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Question on how much to charge
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| Kamikaze Badger |
| While i save up for my equipment, im planning on getting a price list set up for people that want to hire me(mainly just my school). Does anyone know a good pricing thing? Last time my school hired a DJ, they had to drop $100. Im trying to get these people towards the amazing abilities of vinyls and actual DJ mixing. Well, to get back on subject, would $30 probably be enough for something like a dance or a fun night? |
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| liquidmist2001 |
it all depends on a couple of things:
how far away from your home/place of business are you gonna be playing, what kind of music they want you to play, are they gonna provide for speakers & lighting, and the most important would be how long they want you to play for? if it's only like an hour-1.5 hours, then $30 is ok, prolly still a bit low...ask around, i'm sure there's other djs for hire in your area, see how much they're charging, it'll give you an idea what mobil djs are paid in your area... |
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| Vert |
I think you are getting ahead of yourself. Learn beatmatching before you worry about how much to charge.. :rolleyes: For all you know, you will hate djing ;)..
es |
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| bachatu |
it depends on a couple of things. If you do a couple of shows here and there, you will want to charge more than usual if you are providing all equipment (loud speakers, mixer, tts, etc). How long if the night gonna be. 4 hrs or 10 hrs? Take all that into to consideration. Are you gonna mix from song to song, then make sure you can mix well enough. If you are just playing tracks in random, like a jukebox, then dont worry.
Either way, i wouldnt charge any less than $50, even if you may not have much experience.
Then again, you may want to do some free shows, as long as you aint providing equipment, to promote yourself and to get some experience. It doesnt hurt. ;)
If you are providing eqiupment and setting everything up, you would charge $200+ for the whole night.
Also, see what your competition is. If you have tons of competition, you may need to be a bit competative with prices. What i mentioned above is pretty competative. Especially if you do it for free :P
In the beginning, i woulnt worry about money, you cant really depend on that... best thing to do is get some experience playing out. From there, if you want start charging and upping prices, then be creative and offer things that your competition normally wont offer. |
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| Vlad |
| quote: | Originally posted by Kamikaze Badger
While i save up for my equipment, im planning on getting a price list set up for people that want to hire me(mainly just my school). Does anyone know a good pricing thing? Last time my school hired a DJ, they had to drop $100. Im trying to get these people towards the amazing abilities of vinyls and actual DJ mixing. Well, to get back on subject, would $30 probably be enough for something like a dance or a fun night? |
LEARN TO CRAWL BEFORE YOU CAN WALK!
Take it easy kiddo, I understand your ambitious to start making cash... how about you learn to mix first and get good at it, than start putting a price on your skills. |
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| dartman |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vlad
LEARN TO CRAWL BEFORE YOU CAN WALK!
Take it easy kiddo, I understand your ambitious to start making cash... how about you learn to mix first and get good at it, than start putting a price on your skills. |
i second that |
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| brian |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vlad
LEARN TO CRAWL BEFORE YOU CAN WALK!
Take it easy kiddo, I understand your ambitious to start making cash... how about you learn to mix first and get good at it, than start putting a price on your skills. |
Good advice. I bought my first TT last November (SL-1200MK2), my mixer in January (DJM-500), and my second TT in April (SL-1210M3D). I've been practicing on my beat matching for about a year now, and I've actually been using vinyl exclusively since April--so for a total of about 5 months now. I've gotten pretty good with beat matching, and occasionally have my off-days like everyone else. But either way I still don't think I'd be ready to play anywhere too big yet -- maybe a small party or something, but certainly not a club.
And it's not that I have no confidence. I have plenty. But even after doing this for as long as I have, there are a lot more things I have to learn. I can positively say I'll be ready in the next few months.
All in all, hold off for a few months. Develop a feel for it and practice a LOT. Once you get your equipment, you will most likely feel differently about how ready you are to play live. There's really no checklist that will tell you when you are ready to play live -- when you're ready, you'll just know it and will feel it. Become a god at beatmatching first, start stocking up on vinyls, and stay current with the music scene. Just don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning, because if you do, chances are you may end up hating it because of the rough start.
I'm not trying to burst your bubble or put you down or anything. I'm glad to see someone at your age so interested in DJing on real equipment. But just take it one day at a time, and never give up ;)
Good luck mate, and enjoy the ride :D |
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| Vizay |
well I can only give you advice from my own experiences :)
I've been mixing for a little over a year now and I've been standing most of the time in my bedroom practicing, why you might ask, well simply because the fact that if people hire you and they think you suck you will NOT be hired again...
beeing a DJ and making money on it is so much more then just mixing the music and getting payed, if you aint got a good reputation then no one will want you before that other guy they know more about...get me? :)
as for myself, I've played on 2 real parties (with aprox 100 people in the crowd) and both times were for free, I might have like 1 or 2 more gigs comming up this year and both will probably be for free, why you might ask...well simply because I know my mixingskills are enough to be called good but no one knows who I am right now so I have to build a reputation, and the easiest way is to play for free and show them how good you are (if you play for free the chance is way bigger that someone will hire ya then if you take a fee of 50$, after all no one wants to take a risk on a kid they know nothing about)
so in short, my advice is wait untill you get your TT's, mix at home for at least 6 months (you will probably need more time, learning takes time :))
when you think you've got skills enough you can start considering playing out :) |
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| Tiger777 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vlad
LEARN TO CRAWL BEFORE YOU CAN WALK!
Take it easy kiddo, I understand your ambitious to start making cash... how about you learn to mix first and get good at it, than start putting a price on your skills. |
Like most people in here, I can agree to that. You will probably not be making ANY money the first year you start DJ'ing. Prolly not even the second. DJ'ing is not something you can learn in 5 minits. It takes weeks and months of practise. It should be a hobby, not a job. If you DJ for the money, you'll NEVER be a good DJ.
enjoy DJ'ing for the music, not the money. |
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| Vizay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tiger777
enjoy DJ'ing for the music, not the money. |
that's so true but you forgot one thing, enjoy DJ'ing for the people on the dancefloor :) |
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| Tiger777 |
| Not even that. 99% of your joy should come from the music and the transistions you do, and 1% should come from your audience... Ofcource, that's quite personal. |
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| Kamikaze Badger |
| I know, and my plans are to just DJ at my school for the rest of this year and the next for free, and then when i get more experience and a good rep, then ill start putting a price on my skills. My previous plans were to just do all of this as a hobby and not put a price on any of my stuff, but after seeing the cost of vinyls, and been told by the pros here, i guess that i do need to charge money. Ack, g2g, not supposed to be using the computer right now. |
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