5:10
What to charge for a mobile disco
On YouTube this video is called DJ advise , How much to charge for a mobile disco!
What this lesson teaches
Five minutes on what to charge, built around one asymmetry that most new DJs get wrong and then spend years paying for.
Find out the going rate
The research method, same as the young-DJ lesson: find out what the established DJs in your town charge. Published price lists are the easy way, and asking them openly works too.
How much do you charge? How long do you play for? What light show have you got? Ask three or four and you have the local rate, plus a sense of what they are offering for it.
But first: are you confident?
He puts this before the money, and the standard he sets is specific rather than vague.
Can you, at the flick of a switch, go from current chart material to fifties records because a group of pensioners has arrived and asked?
At a wedding or a fortieth or a fiftieth you will have every age in the room, and the job is to serve all of them. That is what confidence means here: not nerve, but knowing you have the music and the judgement to handle whatever walks in.
If you are not there yet
Two honest options:
Do not go out as a mobile DJ yet.
Or go and work for one. Find somebody who has been doing it ten years and ask to come along - carry the speakers, set the lights up, watch. Do not expect to be paid; expect to be taught.
That is the apprenticeship that does not formally exist in this trade, and it is available to anybody willing to ask.
The scenario he tests you against
And it is the right one, because it is the moment that separates the two.
You are set up. The room is empty. The doors open, and a crowd you have never seen comes in.
What do I do?
You need to be able to look at that and think: I can handle it. If you can, the rest is arithmetic.
Now the money
If the DJ down the road has ten years in, the music, the lights, the PA and the range - and charges 300 - then if you have the same equipment and the same range and the confidence, you should charge 300.
Even if it is your third or fifth gig. Because the client is buying the evening, not your service history.
Why charging less is the mistake
Here is the asymmetry, and it is the thing to take away.
Start at 150, and getting to 300 later is very difficult. You have told the market what you are worth, your existing clients know your price, and the people they recommend you to have been quoted it. Doubling your fee looks like a different business.
Start at 300, and coming down is easy. The client only wants three or four hours instead of six, or wants to finish half an hour early - and you can reduce it a little, as a negotiation rather than a correction.
So the high starting price gives you room to move and the low one does not. Same quality of work, completely different ceiling.
And the line that settles it
His best sentence on the subject: if you want to be a mobile DJ, then your first gig with your equipment in a hotel - you are pro, straight away.
There is no learner rate in this business, because the client's wedding is not a practice run. The night is as important to them whether it is your first or your five hundredth, and the price should reflect what they are getting rather than how long you have been doing it.
The caveat he gives himself
Worth repeating, because he opens with it: it does not matter how big the light show or the sound system is. People are more interested in the music, its quality, and how you put it together.
So the fee is justified by the thing he spent the first half of the lesson on - the range and the judgement - not by the amount of equipment in the van. Which is the whole argument of a later lesson in this course.
Contents of the video
0:00 It's always a good idea actually, here's a tip for you
Alright folks, Jonathan here. Now then, quite a few people have been emailing me and asking me about how much they should charge for mobile work as a DJ. Now then, let's say for example in your street or in the same town there's a DJ who's been a mobile DJ for 10 or 15 years. Now then, it's always a good idea actually, here's a tip for you. Phone them up, pretend you are someone who's looking for a disco. How much do you charge? You ask them. Then, you know, you ask them questions, you know. How long do you play for? What's the light show you've got, etc., etc. And then it'll give you a general idea of how much they charge. Maybe phone three or four and you'll get a general idea and you can weigh up what gear they've got, etc. But at the end of the day, there's one thing I always think about and that is that it doesn't matter how big the light show is, how big the sound system is, the people really are more interested in the music, the quality of the music and how you put it together. Alright, back to the job at hand though. Right, you're a new DJ.
You want to become a mobile DJ and you want to know how much you want to charge. Now then, first of all, before you go out on the road, you have to have one thing, confidence in yourself. You have to know inside here that you can, at the flick of a switch, basically go from playing top 40 stuff, in other words, chart, poppy, hip-hop, soul and R&B, whatever, A crowd of old age pensioners come along and want some 50s. Now you've got to be able to do that. You've got to be able to, the flick of a switch, play that kind of music because in a wedding situation or in a 50th or 40th or 30th birthday party, you're going to have all ages. So this is where confidence comes in. If you don't feel confident...
1:48 One, you should not become a DJ, a mobile DJ at that point
Then you should do one of two things. One, you should not become a DJ, a mobile DJ at that point. Or two, you should possibly contact a mobile DJ who has been in the industry a long time and say look... I want to learn the trade. Can I come along with you, help you, lug your speakers in and out, set your lights up, you know? Don't expect to get paid, but do expect to get experience from that guy or from the lady. Then, again, when you've got the experience, when you've got the knowledge, the know-how, in other words the confidence, and you feel as though you could be in any time, any place, any situation, play any music to anybody... Then, the confidence is there etc. At that point then, when the guy has this, let's say there's a chap down the road who's been DJing for 10 years and he charges 300 whatever US dollars, pounds, euros, then really you should be in a position to charge exactly the same amount of money because that guy, let's say the lady has been DJing like I said for 10 years, they've got the experience, they've got the music, the lights, the sound system and they can play any sort of music anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
3:22 Venue, a new venue, it's
If you have got the lights, the sound system, etc., the good equipment and you know, you feel confident in here, you can play any kind of music. Flick of a switch, you can play the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the disco, Michael Jackson, Tamela Motown, Northern Soul, funk, rare groove, hip hop like that. Then you as well should be able to charge exactly the same amount of money because you and only you will know that you have the confidence to do that. Let's be honest, every single time you go to a venue, a new venue, it's a new set of people, the new surroundings, everything is new. Now you need to think, right? You're going to go in there, you're going to set all your gear up and let's say for example I've been there, Brian S Redd's been there, many DJs have been there, you're sitting there and maybe there's no one in that room and all of a sudden doors open and you get this crowd of people coming in.
What do I do? You've got to be in the position whereby the crowd of people come in and you can look and think, OK, I can handle it. That's what it's about. It's about confidence. If you feel confident, then you can charge. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to charge the same amount as that person who has been DJing for 10 years, even though possibly it's maybe your first, third, fourth, fifth gig etc. The worst thing in the world is to charge a lot lower. It's very difficult if you start charging, say, 150. It's very difficult then to all of a sudden jump up to 300, but it's very easy to start at maybe 300 and let's say the people only want the disco to go on for 3 or 4 hours as opposed to 5 or 6 hours or maybe they want it to finish half an hour earlier or whatever. Then you can lower the price a tiny bit, but it's very difficult to go from 150 all the way up to 300 say 4 or 5 months later when you think yeah...
I've passed the learner stage, now I can go pro. Because believe me, if you want to be a mobile DJ, theoretically your first gig with your equipment in a hotel, you're pro straight away. That's the score. Thank you for watching and I hope this has been a help. Practice and enjoy.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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