DJ Quality – How to identify them

Hire Someone that does know what they are doing.
Research who the successful promotional groups within your city are and start there. Hire one of them to do your Promoting and event planning.

Know your competition, what crowd are you trying to get…where do you want to take your bar. Not knowing is 75% of the reason why any business goes out of business.

If I would be asking someone to DJ at my bar I’d probably ask for a demo. This gives me at least a basic idea of his capabilities (even though a mixtape can be polished to get a better result than the live thing).

Furthermore I like to ask DJ’s for a couple of songs they would play in their set if I would book them in a certain timeslot. It’s my experience that people tend to call-out many sub-genres when asked what kind of music they play. Howevere, these genre classifications seem to differ quite a bit between people, so I’d rather have some examples of song they would play.

Of course, the best thing would be if you were able to go to another event where they will be playing. This only works with DJ’s that have at least some gigs already. If you don’t have time to do this, I agree with Hee Wong Jung that it’s always an option to contact an established promotor to get some tips.

D-Jam, post: 24254, member: 3 wrote:

Always think bottom line when you promote or manage a venue or event.

I agree with most of what you said, but you’re forgetting about he other side of the argument – In order to be creative you need to take risks!

If people just thought about the bottom-line and not about the experience of the party or the event – then every city would end up with an identical shit boring nightlife culture that only consists of top 40 and associated trash – because there is no risk in providing that. It makes perfect economic sense.

There is a whole swathe of punters out there who want to to experience something different than the majority and if you are a savvy and you love the music you will take a risk and capitalise on that, by providing something new or unique.

Yes, Vision NightClub may be the biggest in the Midwest…but will it ever be considered the greatest? Probably not!

The greatest clubs – The Loft, Paradise Garage, The Hacienda, Amenesia, Cosmic, Studio 45,Warehouse, Mud Club, The Roxy etc etc, all started by playing music to that not many people understood at the time. What they did do however, is create a unique experience. And from that grew hordes of loyal fans and a legacy of great music and musicians that we all benefit from today.

I know this all sounds very idealistic – but in reality – we need a balance of super clubs, underground clubs, warehouse parties and other creative events in order to create an exciting nightlife experience for all.

So from my perspective, i’d look for DJs that fit in with the mood or experience I wanted to create with the bar. I think the the idea of having them submit suggestions for songs at certain times is a good one. Depending on the size, I would either use an agency, a savvy staff member or an existing DJ network to fill the spots.

TheReturn, post: 24279, member: 2640 wrote: If people just thought about the bottom-line and not about the experience of the party or the event – then every city would end up with an identical shit boring nightlife culture that only consists of top 40 and associated trash – because there is no risk in providing that. It makes perfect economic sense.

I agree with your whole reply…and I am a fan of taking chances. Lord knows I did many times when I promoted.

However, I look around Chicago and I read about other scenes, and it clearly shows what I quoted up there has happened. I know in Chicago for every one “interesting” or “risk taking” place, there’s about 5-6 cookie-cutter bottle service mainstream music spots, and 20 frat-boy trendy sports bars with DJs acting as jukeboxes.

In Vision’s defense, they normally bring out globally known respectable names as headliners. I merely can understand though why they would bring out Pauly D. It makes money…plain and simple.

I am all for making more Haciendas, Lofts, Paradise Garages, etc. The problem is those with the capital to do that won’t. If someone opened a club like the Hacienda today, and it spent just a few months empty, they would chuck all the “be innovative” thinking and go completely mainstream/sellout.

In many ways though, it’s good to have the “cool” spots be small and scarce. Makes the underground then have a concentrated spot to play and do things. Lord knows I’d rather have 2-3 good spots over 20-30 mediocre ones.