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.
Beyond the DJ Booth
Heart-Shaped Pizzas, Wedding Dinner Tracks, and the Banger Calculator Idea
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Who knew a simple Valentine's Day tradition at a pizza joint could make for such a heartwarming tale? Brian B and Joe Bunn kick off this episode of Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast by sharing their favorite February 14th rituals, from comforting slices to homemade meals with the family.
Moving on from heart-shaped pizzas to the perfect playlist, we tackle the art of selecting tunes that resonate deeply with couples. The age-old debate between ballads and love songs comes alive with mentions of classics like Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" and Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud." But that's not where the fun stops—we brainstorm about creating a "banger calculator" app, an innovative way to predict the decade of music that will truly strike a chord with wedding clients. It's all about tapping into nostalgia and making those dance floors come alive.
For those looking to balance the books, we dive into a listener's question about pricing strategies and market insights. We emphasize the need to consistently evaluate and adjust DJ prices to keep pace with market demands. The focus is on maintaining a healthy work-life balance while optimizing revenue—it's a journey of growth and adaptation. Plus, with a nod to our DJCmentoring.com coaching program, we wrap with gratitude for our listeners.
If you're a true Booth Head (super fan of the pod), join our Patreon for all the extras and one-off goodies. You can get there by going to: patreon.com/BeyondTheDJBoothPodcast
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
What's up everybody. Welcome to Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. I'm Brian B, one of the co-hosts. Our other co-host over here, mr Joe Bunn, this is for private event DJs. If this is your first time listening to us, where have you been? Yeah, where have you been? Go back and binge listen, but we're thankful that you're checking us out, damn right. So what can you expect on this podcast, man? This is like the real. Real. I feel like we share things that you know. Maybe it's not going to be for the public social feed out there, but we're doing it publicly on this podcast. Just talking war stories, talking music finds, talking gear stuff, answering your questions. That's probably the biggest value add on this podcast. If you've got a question that you've been dying for us to answer or just need some help on, we'll give you our thoughts on it. Right? What's the?
Speaker 2best way to submit a question, because I don't know that we've really solidified that process.
Speaker 1I feel like you had a Google Sheet at one point that you sent a link. I did, but what about, like, just DM us? We sent out an email. So if you aren't on our email list, make sure to go to our website beyond the dj boothcom and submit a question through there. Get onto our newsletter, right? Yeah, that's good to buy beyond the dj boothcom valentine's week coming up what you and ashley doing. I'm guessing you don't really think about that stuff too far in advance, did you?
Speaker 1no no, actually we do a tradition. We started this in new york because, man, when we moved to new york, everybody and their mother's going out to dinner, and it's an arm and a leg, bro. It's so expensive, right? I don't know how I got lucky with this, but we do a pizza spot.
Speaker 2Oh, that's so easy, Like just so easy.
Speaker 1We try to do a different one Last year. I feel like it was one of our better ones. We were going to go to this.
Speaker 2I don't even have to make a reservation, just go right, right so then I'm like, dang, okay, we can't do that one so then I googled and we went to vix italian restaurant.
Speaker 1It's good, it's solid, yeah it's like city market.
Speaker 2I told you it was gonna slap it was.
Speaker 1It's like got the cobblestone stuff. There's like a bunch of wedding dresses that are on that same street for whatever reason.
Speaker 2There's a wedding venue in the middle of it, is it? Yeah, okay, yeah Solid. If you ever come to Raleigh, shout out Vicks, shout out Vicks. It's a good spot.
Speaker 1We need a local sponsor on this podcast. It's a great call your Valentine's tradition or what you're thinking. I'll let you think about that. Let's just shout out our sponsor that we do have on board An actual sponsor, DJ Event Planner. They are a CRM that's super solid for DJs. It's built for DJs by DJs.
Speaker 2By DJs, by DJs, yeah.
Speaker 1And they've been around forever. I've been on it since 2008. We still haven't figured out how long Joe has been on the platform, but a long time, a long time.
Speaker 2So shout out to DJ Event Planner If you're looking for a CRM to run your DJ business, djeventplannercom. Circle back.
Speaker 1Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2I'm going to say nothing, I'm going to go nothing on the day. You don't even do flowers. Do you do flowers? I would do pickup flowers, publix pre-made bouquet. No delivery, no Fallons.
Speaker 1No Fallons.
Speaker 2Nah, shout out Fallons Good spot. I don't do the inflated roses package. I would do a flower pickup at Publix on the way home with maybe, like a delicious filet, mignon grill out night. I would never go out on Valentine's Day, nor do I think I would be ostracized by her for that.
Speaker 1Okay, now I know that they aren't by blood, but that's true, two little girls that ashley has right. She has daughters, right I feel like I have to because it's like I mean, she is blood.
Speaker 2So I gotta do it, but like daughter right?
Speaker 1do you think you're gonna do anything there? Have you done it yet?
Speaker 2no, what am I supposed to do? What are you doing?
Music Decades and Client Preferences
Speaker 1so I get her like one of those candy things that's like a heart shaped right, something like hershey's kisses. Yeah, something, something, okay, I'll do that.
Speaker 2You want me to do that? I think you should. Okay, I will. What about for my punk ass son? Nothing right, that's a, that's a hard pass. Yeah, no man, they're terrible.
Speaker 1Give them like some kind of like text message. That's just super like girly and just love you guys, right, you know, or? Go get them one of those cards from hallmark like those super sentimental ones, yeah, or get them someone is a gift from god a birth child, or the other thing you do is just go like get them some kind of underwear that's like valentine based and just send it to them in the mail like boxers with hearts on them yeah, that's genius.
Speaker 2I might do that just to be an ass no, and then they'd probably eventually wear them because they run out of laundry, you know, because they don't ever do their laundry.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, I came up with, uh, some songs, yeah yeah, we've done music in a while we talked about forgetting bangers. A couple episodes ago forgotten bangers but this might not be bangers from that standpoint, but just like good love songs that you're thinking of the playing at a wedding maybe, or like ones that you just are like in the bag, that not every dj is playing, or something that you just but not necessarily a ballad.
Speaker 2Yeah, it doesn't have to be. You think my girl's a ballad I do.
Speaker 1Interesting, because down here it's not I mean from the standpoint of if someone said hey, can you play a slow song? That would be something I would play.
Speaker 2Yeah, not here, it's not slow enough right, I mean a lot of people shag to it here. Okay, and I'm not talking about humping like shag, like the beach music dance.
Speaker 1So similar tempo. But I'm curious if you classify this. Would you say let's stay together by Al Green's ballad?
Speaker 2See, I was going to say that was going to be one of my choices. Let's stay together. Al Green, same tempo.
Speaker 1I would play it for the same crowd, but you, absolutely not. Not here. Give me an example I'm thinking out loud like Ed Sheeran. Okay, so like literally no yeah.
Speaker 2Right Like 50 beats per minute.
Speaker 1Yeah, you're barely getting a pulse, right.
Speaker 2I keep coming up with that Is it? Let's get married? The original. I feel like you were just going to come up with that, thinking out loud dude, Are you even playing that anymore?
Speaker 1I can't because of that whole like man don't bring that up. I can't play it because of that like literally, when that lyric comes up, I'm like, is everybody else thinking it? Like I'm thinking it?
Speaker 2I had to ban that song 86th, unless someone asked if you have to go, if you have to pull a ballad, though in a two or three hour dance set, what are you gonna pull?
Speaker 1current track, or it doesn't matter wonderful world, oh, louis armstrong. I feel like that one's iconic. You can't go wrong with that. Yeah, I hate it, it's literally less than two minutes.
Speaker 2I know I always go nasty like at the end of the night, like I always go.
Speaker 1Let's get it on or I haven't played that one, either I haven't played them in a while either. I mean, those used to be go-to's for me, but I haven't played them. People get pregnant out there but you consider those both ballads.
Speaker 2Let's's get it on, I do Okay, yeah, no, it's not sexual healing, I'm just playing on that one.
Speaker 1Yeah, so what would be a ballad for you? We're on Valentine's songs still. Is that what you classify these? As all ballads, the ones you've came up with, or just great love songs? I?
Speaker 2think we've already mentioned mine, I mean.
Speaker 1I will still play Thinking Out Loud, going to slow dance to it.
Speaker 2Okay, but it's a good floor. Opener Dinner just ended. Oh, I ate too much pot roast or whatever. Who serves pot roast?
Speaker 1You must be in the South.
Speaker 2Nobody serves pot roast here, I'm just playing Meatloaf. I definitely play. Let's Get it On as a ballad. What else do we play, saquon? We rarely play ballads, country stuff. Thomas Rhett Die a happy man. Die a happy man. For whatever reason, I have an affinity for that Tennessee whiskey. I love Stapleton.
Speaker 1What's his other one? Joy of my life, my dad.
Speaker 2I can't. My sister and my dad used to play that song.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2It just fucking destroys me. The other night I was cooking and I go, hey, google play Chris Stapleton, and they go to that first and I was like I'm done. Might as well. Just burn the whole damn food up. Dude, I was like I'm done, I can't do that one. I don't even have a ballads folder.
Speaker 1Do you no?
Speaker 2Maybe we should make a ballads crate. Maybe we should.
Speaker 1I came up with five songs though.
Speaker 2Okay, shout out, brian, let me see here.
Speaker 1I'm going through my music right now. This is off season and if you're not doing this, you might want to consider doing it. Looking through this generation of brides, they graduated three or four years from high school, so I'm looking at anything from like 2015 on for the most part.
Speaker 2Here's what I was thinking the other day. What is the metric or what is the formula that mean you could come up with for what decade of music is going to hit the hardest for your client this weekend? So, for example, the girl I met with today. She said we've been together forever, we have two kids. We just never got married. They were late thirties. What is the decade for a 37 year old bride and groom that's going to hit the hardest on the dance floor? What's the era of life that they grew up in that you think that music is the hardest? Early dance floor. What's the era of life that they grew up in that you think that music hits the hardest?
Speaker 1Early 2000s.
Speaker 2So if you're 37, you think early 2000s is going to hit the hardest?
Speaker 1Yeah, because you got to think about it Like they were in college.
Speaker 2So it's 2025 now, so you're backing off 20 years, yeah yeah, yeah, so 37 minus 20, they're 17 years old in 2005.
Speaker 1Yeah, I would be looking at like 21 to 24. Like what were they listening to when they were 21 to 24 years old? I feel like high school is more.
Speaker 2More poignant or more memorable.
Speaker 1When I go back and I think about.
Speaker 2I'm literally trying to like, like. I think this would be a good little calculator app or something to have. Don't steal my idea. I just put it out there to the world. Now everybody's going to make an app that does this. It's called the banger calculator or whatever and you type in the couple's age.
Speaker 1Well, it's always high school into college, right?
Speaker 2I mean, yes, I guess I'm just asking you.
Speaker 1So, like right now, I'm looking at it as most of my couples, because I do ask this question on our forum like when did you graduate high school? Yeah, I'm getting a lot of those.
Speaker 2Your couples are 23, 24 years old.
Speaker 1Yeah, a lot of them I'm not getting 30-year-olds Because.
Speaker 2I thought the median age had gone up, I mean maybe a bit.
Speaker 1I mean, most of them are that 2016 to 2020 in that range of graduating. I haven't really focused on that era of music to look for songs. I'm sorry I sidetracked you.
Speaker 2I also can't get this melody out of my head, is it this? That's let's Get Married. The non-remix. This is what I was trying to come up with. Jagged Edge, yes, you don't fuck with this.
Speaker 1Not that this is sexual.
Speaker 2It's a little urban, hold on. Let me just let it's a little urban, that's right. Hold on, let me just let it ride for a second.
Speaker 1That's a pass.
Speaker 2Hold on, man Just hear the first.
Speaker 1I'm out in the first five seconds.
Speaker 2I know, wait man, I'm trying to make a baby over here.
Speaker 1Hold on, here we go. Is that a karaoke version? How long is that intro?
Speaker 2This is too slow.
Speaker 1You ain't never played, but you've never played this version.
Speaker 2I haven't, but it's a ballad.
Speaker 1I'd be pissed if you played that version Over the remarkable edit. What?
Speaker 2if I played a little bit of that, you're slow dancing. I mean, if you mixed into it and then I went into You're gonna go ape over that part of it.
Speaker 1That's good Make an edit.
Speaker 2That's what I kept trying to say. That's good, make an edit, I'll do it. That's what I kept trying to say. That was what I kept trying to think of.
Speaker 1Yeah, I guess, man, you know that song better than I do, bro I think I've probably had my son to that.
Speaker 2What year did that come out Like 98, probably.
Speaker 1Okay, okay, sorry, you were still in the clubs back then. I was still in the club.
Speaker 2Maybe another bullet out there that I'll know about running around.
Speaker 1So here's one for you. I actually got a clip. This came out in 2014. Okay, this is one of their I wouldn't say underrated songs. Probably this is One Direction Night Changes.
Speaker 2Okay, are you playing this? No, but I would, I think during dinner.
Speaker 1Okay, but I would I think during dinner is a good one.
Speaker 2I'm just going to hit it from the chorus. Let me hear it. Great song, good tempo, great song. It's a sing-along but not a dance song. No, great song. I think the most talented member of 1D oh, it's Harry, don't you think? Yes, but I do have an honorable mention of Zayn. Okay, zayn's my dog, that's my guy, but I mean, harry's my real dog, but, like Zayn, honorable mention. Styles is definitely the dude. Great song, by the way, and good dresser, great dresser.
Speaker 1She got him laced up now a lot of artists release acoustic versions of their songs. Okay, I don't know if you're playing this one 2020, justin bieber but this version you're probably not playing this without dancing Like the original, but this acoustic version hits.
Speaker 2What'd you do? He released it. You like Bieber oh.
Speaker 1I love Bieber. I love him Especially like this stuff, I don't care.
Speaker 2Some of his other tracks Bieber or Timberlake. If you had people in Justin gun to your head, I don't know, man, that's a toughie.
Speaker 1What If you had people in Justin gun to your head? I don't know, man.
Speaker 2It's a toughie. What would you do? I'm going to go.
Speaker 1Yeah, of course you would, but he's on the way out, bro. Stop it. Dude, come on, stop it. He hasn't put out a good record in how long. Come on, he's due, he's due A light 10 years. All right Until.
Speaker 2I Found you the reverb on the vocal. Let me hear it. I mean, that is a great flow. I think I'm freaking out. I don't know something about this. I never liked it Really. I thought you would like it. I do like those throwbacks. It was coming on the radio when I was waking up in the morning, you know, because I wake up to regular FM.
Speaker 2Yeah, I didn't really like that era of music, whatever that kind of doo-wop, yeah, like when billy joel come on, I fuck with ellis, saquon, k sand elvis. He said the community doesn't like ellis. Well, I can see that. I can see that I like it. We let saquon speak for the entire black. Go ahead, all right. Even when billy joe went through that whole doo-wop movement, I wanted to kill him Really. Yeah, I hated those songs. Oh man, like Uptown Girl, really. Oh, it's so bad, it's so bad.
Speaker 1The only one of his that I didn't like in that era was the Longest Time, oh God.
Speaker 2It's so. So the longest time I think I liked uptown girl because of the video it was christy brinkley, bro.
Speaker 1Yeah, that was iconic. That was probably the only reason why I give that a pass. All right, jose gonzalez, heartbeat you playing this one. This is 2003. It's kind of a cool like alternative indie. Oh, I do know this right Good song. I've had a lot of good success with it.
Speaker 2This is a good one.
Pricing Strategy and Market Insights"
Speaker 1Who is this?
Speaker 2Jose.
Speaker 1Gonzalez, I do like this yeah right, I don't know, put some of these on your radar. Okay, alright, last one, put some of these on your radar.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1All right, last one. This one came out this year. This is the Moonlight version of Stargazing by Miles Smith. Are you playing this, mm-mm?
Speaker 2Take my heart, don't break it. The Moonlight version Love me to my bone. It's like 120 something yeah.
Speaker 1More stuff? Not yet. This is the same Love me to my bone.
Speaker 2All this time I've wasted.
Speaker 1You were right there, all along you and I stalked, as if I get a lot of people sing along.
Speaker 2It's a twining song, great song. Damn dog, we were never strangers. That's the last song, damn dog. That's the last song. Damn dog, what is he doing? He's killing us. You're a wizard. You're a wizard on this. Let's do this.
Speaker 1Let's commit to putting together a Spotify playlist of some of these Ballads, or dinner. To me they're different. I say dinner because I feel like that's a hard spot.
Speaker 2Dinner is Dinner. To me, though, is is a forgotten art and it needs to be curated properly. I'm not saying you have to be mixing, but the songs have to be great. I'll make this statement and this is non-controversial. It's not even a hot take. This is actually just facts. If somebody doesn't come up to you one time during dinner and go who is this or I love what you're playing for dinner, you're fucking up. I'm going to go that far. I agree.
Speaker 1Would you agree with that, yep?
Speaker 2Because you're not again, you're not trying to be front and center, you're not trying to, like, steal the show, but you're trying to set this, this mood. You're trying to play stuff that's a little bit outside the box, that is setting the vibe, no matter if you're at, and I'll change it depending on if I'm in a barn or a fancy hotel or at the beach. Of course, I'll change the songs around a little bit.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I mean, I have the tried and trues, but that point of music in the night is very important.
Speaker 1I agree.
Speaker 2And if you don't have somebody saying that, something ain't right.
Speaker 1So look at the camera. Yes, let's make the social post. What's the word? They got to comment in the social media post to get this link, if?
Speaker 2you want the link to our curated Brian B and Joe Bunn dinner list? Comment the word dinner D-I-N-N-E-R Boom. We'll get it to you.
Speaker 1Easy, let's hit up the question. Tony the Hitman from Miami Florida, bro Wow, is that the DJ?
Speaker 2That's scary.
Speaker 1I don't know.
Speaker 2Now I feel like we have to answer. I don't know, I don't know. Is he a wrestler? Is he? Is he an?
Speaker 1assassin. Wow, this is awesome. Are you raising your dj prices or your add-on prices in 2025?
Speaker 2yes, all of the of the above and, in fact, set up another page yesterday, or 2026.
Speaker 1I'm getting a lot of inquiries Me too.
Speaker 2It's crazy. What's going on with that? I?
Speaker 1don't know. And they're like deep they're like in the fall. Don't go out for 2025 pricing. Oh, a thousand percent, this is my hot take.
Speaker 2I out. If it's fall of 2026, we tell them our books aren't open. Yet what if they go to the joe bun and book him?
Speaker 1hey, more power to you get lost. Yeah, I figure, if we're getting hit up that early, there's going to be a bunch in there that are going to come closer. There's a lot of opportunities that could come in that are better opportunities than the standard. Like you know, wedding and destined yeah whatever it might be. So I I always don't want to lose out on some of those opportunities.
Speaker 2Where you get a green room, yeah, where you get a green room.
Speaker 1Get that llama.
Speaker 2You know what I mean. He said a llama. I raised the add-on prices, Tony, and the base rate of just four hours and then, which incrementally made the packages go higher. How?
Speaker 1did you arrive at the rate of increase?
Speaker 2The beauty of having the company to set up the way. It is where Randy's kind of my right-hand man is. Just he's a sounding board. So we had a meeting to start the year. Right, we sat right in there and sat on the couch and both of us had our laptops out and I was like, okay, let's look at the pricing. We laid it all out on a spreadsheet. Okay, ceremony's $5.95. Now Can we go to $6.25 without losing business? Or $695. Can we go up $100 on this?
Speaker 1I would be hard-pressed to answer that question. I mean, $50 is no big deal, but that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2But if you do each of these things $50 or $100, then it increases that package price, which is what we're trying to get.
Speaker 2So incrementally. Listen, everything's going up. Right, it's going to go up again next year. Bananas, houses, cars, these lights I mean like everything's going to go up. So you should be going up too, man and I. I didn't learn that until way late in my career. I mean, I don't remember how many years we were, like nine, 95, and we thought that was Ooh, like we're doing it. It's just a barometer of like what do you think we can also look on DJ event planner? Have we shouted out DJ event planner already in this episode?
Speaker 2I think we did at the top yeah but we can also look in dj event planner. What did we sell the most of this year? Yeah, okay, we, we sold a shitload of co2 cannons. We can probably go up some. Yeah, we didn't sell hardly any of the audio guest books. Probably should leave that or maybe even dip it down. But I never go down.
Speaker 1Yeah, I would never go down yeah, you know what I mean for the dj pricing. How are you determining that rate literally? Are you going every year the same two percent? Up right, whatever like how do you just a gut feel, gut feeling so with you personally, you were like hey, I think I can go up did you go a thousand dollars? Did you go up five?
Speaker 2hundred. I always have a thousand dollars on top of the base rate for my guys right me personally.
Speaker 1So when you thought of 2024 to 2025. Did you go up another thousand?
Speaker 2I did not, I left it at a thousand on top of the. Did you go up another thousand? I did not. I left it at a thousand on top of the packages. Got it Okay? The packages went up Joe Bunn plus a thousand. Joe Bunn 2026 plus 1500 on whatever the packages are then. So again, less shows more money. Yeah, getting older, don't want to play every weekend.
Speaker 1And so far I mean we're into three weeks, into January, but no, he's pushed back.
Speaker 2Oh, no, and so far. I mean we're three weeks into January, but no, it's pushback. Oh no, no, zero pushback. You know, obviously that's kind of randy. No, I take that back. That's a lie. Every day I get at least one email. Thank you so much for your pricing information. This is out of our budget. Every day, but that's how I know that we're doing. Did that? I mean damn near every lead we had in October? We did hundreds of weddings in one month. Yeah, stupid dude.
Speaker 1I'm not doing that again. So, speaking of North Carolina, I don't know why this came up to me, but I joined some Weddings NC. Are you part of this Facebook group? I don't think so. Somebody from that group invited me to this. Okay, bro, the facebook groups and I don't know if this is just this one I don't, I don't know anything about this. I mean, the pricing in here is it's kind of sad, honestly, like literally, brides who are looking for, like yeah, people.
Speaker 2These aren't like a vendor group or whatever. Right, right, right. So djs are in there like throwing out their pricing to these brides sharks, bro like it's so bad.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm not doing that and I don't. I guess I've just never been a part of these groups. Yeah, so I don't want to be a part of them.
Speaker 2It's incredible, it would hurt my soul. I, I yeah, it's like I tell you, know you where I unfollow people that are just like troubling me? Uh, the same thing. I don't want to be in that group.
Speaker 1So it was crazy to see how many people who would say I've been in business for 15, 20 years two 50 an hour Right and I'm like right 15 years in business. Right Two 50, two 50 an hour.
Speaker 2Like and they'll throw in like a photo booth and a dancing on the clouds and it's just crazy, it's just crazy dude, I got to get into DJC mentoring.
Speaker 1That's right. We can kind of help them out with that.
Speaker 2DJCmentoringcom, led by Jason Janai, brian B and myself. Got room, got room. So let's put a bow on this. Good stuff. Guys, everybody leave us a review. We appreciate you. If you're listening to this and you want to see us on video, just go to my YouTube channel. And if you are watching on youtube and you would rather listen to it in your car safely, then just stream it on whatever podcast platform you want. There you go new episodes every single wednesday morning around 8 am eastern standard time. Boom, we drop, drop, drop. Consistent baby somebody said that about us.
Speaker 2Thanks for being consistent, guys. I love that damn right we are. Thank you, guys. See ya, see ya.
