AIBU re DJ rates?

[Annabel7]

Just been quoted £250 for 2.5 hours DJ for a teen party. I appreciate they need to set up/pack away but seems steep or am I just out of touch?

In the SE if that helps at all. Also sorry for fairly dull post!

Fairly standard I think

I paid 750 last month for our wedding DJ!

It also pays for all the equipment (and maintenance/storage thereof), music licenses, advertising for their company etc. It's not just their hourly rate that the £250 will cover...

Sounds about right. You would have paid that for a party when they were 5 or so…

You aren't just paying for their time. You are paying for travel costs, insurance, equipment, marketing and music, and probably more things that I am not aware of. The pub that I used to do account for paid £200 for a DJ for 4 hours on a weekly basis, and that was about 20 years ago.

So for a one-off gig twenty years later, that sounds fair.

On the face of it it seems steep for 2.5 hours work. However I imagine a DJ does two, maybe three, jobs a week and the kit is expensive. It may be that they need to charge that much to earn a living.

As for the cost of anything wedding related, that's absolutely insane. The price seems to instantly double for any given service if there's a wedding involved!

For 2.5 hours, they've probably upped their price to make it worth it. Most party jobs would be 4-6 hours work but doing 2.5 hours means they can't fit another job in that night maybe?

If they are bringing their own kit then that is reasonable.
If they are just turning up and using the venue's kit, then maybe a bit steep

I paid £180 for an under 10s party of similar duration, but that was finished by teatime. I assume yours is during the evening so it seems pretty standard to me

If anything I'd say that's cheap.

I too would suggest that is a bargain.

@SusieBob

If anything I'd say that's cheap.

Yep, cheap. DJ gear is expensive, so is insurance, transport etc etc Also it's not like they can do another gig for the next 2.5 hours and so on - so charges aren't going to be like wages.

(ex DJ)

It may be that they need to charge that much to earn a living.

When I was DJing very very few of us were earning a living - mostly doing it for the joy of it and making small amounts or breaking even.

What time is the party?

If it's in the evening and only 2.5 hours long, they won't be able to do another job that day so will maybe have increased their prices to cover their entire evenings' income.

Standard to cheap

Excellent. Thanks everyone x