Why do DJ's get paid soooo much?... and are they worth it?

[danniekavanagh]

What do you reckon?...

 

A DJ turns up at a club, plays for say.. 2hrs and then gets paid a wage packet that could finace a small country!!

 

I can imagine that if the said DJ can fill a venue due to his/her popularity then yeah ok.. but lets work something out..

 

Say a venue only holds 1500 people and they are charging say, a tenner in.. thats 15 grand ok?.. but some DJ's can cost almost that amount.. its daylight robbery!!

 

As a promoter, I'd rather concentrate my finances on making the night a major league party than blow a load of cash on 1 person playing records!!

 

Its not fair sometimes!

[Chris Hutchinson]

its because djs charge so much that punters are charged so much to get in, which in turn is attributing to falling numbers throughout clubland.....

 

its just like in football though - footballers get paid too much, and clubs are going bankrupt because of it...

 

I cant say for other scenes, but the hard-dance one is due to return back to its roots anytime soon and suddenly these £1k+ a set DJs are gonna be in deep [censored] cos they wont have any income and so lifestyles are gonna change - just imagine lisa lashes having to work part-time at Tesco during the week

[danniekavanagh]

I agree with you there, I am a DJ myself and yeah understandibly if someone turned to me and said 'I'll pay you 4 grand to play for four hours', of course I'd say yes!!.. wouldn't anyone?.. but I wouldnt go around thinking I'd be worth 4 grand everytime I appeared somewhere!!

 

I've always said if I play anywhere, I get paid on the basis of how many people are there, so if its a crap night - I dont get as much..

 

After all - technically its the clubbers that are paying the guy who pays me - just like you said!

 

I tell you what.. I'd love to know who gets paid the most!..

 

What do you reckon?? - who earns the most

Sasha/Oakenfold/Tong/Cox or someone else??

[Chris Hutchinson]

read somewhere that armand van heldon is highest earner - charges $50000 per 2hr set which is [censored] silly

 

on the bright side tho, when the scene finally does disappear up its own arse, it will weed out all the [censored]

[Chris Hutchinson]

DannieKavanagh said:

I agree with you there, I am a DJ myself and yeah understandibly if someone turned to me and said 'I'll pay you 4 grand to play for four hours', of course I'd say yes!!.. wouldn't anyone?.. but I wouldnt go around thinking I'd be worth 4 grand everytime I appeared somewhere!!

 

exactly - thats why I have so much respect for the liberator djs - they have been pioneering the acid techno scene for years, never made [censored] all money out of it, yet continue to do what they do through sheer love of the music

 

Ok, so their scene isnt big enough for them to demand silly money, but the fact they still take time to play at, and organise free parties says it all really...

[James]

IMO some earn their money and some dont.

 

All I know is there are a [censored] load of talented DJs out there who arent known and who are playing for free or next to nothing. The best DJs I know of play for the love of playing but these are people who have other jobs - if you then decide to switch to being professional and DJing being your main/only career then surely they deserve to earn a few grand a month.

 

I know I for one cant be arsed with doing the amount of travelling the likes of Farley & Co. do !

[James]

Chris_Hutchinson said:

its because djs charge so much that punters are charged so much to get in, which in turn is attributing to falling numbers throughout clubland.....

 

its because of this that we are so keen here on concentrating on members rather than big name DJs, and hopefully one day we'll have our own big event - costing next to nothing for members to get into. Thats the plan, although it could be un-workable.

 

Chris_Hutchinson said:

I cant say for other scenes, but the hard-dance one is due to return back to its roots anytime soon

 

AGREED!

[Chris Hutchinson]

James said:

if you then decide to switch to being professional and DJing being your main/only career then surely they deserve to earn a few grand a month.

 

so its ok to charge silly money for playing other peoples records???

 

Why dont promoters just buy mix cds and get some muppet to jump about pretending to dj.....would have the same effect but save shitloads of money

[James]

No Chris its not ok - I meant that if someone switches to DJing full time as their career, and are good enough, and people like to hear them play then why shouldnt they earn as much as I do in my job. I meant its ok for them to earn say 1 or 2k a month - NOT a set!

 

I do get narked that the DJs seem to get a bigger profile than the producers but I suppose thats why a lot of producers become DJs. If I was going to really concentrate on something I think I'd choose producing as the DJ market is far too flooded these days - although DJing purely as a hooby / at house parties could be fun.

[Chris Hutchinson]

think u summed it up pretty nicely mate :-)

 

The problem is that there are too many djs getting into it now just to make the money and fame... thats why it will be good when the inevitable happens and the scene collapses cos it wont take long for them to either jump ship or sell up..... the djs who stand by the music will be the ones that will gain the respect of the next wave - like Farley and Ian M have at the minute....

[James]

I guess you will always get the people who will back Tidy/SunnyD and will want to see Rob T, Farley, Lashes etc... time and time and time and time again and never try anything else (I used to be like this last year, thinking I would be doing it for life!)... but you are 100% spot on that the majority of people wont stand for it / will get bored of it and I think many people (especially people on boards like this) are waking up to the idea that there is a [censored] load of talent out there and its the new talent/ new tricks on the decks / new styles that most of us want to see now. And if these up-and-coming DJs prove to be as good as or better than what we've seen in the past - and playing for a fraction of the cost of big name DJs today - then you are soooo right that its innevitable the current scene will have to change.

 

(on a side note its also innevitable that something has to be done about Ibiza in relation to club/drink prices as well - people arent stupid and less and less people are becoming sheep and following the crowd just for the sake of it. I know I used to a couple of years ago because I didnt know who was who etc... and I was deperate just to get out clubbing, the more and more people i've met though have made me realise there's a [censored] load more to an atmosphere in a club than just the DJ playing. )

 

We dont all pay each other £5 for making the night such a great night because of a big turn out do we!

[danniekavanagh]

Another reason I disagree with paying loads of dosh for a big name, is that when I'm trying to put together a night - like the night I did this B/H sunday - the responses that I got were not regarding the DJ's being mega famous (I was one of em and I am deffo not famous!!...) but the fact that I booked a good PA (Pianoman) and I spent more money on the decor of the club and stuff such as balloons/glowsticks/confetti cannons for after the PA and a camera crew to go round the night taking pics of the clubbers - so they feel more involved.. rather than just having a room with some guy playing records.

 

We had a good night, and I reckon if all my money went on just a DJ, we'd have lost out in a big way.

 

As for £50,000 quid for a set - jesus christ!.. you'd need to have him at a venue that holds at least 5,000 people at a tenner each just to get in!!

 

No wonder clubland is going downhill!! - I reckon there's too much 'exclusivity' in clubland thats spoiling it all too.. its almost like some of the artist/promoters are saying 'we're so [censored] good you're not worth coming to see us!'

 

How many times have any of you guys travelled for miles to attend a big night and not get in just because 'you dont look right'

 

Wankers.

[Guest]

I think it comes down to a number of things:

 

1. The growth of the scene (all genres) has been its own downfall in reguards to this subject. The fact that clubs have now got to the size of your Godskitchens, Gatecrashers, Sunssidentials, Tidy events etc has fuelled the fire. With the growth of the scene, DJ wages have rocketed. But if say Godskitchen had a unknown DJ night, would they fill the venue? Personally i would say deffinately not. Although alot of clubbers are more clued up these days and are getting fed up with the big names etc and want to support new DJs and nights, There is still the vast majority of people who are the "sheep". They want to pay £15 or whatever to go to Gods to see tiesto, PVD, Fergie, Armin Van Buuren. They dont really care how much these DJs get paid, they pay their entrance fee and have a wikid night (Well what they are led to believe is a wikid night) Few people want to take risks, they want to stick to what they know, the so called "superclubs". So aslong as this continues nothing will change. Sure there will always be smaller nights getting more popular cos the more mature clubber is is fed up with the same old same old but while that happens there will be a new generation of younger clubbers waiting to take their place and be led into the whole large brand "superclub". Things might go through a few changes but it'll still be pretty much the same. The mainstream / superclubs / big DJs / etc will always be around cos people will still go to these events. The music Industry always goes through revolutions, but now there is more media involved its spread acroos all the mags as "The Death of Clubland as we know it" with "Drastically falling attendance numbers in the big clubs" This may be true to some extent, but the people who are leaving will be replaced by a new breed of younger clubbers as Ive already said.

 

2. Another factor that I believe plays a part is all the middlemen there are now. Im sure when the scene 1st kicked off, if John the promoter of Shine wanted to book DJ X then he would ring him up and ask him. HE would then turn up at your club, play, and you would pay him.

Now if John at shine wants to book DJ X he has to call his agency, who then inturn have to contact his manager, who then contacts DJ X. Each of these people dont do this for free, they all charge a fee, therefore bumping up the cost of booking said DJ X. It may not be a major factor but it does play a part. The DJ industry is a mega big corparate business now, marketing, PR, etc are all major parts of being a DJ these days. Is that right, i dont know but its the way it is now and I cant see it changing.

 

Lastly James made a point about DJs getting more credit / acclaim than the producers who actually make the music. Sadly this is very true but I can see how it happens.

If you are in your fav club and DJ X drops a wikid tune that blows you away, a tune youve never heard b4, then you will automatically link that tune with DJ X because e is right there in front of you, playing that track. You dont know who made it and in most cases the people dont care who made. Its irrelavent to them, its all about that moment and it was DJ X that created that moment.

 

Right one last thing (I know Ive gone on a bit) But This kind of debate will always resurface in some form or other. But that is soley down to the fact that in todays society, people over analyse everything. They want to know exactly why something is happening and what it intails etc. Why do people want to strip down everything and see whats inside? Clubbing is more than a business to me, and i will go along with the journey it takes me on. I for one will not analyse it time and time again.

 

Whats the meaning of life? Who cares, lets just enjoy it.

[jon_m]

spot on liam!

[alasdairm]

"are they worth it?"

 

as i said here the answer to that question, whether you agree or not and whether you like it or not, is yes. if somebody wrote a cheque, they they are worth it. that's a pretty straightforward concept obviously.

 

i think that some people here, especially those running capacity/ticket price numbers are making the all-too-common mistake of examining cost when they should be thinking about value.

 

in the bigger picture, booking a big name DJ can benefit a club in many ways - and not all the benefits are specific to the night the big name plays.

 

i think there's a lot of jealousy (or maybe just plain ignorance) involved in a statement like "DJ X is [censored] and i can't believe he got paid $6000 for one night. he's so not worth that"

 

at the end of the day, it's a market and if people don't like it, they should vote with their wallets. however, people all over the world continue to pay high prices to fill venues to hear big names spin so clearly a lot of people think these names are "worth it" too.

 

are they all "wrong"?

 

of course not. as with most things, it's not a case of right and wrong.

 

alasdair