How much should a DJ make for an evening's work?

If you’re so good why aren’t you earning $100,000 a set? Huh?

It’s pop culture. They eat it up, while other good DJs don’t even get close to that when many think they are better just because they aren’t mainstream.

@Lightlyseared I understand your (rhetorical) question and it has a valid place in this (disgusting) capitalistic society. But that wasn’t my question; do you think a DJ offers a service, an unskilled, uneducated service, that is worth approximately 20,000 times that of, say, a singing waiter?

There are a load of other er… professions (sports players, movie stars etc) where some people get paid astronomical amounts when others doing the same thing get next to nothing. Thats the way it is. Is it fair that they should get do much when teachers, nurses etc don’t… probably not. Now your sugestion that DJing is an unskilled pusuit is in my opinion, wide of the mark. Any idiot can play a CD but to mix one track into the other while playing a third, forth or fifth over the top of it in such as a way as to make the changes undetectable and all the while keep a bunch of drugged up teens with the attention spans of a gnat amused is a skill. And certainly a much less anoying one than the abiity to sing while grinding pepper from a giant phallic symbol.

There is just so much wrong with your answer on so many levels.

I know. Isn’t it great?

Weasel words.

I agree that no one is worth that much money for a 6 hours recording playing session.

Remember this, this is a one time shot and not a steady 8 hours a day job. This does not occur day after day. If so, I would be spinning records myself.

After this session is over and their money is gone, they are once again broke, until their next session, which may not be until two months away.

This sounds glorious on the top, but its not all that it implies.

Most entertainers go broke.

When you start talking salaries like that, it isn’t just what you know, it is who you know.

It’s like being a famous celebrity. If you’re a nobody, you make about $10 to $20 per hour. But if you’re a star, you get six figures because celebrities draw crowds.

Your ignorance of what they are actually doing is outstanding. It takes just as much skill to be a good DJ as it does to be a good musician. Or do musicians get paid too much in your opinion too?

I have a cousin who is a DJ. I don’t mnd being called ignorant – especially by someone I rarely see here and don’t know nor respect. But they are certainly not musicians. And the best musicians do not make 100,000 dollars a show. Maybe a select few – but then, it all has to do with capitalism and as someone said above – who you know – or who you blow maybe.

Maybe your cousin isnt a very good DJ. There is a lot more going on there than you seem to be understanding, its more than just mixing two songs together. Its an insult to their talent to claim they arent musicians as many of them I would wager would even have a better understanding of music theory than popstars that are getting paid millions. Yea Guetta is making a lot but its nothin compared to as you say “real musicians” and Guetta is a rarity, I’d wager most are making far less. DJs are also playing sets that are at least 2 hours usually much longer where the “real musicians” are playing sets that are 45min to an hour. If you’re lucky you get an hour and half set.

Black Eyed Peas 800,000 a show
Jay Z 1 million a show
Britney Spears 1.3 million a show
Kenny Chesney 1.6 million a show
ACDC 2 million a show
Madonna 6 million a show
U2 10 million a show.

yeaaaa you’re right, DJs are being grossly overpaid

100,000 is not nothing – and I have a good understanding of a what a DJ does – and now you’ve insulted my intelligence and knowledge and a cousin who isn’t here. LOL.

The idea is why are these people, like certain professional athletes and yes, pop stars – commanding more in one night than a professor of astro-physics makes in a year? Doctors working on cancer research earn less – in a year.

I say Occupy this shit.

Well I must say, I do agree with you that it is disproportionate for amount of work/amount of pay. I agree that professors and astro-physics should be making way more as they are making an actual difference in this world but we live in a capalist world so as long as people are willin to pay to see them they will continue to charge that much its just the way it works. I still think your wrong in regards to DJs though :P

Hey, opinions are like…

ya ya. ah well no hard feelings sir :)

Except for being called ignorant and unknowledgeable – none taken.

Some actors and actresses make many millions per movie. Some chefs make half a million a year. They are all few and far between.

A DJ who does a party might make $500 a night around here. For that, he has to lug all his crap to the venue, and then lug it home. Unless he works another job, he probably won’t have health insurance or has to pay for his health insurance. Think if he makes $500 a night, and works maybe two nights per week (Friday and Saturday?) that’s $1000 a week, but he might not work like that every week. He might not have a gig for a few weeks at a time.

As far as DJ’s making what you’re talking about, they are very rare, and an attraction by themselves. Also, as far as their pay goes, don’t believe everything you hear.

True.

I am not a DJ, but I am sure I could be one.

That’s just it isn’t it. You could be one, and he went out and be’d one.

True dat. ^ Not passed by Gailcalled grammar standards but true dat.