Busy preparing for his upcoming Burning Man DJ sets, The Scumfrog (also a Gigsby user) was generous enough to spend some time discussing the ever interesting topic of how much DJs make. The following is a recap of our discussion and certainly is worth the read.
Many begin their DJing careers as a side hobby or a way to make a little extra money when a traditional day job isn’t cutting it. A good number of the really passionate and talented DJs eventually can turn their side hobby into a full time career. Before making the jump to becoming a full-time DJ, it’s wise to learn a little more about your future DJ salary potential. The Scumfrog, like most DJs, started his career DJing and performing with live bands as a side hobby in nightclubs and bars across Holland. Back then, house music was seen as a second class citizen to Hip-Hop, making it tough to rise up as a house DJ. Fully understanding this, The Scumfrog jumped over the pond to New York where he found a nightclub scene that embraced house music and allowed him to play those night-long house music sets with no one asking him to play Hip-Hop. Those long sets didn’t pay out more than $100-300 a night, but The Scumfrog was happy pursuing his passion and having the opportunity to experiment with the music while better understanding what works and what doesn’t.
Over the next few years, The Scumfrog rose through the ranks and began to build a fan base of his own producing hit tracks one after another. The turning point for him came when he realized that the people coming to his DJ sets were there for him and not just there for a fun night out. In his words, he became the pull instead of just the entertainment, “It was awesome when I realized I could play a loop of fart noises at a club and people would stick around because they were there for me!” From there The Scumfrog shared some interesting thoughts and insights answering the question of “how much do DJs make.”
Novice-Midlevel DJs ($100-$2000 per gig): As a novice DJ you start out making as little as $100 a night but you have to start somewhere, and that is the key step to building your career. These years are the perfect opportunity to understand how your crowd reacts to the music through experimentation. Then there are mid-level DJs which, with the economic slump, have been taking a beating. A couple years ago when the economy was doing well, venue owners were willing to take risks on the hottest up and coming DJs that couldn’t guarantee a crowd the way a big name could. At the time, those up and coming DJs could rake in as much as $2,000 a night. Now that’s all changed. With the poor economy, club owners can no longer afford to take risks on unknown artists, and have gone back to booking seasoned DJs who consistently bring in big crowds.
Seasoned DJs ($3000-$50,000 per gig): After a DJ has been in the game for a while and has reached the point where he or she can draw crowds, the income levels start to become consistent with a certain rate charged per gig. The range really depends on the brand that a DJ has built around him or herself. For example, Tiesto is the king of building an empire around his name and can literally put that brand on anything and make it sell. There are only a handful of DJs that can achieve that and it’s because it’s really hard to do. What’s also interesting is that a $20,000/gig rate doesn’t necessarily mean a DJ will always get paid that much. Often times, DJs will book one big show a year where they can set their rate really high and then tell everyone else that their rate is really high. In reality, those DJs will make price concessions on most of their shows just to keep the revenue coming in. Making everyone think you charge a certain amount goes a long way towards building the brand of a seasoned DJ (but not recommender for DJs that are starting out).
Uber-DJs also have multiple booking agents across the world that manage their scheduling. When you reach a certain level, you can dictate where you want to be at any given point during the year and local promoters will book you during those times. It becomes a well-coordinated international machine.
Advice for novice DJs: The key is to look at DJing as a business and do things that you think Tiesto would do. For example, don’t call up a club as a DJ and ask them if you can play a set. The barback is going to end up picking up and having no idea who you are or what you can do. Instead, understand how the industry works and understand the channels you need to go through to book gigs. And just because you’re thinking like Tiesto doesn’t mean you can go out and command what Tiesto does. If you’re humble, have talent and are willing to put in the hard work, you’re chances of succeeding are way better than taking shortcuts. Remember that it’s a business and you’re not there just to have fun and party.
International Rates: Well South America is never going to generate the same kind of income that other more mature markets will generate. For example, there’s not really the concept of bottle service down in Latin America as that’s out of most of people’s means. Other than that it comes down to how the local economy is doing. Places like Abu Dubai, UAE, Morocco are great for DJs right now, and are places where DJs can expect to get paid well. Also England which is a very mature market can be a good place for DJs.
Again, a big thanks to The Scumfrog for taking the time to interview with us and for sharing a bunch of really useful information about how much DJs make. If you’re out at Burning Man make sure to check out some of his DJ sets.
Cheers,
Cisco
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Tags: average dj salary, burning man, dj salaries, dj salary range, djs salary, how much do DJs make?, Scumfrog
D:
This is great. I am glad to see someone shed some light on the current economic climate. Thanks!
Uform:
Interesting to read Scumfrog has moved to the US because of the “dead” electronic music scene in Europe. Because the electonic music hype of the late 90ies is over there are only a few clubs in europe where electronic music is played by resident dj’s. Becoming known by playing gigs in local clubs is as a consequence quite difficult. The easiest way nowadays to become a succesful artist/dj (and earn some money) is by producing some tracks, get a label with good publishing willing to release the tracks. Once the tracks are picked up by the public you will start to get bookings. So my advice: focus on producing!