Unhapply Playing Gigs I Don't Want

It very much depends what your goals are… If you don’t need the money, and aren’t looking for regular shifts, then take what you enjoy and politely pass on the rest.

If you are looking for shows and looking for exposure, then expand what you are willing to play, but still be a bit selective. After all, you don’t want to build a great reputation for yourself in a style you hate, as that doesn’t help you out in the long run. But do take things that are slightly outside what you want to play if they may lead to shows you want (ie. making connections, gaining a following, whatever).

And last, if you need the money, well then suck it up and take absolutely everything that comes along! lol

Obviously, I’m generalising a little, but you get the idea. 🙂

Wow. You don’t live in Sacramento, do you? 🙂

I feel your pain man. But know that if you are really passionate about EDM then you can find a venue. Even in Top 40/Everything Latin-ville I live there is slowly a move towards commercial EDM tracks because of the rise of the DJ we are witnessing.

So I’m on the same boat as you: I want to have fun playing my tunes. My choices in Sacramento are a small bar/club downtown that’s relatively new and hip (and I would love to play there), a pizza place (no joke), and the token gay club that has always played EDM music anyways.

Amazingly DJ’ing at a pizza place is not high up there on my “fun” meter but if you love the music you do whatever it is you need to do.

And as Terry said, you always get paid. It’s amazing how easy it becomes to quantify the benefit of a business relationship when there’s a monetary transaction attached. 🙂

Ya, one of the interesting facts about the rise of EDM scene was when the gay club was starting to fill up with straight men and women of all ages that were going there because there was no other place playing that kind of music.

If

Terry_42, post: 25784, member: 1843 wrote: Now I hope this does not come around too hard but: If you do not ask money for it, it is not worth anything and this is how you get treated.
Never ever play for free. This has nothing to do with promoting yourself.
If you had a restaurant, would you come to my new years party with 50 people and cook for free to promote your restaurant? (If you do please call me)

I ask for money if I play. I tell the managers/owners/whoever upfront what I am going to play. If they do not feel about it, then well I pass. If it is the first time in their club, well a discount is OK, but I clearly state on my contract that it is for e.g. a ONE TIME 20% discount.

Of course weddings are different. There I play whatever they ask me to play. But I also prepare this in the talk beforehand and there are borders I will not cross, I rather pass on the gig.

I’m sorry but I must disagree on this point. Whilst you should be careful not to short change yourself, accepting an unpaid gig to get your foot in the door is just fine and quite the norm in many areas. You do have to be careful that you don’t get taken advantage of. Only the first gig should be free.
Accepting gigs your not stoked on playing can sometimes be a good move to get yourself other gigs too once you’re established then I wouldn’t be accepting anything you don’t like.

Also, there’s something really great about raising the energy level and happiness of a room no matter what the music. Don’t deny yourself that thrill.

+1

I’m a beginner but I have the same issue. I usually play house parties for free and everyone around here, all races, are really into mainstream rap and dirty south style rap (I live in the south. They always wanna hear Yo Gotti, Gucci, Lil Wayne, etc.). The first time I played one of these parties was the first time I DJed outside of streaming/practicing and I made the mistake of playing what I wanted to hear, which was straight dubstep, DnB, and house. Needless to say, my listeners weren’t pelased. The next time I played, it was the same house with a slightly different crowd but similar tastes. Even though I thought I’d learned my lesson and compromised by playing crunkstep, dubstep remixes of popular rap songs, and trap, they still weren’t happy with these genres. It got to the point where I just packed up and went home because I was refusing to mix what they wanted to hear. Honestly, I don’t know if I should just learn to play stuff even if I don’t want to or be adamant about my choice of genres. I can definitely relate though.

The most annoying part is that friends think they can get over on me by going over to my laptop while I piss or smoke a cig or whatever and throw rap songs onto my decks and try to take over my controller while they have absolutely zero experience with DJ hardware or software…or they think they can pester me and bring down my morale by talking shit into my ear while I play what I enjoy ‘no one wants to hear that rave shit, etc.’ It’s really discouraging for me.