Dj-M.Bezzle
2:13 PM - 27 April, 2010
Im gonna throw this out there and i really think its the bottom line most logical approach to the situation, alot of people wont like it but i dont think you can faul the logic.......THIS ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT ITS WORTH TO YOU TO DO IT, its cost\bennefit annalysis at its most basic. For most guys on here DJing is a busniess, its how they make ends meet so if something happens to their equipment they lose money and life gets ALOT harder for them, for them it makes 0 sense to play for free and they hate people who do, these people also have enough talent\busniess where if they book a free gig their losing time they could be at a paying gig so once again it makes no sense to do it for free. Some people on here dont do it for the money but they have other things theyd rather be doing, some have wives and kids theys rather spend time with, some like to go drinking with their friends, go listen to music, play video games ect ect so if they are doing a free gig they are missing out on something theyd enjoy so its putting their cost\bennnefit in the negative even though theres no increase or decrease in monetary value.
Before i got my paying residency i did tons of free gigs, reason being was that for me it was a bennefit just to be spinning in front of people, i think playing video games and watching TV is a waste of time in itself, i didnt have any paying gigs i was missing out on and since my day job covered my needs it didnt matter if something happened to the equipment since the equipment was a luxery not a necessity, id push myself into places that didnt even want a dj let alone want to pay for one, and no i wasnt taking work from working DJs because they were events where if i didnt do it there would not have been a DJ anyway. Those gigs got my foot in the door where i am now. Now that im in a situation where i have a paying alternative or would lose out if something happened to my gear would i take a free gig, most likley not, not unless it was one i know i would REALLLY enjoy doing or there would be some form of long term results for my actions.
Ive seen several people in here saying never do anything for free but i see the same people giving out free stuff everyday, there are books and DVDs that cost money that explain how to dj, how to run a dj busniess ect ect, people from serato and rane who are payed to help with tech support advice, all kind of knowledge based services that tons of people on this board log on to do for free every day without realising it. I dont think the guy who programed scratchtools ever got paid for that service and it bennefited alot of people on here and there are tons of free programs alot of us run that were made by people who enjoy programming, make stuff for themselves and then hand out the code....hell one of the largest threads on this forum is the one where everyones posting free mixes
The point to this diatribe isnt that its ok to be a freejay. Its to be able to look at your own situation and decide what if the best course of action for yourself, if your in this to make money and dont have a great day job dont go taking free gigs, if you have better things to do or if the gig sounds terrible JUST DONT TAKE IT, use the money as a way out, figure out how much your time and your services are worth and go for it dont be afraid to be asked to be compensated for your services. Also look at the event thats being thrown, people in this thread keep saying that people are profitting of your free work but theres plenty of events that need DJs that arent making any profit at all. In any situation try to squeeze as much out of it as you can but in the long run people you cant ask people on here how much YOU should be charging or what YOU should be asking for because only you know whats valuable to you and what your situation is and what you want to get out of it.
