Latinos on the Rise: DJ Obscene

Latinos on the Rise: Bringing you the coolest, trendiest, and fastest emerging people in fashion, food, art, business, politics, and more. The people to watch out for. The ones who fearlessly strike from the pack and make us all proud.

I’m kicking off this first column with a profile of a young DJ from Miami. I believe he's the real deal. He calls himself DJ Obscene. He’s a consummate pro, has a definite plan, and has built some incredibly strong relationships. You’ll be hearing big things about this guy. He may just be the next Deadmau5, David Guetta, or Fatboy Slim.  

DJ Obscene or Jonathan Garcia (his real name), is young in the game—he’s 25 but he looks all of 17. He’s of Cuban decent and was born and raised in Miami. His look is nerd chic, glasses and skinny pants, hair is all jelled and pointy. His expressions while DJ'ing are beyond serious and border on a furrowed brow. When he’s behind the turntable, his can barely be seen.

He started mixing music on his computer at 14 and got his first set of turntables at 15. He’s been working the Miami nightclub scene like a pro ever since.

“What I admire about DJ Obscene is that he has always stayed loyal, he’s a hard worker, and he listens—which I feel are some of the most important details in the music business,”  Pitbull says.

Obscene and Pitbull met in a Miami club, and have been working together for a few years. Now the Obscene mixes for all the biggies – Rick Ross, Flo Rida, and LMFAO.

His name came from a line in an Eminem song titled “Without Me” It’s me/I’m obscene. He says the name just stuck – it was intriguing and interesting and made people want to know what’s obscene about him.

Getting to know him a bit, I asked what was the most obscene thing to happen to him? 

“None sticks in my head like the time some random person snuck their way into the DJ booth after one too many drinks to make a request. Security realized it was time to escort her out, but not before she threw up all over the place as she was dragged out of the booth. I don't know how, but I did not get any vomit on me at all, can't say the same about security though,” Obscene says.

Obscene plays the best clubs in Miami, Vegas, and lately the Bahamas—from LIV to Soho House, to STK. He says Aura in Atlantis and Mansion in Miami are his favorite clubs to play.

He’s one of the best because he seems to possess an uncanny ability to ready his crowd. Methodical in his observations, he says he’ll choose a 2-3 minute set, stand back while it plays, and size up his audience. He says he’s looking to make people feel the music and create a moment in time.  He’s watching for movement or lack of. If one person isn’t dancing, he’s trying to figure out why.

“Miami isn’t the easiest place to be a DJ. You’ve got a large swath of people at a club at one time, it’s a melting pot of different kinds of people, locals and tourists, a variety of ages," he said. "The strength of Miami DJ’s is having to learn how to keep people in the clubs till they close at 5am—that’s a marathon set.”  

A mediocre DJ makes a starting salary of about $300, moving up from there to $500-$700 for good club in Miami, to $1500 to a club in Vegas. A traveling gig, like the one Obscene is taking this weekend to Atlantis, could earn a DJ up to 5K. Dead Maus makes over 100K a night.

The real barometer of a successful DJ is not only mixing other people’s music, but going beyond and creating and producing your own music.

“Even though I infuse my sets with old-school music, people tend to want the same thing. And club owners, and promoters will always be whispering in your ear and telling you what to play, they need to see those sparkers going and the bottles flying, that’s how they know there’s money being made in the clubs," Obscene said. "That’s why it’s important for me to work toward the goal of becoming more independent and being a producer.”

Working at Clear Channel Y100 for three years, Obscene has been hosting on Friday and Saturday nights from 10 to midnight, for the last three years. The young DJ features what’s hot in the clubs and new songs that aren’t on the radio yet.

Obscene talks a lot about two local Miami fixtures, DJ Irie and DJ Craze. Obscene says he admires Irie because of his marketing and branding genius. 

“Irie’s been able to elevate his brand to superstar status like few have been able to replicate. He was already a good DJ and brought a great entertainment experience to venues he played, but he has been able to take that and flip it into numerous sponsorships and branding campaigns including--Miami Heat, Carnival Cruise Lines, Heineken, Grey Goose and the list goes on," he said. "I aspire to build my brand in a similar fashion to be able to tap into corporate."

He said he admired Craze's skill and ability to remain relevant. 

"He still gets down on the turntables like he used to in his teen days," Obscene said. "Right around the same time I was watching his battle videos and fell in love with DJing.”

-Courtesy of Fox News Latino

How Hard Is DJing? Count To Four

When heiress and reality star Paris Hilton made her DJing debut at a music festival in São Paulo in June, many observers wondered – just how difficult is it to DJ, really? Not at all, according to outspoken dance music producer Deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman: “It takes two days to learn, as long as you can count to four,” Zimmerman told Rolling Stone. I took on the challenge to see if I could learn to DJ – in one hour.

Scratch DJ Academy hopes to teach anyone how to spin. The brain child of former businessman-turned-music-enthusiast Rob Principe, the academy began when Principe successfully pitched his idea for a DJ school to legendary Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay in the green room at the Late Show with David Letterman.

“Despite DJs being ubiquitous in our culture, there was no on-ramp to the art form,” explained Principe, co-founder and CEO of Scratch DJ Academy. “The equipment was expensive and confusing and the demand to learn outweighed any supply of teachers.”

Jam Master Jay soon jumped onboard as a co-founder and instructor at the New York academy. A decade later, close to 15,000 students a year nationwide fork out an average of $350 per six-week program, the most popular of which is a DJ 101 course that covers basic scratching, mixing and the use of prominent industry technologies like Serato software. A certification course, which can take over a year to complete and aims to produce club-ready DJs, costs just under $2000.

DJ Noms, a teacher with 17 years DJing experience, introduced me to a $3,000 deck consisting of two turntables, a mixer and a laptop. “Place your hand at the 9 o’clock position and all you’re going to do is start to push forward and back,” instructed DJ Noms. Performing this motion every quarter beat created a scratching sound known as the “baby scratch.”

“That simple movement is the foundation for everything related to DJing,” said Noms. DJs use baby scratches to move tracks so they release on time with another, and build upon this basic scratch to create more complicated turntable sounds.

In the first five minutes of the class – an hour-long session that retails for between $80-$150 – I nailed the baby scratch. From there, I counted to four a little faster and mastered a “scribble scratch” – a double-time version of the baby scratch – and a drag, which is a half time count. DJ Noms then showed me a slider on the mixer known as a cross fader, which can be used to flip back and forth four times a beat between turntables to create a percussive sound known as a “transformer scratch.”After 30 seconds of trying, I had the transformer scratch down.

Zimmerman, number six on our list of highest earning DJs, recently criticized several of his peers for “button-pushing” during live shows. With the increase in ease afforded by technologies like Ableton and Virtual DJ, which can be used to queue and sync tracks, Zimmerman claimed several DJ/producers rely on pre-recorded tracks rather than recreating their music during so-called live sets.

DJ Noms estimated that about half the working DJs in New York city use just mixers and their laptops, while the rest rely on a combination of turntables and Serato technology, a mock-vinyl software that lets DJs manipulate mp3 files on their laptop while using turntables as a control interface. There are even iPhone apps such as djay which let users mix tracks directly from the iTunes library. A popular Android version called DJ Studio 3 had over232,000 downloads in June alone.

Serato makes mixing simpler by queuing up two songs of the DJ’s choice. When an icon on the display goes green the DJ has to release a track on time with the other song. Then the DJ just has to turn down the bass and fade out the initial track.

“If you get this, I quit, I’m running out of the building,” Noms joked. Sure enough, less than half an hour into the lesson I completed my first professional mix.

Still, there can be more to DJing then mixing. DJ Noms exhibited an advanced method of using the turntable as an instrument. Known as Turntablism, this skill combines feverish scratching and beat-juggling to get unique sounds out of the discs. A-Trak, superstar DJ and winner of five DJ world championships, said Turntablism took him years of practice and “monastic discipline” to learn.

Scratch DJ Academy sees no shortage of customers wanting to learn a range of techniques. “Our enrollment numbers actually increased during the recession, because people were losing jobs left and right,” explained Noms. “They were looking for a secondary source of income so they were coming to us.”

Customers have included accountants, lawyers and even a brain surgeon. With outlets in New York, L.A., Miami as well as on 7 cruise ships and four Caribbean resorts, overall enrollment at Scratch DJ Academy has increased around 25% since last July. Scratch Music Group also maintains a database of over 900 DJs across the country, booking those DJs out to over 7,000 events last year. Scratch Events takes a cut of the earnings and pays DJs a negotiated rate per gig, although they declined to disclose any figures.

To be sure, Scratch DJ Academy are not the only ones in this space. In New York alone, Dubspot DJ school offers similar lessons and online courses, as does DJ4Life Academy.

While the basics of DJing can be learnt in an hour, the skill required to scratch takes several more. Even if it might seem that technology makes a DJ’s job easier, the musical know-how required to play what an audience wants to hear before they know they want to hear it is a talent difficult to teach. Being able to count to four does help.

-Courtesy of Forbes

Gym, Tan, Money: Inside Pauly D's $11 Million Payday

Paul DelVecchio’s résumé doesn’t scream “Master of the Universe,” at least not at first glance. The Rhode Island native never attended college, instead taking a job at a car dealership after high school. For much of the last decade, he spent the bulk of his nights and weekends DJing small clubs in Providence for a few hundred dollars a pop.

But something changed in 2009, when he was selected to be a part of MTV’sJersey Shore. Three years later he’s got a slew of eponymous products, his own television show and a DJ career that earns him an average of $40,000 per show from club gigs, private parties and a stint opening for Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour. Over the past year, Pauly D pulled in $11 million, enough to earn him the No. 7 spot on FORBES’ first-ever top-earning DJs list.

“Everybody was skeptical at first, because how everybody heard about me is probably from Jersey Shore,” he says. “But now I’m six seasons deep in the show and I’ve been touring all over the country, touring with major pop acts and stuff like that. That legitimizes everything, and they’re starting to say, ‘This kid isn’t just a reality star, he’s an actual DJ.’”

In addition to being an actual DJ–one who’s played 132 gigs over the past year–Pauly D has figured out how to extend his brand better than any of his fellow Electronic Cash Kings, and perhaps better than many Hip-Hop Cash Kings. After Jersey Shore’s first season, he and a friend launched a clothing line called Dirty Couture, followed by Pauly D Bronze Beats tanning lotion. Next came his spinoff series, The Pauly D Project.

In May, he announced that he’d be launching a beverage called REMIX Pre-Game Cocktails in partnership with Grey Goose cofounder Tom Bruno and Skinnygirl cofounder David Kanbar. Earlier in the year, Pauly D also unveiled plans for an SMS Audio headphone line with 50 Cent, signing to the rapper’s G-Note record label to produce three solo albums. 50 Cent had some words of wisdom for his newest recruit.

“Business-wise, he told me the same thing I kind of already knew: don’t put your name on something you don’t love,” says Pauly D. “We were basically on the same page in that regard.”

Pauly D certainly loves DJing. And like his peers, he generally has very low production costs, needing little more than a laptop to play a show. That means he can take home the bulk of his hefty performance fees, unlike rockers and pop stars who generally take home about a third of gross ticket sales.

But a high profile and high earnings come with high levels of scrutiny, particularly from other DJs. Earlier this year, Pauly D’s “Night Of My Life” soared to the No. 3 spot on the iTunes dance charts, passing a tune by Deadmau5. After a few days watching his song languish below the Jersey Shorestar’s, Deadmau5 made a snide remark about Pauly D’s work, saying “There’s nothing creative about it.” Pauly D, an admitted fan of his rival, replied with a tweet: “T-shirt $40. Jeans $100. Hair gel $12. Getting hated on by deadmau5: priceless.”

The dustup connects Pauly D to another controversy that Deadmau5 had been involved in, an issue with far-reaching financial implications for his fellow Electronic Cash Kings: if DJs are only playing pre-recorded music, can an EDM show truly be “live”? And how much skill is involved, anyway? Deadmau5 touched off the debate with comments in a July Rolling Stone cover story.

“If I wanted, I could play a f—ing .wav file and just stand there and fist-bump all night, and no one would give a shit,” he told the magazine, also disparaging “button-pushers” while admitting to being one himself. The comments drew the ire of top DJs including members of Scandinavian trio Swedish House Mafia, who reiterated the latter point about Deadmau5. In the face of this firestorm, Pauly D remains adamant about his credentials.

“I’m definitely not a button pusher,” he says. “I use turntables. Yes, I use [DJ software] Serato on my computer that only holds the music, but I’m still controlled by vinyl, and I’ll never lose that art form. Because that’s what I love the most.”

Like Deadmau5, Pauly D believes that anyone can be taught to DJ fairly quickly; becoming an expert is another story. “Anybody can change their name to DJ whatever, but they won’t be able to blend two songs together and make it sound right,” he says. “You have to have that talent in you to be a good DJ.”

Though perception of talent changes depending on the eye of the beholder, there’s no doubt that a major component of skill is practice–and Pauly D has had plenty of that. He’s been honing his craft since age 14, when he received his first set of turntables. Two years later, he DJed a sweet sixteen party and was hooked. “When I felt the energy from the crowd, I didn’t want to stop,” he says. “I wanted it to be the rest of my life.” Earning $200 for a few hours’ work was a nice bonus.

He quickly landed a regular gig at Providence club called Renaissance, pulling in as much as $500 per night. After high school, he got a job at Metro Honda, starting out washing cars. He moved up the ladder, eventually becoming a used car buyer, then a used car manager. Some nights, he’d DJ into the wee hours and get up at 7:30am to run sales meetings at the dealership.

Pauly D probably still would have been working there by day if it hadn’t been for Sally Ann Salsano, the creator of Jersey Shore (and now executive producer of Pauly D’s spinoff). She came across his MySpace profile while casting the show in 2009 and sent a crew to Providence to follow him around. Pauly D took them through his typical day: trips to the gym and the tanning salon, followed by a DJ gig at night.

“That blowout, that tan, that Cadillac tattoo, all of those are the reasons I was attracted to him,” says Salsano, who remembers that there were turntables—and no dining room table—in Pauly D’s apartment at the time. “He was making his living as a DJ. This show shot him to superstardom and now he’s a quintessential celebrity DJ.”

Even when Pauly D found out he’d landed the part, he worried about leaving his regular DJ gigs to film the show. It would only be a 40-day absence, but someone might move in on his turf. So he carefully selected fill-ins who’d happily step aside when he returned.

But when Jersey Shore went live after he came back, demand for his DJ services exploded. His Rhode Island gigs were more packed than ever, and by the end of the show’s second season, he’d landed a residency at the Palms in Las Vegas. He also performed on Good Morning America, Live! With Kelly and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and appeared in a commercial for Miracle Whip (like his boss at Metro Honda, he still signs all his checks himself).

The show goes on. In February, Pauly D announced new residencies at The Hard Rock in Vegas and at Harrah’s in Atlantic City. Though he generally considers himself an open-format DJ, spending at least half his show playing other artists’ work across all genres, he’s working on his debut album, which he describes as “David Guetta meets DJ Khaled.”

In the meantime, he still pulls in upwards of $100,000 per episode of Jersey Shore, and he’s the first character with his own spinoff—a fact he attributes to his musical abilities.

“[The other characters] didn’t have anything to base anything off of, I think,” he says. “That’s the difference. I went in there with an actual talent.” Adds Salsano: “The one common thing that they all had is that they were very tan.”

As of now, Pauly D and Snooki are paid more than any of the other characters on Jersey Shore. Should we expect to see the diminutive mother-to-be joining her blown-out counterpart behind a pair of turntables anytime soon?

“No,” says Pauly D, laughing. “She’s better off dancing.”

-Courtest of Forbes Magazine

Skrillex Getting Animated for Disney's 'Wreck-It Ralph'

Skrillex is set to make a cameo in the Disney animated film Wreck-It Ralph, Total Film reports. The dubstep DJ-producer is already contributing to the score of the video game-themed cartoon.

Film producer Clark Spencer revealed this week that Skrillex will appear as a DJ in a party scene. "We built his model, we put on his look and we sent it to him to have him give us comments. And he said he would never wear non-black tennis shoes... so we changed the tennis shoes to black," said Spencer. He added that Skrillex has seen the animation and is "very, very excited about it."

Wreck-It Ralph is set for release on November 2nd.

-Courtesy of Rolling Stone

Djing for a Homecoming Event

Djs I do apologize for having been away for a couple of weeks.

This has been a busy month for my company VIP Sound Entertainment and it’s disc jockeys.

As I mentioned in the post: “How to knock’em dead like Clint Eastwood . . .” your local schools are a great start to building up your clientele.

This past month we have had back to back bookings and this will continue into October.

Homecoming is a festive time for teens and tweens as this becomes one of the first times that they begin to party. Imagine you being the first dj that is introduced into their lives. If you make the right connection you will have a fan for life!

Djing for a homecoming event is similar to djing for a wedding. Listed below are a few rules to follow.

Rule#1 – Keep it Clean – The purpose of any dj gig is to get a referral or another gig in the future.

Make sure that you are playing radio clean edits for this type of event. I can guarantee that any slip of profanity that comes out of your speakers will have you banned by the school board. Homecoming events can be a very easy gig to play  because you are mainly spinning Top 40 music for this event.  A little Katy Perry, David Guetta, and Chris Brown will put you in the right direction of the music selection.

Rule#2 – Remember you’re an entertainer – Younger crowds like to have contests with songs. If you can host a “Limbo” contest to see how low the crowd can go, you will be the life of the party! Be creative and not raunchy on how you select events. The chaperons are likely to get involved in this type of activity and if they are happy also, I am sure you will get called back to host their next event.

Rule#3 – Dress the Part – A big pet peeve of mine is a dj who thinks he can go to any event in a t-shirt and jeans. Big time fail! Invest the money to get a suit for events as a wedding, homecoming, or black tie event. It makes you look more professional and will boost your image to your customers.

Follow these tips and you will be the talk of the school circuit for the upcoming weeks. Remember to have some preprinted flyer's or business cards to hand out. If you do an excellent job there will be upcoming Birthday Parties, Halloween and Holiday parties for you to dj. It’s all about referrals in this business and this is how you get them.

Rock out DJ and I will touch base with you soon!

-Robin G. Miller f.k.a. DJ Rob G

Photo image courtesy of blogue.us

Tuesday Surprise | Dont Kill The Dj!!!

Here is a Tuesday Surprise for you DJ NATION!!! 

This is a new single from punk rock band Green Day entitled "Kill The DJ".

 Enjoy the music!

 I Hope your practicing your dj set for this upcoming weekend so that no one yells this out to you!

H@pPy Fr!d@y DJ'S

WHOSE MAKING THAT MONEY THIS WEEKEND?
REPLY BACK LETTING ME KNOW WHERE YOUR DJING THIS WEEKEND . . .




I found a great post from DJ Enuff from Hot 97 NYC doing an interview with Miami's own DJ Khaled on the Top 5 Reasons Why He Is A Boss.

This is great motivation. If your not amped up this weekend to go DJ. Then you might as well stay home!

I want you all to rock out this weekend no matter if your playing for a kids birthday party, a wedding, or at your local nightclub.

DJ NATION from the wise words of Ted Turner: "Winners never quit, and quitters never win You can never quit."

Make it happen this weekend! Your the best!

-Rob G

Be Like Dj Cassidy And Rock The DNC!

DJ NATION GIVE IT UP FOR DJ CASSIDY!!!!

This is just more proof that DJs are being recognized more than ever!
If your not up to date on who DJ Cassidy is you better start "Googling" him.
Cassidy Poddell or DJ Cassidy has been on top of the celeb gigs for a while from Djing for Beyonce and Kim Kardashian to name a few. It has been rumored that he has even raked in $100,000 for a single gig!

IMAGINE $100,000 FOR A SINGLE GIG!
THAT IS AWESOME!

DJ Cassidy gives hope to the DJs out there who aspire to reach to his current level of accomplishment.
Cassidy has been part of the conversation of the DNC due to him DJing at the conventions multiple events.

IMAGINE THE FEELING TO BE THE OFFICIAL DJ TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES???

Awesome job DJ Cassidy! Hit him up on twitter

@DJCassidy

DJ NATION THIS IS THE KIND OF DREAM THAT YOU SHOULD ASPIRE FOR!

-Rob G

New Music Mondays 9.3.12

This weeks list of international club bangers! You are going to love these! UK - Sam & The Womp - Bom Bom (Pop Music) UK - Lost In Your Love - Redlight (Electro Dance Music) Argentina - J Alvarez - Junto Al Amanecer (Reggaeton) Argentina - EU QUERO TCHU EU QUERO TCHA - JOÃO LUCAS E MARCELO - (Latin, Club Banger) Canada - Ian Carey & Rosette feat. Timbaland & Brasco - Amnesia (Pop) Europe - LOREEN - EUPHORIA (Electro Dance Music) Europe - Gusttavo Lima - Balada Boa - (Latin) Europe - Tacabro - Tacata - (Latin, Club Banger) Europe - R.I.O. Feat. U-Jean - Summer Jam (Pop) Jamaica - Nando Griffiths feat. Oxxygen & Paashot - Ride All Night (Dancehall) Jamaica - BACK WAY - CHAM (Dancehall)

How to knock em dead like Clint Eastwood this Labor Day

Source: Uploaded by user via dj on Pinterest

As summer ends it's time to start gearing up for the fall season djs!
If you have planned your calendar correctly there are plenty of places where you can begin generating leads for your business.

A place to start for up and coming disc jockeys is with the education system.
This does not entail you having to go back to school. As you already know, school is back in session across the nation. Colleges and high schools have so much great profit potential because of the amount of events that they have, it is a great start to build your entry into the local market.

You are probably asking yourself how do I get started in this market?

Well my friends listed below are 5 important lessons you to need to follow to book your upcoming gigs.

Create A Gameplan - DO NOT go into someones office or start calling potential clients without knowing what you are going to offer them. This only makes you sound unprofessional but also your customers won't know what you want from them. Your game plan should consist of the following

a) what do I want to achieve by talking to this customer
b) what are my talking points and
c) did I get a booked gig after I completed my meeting?

Once you complete your gameplan have someone look it over for you to proof read it. This way you can get some honest feedback on your game plan and if it will be effective as you reach out to new customers.


Solicit Your Business - In this new era of social media we as humans tend to believe that because we have a facebook page and a twitter handle that the "world" already knows we exist.
WRONG!
You need to solicit yourself in every way possible to generate new business. A great book I have read over and over is the No B.S. Guide to Marketing.
Your best form of marketing is going to be word of mouth. And not just by individuals talking  about you but by you going out there in the world and telling everyone that  DJ YOU is available for hire!

If you are scared to talk to people and tell them about your business you will be closing up shop very soon!


Create A Contract - A contract  is a must for you as a professional entertainer. Take the time out to really create a professional contract that protects you from being sued and/or losing money in the long run. There are lawyers that offer reasonable rates to have this drafted for you. Most schools won't allow to dj on their campus unless you have a contract to present them.

Keep a Calendar Of Your Bookings - The worst thing in the world is to be double booked for an event and you have no one to cover you. You lose credibitlity with your customer and you lose money in your pocket. I am a big fan of using smartphones that have access to a calendar such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. Setup several reminders prior to any events that you book so that you make sure you are not double booking yourself.

Organize Your Music Collection - Now remember as a dj for these type of events you have to be aware that you are playing for a diverse crowd. Atleast two days prior to your event make sure you have an organized set that you are playing. You should not be fumbling for music during your set.

Remember you are a professional dj now, rookie mistakes will ensure you don't recieve any future bookings.
As you read this post I hope you are ready to the kick off  the money making season! The same way you practice your dj skills you need to practice the business skills to keep stay  in business.

Good luck djs and be safe this Labor Day Weekend.

-Rob G


Note: Here is a run down of future events you can market yourself towards in the upcoming weeks. I hope this helps!

August/September

• Back To School
• Hispanic Heritage Month
• Beginning of Football Season (Pep Rally's, Fraternity Parties)
• Labor Day

October

• Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Colombus Day - October 8th
• Halloween - October 31

November

• Election Day - November 6
• Veterans Day - November 11
• Thanksgiving - November 22
• Black Friday - November 23

December

• World Aids Day - December 1
• Christmas - December 25
• New Years - December 31

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GOOD LUCK THIS LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

Imagine you rocking the crowd like this!
Fatboy Slim blew the roof off of the 2012 Closing Ceremony at the London Olympics.
This video is a snippet of his new film "Live: From the Big Beach Bootique".
For years Fatboy Slim has been a powerhouse in providing great music and entertainment to parties around the globe.
I hope this video inspires you to get working on being the best dj that you can be!
-Rob G

Heineken Open Your World Tour w/ DJ Irie

Source: Uploaded by user via dj on Pinterest

Are you up to the challenge? Click here for more info

Don’t let mother nature rain out your weekend gig!

After watching the countless news reports about Hurricane Isaac nearing the Florida coast it reminded me of the amount of events that are going to be cancelled due to this act of nature. This can be a damper for any dj. Especially when your starting out and trying to keep your business afloat.

There are 3 things for you to review before these acts of nature proceed:

• Review Your Contract – This is very important because it would be a shame if you did not receive any type of payment for the held date. Make sure you have it covered in your contract that you keep the deposit for the event in the case of weather or other unforeseen disasters. Since a deposit is normally 25%-30% of the total service amount this is not a big loss to your customer and at least you  are compensated for keeping this date saved for the customer. This also covers any preparation that you may have put in to this event. It is good business practice not to charge your customer the balance of the event due to this act of nature. Remember you want your customers to become repeat customers and by you showing this type of  good faith, it will pay off in the future.
• Keep in contact with the client – It is imperative that you are reaching out to your client and showing that you care about their event. I am not saying to bother them every hour with an update on the storm but a call the day before the event and the day of the event to find out what their plans are will go a long way. More than likely you first call on the night before the event will determine whether or not your services are needed. Remember, what sets you apart from other djs is that you have the customers interest in mind, not just the thought of their money in your pocket.
• Offer  the customer a reduced rate – This is part of providing good faith service. Your customer is probably down in the dumps and you providing this joyous news will probably land you a booking the following week after the failed event. I can guarantee that they will be sure to spread the word about your service to their friends and families.

Nature will always have its way but you can beat mother nature by having a great strategy put in place on how to win over your customers.

In the words of Pema Chödrön: “You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”

-Rob G

Happy Friday Djs!

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"They just want a good show, that's all they want."

These were the words uttered by Gale Hawthorne to Katniss Everdeen. And similar to that blockbuster hit the Disc Jockey field can be compared to the movie The Hunger Games.

It feels like a fight to the death in trying to solidify your role in your  town, city
or state. And if you have your eyes set to go Global it becomes  war.

There are 3 Keys to being successful as a disc jockey:

• Selling Skills

• People Skills

• DJ Skills

If you're not practicing like Katniss Everdeen did in her archery the way you should do
with your selling skills, people skills, and dj skills, then you have already lost your match.

I can't repeat it enough, practice makes perfect. I remember when I first started DJing
and I thought that I competing at my finest.

After a couple of months I noticed that my consistent customers weren't booking me anymore
and I was dead broke wondering what happened.

I finally realized that my consistency wasn't there and I wasn't hungry enough for success.

This taught me a great lesson and from that point on I was determined.

I had to remember that although this was entertainment this was also a business.

I practiced my selling skills. Cold calling customers if needed. Selling myself and providing great and reliable entertainment.

My selling skills helped to improve my people skills. My ego was deflated and I was
able to humble myself and remember that it takes a team to be successful.
If you don't have the right team and network built around you, things can go downhill fast.

And finally it wasn't hard to practice my dj skills. After I rebuilt my self confidence
the dj skills were just the technical part.

Keep honing in on these skills and you will be successful in your dj career.

Until next time my dj friend. And in the words of Effie Trinket: "May the odds be ever in your favor."

DJ Rob G needs your vote!

Welcome my DJ brothers and sisters

You are probably reading this blog because you have a passion for being a disc jockey and would like to take your weekend hobby of uploading tons of music on your Ipod or Ipad to a career move in making some dollars. I would like to welcome you to this blog and provide you with the information that will help you develop a career as a professional disc jockey.

Just a little tidbit about me, My name is Robin Miller formerly known as DJ Rob G. I started just like you with a passion for music and looking for helpful information on how to start up my career. My journey has taken me to great lengths from playing for friends and family, to becoming an entrepreneur and starting my own DJ booking agency as well as providing me the joy of working at a career that I enjoy.

I have done it all from playing in some of South Beach's hottest night clubs to rocking crowds at some of the biggest concert venues alongside some of the industry’s biggest names.

Now it doesn’t matter if you’re playing out on a pair of Technics 1200s or Gemini CDJ 700s. Remember at all times that being a disc jockey is a profession.

Although it is a fun profession you must take it serious at all times if this is going to be your career move.

Utilize this blog as a building block to your growth. The knowledge you gain here will help you with real life situations that you will face.

On that note I wish you plenty of success in your business endeavor and growth as a disc jockey. Let’s get started as we make dollars djing!

-Rob G