Stop the Mobile DJ Price Drop!

0:00 Shop, a store and buy

Alright ladies and gentlemen, this video is about pricing. Making sure you get a good amount of money for the service you provide. Right, let's go back first of all 30 odd years, let's say, to when a DJ had to, you had to, go to a shop, a store and buy the latest records. The latest chart, the latest pop, and also while you were there you would buy the favourite tunes that you liked as well, but maybe you just like pop. You would have to buy a collection. If you started off as a DJ and all of a sudden you became one, you would have to buy a vast amount of records or buy someone's old collection. That's what you had to do. Now also, you had to buy a decent amount of kit and there weren't that many DJs around and prices were corresponding to probably 30 years ago.

Everything's relevant. Nowadays, though, what we've got is we've got a DJ who can look in their back pocket, find three or four hundred pounds, euros, dollars, and pretty much buy an entire setup. Now you may find that bizarre and strange, but you can. You can even now, of course, well you have been able to do for quite a while, just plug your laptop into a set of speakers or even one powered speaker. And have one little flashy light with cables dangling everywhere and do a gig. So what this means is that nowadays if someone wants to book a DJ, they can pick one up for virtually nothing. Now the crazy thing is, technology is doing this, it's getting better and better, everything's getting faster and stronger and goodness knows what.

2:31 Record shop and spend hours delving

The fees that DJs are getting are just going down. Or they're staying the same. Now, is that good or bad? It may be good for you because you're a new DJ, you're up and coming, you've got a small bit of kit, and you're now competing with the people who have been in the industry for a very, very long time. They may be charging £500 or £600, but you can get away with charging £150. And you can still do a good job. I'm not saying maybe you can or you can't. But, of course, there's no need for you now to go to the record shop and spend hours delving through the record collection to get a good collection because you can just go online and download a whole bunch of tunes. So where is this video going? Well, it's about really making sure that you as the DJ get the fee that you deserve to get.

A lot of people now are undercutting. What they're doing is they're desperate to get the work, so they will just... They'll do it for next to nothing. Some people will even work for free just to get the gig. In some cases that's okay, but if it's a house party for friends and family, of course you're going to do it for free, aren't you? But then if someone at the party If a DJ decides to book you, you'd be a muppet to do that for free because you've got to start earning a bit of money. So check this out, have a listen to this because this is business and this is a bit of good information and it could actually make you more money than what you're earning now. Let's imagine there are five DJs in your area and a client phones all five.

And you're the fifth one, you're the third one, you're the fourth one, it doesn't really matter. But you say to that client, phone around, let me know what they've quoted you and I will make a better, I'll give you a better quote. So the client has phoned all the five DJs and the lowest price the fourth DJ will do the gig for is £150. Will you say, I'll do it for £100, £140, whatever? Now the client possibly will book you then because they've got a great deal, they've saved some money and you've got a good deal because you've got the gig. But you've actually not had a good deal because you've not only made the industry look a bit dodgy and crap but you've lowered your price. Now why don't you try something like this? Now you've got to be careful about price fixing because we don't want to do price fixing and apparently it is illegal.

4:51 In other words, there's very little difference between all of the pric

What you're doing by lowering the price is you're not only giving yourself less money, but you're giving the industry a little bit of a bad name because people are going to be thinking, well, we can just get a DJ and he'll turn it for 100 quid or whatever, 100 pounds, 100 dollars, 100 euros, 100 shekels. I don't know. But you see, if you stick to your guns and you say, no, this is my price, it's 250, that's it. And then everyone else says, well mine's 270, mine's 245, mine's 260. In other words, there's very little difference between all of the prices. Then the client hasn't got much of an option really. Maybe they can save 20 pounds here, 20 euros, dollars, or they may have to pay 20 extra. But that's of course depending on the amount of experience and kit the person, the DJ has got.

Lowering your price rock bottom. You are still within a chance of having that gig because there's only five of you in the area. So short term, you may not get that gig because they may go to someone else but long term, you will. You will get gigs and also long term, you'll actually be earning more money. Think about it. By lowering your price, you know, you're going to be possibly going out every single weekend for 100. Wouldn't it be better to go out, say, once a month or twice a month for triple that? Now if you do the math, you'll work out that you're actually earning more and you're working less. Now isn't that a better idea than flogging your guts out for nothing and also putting the industry, or giving the industry a bad name, which is not a good idea. So just think.

Alright, think about what you're doing. Think about your price structure and think about that little conversation you're having with the client when you say to them, well, what's everyone else charging? I'll make it lower. I'll go lower for you. Don't. You put your price depending on your skill level and how you think you are. You are cheap and you will be cheap, alright? So, just phone around, make enquiries and let's start showing people that this industry is worth paying for. Practice and enjoy, thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.