There is a massive range of pricing/cost these days when it comes to Wedding DJs, back in the 2000s all wedding DJs were roughly in the same price range but now the prices vary from $200 to $5000, which is hard to understand for anyone outside of the industry!
Here are a few of the factors:
– Fame/Branding: A lot of DJs above $2000 are booked mainly for both their talent and their level of fame, whether it is artistic, modelling or insta famous.
– Equipment levels: The cost of entry level DJ equipment is really cheap now. The cost of production in China has made the bottom end DJ, sound and lighting really cheap compared to the 2000s, so its possible to buy things that are passable. The only problem with this is that its now possible for someone to buy $100 speakers, $20 lights and play music off of Youtube and still sell a DJ service, whereas DJs needed to spend (or hire) $10,000 worth of equipment just to start doing weddings.
It’s actually a great thing as it’s much more accessible to start DJing but it’s harder for consumers because when you get a quote you’re not sure if you’re getting $100 speakers or $2000 speakers.
– DJ Forums: A lot of DJ companies don’t train their own staff and they just post in DJ forums to fill gigs. The quality control is terrible but some companies work on volume and the cheaper customers tend not to care as much.
– Business Model: There are basically 3 business models in this industry
1. Agency: The traditional “talent agency” that finds high paying customers and links them with famous DJs
2. Boutique: Run by DJs themselves and have fewer DJs but charge a higher price per wedding for high quality and more customisation
3. Volume: Based on sales volume charge less per gig and make money off the volume of sales with no customisation
– Wages: Wages are by far the hugest expense of great DJs. Good communicators with music knowledge, DJ skills and turn up on time are expensive. As a DJ company we have limited dates, so weddings compete with corporate and public DJ gigs (often far easier and less stressful than weddings).
– Nickel and Dime: Some companies charge additional costs for every single optional extra, if it’s something small we usually already have it included in the package (for example party lights for the dancefloor and wired microphone as a backup for speeches) rather than trying to trap people into having to spend more money for something that’s integral to the service.
For me, we’re about providing good value. We use great speakers like RCF, decks like Pioneer/Rane, microphones like Shure/Sennheiser and top quality DJs because we honestly don’t want to put our name and reputation on the line with anything less.
I know we provide good value because I get the resumes of the DJs from other companies that want to work for us because we pay 400-700% more than they get paid for a $500 wedding through their existing boss.
We’re not paying more out the goodness of our hearts, great staff cost a fortune and we belive weddings shouldn’t be boring, generic affairs.