There was a time when being a DJ meant spending a fortune on music and equipment and practicing your skills for hours and hours in your bedroom before you were brave enough to play in public. These days with the easy and cheap access to music and equipment pretty much anyone can call themselves a DJ and offer their services to venues.
Unfortunately, this puts pressure on managers to do their due diligence when booking a DJ as getting this wrong can ruin a night and maybe even a venue’s reputation.
Hopefully, this article will help you avoid the common mistakes, ensure your bookings go smoothly and create memorable experiences for your guests.
As I have mentioned before I recommend your starting point is to create a clear musical brief for your venue or event and share this with any prospective DJ.
To create the brief, you need to think about the style of the event, the type of guest and what you would like the music to “do”. A DJ could play a background chillout set, create a fun upbeat atmosphere or fill a dancefloor by playing “dance anthems”.
Once you know the atmosphere that you are aiming for you should try to narrow down the genres of music you want played and if possible, find some tracks that you feel are perfect for the event. A list of ten “perfect” tracks should give the DJ a good understanding of what you need and allow them to build a larger collection based on your examples. If there are different atmospheres required at different times of the event or night, then make sure you have tracks illustrating this.
Where possible I would avoid using vague terms to explain to a DJ what you need, earlier on I used the term “dance anthems” but this could be interpreted in so many ways it could lead to a disaster. This is why it is best to use individual tracks as examples.
Once you have got your music brief together, you should ask the DJ to put together a sample “mix” based on the brief or, even better, play a live mini-set for you to demonstrate their technical skills as well as their musical knowledge.
If the DJ agrees to play a demonstration mini-set then this will also allow you to see how confident they look behind the decks, if they dress appropriately and if they have positive interactions with staff and guests. Hopefully, they will show that they can be a valuable part of your team. They should also be able to “read the room” and adjust their volumes appropriately.
There are some DJs who prioritise technical skills over their musical knowledge, and others who have great music collections but only basic technical ability. Deciding the right kind of DJ for your venue or event will take some thought and, of course, ideally, you would like a DJ with great skills and amazing music.
I hope this article will help with booking the perfect DJ and if you would like more information then please get in touch and “Let’s Talk About Music”.