Mid life crisis or no!?

Associate
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Mid life crisis or not!? I'm 42...

Music...I have been a raver(no I'm not bonkers!)through my late teens to early 20's latterly getting into house music which i have always loved! Still do!

I have a friend who only recently got into being a mobile dj to up his income... he's been doing it over 6 months now.....approx £150 + per gig....3 or 4 gigs a month well you could be touching nearly 1k extra a month (minus tax man ofc). He does anything from kids parties to 50th birthdays.....and is expanding... he enjoys it a lot and gets a buzz...

Now i have fancied doing it for a while and only now had the time/cash to get the gear to do it.... told the missis and explained extra cash for holidays and would probably enjoy doing it anyway... at least making some wicked tunes for the car instead of the rubbish thats on the radio!....anyway....

I have been to many a wedding and or party where there has been a DJ and to be frank.. they have been utter junk....the music i have on my pod can do better than that! However.....

My missis is ripping me saying it's a mid life crisis and has now put doubts in my mind as to whether it is! Or not!

I intend to go down a specific route with my mobile dj stuff and i know i would have to open myself up to a lot of parties that wouldn't suit my niche but hey ho... means to an end! Cash n aw that, gotta pay for the gear!

So my question.... mid life crisis or no? Or is my missis being unsupportive? Do i pursue.... with the ultimate goal(not that i would reach it) would be a resident at a nightclub and god forbid a resident in a holiday location!
 
Man of Honour
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Sounds like some aspect of mid life crisis :p but doesn't sound necessarily crazy if you've actually some talent for DJing. TBH I think the junk DJs we generally see at weddings, etc. are either because they are a friend of someone involved or because they were the first one to just say yes to every detail/request the bride/organiser wanted even if lying through their teeth.

If you want to be playing at Ushuaïa or whatever seems all you need these days is to mix some random house, hard trance and pop indiscriminately into one tune :s
 

LiE

LiE

Caporegime
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I have been to many a wedding and or party where there has been a DJ and to be frank.. they have been utter junk....the music i have on my pod can do better than that! However.....

I think you'll find most of these "gigs" you won't have free reign to play "wicked tunes" and you'll have to stick to the program.
 
Soldato
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Nope, everyone is doing it these days because how easy to obtain music and easy money, don't even have to be even good at it because the DJ software.

My friend is 50 and will be starting the same this month.
 
Soldato
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>mid life crisis or no?
Who cares?
Long as you're having fun and not hurting anyone, it's all good.

>Or is my missis being unsupportive?
Yes she is, but you're perhaps not doing yourself any favours, because...

Cash n aw that, gotta pay for the gear!
It will probably take a few months of 'up to a grand' before that gear has paid for itself.
You'll (ideally) need your deck, tables or collapsible booth, speakers, cables, disco lights, plus I imagine a number of other bits. You'll also need a vehicle plus the fuel costs to cart all this around in. Once you get to semi-pro, ie good enough to maybe advertise and have your DJ Name on the vehicle, you'll probably want some kind of insurance. Also be prepared to get undercut and not make as much as you'd like, in the end...
You might even find the usual problem that things are fun as a hobby, but when you have to do them as a job (even just a part-time second job), you end up hating the hell out of them.

The Missus probably doesn't see the point in all that, and rightly so - You need to sell her on all the other things that money will, once you have the setup, eventually buy for her!!

I say go for it, though and good luck to you.
 
Soldato
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Do DJ's even mix anymore?

Back when I was DJ'ing we queued up using a phone. Mixing was proper manual. And when you got it wrong it was defo a drumkit falling down the stairs.
 
Man of Honour
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I think you'll find most of these "gigs" you won't have free reign to play "wicked tunes" and you'll have to stick to the program.

Yup they just want you to artlessly stick every slider to max and play their crappy mp3 recorded via a phone from a youtube video.
 
Associate
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DJ'd 20+ years now but latterly just at home / parties and the odd night here and there. Anything mobile e.g. birthday parties / weddings etc is an absolute pain in the backside. Perhaps fun once in a while if you know the people but as regular activity will be very tiring very quickly. Very drunk people, Play this track (which you know is not going to fit and kill the floor or as has been said above, the new classic, can you play this off my phone). Horrible. Can you not just try and get a regular bar gig that fits the music you like?

EDIT: That said, most of the mobile DJ's I see have truly terrible equipment. Some even just the laptop connected straight to the mixer without any controller never mind actual decks. And crap PA's
 
Soldato
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So let me get this straight.

You think possibly giving up every Friday or Saturday night a month for "possibly" an extra £1000 is worth it. Going to work at say 8pm and lugging equipment home at 3/4am. Bear in mind you will be self employed and have to have the devotion to stick at it and deal with all the aholes that come with DJ'ing at weddings/inner city birthday parties.

And as was said above - you need to factor in the travel costs/possible licence stuff and any drink/food etc you will definately consume at the gigs.
 
Associate
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Obliged for the replies >:D

It isn't my long term intention to do parties and weddings.....that would be there initially to get a grounding in the basics of hosting. My preference would be clubs then festivals and progress from there as a DJ artist. I have the DJ academy lined up for schooling and the equipment i have is at the high end of the scale....no laptop and junk speakers in sight (krk here). I plan on 6 months of self training after the academy before i even go anywhere...I ain't saying i'm gonna be the next martin garrix or armin van buuren etc but i'd like to see where i could get to! >:D I do have a wee soft spot for Juicy M though Oo ..... ignoring her fugliness ;) i love how she flies around the cdj's mixing random stuff and gets the crowd going....
 
Associate
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You're not going to be making it into clubs and festivals after a few months at a DJ academy unless you are insanely talented

As already said the DJ market is even more competitive than ever because of all the n00bs that don't even need to know how to beatmatch properly

At best you might get a gig at a local club playing the cheesy top 40 rubbish but even that can be hard to break into because they'll have their resident cheese merchant already doing it

I DJ'd a bit many years (on turntables, none of this sync stuff!) ago and getting gigs is hard, getting big gigs is even harder and getting paid gigs is also difficult when trying to make a name for yourself. If you want to make money the mobile DJ / Wedding DJ thing will net some cash but it's a huge outlay to start with

Do it as a hobby by all means, if you get a few gigs enjoy playing to a crowd or at an event but don't try to earn money from it especially if you're new to the game
 
Soldato
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i'd do it because i liked it, not to make any money out of it because i'm not sure you will. have you asked your friend how much everything costs? I don't think this is the right place to ask regardless, try avforums

B@
 
Caporegime
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The only way you'll make any money from this is if you somehow land some kids parties and play songs from 'Frozen' on repeat whilst the kids pee on your equipment and look in wonder at the sad old man who doesn't have a real job.

On the downside, it won't pay very well.
 
Soldato
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I have a friend who only recently got into being a mobile dj to up his income... he's been doing it over 6 months now.....approx £150 + per gig....3 or 4 gigs a month well you could be touching nearly 1k extra a month (minus tax man ofc).

If you think 3 or 4 times £150 is touching nearly £1k then I'm not sure self employment is for you. :p
 
Soldato
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Get a Celtic love Knott tattoo, a motorbike and a random younger bird and come back to us, mobile DJ maybe frivolous but it's a weak lemon drink of midlife crisis...
 
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