Guest Dj | Digital DJ Tips

October 31st, 2012 Training

How To Book Guest DJs For Your Club Night, Part 1

by Phil Morse

Booking guest DJs is not as hard as you may think, and done right it can catapult your night from nothing to ‘on the map’. Here’s how…

So you have started a small club night in your town to showcase your DJing, and you want to book guest DJs to play at it alongside you.

Today we’re going to look at some of the dos and don’ts when it comes to hiring in DJs, who to book (and who not to book), and how to try and negotiate a price you can afford. In the next part, How To Book Guest DJs For Your Club Night, Part 2, we look at what happens after that. But first, let’s consider why you may want to book guest DJs at all.

13 Comments »

September 25th, 2012 Training

How To DJ Warm Up Sets (And When To Break The Rules)

by Phil Morse

Club’s open, people are arriving… so how do you play it, and is it ever OK to bang on the big tunes?

Standard DJ etiquette says DJs playing the warm-up set should, you know, warm up. They should hold back, leaving it for the main guest or guests to drop the big tunes and thus raise the energy level to the roof. Tease the crowd, make the dancefloor seem less hostile to people who’ve just walked in. Get things starting to move – but don’t grab the glory.

Certainly, so the rules go, you shouldn’t turn the volume up, banging on all the tunes the crowd knows. Try all the tricks to get everyone hanging from the rafters before the big-name guest DJ hits the booth. That’s just bad manners, right? Well, actually, as we find out today, it’s not always so clear cut…

19 Comments »

September 21st, 2012 Training

What It’s Like To Work As A Cruise Ship DJ

by Oliver Santa Maria

Want to DJ all over the world? Maybe getting a job as a cruise ship DJ would be just the ticket. Today an experienced cruise ship DJ reveals what it’s really like playing onboard a luxury cruise liner.

I’ve DJed on three cruise ships for four separate stints with the job title of “celebrity guest DJ”. Of all the cruise ship jobs, it’s got to be one of the best! For me, it’s been a great experience to travel the world and meet people from so many different places. And like with wedding DJing, it’s an underrated way of really improving your DJ skills.

Cruise ship DJing has taken me to places that I don’t think I would ever have visited on my own. Places like Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico; Roattan, Honduras, Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas; Puerto Rico, Halifax and Nova Scotia in Canada – and that’s just some of my favourites.

41 Comments »