Wedding and party DJ prices (scroll down)
All of the packages below include myself as the DJ and professional sound and lighting. I carry over 140,000 high quality tracks that span the last 100 years covering most genres right up to the very latest releases. I have set out my prices below for each package, but it’s well worth having a read of the paragraph below entitled ‘shopping for DJ’s’
Shopping for DJ's
Naturally, one of the first questions a clients asks is ‘what are you prices’ People often have their own perception of what a DJ should cost approximately, but do people actually give much thought as to why there is such a vast range in prices. So why is the expensive DJ so expensive when compared to some of the other DJ’s? The saying “you get what you pay for” is not always true, but a simple answer to the question would be to explain the trap of the catch 22 situation that the cheaper DJ finds themselves in, and more importantly, the situation that the client is placed into for unwittingly shopping on mainly price and accepting that a few pictures online of people dancing means the DJ must be OK. You would be forgiven for thinking you have had a great result for securing a low price for a DJ. However, professional equipment is very expensive, which begs a few questions, is a DJ business sustainable when charging so little? Is the cheaper DJ taking a few shortcuts on quality and does this matter to you? (By the way, there is a massive price difference between high end equipment and substandard equipment) All business owners face the usual cost of everyday living like the rest of us i.e. mortgages, foods, utility bills etc Therefore, it becomes a simple case of economics, how would the cheaper DJ afford to replace high end equipment when it wears out? How can they afford backup equipment? Afford a van to carry their equipment with the backup? Either the DJ does not have a sustainable business or there’s a shortcut on quality of equipment. Here’s a few examples of how shopping on price alone may actually have a direct impact on your event . Scenario one: correct and valid vehicle insurance is expensive, Low priced DJ’s often don’t have valid vehicle insurance to carry equipment because of it’s high cost, This may not seem like an issue for the client, but if the DJ gets pulled over by the police on their way to the venue, the police will seize vehicle for not having valid business insurance resulting in a now show for your event. Scenario two: cheap speakers are NOT capable of efficiently dealing with medium to large crowd capacities which may result in speaker failure when pushed. Cheaper speaker also do not produce high definition sound quality resulting in ear piercing volumes on the dance floor and at the same time presenting lack of clarity and volume across the rest of the room. Clarity and acoustics play a massive role in terms of guests actually enjoying the music. To top it all, Cheaper DJ’s will often obtain their music illegally, either through you tube or torrent file sharing websites. Illegally downloaded music is often low bit rate and this definitely means low sound quality. (A professional DJ will pay a subscription to a music pool which ensures high quality songs and paying the artist fairly for using their work) To top the ‘low sound quality’ issue, I have even witnessed some DJ’s connecting their laptop directly to a mixer via a cable into the headphone jack. At this point it’s worth taking a moment to consider the quality of components in a laptops sound card, probably costing pence to produce! As I’m sure you can conclude if you have read this far, the accumulation of sound quality issues alone is real cause for real concern. A professional DJ would use a digital DJ controller/digital turntables as shown in the pictures below. If a laptop is being used in conjunction with a DJ controller, the audio data is transferred to the controller digitally via USB bypassing cheap laptop sound cards. The bottom line is not charging a reasonable fee means no money to buy backup equipment or indeed any high quality professional sound and light equipment. Even a cheap microphone can have a very negative impact on your event, clarity on announcements or speeches is imperative. The above may seem extreme and scare mongering, but the few issues mentioned above can have a devastating result. Everything I have mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to equipment and sound quality, but what about the experience, credibility and skills of the actual DJ? I could write a whole section about this particular topic alone, but to save you getting bored I will refrain from expanding even further. The best rule of thumb to make sure your DJ have some credibility and operates as a serious business is to checkout the DJ’s genuine reviews on google and social media. (I use the word genuine, i.e don't go off the reviews written on their website, there's no way of verifying if they are real. This will at least give you some peace of mind regarding reliability and credibility. For those client who like dance, EDM, RnB music, etc, you may require a DJ with technical mixing skills. Most Professional DJ’s who have mixing skills will probably have a mixcloud account so you can checkout their ability – my mixcloud can be found here https://www.mixcloud.com/davesdisco/
Whilst I’m not the most expensive, I’m certainly not the cheapest and whilst I appreciate you may shop around and book someone else, I hope reading this far has armed you with some worthy wisdom that will help you find a decent DJ for your event.
Whilst I’m not the most expensive, I’m certainly not the cheapest and whilst I appreciate you may shop around and book someone else, I hope reading this far has armed you with some worthy wisdom that will help you find a decent DJ for your event.
Podium package price (Most popular)
This package is the most popular and doesn't cost a great deal more than the standard! (The standard is for venues where space is limited, the standard does not have any up-lit truss podiums as shown in the picture on each side of the DJ booth)
The LED lit truss podiums with moving heads and DMX programmed lighting are especially impressive if your event is a wedding and this particular setup is ideal for the first dance. For example, typically, two moving heads are transformed into white spotlights and focused on the centre of the dance floor or the Bride and Groom, or they can used to create cascading light patterns on the walls. DMX controlled lighting can be programmed to smoothly run through ambient and vibrant colours, or forward facing lights can be dimmed to create a visually impressive romantic atmosphere and photo friendly scene. The speed of the lights can also be controlled to fit accordingly with the audio output The Podium package includes the following: Professional LED illuminated DJ Booth 2 x High definition speakers 2 x Moving head lights 2 x up-lit Podiums 4 x Power LEDS DMX controlled lights Professional Pioneer DJ controller Experienced DJ + Vast music collection Cost of playing from 7pm - £ Please contact Extra hours playing before 7.00pm are charged at £30 per hour Crowd size: up to 200 space required: 10′ wide x 5′ deep x 6.5′ high setup time: 1 hour from when the equipment is in the function room. Extra speakers for extra large crowd capacity, or odd shaped rooms can be added to suit any sized crowd or venue, please call us to discuss. |
Podium plus package price
This package is exactly the same as the podium package above, but with 2 additional up-lit truss podiums with 2 extra moving heads The addition of extra LED lit truss podiums with moving heads and DMX programmed lighting is super impressive in the flesh and takes up a fair amount of space, ideal for larger venues.
Cost of playing from 7pm - £-please contact Extra hours playing before 7.00pm are charged at £30 per hour Crowd size: up to 200 space required: 14′ wide x 5′ deep x 6.5′ high setup time: 1 hour 20 minutes from when the equipment is in the function room. |
Ultimate package price - This package has been withdrawn
The ultimate setup is ideally suited for clients who want the extra wow factor. This package includes includes 10ft wide x 7ft tall up lit Truss with matching LED curtain and extra lighting mounted on top of the truss. In the flesh it's much bigger than it looks on the pictures!
The Ultimate package includes the following: Professional LED illuminated DJ Booth 4 x High definition speakers (6 for larger crowd capacity - more than 250 people) 2 x Sub bass speaker 4 x Moving head lights 4 x Power LEDS 2 x up-lit Podiums (more podiums can be added for additional cost) DMX controlled lights Professional Pioneer controller FREE sign writing on the DJ booth 7ft x 10ft LED lit Truss & matching LED curtain Experienced DJ + Vast music collection Crowd size: up to 250 space required: 13′ wide x 6′ deep x 7.5′ high setup time: 2 hours 15 minutes Cost of playing from 7pm - £-please contact Extra hours playing before 7.00pm are charged at £30 per hour Please note, due to the time it takes to setup the ultimate package, please make sure your venue is happy with the take down time at the end of the night which is between 1.5 hours to 2 hours. This setup is also only suitable when it can be erected on the morning of your event or at least 3 hours before your event is due to start. It's certainly not suited for weddings when there is a short period of time to setup during the room turnaround for the evening. Please feel free to call or email me anytime if you have any questions. |