Is DJing for Free Worth It? 🧐

• Rates in the DJ industry can be a sensitive topic, but it's important to have open conversations and be willing to negotiate.
• Even established DJs sometimes accept lower-paying gigs for exposure or to build relationships.
• Creating an EPK with a one-sheet, logos, promo images, promo videos, visuals, a W9 form, and a rider can help DJs present themselves professionally and stand out in the industry.
• Having a clear understanding of your value as a DJ and being prepared with the necessary materials can lead to more opportunities and bookings.
• Utilizing online tools like Canva and Fiverr can help DJs create professional visuals and design their EPK even with a limited budget. Booking DJs who are no longer actively involved in nightlife may be due to laziness or a desire to support friends.
• It is important to give opportunities to up-and-coming talent and help them grow in the industry.
• The nightlife industry is highly competitive, with a limited number of major nightclubs and thousands of DJs vying for bookings.
• Hip-hop artists have become the new rock stars, with their shows featuring high-energy performances and mosh pits.

00:00: Introduction and Recap of Previous Episode
02:02" The Role of Promoters in DJ Bookings
06:51: When is DJing for Free Worth It?
16:06: Creating an Effective Electronic Press Kit (EPK)
26:20: Booking DJs Who Are No Longer Involved in Nightlife
29:08: Supporting Up-and-Coming Talent in the Competitive Nightlife Market
41:04: The Rise of Hip-Hop Artists as the New Rock Stars

Transcript

0:03

All right, what's up guys? Welcome to the 157th episode of the Grow My DJ Business podcast brought to you by Digital Music Pool and the Grow My DJ Business Discord. My name is GawdW here. What's up, Gary? We got some real good feedback on last episode, the rates episode, I guess we can call Just a huge topic in our world, a faux pas topic, something that people don't want to talk about, but you have to talk about, as we said last week, and it's just really important to have those conversations. And we had a few things that we missed, upon going back and listening and talking to people that listened to the episode, and there was a few questions surrounding the episode, so I think we should open this up by touching on that. Yeah, one other thing I want to say, I think there's this like facade in the DJ world of, you know, once you get your rate to a certain point, that's it. Like that's your rate and you're making that rate every time. And like every high end DJ that I talk to or that I know, I know does stuff for less than what they really want. But it's not something anybody ever wants to talk about. I feel any DJ. So when we were talking about the different pay scales and rates and when you maybe take a little bit less, it happens for everybody, right? It's not once you reach a certain point that goes away. Bigger DJs are considering bookings for under their rate because it's a high profile gig, or because it helps them make extra money for the weekend, just like every other DJ. So I just want to throw that out there. Even the hard ticket artists, you if they're routed through Atlantic City, might take a Jersey Shore booking for a little less on a Sunday because they're in town already. They don't have to get on a flight and it's extra money to go DJ for two hours and take a one hour car ride. So it happens everywhere. Yeah, so like Gary said, there was a few things that we had some questions about that we didn't touch on. We just want to touch on really quickly before we move on here and really wrap this up for good or until the next episode we do it. But I think here in New York City, a lot of what we've gone through personally and just what some of the younger DJs go through are promoters, right? Promoters are booking And anytime there's a promoter involved, not any, but many times when promoters are involved, they're looking to hire DJs that can act as DJ promoters, right? Can you sell a table for your DJ slot? If you sell 20 tickets, you can get on this lineup kind of thing. How do young DJs handle that? How, I mean, for us, it's different than someone just starting, but how should people handle this? I think when you're first starting out, would, let's touch on each one of these topics separately, right? So let's talk about selling tables for a DJ slot, right? If you have friends that you know are gonna come out to see you perform, do that, right? When I was young, I played a place that like AM played at and all these great DJs played at, it was a celebrity spot, but it was on the go out, it was off the radar, it wasn't high end anymore, but I was 18 years old, I wanted to play, right? So I went and I was like, I didn't tell them I could bring X amount of people, but they asked, like, can you bring some friends? I brought 80 people to this party, right? We filled the place out. But I can do that when I was 18 years old, because they knew all my friends were gonna come see me. They were excited to go to this spot. They were like, this spot's a high -end spot, because it had been. And they all came out. And that's okay when you're on the come up, because... That place needs help. That's why they're asking you to sell a table, Right. And you're also probably not DJing a full DJ calendar where you can put on the calendar, hey friends, hey family members, hey everybody that supports me, I have this really big set on this date and I would love for you guys to come out. And people are excited to go support you in that situation. think that spot was called Y bar by the way. But anyway, if you're gonna sell tables, you want to discuss percentage with the person beforehand. You don't wanna get like 10 bucks a table when you're selling $400 tables. You don't wanna get short handed at the end. So I would talk percentage and try to keep tabs on who's spending what so you do get a fair shake at the end of the night. You don't wanna get jerked at the end of the Yeah, I think that's a good point. If you are going to accept doing this, or if you know that you can sell tables and get people out, get paid for it, right? Up front, ask, hey, if you're if you're asking me to do this, like, are you going to give me a percent of the tables that I sell? And the answer will most of the time be yes. And if you're a young DJ, and you want to break into a promoter group or a new market or a city that you like, if you live in New Jersey, and you want to break into New York, this might be the only way. And if you bring people consistently and you sell tables consistently, maybe you then eventually move up into getting normal regular bookings as an opener or, you know, some lower level bookings for a full night from that company. Or maybe you don't. Like, maybe they're just going to use and abuse every young DJ that comes up to sell tables and tickets and get people out and they have their core DJs that they use and that's it. So it's really hard to tell. But I think it's worth at least doing a few times and feeling out from that promoter company, if there's opportunity, do they take care of you? Do they pay you out on the percentage? Like if they're doing all the right things on the back end, then maybe they will take care of you further down the line. But if they book you and they change your DJ slot and they say, hey, Kareem, we have to cancel you last minute or hey, You're booked at this place, but we need you to go play this other place when you already sold tables at the first place you thought you were DJing at. Like that's probably not a company that you want to when the information switches on the spot, right? Like they tell you, hey, you're opening for $250. Now you're at the gig, you're done opening, you're ready to like pack it up, you're gonna watch the headliner obviously just because it's the right thing to do. And then they're like, we're gonna throw you on the close. They don't discuss money and then you don't get paid for it. That's somebody that, you know, that's something that has happened to me many a time in trying to break into new groups, new DJ groups. And It's a tale as old as time. It's something that has been going on forever. You have to be careful with that. And those companies are kind of usually a little sketchy in there. They always operate that way. And there's a track record there. So you gotta watch yourself. Yeah, it's something you're going to grow out of very quickly. if you want to, they're using you, right? So if you want to use them to get these really high -end places onto your resume, do it, right? Do it. Look out for yourself, because no one else is really going to when you're in this situation. Usually, if you're working with company that's selling tables or tickets, you're probably on a bill with a higher -end DJ, right? Maybe it's an artist. Maybe it's a rapper, whatever the case may be. As we've gone down this path of booking more and more DJs and higher end shows, like nobody's thinking about this baby opener kind of thing. So you have to ask all these questions upfront because they just want to lock in the date. Like, hey, I need you to open this time. And like the Booker many times, they're worried about the $25 ,000 headliner act and the direct support act. They're not worried about the 9 to 10 p or 10 to 11 p DJ. They're just right, right. You're kind of, questions, your due diligence, make sure you have all the information. And it's one of those things, right? Like they're using you, understand that, use them right back, right? In a way, how can this help you? And if not, don't do it. Same thing for selling tickets, right? I think it's the same conversation. that's the same across the board. was going to skip to the next question that we had. are saying you have to sell X amount of tickets to even get on the slot, if you're even semi -established DJ, this is not something you should be doing. I've never believed in the ticket sale. That's not your job. All right, and then the last thing, DJing for free. Is there ever a situation to do this? I got murdered during the pandemic. I was on Kova's podcast on Twitch, and I was talking about certain situations where it might be worth, might be worth DJing for free. Got murdered, comments crushed me. I wasn't like, when is a situation where you think it might be worth it to even consider DJing I'm going to do something very personal here. I'm going to answer this in a very personal way. I know that if I want to break into a market, right, and I go and DJ somewhere, anywhere, the minute I start DJing, and if I say I'm going come and do this for free, the minute I start DJing, I know they're going to have me back the next time, and they're going to pay me good money for it. Because I'm a confident, well-established, good DJ, right? I think in that situation, think then, like if you're established and you're a really good DJ and you know you can rock a room and you're just trying to get your foot in the door, then do it because they're going to ask you back. Now, if you suck, if you suck and you're going to DJ for free and you're just doing it because you want to, you you're, trying to do X, Y, and Z. You're trying to, I don't know, just DJ for fun. Like you're never going to be asked back because your skill level is gonna show and you're just being, you're being used, like we said before. You're being used just to fill a slot. You're not shocking anybody, you're not impressing anybody. I think you have to have a real grip on what your talent level is if you're going to do this. Because it could affect you in so many ways. In the market it's like, well this guy went and DJ'd for free. I don't know. It's a negative light in the DJ community, obviously, but. there's really many situations where you can go and accept a DJ booking where it's like open to close or like two to three hour set for free. I don't really think I don't really think. Right. So what I was going to say is as DJ bookers and as DJs who are booking other DJs, the number one thing after like meeting you, getting to know you, whatever, I have to hear you DJ before I feel confident in booking you. So. I've done this in the past, like, hey, can you come, wanna come play an hour set? I just wanna hear you play. I wanna get to know you. I wanna be in a DJ booth with you, see how you work, see what you play, see how you transition. I can hear you play five songs and that gives me the confidence, like, all right, I wanna book you now. So if there's opportunity to play for people who have heavy booking power, like a get down DJ group or like a whatever DJ in your market that's booking venues, If someone's asking to help out, hey, can you cover an hour for me? Like, who cares about the money? This is basically like an interview process, right? This is a test. Can you do this? Can you play the room? Which will then probably get you a bunch of bookings or at least a booking afterwards. Yeah, DJing a full night for free is out of the question. Out of the question, there's no. the DJs DJ for free, but you're showcasing your skills in front of a room full of DJs and bookers. Like to me, that's worth it, absolutely. You know, jumping on with friends, that's always a, I guess we're not really talking about that kind of stuff, No, this is probably more, this is more in the Booker, in the nightlife situation, in the club situation. and saying, hey, DJ, we want to book you, but there's no budget. Like, hey, come open for this big local DJ in the market. It's really hard to say yes to that, you know? It just tells me that the venue is good, just wants to like take advantage. Like even if it's a small amount of money, just like the gesture of here's 150 bucks, here's a, like just something, anything to make it like worth consideration. I think that's a really good point, try to jump on what somebody has. Booking power, and you're not doing this for a venue, you're doing this for somebody who's booking, right? And you're doing it for a short period of time. Right. Hey, DJ, like, you we have a Discord with a ton of DJs. Hey, DJs, we're in a bind. We have one hour that we need someone to cover. If you go cover that shift and help us out, like, you're getting bookings, you know? I'm gonna give you a great example, happened last week actually. One of our guys was booked, his private event got moved from several hours up, something happened with the family for the private event, So he jumped, he hit me up, he said I need somebody to cover for an hour. He's like, private event stops at nine, my gig starts at nine, so can somebody cover for an hour? Put somebody on for an hour, I get a text message two hours later, who just opened I want him here? at least one or two times a month, right? So it's beneficial to step up and do those things. Now, I didn't know how and didn't discuss with the one DJ who was booked previously how he wanted to work out the financials because he was booked, so I was kinda leaving it on him to do the right thing. I mean, I started that discussion after the fact, but we were just trying to get that hour filled, right? So we filled the hour, and now, even if that guy who played the hour didn't get paid that night, he's now getting paid Right, exponentially with a monthly booking kind of thing. right. So a new venue for him to play. So it's huge to step up and help out and do those things, and that's where it's beneficial. Yeah, I think broadly, you don't want to DJ for free. However, there are certain situations where DJing for free can further a relationship. We always talk about the long term that can help a long term relationship, a long term booking situation, right? Guys, we always want to think long term. It's very rare where, hey, I want to do this for the short term. So don't DJ for free. But there are extenuating circumstances where maybe it makes sense for you to DJ for an hour, two hour max, whatever the time is, that's going to help you get a monthly booking, lock in a residency, create a relationship with a big booker in your market. So every situation is unique. Broadly, I wouldn't do it, but there are going to be certain situations where it might be worth it. And don't let everybody all the haters. Kareem, you're you're an idiot for saying you should work for free ever. Fuck that. Get your rate That's just people bullshitting. Because like I said earlier, like even the big DJs are DJing for less than their rate sometimes if it makes sense for them as a business and, you know, to book a venue they want to play. So take the front away. Stop faking it. Like we all know you do it. Everybody does All right. All right. Just more rates, more rates talk. All right, let's jump into the quick Dropbox folder. Because last episode I was talking about this Dropbox folder that we should all have. And we had a little EPK day with our team last spring, think it was, or whenever it was. But we went through this. We had a little session. We took some photos. We all prepped our EPKs for 2024. So every one of us should have a folder on Dropbox or Google or wherever in the cloud that if you're driving, you're out working, you're whatever, someone hits you up and says, yo, Kareem, can you send me your logo? Can you send me your images? Can you send me whatever? You have a folder that you can instantly go and do that. When someone's hitting you up, they need it like right this second, you know? What do you include in this Dropbox folder? I call it my 2024 Cream EPK, right? My electronic press kit. It's all the things that someone who either wants to book me or someone that has booked me can go to to get any piece of content or information that they might need when considering booking me or booking me. So what's in Well, let's talk about your One Sheet quick, right? Let's talk about your One Sheet EPK. Do you keep all of the, do you keep your logos and your promo images? We're gonna get to each one of these things individually, but are you gonna, do you keep all your logos, promo images, promo video, is that all clickable within your EPK? Or is that separate? So like, so your EPK, let's talk about that first then, Yeah, so my one sheet, right? My one sheet is a snapshot. Who is Kareem? What does he do? Why does it make sense to book him, right? It's gonna include all my links to all my social, all my music. If you're making music, you're highlighting your music on there. Links to everything clickable. Any big venues you've played, any out of market venues you've played in the last year or maybe two years, but probably the last year. We've been booking corporate, so I include a bunch of corporate partners that we've had, big ones, like the ones everybody knows. A little bio, right? And like, that's kind of it. Everything's clickable. Highlight your music, highlight whatever. If you have a huge social media following, highlight the social media following, right? Like 200 ,000 followers on this platform. Like, that's important. Your bio, you want to tell who you are, what you do, and why they should book you. Short and sweet. Not a lot of, there's not a lot of text on this thing. the other thing for your music, it's like the artists that have supported me. So any of big artists that have played my music, I include that as well. And this is just for a booker or another DJ to kind of take a quick look on a one piece of paper at what you do. And that's it. I paid a bunch of money for a graphic designer to go create mine. Guys, I'm sure you can find something in Canva that you can use. There's ways to create this. There's templates, guys, Canva is your best friend. If you have zero graphic design skill, you can go to Canva, find a template and just put your information in the place of whatever's So that's the one sheet, right? That's the first thing. The next couple things, I have a folder for logos. So all the cream logos, I have a white one, a black one, and a red one in the red that I use, a get down logo, a digital music pool logo. I have a promo images folder. So this is gonna include high res, high quality shots that a social media manager could use to promote me DJing their venue. Usually I have it like cream Boston, cream New York City, cream whatever. All the different venues and markets I played so they understand what it is and where I've been. In that folder, you can also include cutouts for graphic designers to use for a flyer. If you don't have cutouts, take these high res images that you have, go on fiverr.com and hire a graphic designer for five to $20 to cut. a bunch two, three, four, five photos into individual cutout PNG files that a graphic designer can easily go into that folder and slap a picture on a flyer or that you can use in Canva to help create your own flyers. So that's the next folder. After that promo video, any video that you've gotten from videographers or your friends or anyone in the venue, ideally it's high -end venues or the best venues you play that show like a crowd that's hyped that someone that's booking you can use for social media. I get it, if you're newer, it's harder to get some of these. It's not something that has to be included. I include it because I'm playing high end places and I have good video. not super necessary. No. No, I think that's probably lowest on the totem pole of all these things, right? Yeah, yeah. The images are the most important. You need those images for flyers. And if you have shitty images, hire a photographer for one day to take high res images for you. It might cost you 300 bucks, 200 bucks, whatever it is, or ask a friend who's into photography to... My first photo shoot was with my best friend who was into photography, and we set something up in his apartment on a white wall. And I used that for years. Super W9, you gotta have a W9, Have that ready to go because every venue is asking for it and every booker is asking for I included a rider. Now, this is not something that anyone that's playing low level or probably even mid level or local gigs. If you're playing local gigs, you don't need a rider unless someone asks you. This is really if you start traveling. what a it's an it's an artist, technical and hospitality rider. So it's what DJ equipment that I want to use, how I want it set up. Right. If I'm using a computer, I want whatever DJM 900 a CDJ on the left, at least one CDJ on the right, maybe two. And if I'm using a computer, I want the computer stand set up on the right side. So these are all things you outline in this rider hospitality rider. It's like, yeah, I a bottle of Tito's or Red Bulls or waters or whatever. Even when I'm getting booked out of market, I'm like, unless they ask me for the rider, I usually don't include it. Because normally someone would just be like, Hey, cream, what do want to drink for the night in a text? And I'll be like, waters and, you know, high nudes. Right, James Hype just put a reel out about this. Yesterday, I think it was. actually been putting out great content for like coaching content. It's been awesome. Big fan. good. He's killing Yeah, and then the last thing is just a bio and that's something that you can... Right. Right? So, and your visuals. I think visuals are a big one. Yes, your visuals is right. So this is visuals that you're going to use in a nightclub on a screen. It's usually just an animated logo, right? You're not doing ANMA stuff. You're not doing Eric Pride stuff yet. You're going to go on Fiverr again, and you're going to find somebody that creates some cool animated logos, and you're going to get two to three of those. And you're going to throw that in a folder on Dropbox. I would also... and you're creative, you can go in Canva and do visuals. Yeah, you can. You can. There's ways to accomplish this stuff with zero budget or with the super high end budget. So don't get frustrated and think, you know, I don't have any money to spend on this or I haven't played any big gigs yet. Like, doesn't matter. You can find a way to make this happen. And having this is going to make you look a thousand times more professional than most DJs out there. Because most DJs, I text and say, hey, I need your logo. W9 and visuals and it takes them three days to get it to me and it's sent to me in the text individually and it just doesn't look that professional Yeah. Have it ready to go in your email. Email yourself and just keep it in your inbox and then you can just forward Yeah, that's great. I would also keep it on a USB stick because if you're in a nightclub and you want to get your visuals up, the best way to do it is to hand the light person a USB stick with your visuals on it or your and your logo. Yep. All great tips. to run through that quickly, because I know we've been kind of talking about it, but I really wanted to like break it down for everybody and why it's important. This is how you set yourself apart and how you grow as a DJ. You look more professional. This is how it works on the high end. And even if you're not playing the high end places, you know, running your business professionally. And like you've been there before is a great sign to a booker that, this kid knows what he's doing. Like they're prepared. They're playing good venues, good gigs, even if you're Yeah. All right. All right, guys, if you if you have questions on this or you want to see my one my Dropbox my EPK. Follow us on YouTube, subscribe to us on YouTube. We're really trying to grow the YouTube. Please guys, if you're listening and you support the show, even if you are not going to watch YouTube, please go to our YouTube, get down DJ and subscribe there. But also join the discord. I'm going to put this in the discord for you guys to check out. You can literally go look at exactly what my Dropbox folder looks like. can click into everything, see what everything, what's in there and how it looks. Perfect. All right, what are we talking about next? Well, I think something that has come up this summer is that we're seeing, that we've been talking about a lot, that we've been seeing big, big, big venues booking some DJs for support that aren't really playing Nightlife regularly. Maybe they did play Nightlife many years ago, but it's kind of... you and I kind of like raised an eyebrow, like okay, like why are so many places booking these DJs that are not playing nightlife anymore? And I was thinking about this and I'm like, it's, number one, could be just like a lazy booking, like I know this person from back in the day or I have a connection with this person and I know they haven't really played nightclubs in a while but I know that they could do the job and. you know, why not put my boys on or whatever that might, you whatever it might be. Like that could be a huge part of it. A huge part of it. And this isn't one place, this is a couple of places. Another thought that I had was like, well, it's summertime. So maybe some of those guys that have veered away from nightlife and are doing other things, maybe their calendars are a little slower. So maybe they're hitting up their boys once in while, or their connections that they had once before because. Let's keep it real, especially in New Jersey. All the people that are booking the super big venues have been in the game forever. Forever, like before you and I, like before I was even DJing 20 years ago, they were already booking huge venues. So they've been in the game for 30 years, you know? So they have all of these established connections where people come in and out of nightlife, obviously, because you do age out at some point, right? but you still kind of have the itch and you want to scratch that itch. So you hit up the people that have booked you in the past. I understand that completely. Like, especially now that I'm away from DJing for three and four and five and six weeks at a time. I'm like, well, I really, I want to get back to the nightclub and get involved again. So I understand if I'm in like a wedding situation or if I'm just doing private events or corporate events, it's like, well, is that really scratching the nightlife itch? It's not. Yeah, it's different. it could still be party rock, but like it's not the same vibe and feel that you get in front of a thousand people, two thousand people, even 500 people. You know, it's a completely different just feeling, I think. So I understand it from all of these perspectives. Now. Does it matter? Does it matter who's supporting the big artist? Does it matter if it's a young up and coming DJ or if it's Joe Schmo that used to headline, you know, the local spots, right? I know he's gonna get the job done. So does it matter if I put on a young kid or if I put on somebody that's experienced? I think as booker and someone who's booking a nightclub, the only nightclub in our general area, right, that's not New York City, I sort of look at it as it's partly my job and our job to put on the young up and coming talent and further and improve and make our nightlife thing better, you know? We have to set up for the next group of headliners. And how do you do that? You find young, hungry, talented DJs and you put them on and you help them grow and you use this big platform to help them get into the next place. That's how I look at it. But obviously other people don't look at it that way, right? They look at it like I want the old OG veteran that I trust that's been in nightlife for 20 years that maybe isn't doing nightlife anymore. Maybe that's what it homework. And that's why they'll fucking steal our DJs, because we do our homework, and we're out here booking new talent, and they're like, Get Down's booking new talent, we're gonna cherry pick them. Because the peop, that is 100 % true. I'm calling them out, fuck it, I don't care. Yeah. do your homework. How hard is it? It's not, it's not, you know what, like, and that's what's going on in our state, to be honest, and that's why when guys get lazy, they're booking guys that they booked 10 years ago, because they don't wanna do the work. Yeah, from my experience, what I'm seeing is people are getting booked based on, for two reasons. One, in this group that we're talking about, one, it's an older DJ that's been in the game for a long time that at one point was on the top of their game, was on the top of the nightlife mountain, but isn't anymore. They maybe do some, you know, they do private events, they do radio, whatever they're doing. Something else that's two to four to five nightlife gigs per week. They're not doing that anymore. And because they're not doing that anymore, they're not that good as they once were. They're just not, their name, you remember them from when they were at the peak of nightlife. They're not at the peak of nightlife anymore. They're playing one nightlife gig per month, two nightlife gigs per month. And I've been booked in very big rooms to open for someone, hear them play. And I'm sitting there the whole time saying, This person's playing old music. It's the same set I've heard them play from another venue five years ago. Why is this person headlining and I'm opening? My sword is sharp. I'm out here fucking grinding. I'm playing a lot of gigs. It's all nightlife. I'm playing to all these different crowds. You put me in a room and I know I'm gonna crush. And it's upsetting to me as someone who's playing some higher end places and hearing other DJs that like are only getting booked because what they used to do, you know? Yeah, I wonder if it's like this in every market. I'm sure it is, you know, because bookers, like you said, trust that person, know that they're gonna do a professional job, right? They're gonna be able to handle anything that comes their way and it's safe. And I think I understand why they do that, right? They don't have to worry about it. I'm gonna put this person on and I don't have to worry about it. I can go deal with, you know, the artist arriving and getting them set up in the green room and making sure they're like, again, guys, Nobody cares about you as the local opener. They care about the $50 ,000 artists that they're bringing in and making sure that that person and their team are happy. Are their visuals set? There's a million things to worry about that's not the DJ, and I think that's why they'll book these veteran DJs that just been That makes sense, that, makes sense. But you're right, on the other side of it, doesn't help the market as a whole. Like what happens on the slower nights when you wanna book somebody for a full night and you don't have a big time DJ on, right? And you're gonna book local talent. Like you wanna know who that next up and coming DJ is going to be. At least we do, maybe that's not everybody. Maybe that's just not how everybody works. And it's like, all right, let me see who's established themselves in the game. And then I'll go, I know I have a great venue, so the minute I call somebody that is on the come up, they're coming to play my place. Yeah, it's just because I know we have such talented DJs on our team, it sort of annoys me because like you and I are really plugged into who the good DJs are, who the best DJs are in this market. And maybe these other bookers clearly are not because if they were, they wouldn't be booking who they're booking sometimes, not always. So it's just frustrating to me because I know that some of our DJs, their swords are sharp, know? They're working hard, they're up on the music, they know the crowds, they have a following, like, they can do the job. They deserve it. The guy that's out there doing other stuff that comes back to nightlife doesn't deserve it to me. And if I'm not hating on you guys at all because if I was that person, would take, I would want those bookings too. Everybody wants those bookings. Every person in this entire market wants these high end bookings. There aren't a lot of them. It's super competitive. That's the problem, right? It's such a competitive market. Like, the whole state, there's a handful of major nightclubs. A handful. Five? three hours from the north of New Jersey to the south tip, southern tip of New Jersey. There's three in Atlantic City. There's a handful of more Latin based places in the center of the state. There's a handful of places at the Jersey Shore that are only open in the summer, three, four, and there's one in northern New Jersey. And that's it. And how many DJs? thousands and thousands. Yeah, handful spots. It's seriously competitive. So it is tough when, when got, when bookers are relying on people that they've relied on forever. It's, it's disheartening because, you know, it's hard to come up. It's hard to make it in our state. Yeah. Even for me, right? Like, I've sort of grown beyond New Jersey at this point, but I still want to be in some of these places. I've had a struggle breaking back into Atlantic City. And it's like, I'm doing all these different things. Like, I'm doing travel gigs. I'm playing high -end places all over the place. I feel like I deserve to be a resident in one of these places. And it's been a struggle, but there's a thousand DJs lined up to get into these places. And you know, where you are not even just dealing with, especially when you're speaking specifically to Atlantic City, you're not just thinking about New Jersey or New York DJs. You've got the whole city of Philadelphia too. and Pennsylvania DJs as well. It's a lot. Yeah, that's a tough market because it's, you know, it is, like you said, there's about three major nightclubs and like you said, thousands of DJs trying to buy for those positions and it's tough. Very, very competitive. and guys, I think it's okay to feel this way. This is what drives me, right? Like, this drives me to do what I need to do to go get that booking, to go into Atlantic City and have a residency again and be in one of the big three places again consistently. And this is what's great. Like, this is what's fun to me, right? Like, how do I, what do need to do to prove to the bookers in Atlantic City how that I can get back in there regularly? It's fun, it's like part networking, it's music, it's venues, it's messaging, it's DM, it's like this whole dance that we have to play. And it still excites me, right? Can I be frustrated that I'm not there? Absolutely. But this is the fuel that gets me to wake up every day and wanna keep working and wanna keep trying at this nightlife thing and DJ thing and producer thing. Love it. Gotta have something to keep you going. Right? Especially doing it after this many years, you definitely need a driving force behind what you do every day and why you want to sit down at the desk and get to work. Because once that goes away, you gotta stop doing what you're doing. Right? you guys all should have that confidence to know that, I'm good enough to do this thing, right? Whatever it is, whatever your goal is, maybe it's the local bar, like maybe that's it. Just have the confidence that you can go do it, do the work, the practice, the homework, and you'll be fine, and you'll get it, right? found a couple of conversations this week with guys that were at, you know, have asked for things or, where am I at? And what should my goals be? And I love that, you know, and I love that guys have been asking questions and have aspirations to play a better place, even though, you know, maybe they, maybe they, they're not playing those places that, that they're asking for. Maybe they, you know, they, they're playing the next level down, but you gotta ask, right? And you gotta ask where I'm at and how do I get there? You know, if you don't have a booker or somebody that you can or somebody like us to ask, like just ask somebody who's on your level. We say that all the time. Like somebody who's a friend of yours that's a DJ or somebody that's playing those venues. Like how do I get in here? What do I need to do to be better in order to book these gigs? Important. Yeah. I want to shout out Two Face real quick. They've gone about their business this summer. They have goals. There are certain venues that they've been trying to get into and they've gone about it the right way, right? It's networking. It's shaking hands. It's getting to know people. It's getting your music in the right people's hands. And they booked one of their goal venues this summer. And they're supporting Odd Mob, which is sick. Huge. That's their first booking in the venue. It's possible guys, you just have to do the work, right? Like you gotta, if you really want something, like reverse engineer it. How do I do it? And then go do those things. And a bunch of our guys have broken into new venues this summer, like super proud of our guys. All over the place, not just Jersey, outside of Jersey too. Yeah, it's been great. Good get down summer so far. That's for sure. And not just within get down venues, like you said. Yeah, like the guys have been doing great. I'm super proud of what they've accomplished this summer. Now we can bitch at them about not DJing our venues, right? We can yell, I'm sending videos on our Discord saying, guys, we need you guys in our venues, but I can still be super proud of you for accomplishing all the other stuff that you're doing. And that's the goal, right? We want you guys to grow and we wanna help you grow. Right. know. And this is not just for our DJs. This is for any DJ that's listening right now. You know? I get great joy in having a very small impact in helping someone else reach their goals. But you guys gotta do the work to get it. So... Alright, last topic. We're gonna keep this short. I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow. I'm out. So, like we said last week, Gary might have a special guest. We'll see what happens with... The pod will probably have maybe one week without a pod and then maybe another week with a special guest. Yeah. I wanna bring one music topic up before we go. I've been watching like TikTok or whatever and seeing videos of Travis Scott's show in Milan. Okay. like 80 ,000 people. looks like, it looks fake, seriously. It looks insane. He has that like crazy like rocky stage set up. It's smack dab in the middle of this massive space and there's just people everywhere and there's drone shots of like 500 mosh pits. like, it looked like it was out of a movie. It was insanity. It was insanity. just, just his show, not a festival, nothing like not a festival show. This is a Travis Scott show. Like, it's a festival crowd for a one single artist. And his shows are insane. But like, when did rappers become the new rock stars? Like, mosh pits and like, repeating Travis Scott does Fiend like 20, like 10 times in a row. And the crowd sings every word and he doesn't need to get on the mic at all. Like it's insanity. Yeah, it's been going on like that for a little bit, right? mean, there's a Yeah, like hard song. I'm thinking of like Little Yachty for one show. Mo Bamba or Sheck West did Mo Bamba and it was just insanity. A lot of the hip hop shows have become this like mosh pit, rager, people going crazy. This reminds me of a, and I know it doesn't relate because it's house music, but this reminds me of when Tiesto played back in 07 in Brazil to 250 ,000 people. And that was like when it was like, my God, I we didn't call it, it wasn't EDM, right? I was like, my God, house music's like made it, like 250 ,000 people to go see Tiesto's, huge. Yeah, was like, holy shit. But like that's like, And like just not a festival just to go see one artist. It's mind blowing when these artists step into these spaces and it's 85 ,000 people like for Travis Scott is crazy. mean, guess that's what if you play a stadium, it's what like 60 ish, maybe not the newer Jersey is over 80 for sure. Yeah. So some of the stadiums are big. But also with the way the stage is set up, it cuts off part of the seats, so you don't get a full capacity stadium like you would for a sporting event. Right, so, but the, like, when this is set up, not in a stadium, and it's all flat ground, like a festival, and you get to have lighting and video everywhere, it's just a completely different look. Like this Travis Scott show is, it's completely, like, the production is insane on it, right? The lighting's incredible, and it just, you you could see, as far as the eye can see, like, there's production going on. Amazing. I just think it's high energy hip hop music can still work. know, like, Travis Scott's been successful and he's making music that's super high energy, even if it is a, you know, maybe it's not 100 BPM, but you know, 70 BPM hip hop. And he gets that much energy out of it. It's crazy. I just thought it was dope. I wanted to bring it up because I saw the video and I was like in awe. If you guys haven't seen it, go look it up anywhere. It's pretty... Pretty cool, man. Pretty sick. full shows on YouTube, it's all chopped up by a song, so it's a good spot to go check it out. And while you're there, subscribe to get that. Go subscribe to the Get Down DJs YouTube, please. That's my ask before I leave. That's it. Go on vacation. Get out of here. Yeah, I'm super excited, man. This is gonna be a nice little disconnect, nice little family time. I'm excited. And then it's back to the fall and back to business and it's full speed ahead for the next five months. We've been prepping the last two weeks for the fall, we're ready to, we're almost ready to rock. I, I'm, I'm excited. This is my, this is like the super bowl for me. I love this. I love when right, right. Leading it August is amazing. Leading right into the fall, busy season, craziness. There's a nice little, yeah, I think the end of the summer, people start to get sick of going down the shore and we see this little upslope in trajectory and it gets really exciting. After July 4th, there's always the slow creep, the slow build towards the fall and then the explosion of fall. So guys, if you're listening, if you have not reached out to your football place, your fall venues, now is the time. I had a meeting yesterday with one of the groups that I work with. We talked about the fall. I'm gonna book all the DJs today, probably. So it's already happening. Try and reach out to your people. Maybe not today, I would wait till Tuesday next week. Or, you know, actually when you're listening to this, reach out. Yeah, yeah, because it's we we put this out Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. So those are the days you want to be reaching out anyways. you want to reach out, know, hit up those places that are going to be rocking again in the fall. So now's the All right. All right, guys, thanks for listening to this episode. We will talk to you soon. I will talk to you after vacation. Peace. Okay, peace.