DJ Menno

As a DJ you’re expected to have an attitude, and his reaction was clever. He has to defend his sound and his scene as D-JAM mentionned… This said, why did they book him ? He’s clearly underground with futuristic sound and dark basslines. You only need to type his name in youtube to know that…Why would you book the guy in a top 40 commercial dollar making club ? Business plan error from managment…

To me it’s always the same problem with businesses :

1) if you run your business towards money, profitability and opportunity you’re gonna be successfull…until there’s a managership change (like it happened in this instance I believe) or something goes wrong. Then you’re unequipped to face the situation and most of the time your customers will vote with their feet, leaving the club…
2) If you run your business towards the customers, build a solid base, and give something back for everything you receive, you’ll build an entrepreneurial culture that can last for generations, even with managment change or trouble along the way…I know clubs in my town that have been around for 30 years and are still healthy money making businesses.

But it is tempting to take the shortcut : run a club for 5 years, make a lot of money, put them in the bank, and you’re done with working. Some people take that route…they hurt the human side of clubbing and make bad decisions cause they’re in for quick money, not for talent or entrepreneurship…

Since you’ve got a manager you could have redirected the client to your manager from the start. “I’m sorry, for that type of requests you need to talk to my boss”. That gives you time to concentrate on your job and leaves you plenty of time afterwards to handle the situation. But as long as you’re polite and smiling there’s no reason you can’t give him a negative answer.

I only play the n° 1 top 40 song twice in the same evening if asked for it. More repetition shows a lack of diversity to me, and as you noticed, there’s no building up the atmosphere of the evening.

The radios play those songs 15 times a day and people are used to it… it’s definitely up to the DJ to have more to propose than radios 🙂

I try to surelevate my controller to the max. With the traktor s4 flying case I’m able to bring it to my level by superposing both parts. Move a lot, so that your back isn’t static, and indeed try to reinforce the muscles with appropriate exercices. You know, the exercices you can’t do when your back hurts and you don’t think about doing when it doesn’t hurt 🙂

For birthday parties I always ask what the people want. I was once playing beatles / santana / bon jovi / guns and roses for a birthday party, which is not “mixable” music. But it’s their private party, and they choose what they want to hear…

On the other side, you shouldn’t be cheap for a private event. Between the equipment and your fee per hour you should have a pretty money falling in your pocket. It’s not like you’re mixing in a club to get your name out there and just plug your mixer on the sound system.

Maybe make them an offer including :

– hiring of the equipment
– installating the equipment / uninstalling the equipment.
– fee per hour.

And if they think it’s too expensive ask them how much an electrician takes per hour to come and repair electricity in their home…

It’s a give / give situation. Either they hire equipment, and play their own music through itunes or they take a DJ. It’s up to them to make a choice, you can’t have the best of both worlds 🙂

Agree with Terry on the prices.

But as I read recently on this site, it all depends what’s in for you.

If it’s a new bar in town and you know it’s gonna bring you a lot of followers but they don’t have a big budget for the moment, you may want to collaborate anyway and consider it as “marketing costs”. Of course rediscuss the price once you’re named resident 🙂

I don’t know if there’s a certain style you mix in or if you’re into commercial, but when I do an 80’s party (I’m in switzerland) I have a lot of success the following artists :

Michael Jackson (off the wall, say say say, wanna be starting something)
Madonna (isla buonita, like a virgin)
phil collins (sussudio)
kool & the gang (celebration, ladies night)
diana ross (I’m coming out)
paula Abdul (straight up)
los bobos – la bamba
Queen
Vanilla ice

Just a few ideas, all in all very commercial but hey these are the songs people know 🙂