The Magazine For Today's Mobile DJ

One of the many unwanted hats we wear at events is that of lost and found manager. It's not enough to be the host, entertainer, DJ, lighting designer, photo booth operator, babysitter, the "Your lights are on" and "It's last call" guy and whatever else a venue throws at us. Now we have to make endless announcements about lost wallets, shoes, hats, gloves, false teeth and phones. There always is a certain question of ethics and responsibility to do the right thing with other people's property. Sometimes it might be a little too easy to cross the line, especially when technology is involved. A good question was posted on one of the private DJ groups I belong to. Here's the scenario: someone brings up a lost phone to y ... [read more]

The Productivity Formula and Goal Planning I have found that most people I chat with in our industry fail to plan, and therefore they, without realizing it or not, have planned to fail.  It's sad, but it’s the cold, stark truth. Jim Cerone, in his seminar at Mobile Beat 20 "Behind The Scenes with The Perfect Host", made reference to this with a post from a DJ lamenting on Facebook that he couldn't make Mobile Beat this year.  Supposedly this individual had tried everything in his power to make it but finances just didn't work. Want Jim's solution for how ... [read more]

All right. DJ tips in under a minute. This one is a new service -- not too new, but new to some of you, maybe -- called Spotify. Now, Spotify is a music service. You can go on and play songs, pick out music, play them, make a playlist, do whatever you want, but the big thing is this, it's this $10 per month program, their premium service. It not only lets you play songs off your playlist whenever you want, but the big thing is right here, you can even listen when you're offline. So you put together a playlist of music, you go to a gig, you've got music in an offline player, you can now pull it up if you had to. And certain programs will run this, i.e., DJ 2 uses this. So if you have an iPad, iPhone, you have DJ 2 on it or you have a DJ 2 controller, you can now use Spotify offline. So check it out, Spotify, in under one minute.   ... [read more]

Last week we began with the discussion of how respect is a two way street and gave you the first way to accomplish this.  Here are the other two ways to ensure you keep respect when given an opportunity. .  Before you say yes to the opportunity be sure you can represent the brand or person giving you the opportunity effectively.  If you can’t represent them appropriately then you are doing them a disservice by even accepting the opportunity. Do the right thing and move on.    Never bitch about said opportunity in a backchannel.  What’s a backchannel? Any place wh ... [read more]

Last week we discussed the final letter of our HEART acronym with before, during and after the sale for Thought.  Always be THOUGHTFULL.  Provide tips on how to better their experience.  Become an expert on the types of events you service.  What other problems can you help solve for them. Another way of being thoughtful is being full of thoughts that can help your customer in ways they may have never thought of.   Final Thought:  How do you share your HEART?  Don’t jump into a canned pitch.  Don’t think about you. Find out how you can help them.  What do they want more tha ... [read more]

All right. DJ tips in under a minute. This one is about Serato and drives and music. If you look down here, you see I have a crate called backup. I always use external drives. Every time I do a gig, it's on one of these bad boys, an external drive. So I decided that if the drive goes down, I need something internally. And since I don't carry really any music on my laptops that go to gigs, because it's all external, I'm going to make a backup file, I'm going to fill it with probably 2,000 to 3,000 songs and put it onto my desktop so that when I'm out in a gig, if the drive should go down -- hopefully it won't, but if it did, I'd have music immediately ready and going. Now, a lot of people will say, I only use internal, that's cool, I only use external. So it's not a give and take, it's really what you prefer. Even though I have backup drives, I'd rather flawlessly be able to go to music a ... [read more]

You might hear one of the other moms rant and rave about their kid’s music program. They are watching their kid learn and grow as they progress through the basics, and the future looks so bright. I’m sure this sounds at least somewhat familiar, but you need to know something. It’s never too late to get your kids involved in a music program and they are generally easy to find. Say you live in New York city and your kid is showing an interest in playing the saxophone. How can you help your kid learn the saxophone? By going to google and typing in,  “Saxophone Lessons NYC,” and finding them a program. Now that you know how to find your kid lessons for their musical instrument of choice, let’s look at 5 reasons you should make that search and get your kids into music. ... [read more]

Have you thought about when your last DJ gig would be? Have you envisioned walking off the stage and packing up for the last time? Do you have your DJ career and retirement mapped out? What if "life" just came in and trashed all those plans and dreams? Have you and your family prepared for something like that? That dreadful scenario is happening right now for one of our DJ brothers. In 2017 Richard Mills (who hails from the kiwi nation of New Zealand) was dealing with life, marriage, kids, bills and a busy DJ schedule when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He pressed on and with the support of his family and treatment seemed to be winning. Richard continued with his DJ career ... [read more]

Respect to me is a two way street.  I was recently part of an exchange where that clearly wasn’t the case.Someone was given an opportunity, and to me with an opportunity comes great responsibility to see that opportunity through.  My recommendation would be to go beyond just seeing it through and actually do justice and right by the person who gave you that opportunity.   ... [read more]

Previously we discussed what to do Before The Sale during the Thoughts portion of our HEART acronym.  We continue this week what to do DURING the sale (i.e. after you book but before the event).  During the sale:  Send monthly reminders as to where they are in the process for their planning, NOT just for your role in it (music and entertainment), but for other aspects as well.  This will show you as the expert in the marketplace and also put your name on the tip of their tongue when their friends ask about who they have hired for entertainment for their event.  It also provides VALUE and shows you are thoughtful by being the resou ... [read more]

All right. DJ tips in under a minute. This is Mark Ferrell. There's his name. He has a program called the MarBecca Method. It's a training method, comes in, I believe, gold, bronze, silver, might even have platinum different levels DJs go and attend this. They learn all the intricacies and ins and outs of being a better DJ, a better speaker, a better MC and most importantly, a better entertainer. I saw him speak in Las Vegas in 2000 and it was captivating. It has to do with being a respected professional individual and being a great entertainer as a DJ. So his technique and his thoughts are a little bit different than what you might be accustomed to, but it is well worth going over his website, reading it and maybe signing up to get something like his Getting Your Worth seminar. I am going to, because I need a refresh, but outside of that, this is the man, in under a minute.   ... [read more]