It seems to me that if the club owner is not willing to spend money to get better equipment then he doesnt care about video and doesnt care about what the dj sounds like. Most owners dont give a dam what the music sounds like they just want bottom line profit. In this case i wouldnt ask for more money because you will probably force the owner to try out the budget djs in fear of you guys leaving. Just find another higher paying club and keep this one for the days you have nothing or switch the days or something. My two cents :)

Promote yourselves. Make mix CD's, DVD's, give them away or just use your imagination.
That's the only way.
If you depend on one club, your ass is going down. Spread around. Be the best!

ok Tecoy just do what i did, I STOPPED doing video, for my former residency... tried it once said do u like it compared to audio owner was like ya its dope...
I said double my pay,
he said its not in my budget
N i said well if its all the same to u at my current pay I can only provide audio service.
He said come on
I said i am sorry
He said I guess I understand videos are expensive
I said no shit
He said ok.

In the mean time I have started to really perfect my craft as well as have now started to perfect my mobile, and club video libraries---> 9000 videos and counting lol

I'm afraid I may be doing the same thing here. I'm about to jump into Video and I'm concerned the owners of current place I have residency, (6 years), at will not be willing to pay more.

Bar owners dont care much about video and they do not want to spend anymore for it than audio. They pay you low to begin with and only care about customers drinking, the music is secondary. Video is nice but its not all that, at least not yet.
I work at a bar that packs in 150 customers on a fri night and Sat, the place is open 7 days a week, the pay is low and I have to bring equipment. The general attitude is DJ'S are a dime a dozen. They have a projector but dont care jack shit about video, or sound just make customers dacne and drink thats it.

@ djbigmar

Very true. Have the sound cutout on a busy night though and watch the sales die. At least the manager of the place I'm at seems to get it. Owners, not so much.

The way I See It You Have A Choice:

1. Do video and set yourself apart from the other DJ's in your area. Maybe a promoter will see your show and hire you and then you can get what you want. A customer from the venue may be interested in your services because of your video Mixing.

2. You have to educate the bar owners/ promoters/ customers on how and why they need this video stuff...everything is so new most people have no clue that you can mix music videos like music, so of course nobody cares now. You have to show and prove.

3. Give to them and they will come knocking...Think about this, you do video everytime your there and they will get used to it, then when your not there I bet the customers will inqure with the manager Yo what up "no video tonight". MAKE YOURSELF VALUABLE

I totally agree with that. You need to set yourself apart from others, find a niche. Not many people in my area are doing video yet so I want to get on the cutting edge of it here.

I usually start at $200 an hour for video gigs, then negotiate from there.

well done, most people are too scared to ask for what they're worth.

here's my 2 cents:

if you're gonna do a weekly video gig, try to negotiate it as a 1 to 2-hr show at some point during the night. you can sell the owners on video increasing their bar sales early in the night, or keeping people's attention later in the night. but, if you start doing video sets 5 hours a night, at the same venue every week - you're gonna bore yourself and your audience pretty soon.

imo, video is supposed to enhance the overall show. if you're playing the same visuals to the same ol' top 40 songs every week, you're gonna lose the "wow" factor that should be present when you do a video set.

dj tecoy, if he's not paying you more...what are you gaining from putting in the extra time and resources? its nice that you get to do what you love in front of a crowd, but if the owner is ever going to pay you for this, you've convinced them of what its capable of. if they say no, just say you can continue to do audio at the price you agreed on...