon foru...oh

peavey....dammit

facebook - lets ask our imaginary friends, mind you thats probably too biased.

 

ah...talk photography...will have a go!

Edited March 10, 2011 by MintyDave

[gadget 0]

it should have gone on the census forms, something worthwhile for a change!!!! too late now eh!

 

Perhaps that's what Question 17 was, which was intentionally left blank! hahah !

 

 

:)

[weekender45 0]

Ive worked in sales for over 20 years.

Fact - there will always be someone prepared to do it for less than you ( you will never be the cheapest)

 

But - remember we can always be busy fools, so as I was told many years ago "volume is vanity , profit is sanity!)

 

We all want to make it worth our while , so stick to what your worth and concentrate on getting the message over "why you are worth what you say you are worth" (your USP) instead of trying to offer everything for nothing. :Thumbup: