This question always intrigued me, do they pay the DJ , his hotel room (5*)for the big Djs, their plane ticket and their food while they are there., would love to hear how it all works ,.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

Get to know some promoters. I don't know if there are many on here. Mostly it's just us dj's.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

each dj is different...they have riders that explain exactly what they get in terms of compensation from flights to hotels to how they want the equipment set up at the club.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

hmmm, you gave me a good idea...I'm going to talk to a local promoter who's doing very well and see if a little interview can be arranged...

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=FM]hmmm, you gave me a good idea...I'm going to talk to a local promoter who's doing very well and see if a little interview can be arranged...[/quote]

I would be really interested in seeing that.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=day_for_night]each dj is different...they have riders that explain exactly what they get in terms of compensation from flights to hotels to how they want the equipment set up at the club.[/quote]

What he said, usually Flights and Accommodation.... and certain requests like, for example four cdjs in the booth. When the cdjs had just come out Morillo added to his Rider that there must be two available cdjs in the dj booth.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

It's quite simple:

All costs covered + fee + technical rider

Re: What to do promoters pay???

Oh, and although it might seem bizarre DJs specifying X number of CDJs or whatever, it's fairly standard practise, as they don't want to be caught short and end up playing on a dodgy mixer, or a belt drive turntable or whatever (the worst being a monitor that's not controlable by the DJ).

A poor system will mean the DJ won't perform to their best. So it's obviously in everyone's interest to make sure the setup is 'just right'.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

Excuse my ignorance , is the a Rider the agent of the DJ?

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=Bululu]Excuse my ignorance , is the a Rider the agent of the DJ?[/quote]

basically a contract stating what the dj wants...

Re: What to do promoters pay???

so far so good here... aside from dj'ing at my now defunct spy club i also booked talent and paul, day and bobby have it pretty much covered... pretty simple in most cases, 1/2 the fee upfront (within a certain amount of time at booking) and the other half at the end of the set. hotel and airfare plus misc things in the rider ranging from water and energy bars at the airport and/or hotel to number of people on their (talent) guests list, drink vouchers, dj equipment specs, etc, etc... Basically, make their time in your city non-eventful (except for the gig... i.e. missing hotel reservations, no ride from the airport etc...) and as nice as possible. Some dj riders are worse than others but more or less they want and ask for a nice working and stable set up with good monitors, decks etc..... As soon as I have the desktop set up from the move i'll put up a typical dj rider to let you see what one looks like.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

Thanks Geo , waiting for your example .

Re: What to do promoters pay???

I talked to a promoter last night about this very subject. My understanding is that they are the silent heros that do all of the work behind the scenes to attract the talent, and bring them to your venues.. We all recognize and apreciate the artists, but rarely stop to think about all of the hard work necessary to get these people to come to our cities.

To any promoters out there reading this-many great thank you's for the selfless acts of kindness that you practise. My love of music has benefitted greatly from your efforts.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=Koolkb] To any promoters out there reading this-many great thank you's for the selfless acts of kindness that you practise. My love of music has benefitted greatly from your efforts.[/quote]

its not entirely selfless ;) promoters can do quite well for themselves, especially if there is corporate sponsorship involved.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=Koolkb]I talked to a promoter last night about this very subject. My understanding is that they are the silent heros that do all of the work behind the scenes to attract the talent, and bring them to your venues.. We all recognize and apreciate the artists, but rarely stop to think about all of the hard work necessary to get these people to come to our cities.

To any promoters out there reading this-many great thank you's for the selfless acts of kindness that you practise. My love of music has benefitted greatly from your efforts.[/quote]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=day_for_night]each dj is different...they have riders that explain exactly what they get in terms of compensation from flights to hotels to how they want the equipment set up at the club.[/quote]

I hear Tiesto demands only the green M&Ms in his bag of back stage trail mix.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

danny t actually has basically a schematic of how the dj booth is to be layed out. positioning of cdj's and turnables and what not. very perticular.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=threehills]I hear Tiesto demands only the green M&Ms in his bag of back stage trail mix.[/quote]

:CrackUp: :CrackUp: :CrackUp:

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[QUOTE=3d_1200]danny t actually has basically a schematic of how the dj booth is to be layed out. positioning of cdj's and turnables and what not. very perticular.[/QUOTE] I saw a rider for Sasha that was that way. It had specific distances between monitors and angles and stuff like that.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yeah he wants everything "lined" up :p

Re: What to do promoters pay???

He'll be here all week folks! Don't forget to try the veal and remember to tip your waitstaff.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

(standing ovation!!!!!!!!!!) :shock: :D

"no applause, no appluase just $10's, $20's and $50's" ;)

Re: What to do promoters pay???

I would actually appreciate a promoter's How-To of sorts. I'd love to start bringing talent that I want to see to KC... just unsure how to really go about it

Re: What to do promoters pay???

First thing pickle: contact clubs. Throw names around of artists you're interested in bringing. Landing a club is the most difficult thing (imo). Make sure to be completely honest about the people you're interested in bringing (style of music, etc). I ran into a situation where the club owner thought he was getting 'jazzy house' and instead got 'dark fucking music'. Not a pleasant situation. I didn't feel bad at all since I'd given him 2 CDs of this artist's music and stated no less than 100 times exactly what kind of music he spins, etc.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

Pickle thats also why I was asking the question,I have some good sponsor contacts and wanted to know if is it possible to bring in DJs starting with small names and maybe going big if it works out.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

i'd like to bring steve bug to charlotte, but im not sure i could make that happen.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

if you have the dollars, you can make anything happen.

making it successful, well thats another story.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=3d_1200]if you have the dollars, you can make anything happen.

making it successful, well thats another story.[/quote]

You hit the nail on the head. My advice would be to build up a local scene with local DJs. Don't bother shelling out on big names until you've ironed out all the issues with your promotion.

Once you're confident it's all going well, work out what you can afford. Work out what you expect to make, then halve it. Then use that as a figure to see what you can really afford.

Just remember to promote the shit out of it. And that means more than just messageboards.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

so if you throw a successful night how much money would you say ends up in your pocket as a result?

some good advice in this thread, lets keep it going...

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=anonin]so if you throw a successful night how much money would you say ends up in your pocket as a result?

some good advice in this thread, lets keep it going...[/quote]

If you are just starting out be happy if you just break even.

It's not easy to make things run smoothly.

Take into account that as time goes by and you do more parties, you will build a reputation ( making it easier to book venues), but you will always have something to show to booking agencies. Some booking agencies like Balance are very demanding about the people they book. If you wanted to bring in Digweed you would have to first book other people from the roster. They do that for ethical purposes ( just so Digweed isn't treated like a gold mine and that there is support for their other djs ) and also to be sure you are trustworthy to work with.

1. Find a venue/sponsor/money/dj
2. Promote Promote Promote

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=jdat]If you are just starting out be happy if you just break even. [/quote]

Personally I wouldn't be happy with breaking even. Make sure you make money. I know it sounds brutal, but it will give you more cash to put into the next party. Don't take too many risks. If you're spending money on promotion, work out how many people you expect to get for that outlay. For example, flyers, they're only good if you have somebody on the flyer that people know. We do Prologue in London without flyers, because we work with local up n coming DJs.

When you start make sure every DJ you book knows he's part of the promotion too. Tell them that if they don't bring 50 people then you'll never book them again.

It sounds harsh, but if you lose money you can't keep going.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=Paul Louth]:lol: :lol: :lol:[/quote]

+1

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[QUOTE=Paul Louth]Personally I wouldn't be happy with breaking even. Make sure you make money. I know it sounds brutal, but it will give you more cash to put into the next party. Don't take too many risks. If you're spending money on promotion, work out how many people you expect to get for that outlay. For example, flyers, they're only good if you have somebody on the flyer that people know. We do Prologue in London without flyers, because we work with local up n coming DJs. [/QUOTE]

I guess it also depends on the market you are in.. Here in Minneapolis if I break even on a show where the name isn't Mark Farina, BT, Digweed, etc I'll be thrilled. I've lost more than I've gained when bringing in out of town talent but keep on going as you wouldn't see the likes of James Holden, Mazi, Habersham, Paul Louth, Opencloud, Son Of The Electric Ghost, Lostep, etc in this town if not for individuals like myself and a few others.

I try to offset my losses from the above with my regular more 'commercial' house club residencies. With all the upscale clubs in our area being focused toward the Top 40 market as well as no dance music support on radio stations outside of trance and stuff like Benny Benassi's Satisfaction it makes for quite a difficult time to pull in people for a minimal or IDM show. In our town people are thrilled if 200 people show up for a more 'underground' name. To scale, our town's largest shows on a good night (I'm talking Delta Heavy, Mark Farina, Tiesto) draw in between 1,000 to 1,200 people.

I'd agree about flyers in certain aspects, but I do tend to think, at least in our area, that a good indicator of a succesful night will be someone who spent the money and time to distribute flyers to try to get that extra turnout if at all possible.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=phil]I guess it also depends on the market you are in.. Here in Minneapolis if I break even on a show where the name isn't Mark Farina, BT, Digweed, etc I'll be thrilled. I've lost more than I've gained when bringing in out of town talent but keep on going as you wouldn't see the likes of James Holden, Mazi, Habersham, Paul Louth, Opencloud, Son Of The Electric Ghost, Lostep, etc in this town if not for individuals like myself and a few others.

I try to offset my losses from the above with my regular more 'commercial' house club residencies. With all the upscale clubs in our area being focused toward the Top 40 market as well as no dance music support on radio stations outside of trance and stuff like Benny Benassi's Satisfaction it makes for quite a difficult time to pull in people for a minimal or IDM show. In our town people are thrilled if 200 people show up for a more 'underground' name. To scale, our town's largest shows on a good night (I'm talking Delta Heavy, Mark Farina, Tiesto) draw in between 1,000 to 1,200 people.

I'd agree about flyers in certain aspects, but I do tend to think, at least in our area, that a good indicator of a succesful night will be someone who spent the money and time to distribute flyers to try to get that extra turnout if at all possible.[/quote]

That's cool, different areas/scenes require different types of promotion. The job of a good promoter is to work out what it takes to get people through the door. And it's obviously not something you can work out on your first party. So making sure you don't bomb and lose a fortune is definitely the order of the day. I remember the first big party I did and we lost ?1000, I learned some valuable lessons from that I can tell you :)

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=phil]I guess it also depends on the market you are in.. Here in Minneapolis if I break even on a show where the name isn't Mark Farina, BT, Digweed, etc I'll be thrilled. I've lost more than I've gained when bringing in out of town talent but keep on going as you wouldn't see the likes of James Holden, Mazi, Habersham, Paul Louth, Opencloud, Son Of The Electric Ghost, Lostep, etc in this town if not for individuals like myself and a few others.

I try to offset my losses from the above with my regular more 'commercial' house club residencies. With all the upscale clubs in our area being focused toward the Top 40 market as well as no dance music support on radio stations outside of trance and stuff like Benny Benassi's Satisfaction it makes for quite a difficult time to pull in people for a minimal or IDM show. In our town people are thrilled if 200 people show up for a more 'underground' name. To scale, our town's largest shows on a good night (I'm talking Delta Heavy, Mark Farina, Tiesto) draw in between 1,000 to 1,200 people.

I'd agree about flyers in certain aspects, but I do tend to think, at least in our area, that a good indicator of a succesful night will be someone who spent the money and time to distribute flyers to try to get that extra turnout if at all possible.[/quote] i totally agree. the market sucks here in detroit and is tough to get people out..for anything at all. any promoter here is happy to break even. we do it for the love of the music, culture, and nothing else. sometimes you do make money, sometimes you don't. all i can say is start off small, and local, and slowly build up your name. you just can't jump into things and throw some huge massive, it just won't happen. you have to earn it like anything else. and it really is for the better too, i'm glad a worked from the ground up. it's a great way to build contacts with lots of local djs, promoters, venue owners, etc. you just can't waltz into a venue or call up TCA and expect to get what you want. just now after 6 years we are at that point... but i wouldn't trade it for the world!

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=influx]we do it for the love of the music, culture, and nothing else. sometimes you do make money, sometimes you don't. all i can say is start off small, and local, and slowly build up your name. [/quote] same here in St. Louis. we have a wicked underground techno scene tho, and there's hardly lots of cash going around. Word of mouth spreads tho, and djs come here for less just to play the party. You'd be amazed at the djs i've seen in the last two years in this dirty little murder city. I love the gritty little underbelly this city has, much like detroit.

Re: What to do promoters pay???

^^^^ MOE Murda..............

Re: What to do promoters pay???

[quote=anonin]i'd like to bring steve bug to charlotte, but im not sure i could make that happen.[/quote]

I've heard a couple of his tracks. I'd bet that would be a pretty cool night!