Club DJ wages in NZ

Hey Guys

I'm not too in the know on Wages etc for nightclub / resident type DJs. I'm generally on the private functions side of things, Weddings 21sts, School formal afterparties etc, which of course is priced based on hire and setup of a whole PA & lighting rig (and since I run the business myself I don't earn a wage)



I've recently been offered work in a nightclub, 4 hours shifts, 11pm - 3am. I'm not too up on what I should be asking in the way of wages... I've been offered around the $15 - 17 / hr mark, but being under $80 a night before tax, I don't think I'd even consider working this sort of job for that.



I'm not the next Tiesto, but I believe I'm a competent DJ with several years private function experience behind me, with an understanding of music programming, and able to beat match etc.

I'm sure a club DJ is worth far more than this, (particularly considering the hours and $ spent keeping up with music) but I don't want to seem like an egotistical A$$ by asking far too much.

If someone could shed some light on what an average DJ in a club in NZ should earn per night or hour that would be fantastic.



Your opinions, comments appreciated
Malcolm

Bro, that wage is rediculus! Haven't had a lot of experience in Dj'ing in NZ but in OZ you'd be looking at $40 p/h min plus bar tab. Common wage over here is $50-$60 per hour and thats for your average run of the mil DJ, if you've got a name for yourself its onwards and upwards....
I do a regular Friday night starting at 6pm through till Midnight and that pays $40 p/h (under the table) plus bar tab and the only reason why it's not $50 p/h is because its so early and I love the early shift.
If your doing a 12-3am shift I wouldn't be doing it for less than $40 p/h, especially if your paying tax in it.
If the manager of the club thinks he can employ a DJ for the cost of bar staff he is incredibly unexperienced....
In saying that it's totally upto you if your wanting to get exposure and stuff then perhaps you could do the gig for a little less than the norm just to get your foot in the door, but I would be making sure that the manager/owner is well aware of the favour your doing.
Hope this helps.

Basically.

Thanks for your info so far guys. I should clarify, the club is a typical nightclub. Format is generally something like Oldies, classic rock 10 - 11:30pm, Top 40 11:30 - 1 am. Then getting into the trance etc, until 3am, so its not a dance party venue with a huge cover charge or anything.

You'd still say for this sort of club the average rate is $35 or so / hr?

Much appreciate your comments

A venue which covers that should be paying you over to $75/hr to be honest imo. Doing retro, oldies classics etc isn't nearly as easy as playing 25 funky house tunes in a row in a city with 20 clubs.

are you actually in Oamaru?

if so I'd suggest that your locale will have some bearing on the rate paid

Good point.

Yep I am in Oamaru, was thinking of asking more the $25 to $30 /hr mark, still thinking the $17 per hour is a bit on the low side, I'm getting more than that for a Theatre Sound and Lighting job i'm doing, with cruisy hours in the early evening.

Anyway have another meeting tomorrow night so I'll see how it goes.

Thanks for your comments

This stems from a long way back too...back when DJs played records...records which cost $18-$22 per plate...sets require at least 10 tracks per hour (more for some genres)...payment still didn't really justify the cost of buying new tracks.

Nowdays every Tom, Dick and Deejay is playing CDs, each MP3 costing all of $3-$4, a lot of them being free if you know the right channels to get promo's.

Is $50-$60 per hour still a justifiable rate?

Discuss

Sure. Doesn't matter where you buy your tools or how much you paid for them, as long as you show up and get the job done - build the house, as it were.

You spend way more time keeping up on things these days, as well.

End of the day, its what you negotiate on a case by case basis.

How do you measure the cost/worth of a DJ?

You're aiming too low. A glassy/barman doesn't have to do hours or research or take along hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of music investment (let alone equipment if you also provide that).

At worst it should be double the highest paid barman's rate - but, realistically, not below $50/hr.

Seriously - think about it. A bar with only a 50 person capacity can easily turn over $1000/hr. 2/3 to 3/4 of that is margin if the bar is being run competently.

Discounting what you do while the barmen, doormen etc get paid industry rate is absurd. If you want an example to help your pitch - point out to the manager how many minutes an hour a barman or glassy is actually doing nothing at all. Usually it is tons.... I.e. - If they've got four barmen, fire one and the other three will just have to work more effectively. Why should the employee with the highest time & money risk of anyone working there be the one who plays for pittance?

I don't know really, just thought this might be interesting thing to discuss.

I can see the case for justifying $50+ per hour, or more, when people played records...now days when your tracks are less than 1/4, I'm not so sure I can.

Yes there's loads of time and effort gone into find, downloading and burning said tracks, but that means squat to your average bar manager

when (if ever) did the price of records equate to DJ fees?

if you can get $$$$ cool - but only accpet what you are prepared to

I'm not really trying to say it did, more that it was a justifiable fee to ask for when you paid so much for tracks, now that damn near everyone pays 1/4 of that price for their tracks, what exactly justifies the fee?

I doubt most promoters/bar owners could care less about where the music was coming from.. really..

I have already been told once by a promoter, that unless you were doing a two person live show, or something with, like guitars, no-one was going to care if it was live or not...

Yeah, true that...even I don't really care if someone is playing records, CDs or of laptop, so long as the music is good, that's all that matters. Sure, records still have "cool" factor, and always will, but in essence, it's irrelivent.

Just seems to me this "could" be a justification in some places wanting to pay DJs less money...with the addition of digital, cheap models of CDJs being a LOT cheaper than turntables and the tracks themselves being soooooooo much cheaper, it's created a market for more and more people to easily get into DJing too, diluting the talent pool a tad, don't you think? There's oodles more "Deejays" out there now than there were when you had to buy yourself expensive turntables and $20 tracks, that alone took more commitment, only those really passionate about it went to the lengths required. Now you can get yourself basic equipment to mix digitally for a fraction of the cost!

With a 30cm ruler.

The ability to draw people into venues (ie. pay door-charges and/or pay for drinks) and to keep them there (drinking) and to make them enjoy themselves enough to want to return (to pay door-charges and/or pay for drinks). Thought that was obvious?

Don't think the mp3 / vinyl thing is relevant at all as it has no bearing on the business (which is all about drinking and door-charges).

All the best in negotiating a higher rate OamaruDJ. It's hard to estimate what you should be getting, it depends on a few things like what the competitions like down there etc. ie. If they don't get you, who's next in line, and how much will they be paid?

Yes. That is the most obvious answer.

Depends how much you want the gig I guess. I do a lot of weddings for top dollar playing music I dont really like very much. Also play clubs sometimes for big discounts because its a fun gig - even less if I get to play music I actually enjoy.

Wouldnt play for $20 per hr though - problem is that there are guys starting out with a notebook pc, cracked copy of vdj, and a hard drive full of stolen music that would.

Can you honestly say that you'd be willing to risk the loss of your hearing for anything less? especially if your playing on regular basis - ie - residency ...???


regardless to the format that the music gets played from, there are still a skill and time factors involved with DJ'ing... after all, is the club/bar going to pay you to find (make, edit, burn) the music they expect you to play at their venue to help them make money over the bar or thru door sales?



IMHO, even for somewhere like Omaru, anything less than $35/hr is a waste of time unless your getting a percentage of the gross bar take for the night/during of your set... which is the arangement i had when i played at a bar in palmerston north a few times.