What year do you believe the Mobile DJ Community had the most active working DJs

To many ads? Support ODJT and see no ads!

What year was the Mobile DJ community the Largest in your opinion among these options?

  • 1981 or prior

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1985

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • 1990

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1995

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • 2000

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2005

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • 2010

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • 2015

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • 2021 as in RIGHT NOW

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • Total voters
    10
I think most guests don't notice the attention to detail or what goes on in order to improve guest experience...
...but most if not ALL satisfied clients DO!

But I do think the aggregate gets noticed...
...and rewarded with trust, appreciation, endorsement and repeat business, not to mention the value to self in doing the right thing in the best way.

Cheaters always cheat themselves.
 
Last edited:
I see lots of DJs (this isn't directed at you at all) that cut a corner because they don't think guests can tell, or they can't charge directly for the improvement. But in a lot of ways I think that is holding DJs collectively back. If we view it as just playing music loud, so will clients. If we view it as improving outcomes, it changes the business we're in a bit but also moves the product to a higher level.

I was just comparing it to my day job as a custodian.
The teachers never notice that the desks are clean, the floors are mopped, and everything is as it should be. But they SURE AS HELL notice when things are NOT as they should be.
(BTW, no offense taken. I am too OCD to cut corners.)
 
I honestly don't know what that is. I just look at the work that I got or we got. That's my focus. I can't be sure what our busiest year has been. It's been up and down for us.
 
WOW! I'm surprised that this forum is still going strong after all these years. Congrats on surviving the pandemic.

As for the thread, the 90s was my golden decade because that's when I learned the most about this exciting profession. I can confidently say that I'm still doing the same things I did back in the 90s with the exception of the songs format. I'm now fully Mp3 & MPEG 4 Video. Back then I had to carry vinyl & cassettes.

I hope that everyone is safe and well.
 
The golden years can probably be tracked by innovation. CD players with scratching came out around in the early 2000s. Napster usage peaked Jan-2001 but DJing with MP3s took a few more years to take off. The early software was buggy and frustrating. My guess is the peak was around 2010.

However... A real shift has occurred as the popularity of full featured controllers grew. Everyone and their brother became a bedroom DJ. This created a shift in the gear industry. Mobile DJs were no longer the prime buyer of DJ gear. Bedroom DJs were. And, mom & dad would buy new expensive controllers for their budding artist/producer every Christmas. The working mobile DJ has very low buying power today. So the number of DJs is probably higher than it has ever been but I think the number of professional DJs has gone down.
 
Last edited:
I was just looking at my DAC-2 and wondering what I should do with it. LOL

The one thing that Mp3 did, initially, was to make me wonder if my laptop was reliable enough to let me DJ at an entire event without the fear of a CTD.

Those were the good old days.
 
I was just looking at my DAC-2 and wondering what I should do with it. LOL. The one thing that Mp3 did, initially, was to make me wonder if my laptop was reliable enough to let me DJ at an entire event without the fear of a CTD.

Ah yes...loved that DAC 2! Not so much the DAC 3. And I never got over the fear of a laptop crash even though in 11 years I never had one issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
I was just looking at my DAC-2 and wondering what I should do with it. LOL

The one thing that Mp3 did, initially, was to make me wonder if my laptop was reliable enough to let me DJ at an entire event without the fear of a CTD.

Those were the good old days.
It took me until 2007ish to embrace, trust, and rely on Software and controller performing...I still bring a book of CDs and use a controller with disc drives...
cuz ya neva know.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
The golden years can probably be tracked by innovation. CD players with scratching came out around in the early 2000s. Napster usage peaked Jan-2001 but DJing with MP3s took a few more years to take off. The early software was buggy and frustrating. My guess is the peak was around 2010.

However... A real shift has occurred as the popularity of full featured controllers grew. Everyone and their brother became a bedroom DJ. This created a shift in the gear industry. Mobile DJs were no longer the prime buyer of DJ gear. Bedroom DJs were. And, mom & dad would buy new expensive controllers for their budding artist/producer every Christmas. The working mobile DJ has very low buying power today. So the number of DJs is probably higher than it has ever been but I think the number of professional DJs has gone down.
I agree with what you said because when I first got started in 81 you had to buy records to play on turntables and go to a store to buy those records. Also you had to have enough records to do an event. Now it's done with using a laptop with a DJ software program that you like with music MP'3s for the music that can be bought online for a much smaller amount of money then when you had to buy records. What took year to build can now be done in a few months in terms of getting music to use at events. Then you can either put those songs on a laptop or what I use is a portable HD that connects to my laptop. So before that DJs were using CDs to DJ with along with either an all in one CD player that had a built in mixer or a separate mixer with 2 CD players. I'm not complaining how things are done where someone can use a controller, laptop, active speakers and a DJ software program. That's great! The down side is it makes our job look so easy today that a lot of people think they can do it and make money at doing it. What we do is not as easy as it looks if you want to truly become a professional DJ doing private events for clients. It take a lot of dedication and hard work to be really good at this. Also knowing what gear to buy is very important so things will work well, last a long time and sound good so your performance doesn't sound like garbage. Lastly know what music to play for a particular event is very important too. Also know how to read a crowd is very important and what to do to recapture a dance floor quickly after the floor has cleared
while open dancing.