What to charge in Cape Town, South Africa

And playing for free is a bad idea anyway. Period.

There are a few recent threads on the subject of (not) playing for free.

You audition in the afternoon for the owner by playing for half an hour in an empty house if he wants to evaluate your technical skills and microphone voice and your presence and presentation behind the decks. That is an audition. If you play for more than 15 minutes to entertain real guests during opening hours, it’s work. And as a young professional confident in his/her abilities and skills, you want to be valued as such, by … you got it … being paid.

There are some ways around the “problem”, no cure no pay works. Agree on your regular fee up front, saying they only have to pay you at the end of the night if they liked what you did, if they didn’t like it, they pay you amount x for travel expenses. This way, if they did like you, you a) get paid your regular fee and b) you never have to discuss price again as that was done up front before you played a single minute. If they don’t like what you did, you still get paid (if only 50 bucks for travel) something AND they can never ask you back. This will usually weed out the owners that are just looking for a quick replacement or someone free to play a quiet night.

Several more tricks where that one came from, but all based on the premise that “what is free has no value”.
So if you want to be valued, get paid. Even as friends start asking you to play at their parties, get some gas money, some money for use of your gear, anything really. You can make it fit their budget, but making them pay you makes them VALUE you.

Finally, if you are struggling with what to ask if someone starts saying he’s got no budget or your regular fee is too high, you could ask something along the lines of “why don’t you make me an offer without offending me”. That last bit will give them thought not to go to low in offering you something and in my experience will get you something that is really close to what they can actually pay. Round it up and you’ll most likely seal the deal.

Just dont get too cocky and asked for out of this world rate, you just have to find that “feel-good” rate, which can bring you more more clients in the future without scaring them off right out of the bat

Hi there, I ran my own DJ/ Sound company for 30 years. Depends on what function and the quality of guests ( VIP/ the normal local party people) Normally just to be at the place, behind the desks and have DJ skills ( read your crowd , communicate with guests, have microphone skills, and very important know the PA/DJ system settings) you can charge the client for your labour about R220-00 per hour for a normal 6 to 7 hour shift ( mobile DJ for Weddings/ birthdays etc) With your own equipment, you can charge additional fee of R850-00. So as a high standard DJ with pro level equipment and lighting ( intelligent effects from Martin Professionals/ Robe etc) you can have between R5000 and R8000 per night. With day functions you can devide it ( reason people normally don’t dance during day) If you do an outdoor Psy//Trance gig, you can make R20,000-00 for the day. Ask if you guys have any questions. ? Cheers