How To Become A Club DJ & Book Huge Gigs

Before you quit your day job and start answering ‘club DJ wanted’ signs, you should come to grips with roadblocks you will face as a new disk jockey. You won’t have money for a while, except for the bits earned by small time gigs. Because of your experience and low networking assets, negotiating for a better salary will be difficult at first.

Before thinking about those things, you need to build a fanbase, build a network and learn as much as you can about production. The best way to think of your new career is as a mini-startup. You need people to invest in you, but you don’t have any assets to offer yet.

Learning more about production development is the easiest aspect to deal with. There are loads of tutorials on music production as well as easy to access to music production tools. YouTube is a great resource for this as well as message boards such as the beginner DJ subreddit.

These resources will help you learn about the software that goes into music production as well as the hardware. Impressing clients is the best way to book gigs and gain important connections, so you’ll want to know everything you can about the tech you’re using. If something breaks down in the middle of the show, you’ll be one step ahead and keep the party moving!

The Internet also helps with building a network as there are many platforms that can be used to showcase your work. SoundCloud and YouTube are a good start. Because of YouTube’s relatively new live stream function, connecting with fans is now easier than ever. DJs such as Armin van Burren, a trance DJ from Eastern Europe, uses YouTube to livestream his show.

With YouTube, you can also earn a bit of money based on the number of consistent fans that watch your content. Having a website, Instagram and Snapchat are almost necessary as they allow you to show your music to a wider audience. With all of this, you will need to work on your image and make yourself as promotable as possible without seeming as though you’re pandering.  While you’re promoting yourself be sure to create an interesting bio, have a stylistic logo, showcase not only your music, but any career highlights as well as the things you’ve been doing online and lastly, have loads of promotional photos as any client will need the DJ to fit the aesthetic of their establishment.

Club DJs make, on average, 26K a year, however, this statistic varies widely. A club DJ salary depends largely on who they know, how much experience they have and what they can negotiate.  In the end, becoming a DJ is completely possible no matter where you are in life, as long as you’re willing to put in the work.