Wow Mtown what was your real name again. I would like to address you as such. Im glad to see another one of the elders speak my viewpoint on the enjoyment I get each event. I like all music its my life source and helps bay the bills as well.
If I had it all to do over again...
- Thread starter SemiRetired DJ
- Start date
Bob, you are free to disagree as you wish... but your disagreement doesn't change the facts.
Delmarva has been hit hard by the poor economy. Poverty is on the rise, queues at the soup kitchens are lengthening. Industries have closed their plants. Thousands of people have lost their livelihoods and their homes. Folks around here aren't spending a lot of money on DJ companies. That's just the way it is.
That's also the way it is in Tom's market which is just across the state line.
On a side note, we are old and dear friends with Tom and his missus, have been for many years. We've visited back and forth. Tom's phone used to ring off the hook... I was there in his living room when it was happening. Our phone rang, too. But the phones aren't ringing like that anymore.
Not that we haven't been booking. We have. And unfortunately, we've had more upscale show cancellations these past few years than I've ever seen during my 18 years in this business. The local companies are scrounging for what we charged in 1993 ~ when they're working at all.
I'm talking about the economy right now, right here, today, not a utopian economy that may or may not happen in years to come. There is very little in the way of upscale shows in this area now. That's a fact, my friend.
Don't take my word for it ~ come on down here to Lower, Slower Delaware and start up a DJ company. Run it for a year or so and let me know if you still disagree.
I'm not denying your personal experience. I'm just not accepting it as anything broader than one person's method of handling their basket and the eggs they put in it. There is still money for DJs in this economy albeit, not evenly distributed socio-economically or geographically.
You said: "this business isn't what it was 15 years ago." I agree and any DJ who has remained what they were 15 years ago should by definition be out of business by now. Location is important. If the economics of an area can no longer support a given business you have only two choices - leave the area or leave the business. Age is also a change you must account and adapt for because it will affect your business profile with or without your notice.
As Neil pointed out this business is evolving. People often enter the mobile DJ field with a variety of fixed constraints. They are simply not capable of the evolution required to make it work long term. The part time DJ for example, has an obvious primary commitment to another career which supercedes everything relative to his DJing. He's not going to change because he can't - his DJ business is statically defined by his personal availability and not the dynamics of a constantly evolving marketplace.
What I was doing 15 years ago doesn't work today. What other DJ gururs have promoted as the thing to do also doesn't work because most of those ideas were already old to begin with. Every DJ I know still thriving today has done so beacsue they were keen to the evolution taking place with respect to their own basket and the eggs they put in it.