Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their events.
Episodes
105 episodes
Doors Open Music That Hits
Doors open is the most underrated part of a wedding reception, because it’s one of the first places where guests judge your taste, your confidence, and the vibe of the night. We get super specific about how we build doors open music that feels ...
Wedding DJ Storytime
Cold sparks that can literally scorch carpet, a bride who wants the party to go explicit on command, and a viral custom dance edit that suddenly turns into 20 strangers asking for the file. That’s the kind of real-world wedding DJ life we’re un...
Stop Playing For The Internet
Formalities are fading and the party is taking over. We’re seeing it in our inboxes, in the way couples ask questions, and in what actually works on dance floors right now. Gen Z wedding clients want fast answers, clear pricing, and proof you c...
What If You Had To Restart Your DJ Business Today?
You can book great events and still feel like the money disappears the second it hits your account. We get into the unsexy part of being a working DJ that decides whether you stay stressed or build something durable: cash flow. With The DJ Coll...
We Hit 100 Episodes And Here Is What We Learned
We just hit 100 episodes, and we’re not pretending it happened by accident. We talk about what two straight years of weekly drops teaches you about consistency, momentum, and why the audience often finds value in moments we barely remember reco...
High-End Wedding DJ Playbook
A wedding reception with a breakaway screen entrance, a merch table, a sax player, and RFID wristbands sounds like a flex until you’re the DJ responsible for making every moment hit on time. Brian B and Joe Bunn pull back the curtain on a full ...
A Great DJ Tells a Story Not A Playlist
A great DJ doesn't build a playlist - they tell a story. That idea came from a listener question asking why some wedding DJs command more than double the average rate, and it sparked one of our favorite conversations in recent memory.
Is Your DJ Business Built To Run Without You?
What happens if you step away from your business for a week? A month? Forever?In this episode, we dig into one of the biggest questions every DJ business owner eventually faces: Is your business built to run without you? Inspired ...
How Private Event DJs Stay Ready For Anything
You can do everything right and still get hit with the one problem nobody schedules for: getting sick right before a wedding. We talk through the real-world backup plans that protect your clients, your reputation, and your paycheck, whether you...
EDM Wedding Bangers That Never Miss
Looking for EDM tracks that actually work at weddings? We share the edits we keep coming back to - from hooks-and-drops and chorus-first versions to mashups that bridge EDM with hip hop and rock so mixed crowds stay on the dance floor.We...
What Actually Works At Gigs
Every DJ has songs, transitions, and little tricks they keep coming back to because they simply work. In this episode, we're sharing what's consistently working for us right now at weddings, corporate events, and private parties: from current d...
When The Client’s Daughter Hijacks The Decks
A packed dance floor can disappear in one song, and sometimes the person asking for that song is the one signing the check. We open with a wild high end wedding story where the playlist is a tightrope: a huge do not play list, a “keep it upbeat...
Handling Bad Song Lists From Couples
A packed dance floor is not guaranteed just because a couple hands you a long playlist. We’re Brian B and Joe Bunn, and we’re starting the season by getting real about what happens when client expectations, modern music culture, and the actual ...
Working with Live Musicians
Somebody sends us a mystery package and it turns into a real conversation about community, merch, and how much value listeners can create around your brand when you actually let them in. From there we shout out Patreon supporters around the wor...
Are Pay to Play Venues Worth It?
Paying a venue to get on their “preferred DJ” list sounds like a shortcut until you’re staring at the invoice wondering if it actually produced real work. We dig into a real pay to play example with clean numbers: a $2,500 annual buy in, seven ...
How Private Event DJs Stay Sharp
You can usually tell when a couple filled out your DJ planning form with AI, even if they never mention it. The answers look perfect, but they don’t sound like them and that can wreck the very thing people pay a premium for: personalization. We...
Learn How to Say No
That tiny moment when a couple scans your QR code at a wedding show can decide whether you book the date or never hear from them again. We talk through what went wrong with sending people to a long website contact form, why friction destroys co...
From Conference Stages to Wedding Madness
The part nobody tells you about being a working DJ is how often you’re building in the dark. Social media gives you instant dopamine, but long-form work like podcasting, education, and community takes time to show results. We open with some rea...
Breaking Down Backup Plans
One dead play button can turn a wedding ceremony into a nightmare, and we both know that “it worked at soundcheck” is not a safety plan. We start with a few Beyond The DJ Booth updates, then get into DJ life the way it really is: imperfect, fun...
How to Reduce Wedding Prep Time
Wedding planning shouldn’t take an hour of copy-pasting, second-guessing, and chasing missing details. We’re sharing two big updates for mobile DJs: a cleaner way to shop our gear and a new tool designed to give you your time back.First...
Songs That Work Every Time
The fastest way to learn what’s real in the DJ business is to stack three very different gigs back to back and tell the truth about how they went. We do exactly that, starting with a corporate event where the timing is off, the band is loud, an...
What To Do When Disaster Strikes
TikTok can delete two weeks of momentum with one vague notification, and that’s exactly where we start. One of us gets hit with a sudden account ban for “impersonation,” no real explanation, and basically no support loop, which turns into a big...
Are DJ Conferences Dead?
DJ conferences aren’t “dying” because DJs stopped caring. They’re struggling because expectations keep rising while budgets stay stuck in the past, and we’re done pretending that isn’t the real problem. We talk candidly about a recent DJ show s...
Fun Fact: Networking Works
You can be an incredible DJ and still feel stuck if nobody knows you well enough to refer you. We get honest about networking for DJs, what actually moves the needle, and why “just posting more” is not a substitute for real relationships.
Not Every Show is a Rager
Your next gig might be flawless or it might be a total stinker and either way you need a plan. We kick things off with a new “stinker button” idea (yes, a real button) and a no-filter rant about DJ trend overload, especially the endless wave of...
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