Is the Mobile DJ Industry Crumbling with All the New Cheap Laptop DJ's?

0:00 Please, please put your comments underneath there

Alright guys, don't exactly know how this video is going to pan out but we will see. Please, please put your comments underneath there. They're actually vital and you'll understand why during the course of this video. Now I've been in the DJ industry for a very long time. I've had my ups, I've had my downs, I've had the good times and the bad times. I've had good gigs, I've had bad gigs. Practically everything's happened. But of course, you learn every single day. New situations arise, you just never know what's around the corner. But one thing for sure that has definitely happened over the past few years is that there are DJs out there now who will just undercut you. There are people booking DJs now who, for example, would have booked a DJ for £200 or £300 UK pounds 10 years ago.

There are DJs going out doing practically the same job for half that. Is it because technology has made it possible for people to buy a cheap kit and it's easy to download music so practically anyone now can go out and buy a Mixtrack Pro 2, plug it into the laptop, an RCA to a cheap mixer, chuck it into a couple of powered speakers and a couple of flashy lights and away you go? A CD player now from Pioneer, the brand new ones, you know, getting on for £2,000, well that's one CD player. Yet a DJ now could buy the complete setup for less than that and start earning money. So is it the technology that has made it possible for DJs to undercut? Or is it that because there are so many DJs now... Thank you for watching.

2:27 Being able to just get straight in there

Being able to just get straight in there. Whereas when I started DJing, there wasn't anything like this. You had to learn through your own mistakes or desperately try and ask another DJ if you could follow them and carry their speakers in only quite often to be told no because they wanted to keep their own little secrets of their own tips and tricks yet nowadays anyone can just go on the web and find out a how-to video And before you know it, they can become a DJ. So what's happening? What's going on? I mean, I know people now around this area who will charge less than £200 for a gig. Now I charge above that amount and I will not go lower than my set fee. I would prefer not to work. Now admittedly there is a place up the road where I work which is relatively cheap but it's once every couple of months.

It's less than a mile away and it's a friendly environment so it's a bit of fun as well. But I'm getting people now who are phoning me up saying, well you know how much do you charge? I explain and then they say well we'll phone you back. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't but if they don't it's very likely that they have got someone else a lot cheaper. Now, again, some people have said to me, and this is very true, if you think that you would like to join in with the industry, become a professional mobile DJ, and you have a brand new laptop and a controller, a set of powered speakers and a few flashy lights, and you go and do someone's wedding, what you've got to think of is that they've invested heavily in that wedding. And are you in a position to say to your client, well, you know what? If the laptop goes wrong, I've got another one.

If my controller goes wrong, I've got another one. If my speakers stop working, I've got more. If my lights stop flashing, I've got more. In other words, the word I'm going to use is backup. Do you actually have backup? Also to prospective clients, to people who may be thinking of booking a DJ for your wedding. Let's look at it from this point of view. You spend years, not months, years. Sometimes three or four years. Alright, yeah, sometimes a couple of months. It depends how quickly you want to get married. But you do spend a great deal of time on weddings. So are you going to put someone who is going to finish off your wedding, are you going to put them in control of making sure your wedding finishes off with a bang? Possibly knowing that they have undercut another DJ. Knowing that they're relatively new.

5:11 Do they have public liability?

Knowing that they've only got a laptop that's housing their music and possibly thinking that what happens if that laptop stops working? Have they got any backup? Are they professional? Do they have public liability? Are they registered for tax? What happens if their speakers stop working? You see, as a client and also as a DJ who is going out doing mobile gigs, we need to think of these things. Some places in the UK now will demand to see PL. Now, anyone out there scratching their heads wondering what PL is and you are a DJ, then really you need to start going back to the bedroom and doing a bit of wiki-wiki scratchy mixing cutting because PL is known as public liability and in a lot of venues they will demand that you have public liability because let's imagine you've invested

If someone trips over a cable, they could potentially sue you. And then you're pretty much in deep shit. And imagine to add on top of that, maybe you're not registered for tax. Well, then you're even more shit. Now, you've got to be careful about how you go into the industry. It isn't... As easy as, you know what? I've seen 25 videos on YouTube. It looks pretty simple. I'm going to get a Mixtrack Pro or a Reloop or an SX from Pioneer. I'm going to plug it into my laptop because I've got 10,000 songs. I'm going to get a couple of RCA cables by a couple of powered speakers and a couple of flashy lights. Bingo! I can do a wedding. Well, maybe you can. But there's so much more to think about. So...

7:37 Maybe the other person they book is a great DJ

In a nutshell, what do you think about the industry? Where's it going to go? Are we awash with DJs? Will the prices continue to plummet? I am not going to reduce my price. Like I said earlier, I prefer not to work because as soon as I start to lower my price, I lower my self-esteem and it's not good on how the client perceives me. I want the client, prospective client, to find out how much I charge, then maybe potentially book someone else. Maybe the other person they book is a great DJ. Fantastic! Everyone's a winner except for me. But if they book someone and it's not a good evening, then maybe they'll look back and think... Possibly it might have been a better idea to book someone who's maybe slightly more professional. Who knows, alright? Now this video is very broad, it's a very big subject but I would like your input. Bung it in there in a comment, let me know how you feel. What's it like where you are around the world? This isn't just for the UK, this is worldwide. Are you finding it the same? Now I'm still getting bookings, I'm very happy. I also do Skype lessons which are going relatively well so I'm not complaining.

But, what I'm not happy about is finding out that there are now people out there who will literally work for peanuts. Because if you are one of those DJs and you think that, great, I'm getting that Saturday night gig instead of the DJ at the road, you're not really doing him or her an injustice, you're doing yourself an injustice. Because, look at it from this point of view. Let's imagine that in your town, in your area, there are 10 DJs. Now I want you to think about this. The last thing you think about in this video, there are 10 DJs. Every single one of those DJs, and before I carry on, some people say price fixing is illegal. Well, there are people who do it, but this isn't price fixing. Let's imagine 10 DJs. You all agree.

Oh no, you don't maybe agree, but maybe there is a minimum you'll go to of 300 whatever, dollars, pounds, euros, it doesn't matter. Now if there's a minimum you go to, and everyone knows that's the minimum you go to no matter what, and no one says I'll sneakily go to 290. Thank you for watching.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.