Ever wonder why wedding DJs charge what they do? We're pulling back the curtain on the DJ booth to reveal the true value behind those flashing lights and beats. Join us as we navigate the turbulent waters of wedding DJ pricing, from the initial shock of seeing a $600 price tag to understanding the comprehensive role these music maestros play in orchestrating your big day. Our journey from modest fees to rates that reflect our dedication is a story not just about numbers, but about the heart and soul poured into every performance.
Picture this: the DJ isn't just hitting play – they're the conductor of your wedding's symphony, seamlessly blending tracks with the evening’s events. This episode peels back the layers on the intricate dance between cost and value, highlighting the unseen hours of preparation that go into making your special day unforgettable. We compare wedding dynamics across the US and Canada, dissecting how elements like experience and added services like photo booths can tip the scales in pricing. Through an IT industry analogy, we underscore the priceless nature of professional expertise – it's not just about the moment but the years of skill that lead up to it.
Finally, let's talk business savvy in the DJ world. It's not enough to play great music; one must foster robust customer relationships akin to any thriving enterprise. We dive into the impact of repeat bookings, word-of-mouth referrals, and the dire consequences of a single subpar gig. As we sign off, we're grateful for the vibrant interaction with our listeners and hopeful that you'll walk away with a newfound appreciation for the wedding DJ industry. Tune in for this enlightening exploration, and who knows, it may just be music to your ears.
Ever wonder why wedding DJs charge what they do? We're pulling back the curtain on the DJ booth to reveal the true value behind those flashing lights and beats. Join us as we navigate the turbulent waters of wedding DJ pricing, from the initial shock of seeing a $600 price tag to understanding the comprehensive role these music maestros play in orchestrating your big day. Our journey from modest fees to rates that reflect our dedication is a story not just about numbers, but about the heart and soul poured into every performance.
Picture this: the DJ isn't just hitting play – they're the conductor of your wedding's symphony, seamlessly blending tracks with the evening’s events. This episode peels back the layers on the intricate dance between cost and value, highlighting the unseen hours of preparation that go into making your special day unforgettable. We compare wedding dynamics across the US and Canada, dissecting how elements like experience and added services like photo booths can tip the scales in pricing. Through an IT industry analogy, we underscore the priceless nature of professional expertise – it's not just about the moment but the years of skill that lead up to it.
Finally, let's talk business savvy in the DJ world. It's not enough to play great music; one must foster robust customer relationships akin to any thriving enterprise. We dive into the impact of repeat bookings, word-of-mouth referrals, and the dire consequences of a single subpar gig. As we sign off, we're grateful for the vibrant interaction with our listeners and hopeful that you'll walk away with a newfound appreciation for the wedding DJ industry. Tune in for this enlightening exploration, and who knows, it may just be music to your ears.
Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Clever DJ, episode number 10. I'm Ilia.
Nino:
And I'm Nino we're very excited for this episode.
Ilia:
Yes, it's been a little while, it's been a little month. Yeah, yeah, march.
Nino:
It is March.
Ilia:
Yeah, well, we were recording ahead of time, of course, yeah, all right. So what are we talking about today?
Nino:
Oh, we have a, we have a good topic for you guys. I was checking online and I found this on, naturally, facebook Marketplace and, if you guys know Groupon, this is like equivalent to Groupon I think it's in the States, but it's, it's popular everywhere Bark Box, right, and they had this promo. They didn't say the company name or anything. It says wedding DJs from starting from six hundred dollars and that really triggered a lot of DJs, especially this Facebook company of Facebook page that I'm I'm currently on, and a lot of them just just like what, six hundred dollars, like how, how do you even charge that much? Right, and I'll tell you how.
Ilia:
How? How do you do it? You pretty much start off not knowing what you're doing, not being able to charge anything more than that. Six hundred is actually great for me. That's like that's, that's your two thousand. Well, I when you charge two thousands, that's when I charge six hundred, or like that's when you charge fifteen hundred dollars, that's when I charge six hundred. Well, but I had gigs for a thousand already, over a thousand, right, like I worked my way up there but I had to start somewhere.
Nino:
Well, especially if you don't have wedding DJ experience, it's a lot different. Oh wait, that's for weddings. That's for weddings specifically.
Ilia:
So the lowest I was going to go for wedding was eight hundred dollars. Yeah.
Nino:
Yeah, but weddings is a different animal altogether because you're not just DJing wedding. There's a lot of moving parts to just to weddings itself.
Ilia:
You know just everything there, Well, depends on it.
Nino:
It all depends, but starting start Well, here in Canada or Toronto, canada, the average cost of a wedding DJ and this is I just checked this up on Google it's from five hundred dollars to two thousand. So what a big gap. Is an average? That's, that's the average right. So in between there is the average. But, it goes up from eight hundred, not the lowest.
Ilia:
Yeah, I would charge more today. I charge I never did it, that wedding right. He never signed with me, like he never actually booked me, but I would have done it for eight hundred. I'm happy he didn't, because that guy was too much, but a thousand probably would be something what I would charge right now.
Nino:
You'll be surprised, man. It's tough to get, especially in the market these days. It's pretty tough to get a DJ for under Fifteen hundred is really tough, like I've I've been finding, like, because I have a team with me, I've been trying to sell my team and stuff like that's. That's not even including just just getting me personally, because there's add ons when I, when I, when you book with me personally, right, but yeah, fifteen hundred two thousand is the average we're trying to sell to clients and a lot of them are not biting. It's the economy right now. It's hard.
Ilia:
Here's the thing you have your wedding wire. You have your Facebook, you have your Google reviews and all of them are amazing. You have all this content, you have all the all these stories on all these platforms you have you're extremely like, marketed right Like. You have all this content and you have all all of these testimonials and they're not biting with you either. Yeah, so you're expecting me to charge anything more than six hundred bucks.
Ilia:
Yeah Right, when I'm just starting out, now that I have content, I have some clients, I have testimonials. Now I'm charging more. I'm charging eight, nine hundred a thousand dollars.
Nino:
You haven't done wedding yet. That's, that's a thing.
Ilia:
And especially that if I haven't done a wedding, I'm not going to charge anything more than 800 to 1000.
Nino:
Just because I don't feel right charging them that it's tough because the average couple has never actually gotten a DJ before. They don't know what to expect from DJ. They hear from people like okay what. They figure in their head okay, what is the DJ doing? They're just playing music, right? $200, $300? That's in their head.
Ilia:
Disrespectful.
Nino:
It is right, but they don't know, they're not informed. And that's our job to inform them that we do more than just playing music, man. It's pretty much the soundtrack to their wedding right.
Ilia:
Let's just say that it's hard to say what's the most important part of a wedding, but I'd say a DJ is one of the most important parts. You'd be fine without flowers. It wouldn't look as nice. You'd be fine with a lot of different things, but without a DJ, even without a coordinator, because the DJ would be able to set up a lot of coordinator related things like you've done that, yeah, so many times.
Nino:
I have Because they didn't have a coordinator. They didn't have a coordinator and that's on them and I was surprised to like, okay, there was times that I just was going to DJ there but I didn't expect to do coordinator, but I have to.
Ilia:
I see you setting them up. Okay, you're going to go in first. You're going to go in second. Yeah. You're telling them where to cut the cake. Literally, you did two jobs in one event, right?
Nino:
Yeah.
Ilia:
So a DJ is extremely important, but you have to kind of sell that to them when you speak to them on the phone or you know your first email.
Nino:
That's the thing. You don't know what to expect. They don't know that they need a coordinator to coordinate. But then you're put on the spot because you're the person there. Taking the music. That's common sense. The first wedding, so they don't they're dealing with so much stuff with wedding related stuff. I don't know it's too much.
Ilia:
I'm not married. Way before I even started DJing, I knew that it's common sense to have a coordinator. Unless you're just such a pro and you just know how to organize everything. My client, who's an amazing event planner, she could probably coordinate her own wedding Like no problem.
Nino:
Good.
Ilia:
But she's busy, she won't have time, so she'll need a coordinator. That's the thing.
Nino:
A lot of couples think, okay, we can coordinate our wedding to save money, right, but not thinking, okay, what's involved? Until they get a month, two months closer to the date and then they're like, oh my God, we forgot about so many things. And then you know this thing we forgot the flowers, the limo, what's going to go? How's it going to? It's too much man, yeah, but it's tough. And a lot of things that can cause the price to go up is, of course, mcing. Right, if you need to MC. We always ask upfront if you guys need to MC, so we include it in all our packages just to make everything streamlined and easier.
Ilia:
Honestly, I believe MCing should be just a basic given feature Usually, but a lot of DJs don't MC yeah. I mean, I'm not really an MC yet. I try, I'm getting more comfortable with it, but it's hard. Most people I spoke to told me it took them a couple of years to really get into this, of course, man, so it's not easy.
Nino:
Especially if you're a DJ, you have to learn how to DJ properly for the wedding right. So that's the first thing I learned, like DJing first and then MCing had to come as experience went, and I wasn't good at it at the beginning too as well. So it's just a thing that you have to do it to get better at it.
Ilia:
Yeah.
Nino:
Right, there's no way around it. Now there's a lot of average price for wedding DJs in the US now is $500 up to $4,500. Yeah, they make money they make a lot of money in the US, man, and they charge more too, and then their dollars a lot higher too.
Ilia:
Yeah, we actually have quite a few listeners from the US. We see all the stats. So a lot from Canada, but a nice chunk of people watching from the US, like maybe 20%, 30% of people watching from the US. Yes, and then there is like 10% from all around the world, quite a few from the UK as well.
Nino:
Africa.
Ilia:
Africa, india yeah, we had someone from Brazil, really yeah. So I wonder what they think about some of the things we're saying here in Canada.
Nino:
Yeah, it's a little different how weddings go in the US. Their weddings are a lot shorter. They do four hour weddings instead of ours. Here it's like almost 10 hours on average. Four hours, yeah, four hours.
Ilia:
So they have a party after they do, it's included.
Nino:
Usually it's just dinner and then straight into dancing, and dancing is usually two hours to an hour and a half and they charge $45,000. Yeah.
Ilia:
Wow, that's cool. So lucky man, let's go.
Nino:
We have. What time do our dance floors start at like 8 or 9? And then we have to go to 1 o'clock in the morning, so you're thinking four to five hours dance floor.
Ilia:
I mean they're lucky Eight yeah.
Nino:
This is the norm here in Canada, toronto, I think in Canada in general, right here in Ontario especially so there, eight the earliest and ten the latest. Some some weddings, to tell you remember, depends if the DJ sucks.
Ilia:
No, remember, we just couldn't start. They were so disorganized and we're like when is the dance we're gonna start?
Nino:
There were at least three or four weddings all the start. I'm not. I thought you talking about the end. No, no, no, yeah, some.
Ilia:
Some weddings start at 10 o'clock, so you know, certain people just leave super early, certain like ethnicities, like they just like don't stay for the yeah, Obviously, yeah.
Nino:
Yeah, we don't have to mention the ethnicities. Yeah, but we actually spoke about it a couple episodes ago. We did.
Ilia:
Yeah, it depends right, it depends.
Nino:
It depends a lot of things, like the prices should be. I'd say Market value is, is is 1500 and up, but of course it depends on your experience. If you've done weddings before, your reputation as a DJ. Now if you have a sort of like a name In the DJ community in your in your area, you can afford to charge a lot more right 2025-3000, depending on on your reputation and then what you can bring.
Nino:
If you can MC, especially your add-ons and stuff, like if you have a photo booth, if you have like moving heads up lights, that will. That's those are factors That'll raise the price pretty quick, right? So a lot of things to experience. Now, if you've been doing it for over like 10, 15, 20 years, of course you have the experience, you have that track record that you Definitely will be able to deliver, like getting a, like a, the night of their wedding, right. So that's that's what they're paying for your experience, right? Even it, they're paying for your hourly rate. It doesn't matter how long your natural wedding is. It took you 20 years to get there, so yeah, same for everything else.
Ilia:
I used to fix computers or build websites and they would complain. They would say Not everyone, but a few people would complain and say oh, it only took you 20 minutes. How come you're charging me $200? Yeah, I'm like the. Would you rather it took me four hours? Yeah, I did it in 20 minutes because I'm a pro, because I know what I'm doing. Yeah, and, and you're paying for that like when, I asked him would you rather took me four?
Ilia:
hours and he's like, actually Okay, I just like I don't understand why it's so much. And then I literally decided to spend half an hour to teach him. Mm-hmm everything I did. In the end he gave me a tip exactly because he was like yo, I didn't understand that. That's everything you had to do for me exactly, you know.
Nino:
Before that's exactly how, how DJing like a wedding is like like go as well. Good analogy.
Ilia:
Yeah right.
Nino:
Another factor that will raise the prices. The date right Saturdays are peak, peak hours like peak, peak days Right. So it's really hard to get good DJs. A lot of the good DJs are booked already for Saturdays in advance. I'm booked until 2026, so For Saturdays, 2026 already. Yeah, well, I'm getting booked on 2026 already.
Ilia:
I'm 2025. Yeah, 25 hours already.
Nino:
It's pretty much booked for for all Saturdays, right, but and then it comes Fridays and then Sundays, but you'll be surprised, there's a lot of Thursday weddings now.
Ilia:
So yeah, I've been to a few with you Thursdays, wednesdays, wednesdays as well.
Nino:
I'm like I'll never have my wedding on Thursday. But you know, you know, sometimes it's because of their, their horoscope, the stars, online.
Ilia:
Okay, but not because I'm trying to save money is what I'm trying to say yeah right, he'll be on a Saturday, so everyone's comfortable, everyone gets to stay, everyone gets to stay like sleeping the next day, but then sometimes just a long weekend on a Monday. My wedding is gonna be a weekend event. Yeah, I'm gonna have, like I'm gonna book all the units around, you know, at the Spot where you DJ in Northridge, in, northridge. Yeah, that's sick, is it Northridge in or Northridge?
Nino:
in yeah.
Ilia:
That was a nice spot and we, how wild are the weddings there always because they can all drink yeah and stay there, and they're all. They're all in the vacation.
Nino:
They're no, they know nobody's gonna drive they, just they just really literally crawl to their room, literally so it's, it's it's what a wild spot. It's fun, man, and yeah, and then we have to drive. You have to, we have to pack up and then drive home two and a half hours.
Ilia:
But then that's why I charge so much, because that's like the best nap I get on the way. Yeah, you're sleeping.
Nino:
I'm driving. I'm gonna stay awake, Bro. And now when I do it myself, I usually book a hotel like nearby. Yes, Sometimes I get to stay at Northridge too. Yeah, one of the in the cottages I used to stay in the Other trailer the trailer, that's pretty cool, that's cool, it's fun there.
Ilia:
How well is that insulated? Isn't like cold in there?
Nino:
No, no, it's well insulated really, really nice.
Ilia:
We should stay there together one day sometime.
Nino:
Okay, let's get back to the actual question. Oh well, the actual topic, which is the BarkBox Groupon thing. So $600 wedding DJs? I don't know, but you know what the thing is.
Ilia:
The thing is, you should never hire a DJ for $600 for your wedding. Let me just tell you that. It's one of your most important events of your life which you'll most likely only have once, maybe twice.
Nino:
Well, the thing is, I agree some DJs have to start somewhere right and if you need to charge like low, I believe in being transparent with a couple and saying, yo, I'm a DJ, I've DJed bars, clubs and you know small events and stuff, but I haven't DJed a wedding yet. But I have shadowed a mentor or been around a mentor that's shown me the way, so I have an idea of how to do it. But I'm being transparent with you and I'm not gonna charge you super professional wedding DJ prices. I'm gonna charge you what I charge you and it's an introductory price to get to start it and for me to have experience too. If you do it that way, I think it's a win-win.
Ilia:
That's what I also did for some of my clients. When I just started out getting all these clients on my own, I was super transparent because I did not want to have a certain expectation there and then not deliver. So I said, hey, I know what I'm doing, but I don't have certain types of experience that you would get from people who did it for five or 10 years. I showed them a mix of mine, I told them what kind of experience I have and they were comfortable with it and I said that's why I charge you 300, not 600 or 600, not 1200, right Depends on the event. And after three, four, five, 10 gigs, my prices started going up by 100, 300 bucks, 500 bucks, right. I did the same event, two events One I did for like 600 bucks and the next one I did for almost 1100, right. So I already knew I can do this. But being transparent is super important.
Nino:
It is especially when you're starting something that you don't super important. You're not really familiar with, especially wedding DJs. Wedding DJing is a different animal and you want to be transparent to the couple if you don't want to ruin their day, right.
Ilia:
Yeah, I know some or a lot of DJs just learn the basics and they just try to make money.
Nino:
Right, that's terrible though it's, especially using their wedding for a practice grounds. Yeah, I would. I can't. I feel terrible with that.
Ilia:
Something. Imagine you hire someone for a birthday or something right, and then they just crash your event. I mean, they just ruin your event.
Nino:
I mean, how'd you feel right? Terrible. I'm like what the hell is this guy? Why'd we hire this guy?
Ilia:
So that's why I make sure that they know everything. They know everything.
Nino:
And then they can help you as well with the music and stuff. With the program you can deal with it together.
Ilia:
I built great relationships. Right now, my previous clients who were well aware that it was one of my first gigs or my first gig even my first one called me back, said hey, we have another event. We want you and only you.
Nino:
And that's the thing about you Loved it. You have good PR skills and you know how to talk and just have a good relationship with your customers and clients right, so they can get you back. With weddings, usually it's only a one shot deal, though. That's the thing, but having a good relationship with the couple before you go into that wedding is very important.
Ilia:
So you have the connection with the couple Exactly, and you can make a bad impression or a good impression on so many different people. There's the couple, all of their guests who are also gonna have weddings or something. Right yeah, the coordinator.
Nino:
And they will definitely recommend you if you do an amazing job, right.
Ilia:
So when you go into a wedding, you gotta be ready.
Nino:
Yeah, yeah, so it's a different animal. So I understand why DJs charge that low. But if you're charging that low, sometimes it's like you get what you pay for. You get your money's worth.
Ilia:
Sometimes some DJs don't think about it.
Nino:
It's a risk sometimes, right, Especially if that's okay, all in, just to get the gig $600, get us and then we'll book with you. Now, Sometimes they don't even show up. A lot of horror stories where DJs don't even show up.
Ilia:
What do you do For the gigs, Bro man?
Nino:
What do you do? They have to look for DJs, like last minute.
Ilia:
It's gotta cost them way more, yeah, way more than what they weren't going to.
Nino:
When you don't go, for a professional that has a contract, has certain steps taken, has insurance as well. Yeah, that's what happens sometimes. You take that risk.
Ilia:
So I think what people should take from this is don't charge more than you should earn, than what you're worth, but also don't devalue yourself and then make all of us pay for it. I mean, $600 for a wedding is ridiculous. I mean, a lot of these people keep charging that price over and over again.
Nino:
Just to get more gigs or just to fill up the calendar, and that's wrong.
Ilia:
Do you agree that what we said? As a beginner you're allowed to do it once or twice just to kind of get the experience?
Nino:
You do.
Ilia:
But then you gotta keep, you gotta raise your prices.
Nino:
You gotta start raising it once. You start seeing like if you get good results from your client and you do an amazing job, right you?
Ilia:
shouldn't take it more than three or four, right? Like? I mean, if you're doing it for five or six or seven weddings and it's still bad, you probably shouldn't be doing it anymore.
Nino:
Yeah.
Ilia:
Until you get better, that's fine All right, so what's next?
Nino:
Yeah. So the next thing that'll drive the price up is the number of hours. So if you're hours, or if you go overtime now, especially if you go, if it's set to stop at 1 am and then you want, you don't want it to end, right, you want it to go to two or three if the venue allows, and of course it'll charge another $100, $150 on top of that, depending on your prices, right? And especially if you start with the ceremony, of course the ceremony sometimes starts really early around lunchtime. You have to set up longer hours, more pricing, pricing differences, right. Another thing is equipment Equipment, what you bring as well how much equipment you have to bring.
Nino:
Like, yeah, if you get ceremony, you have to have another set of speakers for just a ceremony. You have to have a wireless microphone. You have to have a stand. You have to have whatever player, you have a controller or a laptop or iPad to use there, so you have another setup there. If you set up lights for your main system, if you have moving heads or up lights, yeah, there's so much equipment that you can bring and that will raise the price You're charging for a stand, not necessarily but, it's something that we have to bring.
Nino:
Oh my God, I charge them for the cord, the XLR cord, the air that they breathe, stuff like that. Nah, it's all good man.
Ilia:
But the extra speakers and everything, of course, lights and everything.
Nino:
Yeah, that's stuff that'll just raise the prices. And then, of course, office expenses, the stuff that you don't see. Our preparation are the hours that we put into actually preparing your crates, your music and to integrate it into actual night. It takes, yeah, your phone calls, your emails, answering emails back and forth, administrative stuff, record pools what is it? Gas as well.
Ilia:
Yeah, I find that if the event is, let's say, we show up around 2 pm and then we finish by 1 am, we finish at one then we still have another hour or two. So about 12 hours, right, but then I always find that it's about double to triple the time of the event. Yeah, you don't just charge them for the 12 hours, you charge them for 24. Because there's so many other things that are actually included.
Nino:
Oh yeah, man, we're literally the first people to get there than the last to leave, other than the employees who work at the actual venue.
Ilia:
And they're the last to leave because they have to kick us out first.
Nino:
Yeah, they have to kick us out, they have to close the actual venue. So that's the only reason why they're staying, otherwise they left earlier.
Ilia:
Hey, actually in some places they actually left. They just said everything's locked once you guys are gone.
Nino:
Just close the door and it closes automatically behind us. No, it wasn't the door.
Ilia:
I remember when we were outside.
Nino:
Was that? Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. So we were a time ready.
Ilia:
Everyone was gone, they're like that's true. We're pretty much right by the parking lot, that's true, and they just said if you need the lights, that's the switch, just turn it off yeah. Literally everyone left, or they're still for another half hour. That's true. At least that's true.
Nino:
Yeah, yeah. So a lot of things they'll.
Ilia:
I don't think they were supposed to leave. Coming to think of it like what if we, like Said the place on fire, like took something right? I?
Nino:
know right. So we're gonna go back to that, to the beginning of the topic, which is that that bar box add that I saw on Facebook the group on thing, right. So the caveat here is is it says starting At 600, so you never know it's. It could be just a ceremony, right? Or it just could be a genius marketing employee just to to get customers to reply and. And and it triggered DJ. So obviously he's gonna, it's gonna get customers attention by just you know that that low price, right?
Ilia:
So yeah, but I think most people, once they hear their you know Scammy ways, they'll be like okay, well, you know what, we got the same prices somewhere else, and they'll just turn around and leave.
Nino:
Well, that was the whole point of of having the $600 is just to get their attention, to get them to reply.
Ilia:
So if they have something, the thing is, that's how sales works. Yeah exactly once you get our attention, you better have something you better have something else. Yeah, keep them exactly if everything is the same as everyone else, you have the same prices. You better have something special and nobody else has. Otherwise you're gonna say, okay, well, what's the difference?
Nino:
Yeah, just turn around and leave it. Yeah, but that's the whole point. When they reply to you is, it is, but I understand what you're saying about trying to keep them and Trying to sell it same thing with DJing.
Ilia:
I mean, you can get a gig and be terrible and you'll never get booked again by that person, exactly right.
Nino:
So exactly. So that's pretty much it. So I think we're good, bro. I think we're good. Yeah, that was a good episode. Yeah, it was good, all right, man.
Ilia:
Well, thank you very much for joining another episode of the clever DJ and and the next time, guys. Yeah, we'll see you guys soon. You.