Unlock the secrets to turning the art of DJing into a profitable venture with Ilya and Nino on Clevver DJ. This episode promises to stuff your pockets full of fresh strategies by shedding light on the biz side of beats. We discuss how renting out your DJ gear can become your new best friend for passive income—if you've got contracts as tight as your mixes, that is. If sharing knowledge is more your vibe, get the lowdown on creating online courses and teaching the tricks of the trade, with success stories that make the effort worth every beat.
But wait, there's more than just spinning records and dropping knowledge bombs—we've got the inside track on pocketing greens from gigs to gear. From the allure of corporate events (hello, fat budgets!) to the buzz of social media monetization, this chock-full episode has it all, including the scoop on affiliate marketing for the gearheads. Whether you're a wedding DJ looking to personalize each 'I do' or an EDM aficionado curating the ultimate club experience, join us as we lay down the law on every revenue remix opportunity under the strobe lights.
Unlock the secrets to turning the art of DJing into a profitable venture with Ilya and Nino on Clevver DJ. This episode promises to stuff your pockets full of fresh strategies by shedding light on the biz side of beats. We discuss how renting out your DJ gear can become your new best friend for passive income—if you've got contracts as tight as your mixes, that is. If sharing knowledge is more your vibe, get the lowdown on creating online courses and teaching the tricks of the trade, with success stories that make the effort worth every beat.
But wait, there's more than just spinning records and dropping knowledge bombs—we've got the inside track on pocketing greens from gigs to gear. From the allure of corporate events (hello, fat budgets!) to the buzz of social media monetization, this chock-full episode has it all, including the scoop on affiliate marketing for the gearheads. Whether you're a wedding DJ looking to personalize each 'I do' or an EDM aficionado curating the ultimate club experience, join us as we lay down the law on every revenue remix opportunity under the strobe lights.
Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Clever DJ, episode number 15. My name is Ilia and my name is Nino. What do we have today, Nino?
Nino:
Well, today we have a cool topic. We're going to talk about all the ways you can make money as a DJ.
Ilia:
All right, so let's start out.
Nino:
Actually, you read it out, you wrote this so number number one you can rent out your gear. Now, of course, you're going to prioritize uh, not renting out your gear when you have um gigs, right, but on the off days you can rent them out for a good amount, especially if you have a company and stuff. Um, it's a good way to make like income right, to make extra money like you can.
Ilia:
Actually, you already own all of it might as well right if you have a good system to make sure that you know nothing gets um damaged in the process.
Nino:
That's the only only thing right it could happen. It could happen, but usually you want to have contracts too with that kind of stuff.
Ilia:
Yeah, otherwise it's not very safe giving it away right?
Nino:
So renting out your gear. You can actually open a company as well, just renting out gear as well.
Ilia:
Like Long Emquay right, they made a killing off of just renting out gear and their products are just, I don't want to say they never break, but it takes a lot to damage their products. So the way they built uh, their speakers, especially yorkville, the yorkville line, that stuff is just meant to last so it's good for them too, because it rarely breaks, and if it does, then it's easier for them to fix it. It's right on the spot and yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
Nino:
So renting out your gear is number one. Number two is selling your skills and talent as a DJ. So basically you can teach right. Use your, use their skills. Uh. You can teach one-on-one lessons. You can teach group lessons. Uh. Online one-on-one classes, live sessions, courses.
Ilia:
You can make courses yeah, my god, those courses. So, uh, I'm also a producer and, um, you know, just as a hobby, but you know, I I can start and finish a song and I, I took a course a couple years ago, two, three years ago. I took a course three years ago, I think, yeah, um, and I checked how many of those, uh, how many people registered for that course and how many times that deal runs a year, because whenever you see, oh, we have this featured course, you should all subscribe. It's starting soon. The registration is going to close soon. It's not going to be the only time. They're doing this. Almost always, there's always another session for it.
Ilia:
So every two to three months they do it yeah, and that's a way to grab uh customers as well, right each core that course cost, I think I forget how much canadian, I think around four or five hundred bucks, and there were like at least 50 people registered can you imagine 50 people, 40 to 50, even 30 people every time, every two months. And that's one of his courses. That's just one he has like.
Nino:
I don't know a dozen.
Ilia:
Right and it's just, of course there's some work that you have to market it. There's, you know, it's not passive income where you just don't do anything, but if you have a team, it's kind of income where you just don't do anything, but if you have a team, it's kind of you set everything up, it's it's automated, right, somebody you should, you should oversee it, but it's one of the best ways to make money yeah, so that was production right, but you've also bought dj courses, yes, as well, right, my god, are they expensive sometimes, especially if you want to have everything, like I went.
Ilia:
You know, let's talk about digital d DJ, tips and Crossfader. They have great courses out there. Some of them you know I wouldn't get, but most of them I would, and I just recently purchased a couple from each of them and they're very, very, very good courses and I got them on sale. But I would also pay the full price. If I had no choice and I needed to know that information, I would.
Nino:
Yeah right.
Ilia:
And everything. They're all about selling courses. Right, they have a podcast too. They have like streaming. You know they stream digital DJ tips, they stream and Crossfader have a podcast, but still their whole thing is courses. It's a school, that's their main business. These are just the two that I I I usually go to right uh, these are my go-to, but uh, there's, there's so many others who sell this stuff. There's, uh, what's his name?
Ilia:
phil harris phil harris yes, yeah, there's, there's just every. You can find so many of them when you're into this. Uh, the australian guy, the australian guy?
Nino:
I don't know he's.
Ilia:
He's a nice guy. I really like his energy. Uh, becoming a club dj, I think. In four weeks I got that course too. Um, and every course taught me something from a different perspective. I love, I love learning and I love learning from different people and, you know, some of them really contradict on how you're supposed to do something, but then that's djing. There's no one way to do.
Ilia:
Some of them are very similar and very I even went on udemy and I got one from there. It was pretty cheap, um, pretty pretty like. Did you buy it too? Yeah, yeah, I showed it to you. So I always love to learn and I also purchase those courses to give myself some inspiration. So when I'm ready to do a course, I know how to layer it, how to you know, um, categorize everything yeah, yeah yeah, so that's courses.
Ilia:
Uh, that's pretty much selling your skills and talent. That's a couple of the ways you can do that.
Nino:
Number three number three organize your own parties, and that's something, something that actually we're doing right now.
Ilia:
We're actually doing that. We're in the process of just organizing a big party and it's going to be a really cool event. It's an EDM event in our city and there's lots of moving pieces there. But if you feel like you are able to do that, Lots of money in it there is, If you do it right. There's risk, a lot of risk, but where there's a lot of risk, usually there's a lot of reward.
Nino:
Yeah, man, what I appreciate about you very good business and PR. Thank you. Yeah, it's good man and it helps move, propel our business forward. Yeah, yeah, it helps a lot yeah.
Ilia:
Yeah, it helps a lot. Yeah, so what we do is I really? Everything started with me working with Nino for Nino under his brand that you know has been there for many years, and then I kind of separated and did my own thing and then we started stuff that's together, that's both of our brands, and whatever we do, it propels everything forward it helps everything yeah, yeah. So it's just, it's a nice partnership, so yeah I appreciate you saying that.
Nino:
Thank you, no problem, man, let's organize. Organizing parties is great and it also, at the same time, you can also put yourself and dj for those parties as well.
Ilia:
What we're doing, we're getting other djs to dj for us, so yes, because in this case you want a certain lineup, a certain roster, right and, um, I know who is the right person, or at least I hope I do. I have a sense for it. I spoke to people. I know who is going to be the best to open it, to kind of pick it up right before the headliner shows up and gets behind the DJ booth, and then who's going to just finish that event.
Nino:
We'll see. Man, it's exciting. Yeah, it's going to be lots of fun To see how it turns out right, so it's a win-win, no matter what.
Ilia:
Yeah, everyone's getting recognition. Everyone's getting a bunch of media to support themselves. Everyone's getting paid. Obviously, hopefully we get paid. And getting paid, obviously, hopefully we get paid. And that's the thing when you organize it there. There's the risk of of not making fumbling it like you didn't sell enough tickets or we can break even that.
Nino:
That's yeah, you know that's a reality again.
Ilia:
You don't go into something like this unless you have some business experience and unless you really know like the right contacts. So in our case we know we're gonna do well, how well are we gonna do? You find out with each gig and we'll see you build kind of a projection. But uh, yeah, that's, uh, it's gonna be a fun event. More about it, uh, more on it. Later we can actually make an episode about it.
Nino:
Yeah, for sure, for sure um number number four, number Now, the obvious one is being a mobile or wedding DJ, right, and that's what we're primarily doing For my company. We do everything right and it helps. It's like pretty much my full time and I have guys that work under me and I send them out to gigs. I get to pick and choose what I want to do and uh, yeah, it's good money.
Ilia:
It's good money if you know how to handle it yes, um, it's great to be an edm dj, like an underground dj who just uh kind of never does weddings and corporate and those like big venue events, um, but the most you make, really the most you make as a not very popular, you know very sought after dj is uh like 350 bucks, canadian 450, 500 if you're like as a local yeah, as a local as, uh, you know, like someone who's likely watching this podcast right now.
Ilia:
Right, like that's what you'll make now if you are local still, but you're, you know, resident dj at a very big club and everyone knows you. Okay, you'll make more you can command 500 to 800, maybe, yeah maybe more if, if you know that they really need you and they want you. But again, how much do you make? Like what's a wedding standard?
Nino:
1,500, 2,000. Right now is my middle package right now.
Ilia:
So 2,000. 2,000.
Nino:
And you could go higher, you just yeah, it all depends on details like how far it is on details like how far it is what they want in the package and stuff.
Ilia:
So it goes up from you have those packages where it's like thirty five hundred dollars yeah right, four thousand dollars I've seen multiple of those events in in one month actually, you had several of those yeah, yeah right, it depends what they want. Yeah, and that's what I like about you is that you don't just upsell. You love your clients.
Nino:
You make sure you give them what they need yes, you gotta make sure that they're happy at the end of the day, right they you, that you provide the experience that they're that they want, right? So that's what I, what I do. I make sure that we go above and beyond what we're supposed to right.
Ilia:
So yeah, being a mobile dj, being a wedding DJ, is definitely something profitable, but it's a lot of work.
Nino:
Not everybody can do it as well. You know, some DJs want to be just a club do clubs right. Understandable they want to have fun that way right.
Ilia:
They don't like maybe the type of music you'd play at the wedding, right?
Nino:
Yeah, because it's a lot of variety as, as well, it's a little harder. I think, honestly, being a wedding dj, mobile dj, is harder than than this being a club dj and just focusing on, uh, one or two genres, right because you have to you have to learn everything.
Ilia:
You have to be good at everything honestly, I am still puzzled, uh, when it comes to that question like what's what's tougher?
Ilia:
because I'm learning both and I find some things that are really tough when it comes to edm to understand and to do correct because edm, I feel like there's a lot of room for just getting it done yeah but we all know that, with the correct phrasing, with the correct execution, there's the one part or two, three parts in the track that that's exactly where it should have happened, that's exactly where you should have transitioned or that effect should come in. But the thing is, if you don't do it there, it still can work With open format. What I learned is that there's not that much room for mistake. Yeah, that's my personal experience right now. That's what I'm seeing. You know lots of vocals like lyrics.
Nino:
You know like yeah, you need a lot of skill to do open format stuff. It's very quick, very quick.
Ilia:
Some transitions are like two seconds long.
Nino:
Yes, yes, depending on the actual edit that you have.
Ilia:
Or you got to drop it. Drop it on the one, and then it starts right away.
Nino:
Yeah.
Ilia:
Right, you got to count like really quickly and it's not even counting, it's just, it's natural you don't actually actively count anymore, right?
Nino:
I still do, yeah, well, sometimes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ilia:
That's the way endorsement. So a very good way to make money from your business as a DJ whether it's you're a mobile DJ or, let's say, you have an event or you have a podcast it's to get sponsored by certain companies or endorse their products, which is also, they'll pay you for it. So, yeah, so that is one of the best ways to go about making money, but, at the same time, you have to know which brand you want to be sponsored by, which brand you want to endorse.
Ilia:
It has to make sense for your brand If you just go for someone just because of the money, people will ask why? Why, you don't even stand by that product Exactly. So why are you doing this? We saw certain people on youtube and they're like you know what? I stand by this drink, I stand by this water. I stand by because I believe in that brand and that's why, when they reached out to them, they said you know what I really do, see that you like our products.
Nino:
Uh, let's work together yeah, so when you make a name for yourself, you create content online, you have a YouTube channel or stuff like that you can get. Usually companies will reach out to you and want to sponsor you or give you gear not necessarily monetarily, but they can do it in other ways.
Ilia:
For example, let's say you have a YouTube channel and this new controller just came out and it's like $5,000 and you either don't have the money for it or you don't even have the access to obtain that piece of equipment because it's too new. What they'll do is they'll save you the time on trying to find it, or even give you access to it before anyone else has access to it, and they'll save you the money that it will cost because you're not paying for it and a lot of the time.
Nino:
they don't let you keep it, you use it and use it for a while on on the job and then you send it back like a month after. It's usually how what happens, right? But, you're, you get the first look, first feel of new equipment.
Ilia:
And they'll have certain conditions of what you can say, what you can't say, how they want you to speak about the product. Sometimes they'll just trust you. You have a certain kind of agreement where you know what to do. Ndas right.
Nino:
Yeah, yeah, you got to stick to.
Ilia:
There are certain things because this product is new and you can't mess up their marketing. So, yeah, there are certain things you can do or can't show or not show. So you got to really be careful with that as well. So that's number five. Number six selling downloads. Is that what you wrote?
Nino:
Yeah, selling downloads. Now, if you're a producer, a lot of times DJjing and producing goes hand in hand, right? So if you make remixes, bootlegs and stuff, right, you can actually sell it to people. If people reach out to you and say, yo, this remix is fire, where can I get a hand on it? Right, where can I get uh down to download it and you can send it, sell it to them literally yeah, if you're a producer and you have original music, right.
Ilia:
I mean, a lot of DJs become DJs because they have to showcase their music. Yes, a lot of DJs become producers because they want to stand out and be more unique, and it's a better way to kind of get into this market because there are so many DJs out there. You got to be different.
Nino:
You got to be unique, right? Yeah, yeah, that's very true.
Ilia:
So these are some ways by selling music, your music, remixes, bootlegs, you can sell them to.
Nino:
Record pools, record pools, yeah.
Ilia:
And there's just so many ways to make money from that and it's a respectful way of doing so. Number seven physical merchandise, so merch.
Nino:
Merch. Now, if you do have like a name, it'll be easier to sell Like let's see Nick Spinelli t-shirts right?
Ilia:
CDs, mugs.
Nino:
CDs, mugs, anything, anything that you can slap yourasers yeah literally anything right.
Ilia:
So that's another form of uh way of making money uh number eight corporate events yes, a very good way to make money yeah, a lot of corporate events, uh are a great way to make money, especially, um, because they have budgets.
Nino:
Corporate companies have budgets for DJs and entertainment in general. Right At the end of the year they need to spend a certain amount of money to write things off. So, a lot of the entertainment and a lot of times you can charge a lot of money.
Ilia:
Normally, with some experience you'll know how much each company can usually afford, and you can kind of almost snipe that like a snipe shot of the best offer you can give them. So you know you're not going to lose them and they're not going to keep searching. And at the same time, you did not sell yourself too short. And what's great about those is they're usually reoccurring. There's usually at least one or two every year. Sometimes it's once a month, it depends what kind of corporate event you got.
Nino:
Yeah.
Ilia:
So these are a very great type of that's a very great type of client to obtain. Some people are just like mainly corporate DJs right, Corporate DJs.
Nino:
They do like store events, like openings and stuff like that, right? Yeah, you used to do those.
Ilia:
Yeah, a lot yeah so that's just a great way to make money. That's a very good one for the list Number nine streaming.
Nino:
Yeah, so especially the last couple of years with COVID and stuff, streaming has become very, very popular For a lot of DJs. It was their only way of making money because they couldn't go out and actually do gigs, so Twitch, Twitch streaming was really big a couple of years ago and actually still is.
Ilia:
Yeah, it became a thing now.
Nino:
It is a thing.
Ilia:
yeah, A lot of people uh like to listen to djs at the comfort of their own home yeah, whether it's like facebook streaming, uh, youtube twitch is obviously a more like uh obvious platform for it.
Nino:
Um instagram, right, lots of instagram lives, yeah yeah, lots, of, lots of Instagram lives, tons, and we can actually bundle YouTube into this too. It's the same kind of world.
Ilia:
All the social media really.
Nino:
All the social media, like YouTube, is AdSense right and you can make money off of companies promoting their stuff in between your videos.
Ilia:
Yes, so yeah, another way to make money Great great way. Number 10, radio work, yes, radio DJs.
Nino:
Radio DJs. So it's pretty much obvious right Working for radio stations, a lot of celebrities get into a lot of celebrities. Djs get into radio work because they're more known.
Ilia:
The radio station actually wants them to DJ for them, because it's good for ratings and stuff right, really good for ratings.
Nino:
So it's another way of another avenue of making money Radio work.
Ilia:
Yeah, and there's other stuff that DJs do in radio which is not exactly just spinning um, I forget what it's called. I really wish I remembered a friend of mine uh worked at the radio company, at a radio station and um, there's a name for that for that, uh, for that position, where she was doing all the like, all the like vocals, you know, like for their promotions and stuff like that voiceovers, not really voiceovers, like she was doing, like vocals. Uh, you know she was. I don't want to say the name of the station right now, but uh, she'll say the name of the station, like a nice voice like that there will be like like sexy voice, yeah so there's a name for that and she did a lot of audio work for them and I know a lot of djs do that as well.
Ilia:
It's not necessarily like traditional djing only so radio has a lot of work for djs, but I know it's extremely cutthroat. It's a. It's a very tough industry to get into and it doesn't always pay very well. But it's not always about the money. It's about reputation, about making contacts it's about who you know sometimes too.
Ilia:
She met a lot of celebrities, a lot of big people. You know big name people oh, that's good man Working there, right? So it's pretty cool. Some of them are really nice. They'll approach you and they'll be more like personal with you. Some of them just won't really pay, but you learn who to talk to. Number 11, affiliate marketing.
Nino:
It's a big one it is. It is. You can make money off of Amazon, Literally. If you have a website or a YouTube channel, you can post links of the gear that you use or the products that you use. If people really like to follow you and watch all your videos, they're interested in what you use right, so you can literally get a cut of of of um the sale the sale, literally, yeah.
Ilia:
So, for example, when you go on our website and there's an article about one of our posts, one of our um, one of our episodes let's say we spoke about a certain type of gear we'll also link to that gear if you want to purchase it, whether it's Amazon or anywhere else. But, rule of thumb, it's better to be transparent about it and say hey, by the way, we're an affiliate of that website or product or company. So if you want to support us but you don't feel like donating, uh, extra money, how about just click that link and purchase that product from that link specifically, yeah, and we'll get a percentage. This way, you don't pay extra, you get the same product, it's the same website, um, and we'll just make a few extra dollars yeah, literally it'll help us, support us and, uh, it'll keep us from making more videos for you guys yeah, it'll keep us able to bring you better content, content right.
Nino:
So that's it really I think that's one more. You can, you can do, uh, you can pull a suet what do you mean by that? And go and go out in the public and play well, that's just performance, right, just doing something unique, something.
Ilia:
Yeah, there's always something crazy like that you can do.
Nino:
You can pull out your hat and then get people to pay you, but that's just something I thought of.
Ilia:
Well, yeah, doing something unique, creative like that. I mean, there was nothing like that before he did it. He literally Suat this DJ, just created this mobile rig where he just goes and runs around in the public and just DJs, which is really, really cool. Yeah, it's a cool concept, man, really funny to watch, very good to market yourself like that, if you are actually very like, if you know how to do it.
Nino:
Yeah, exactly so.
Ilia:
But there we go, that's, it.
Nino:
That's it.
Ilia:
This is our list and thank you very much for joining another episode of the Clever DJ and we'll see you in the next one.