switching from mobile

Uhm why this topic flagged ?

I agree with DJ Vintage, unless you’re famous, you won’t be able to walk into clubs and festivals (festivals you’ll probably have to even pay to play or do it for free …!)

Club DJing is all about how many people you can bring to the club. here in Valencia the pay is VERY bad. It’s normal to get anything from 0 to 50 euro as a standard fee. A few places will pay 100-200 euros but it’s very rare. There are too many middlemen promoters taking a cut from DJ fees and far too many who will play for free for “exposure”. I usually get my fee topped up with how many people came on my list which can add a few hundred at the end of the night. Bringing people can be very hard work! You can spend all day/week messaging/talking to people about coming to the party, and it can be just as boring as how you’re feeling. Then you have the bait and switch promoters who book you to play one thing and then want top 40 when you get there,using you really just to bring people to the party. I’ve had cases where I was supposed to play Deep House and took songs on USB sticks for the CDJs and when they said to switch to Spanish/Top 40/EDM I didn’t have any and finished 20 minutes in. Oh and they didn’t pay for that night…. be prepared for promoters who book you and don’t pay you afterwards.. I’m owed around 1000e via various shady promoters that I don’t work with anymore.Many DJs won’t work with these guys but there’s a ready supply of new beginner DJs who will for the non-existent “exposure”.

Anyway follow DJ Vintage’s advice… if you rely on DJing for your living then keep doing the wedding gigs while searching for regular club gigs. Once you have that you will have a nice choice to make and experience of both industries. You never know, you could meet a club/bar manager at one of the wedding gigs…

And mixcloud hasn’t helped me get gigs.. bosses at clubs always ask for soundcloud and I don’t post mixes there. I’ve had over 60k people listen to my mixcloud mixes, regularly charting and never got a gig through it… I think it’s mostly other DJs and friends listening on Mixcloud rather than promoters. Only 1 or 2 promoters were ever impressed by those numbers, what they really want to know is how many people can you bring to the party, another reason they have 1 DJ per hour (I prefer doing 2-4 hours!)

Sadly, Spain works very differently… so you learn to work with people who over time you find are honourable and trustworthy and pay you the fee they told you prior to the gig… at least eventually (some of them wait for the club to pay them first and then you).

The promoters who didnt pay, I warn people about… play once and if they don’t pay you, don’t ever play for them again. 2 of them don’t get anyone, 2 of the others now have a Spanish duo they pay 30 euros (total) per night to play.. the pay is so shitty but as they are doing it for for fun and not to pay rent…. I guess they don’t mind spending half their fee on cabs.
Too many of the (foreign) DJs they booked (without tryouts or listening to their music, essentially because they knew lots of people) never got paid and never worked with them again.

The other problem with these guys is that they ask for one type of music (usually whichever one you say you like to play) and you turn up and it’s all “play Spanish commercial/Top 40/EDM/Pachanga” which essentially means play the same restrictive playlist as this club usually has everyday which is quite boring to do for only 30 euros and 2 free drinks 😀

I’m pretty sure all promoters siphon off money from DJ fees here as no one ever gets to deal with the clubs directly, and having promoted a few club nights directly with clubs/owners, I know the figures involved… they can easily pay more. When I’ve dealt with bars directly I’ve made much much more than the biggest clubs with 1000s in capacity (which is also always oversubscribed and there is no space to move or dance – but that is for another topic another day, suffice to say, they prefer it packed like sardines).

In previous jobs yes, but here they won’t even consider you if you do this… it’s very unprofessional here and why I’m leaving in a couple months.