The Responsibility of the Disc Jockey

September 29, 2014

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Jammin’ DJ’s is an award winning event company that has been serving the area for over 15 years. We pride ourselves on providing professional services. Our services include Professional DJ’s, Lighting & Decor, Photo Booths, Photography and Videography services.

So what is the “Responsibility of the Disc Jockey?”

In all of my years of being in the entertainment business one thing that has always blown my mind is when people say “You just play music…”

So not in the form of a rant, but more so to educate those that may not really understand everything that a DJ is truly responsible for and called upon to do at any given time.

We have the pleasure of working with some really great vendors! These vendors can cover all facets of items for an event:

Photographer

Florist

Event/Party/Wedding Planner

Event Rental Company

Caterer

Venue Staff/Coordinator

Videographer

and a few others…

But what happens when it is a “friend of a cousin of a brother from another mother” kind of deal? They have an “idea” but really have no clue how things should go? Or worse yet, they are “new” and work for a company and still have no clue?

As a DJ you have to be able to accommodate to that at every event. Sometimes you do not need to do anything, other times you have to coordinate everything.

Wait a minute, what does that have to do with playing music? Is there even music playing right now? I’ll get to that in a moment.

There are a lot of times that as a DJ, when you go to coordinate times, events, etc., different vendors will have different timelines for what they are doing that night. Which of course makes sense, but on a larger level for the whole evening that timeline should match with the other vendors, so that everyone is on the same page, to make the event as successful as possible.

Again, you are just the DJ, what does this have to do with you?

As a Mobile DJ we are also 99% of the time the Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) for the event, people usually listen to the guy with the microphone.

Well yeah, but I have my Event Coordinator, Venue Coordinator, or Caterer taking care of all the timeline stuff…

What if you don’t have any of those? But you still hired a DJ? Is the responsibility of the DJ still just to play the music or keep everything together and on track as the Master of Ceremonies? Oh yeah, and the DJ literally found this out within the first 10 minutes of setting up? Our responsibility has changed dramatically and we need to be able to accommodate to this on a moments notice.

As a DJ, we read crowds and play the best music possible for the event and based upon what our clients want. But we also are now charged with taking on some of the responsibilities of other vendors to ensure the event goes as smoothly as possible.

For example, making sure the friend that does photography on the side is around for the important events. You don’t have an event planner, so making sure you know what is coming up and are ready for it. Realizing there is a dance floor to accommodate maybe 20 people, but you have 200+ in attendance, and that there must be room for this. You have food catered, but they just drop it off, and other people  or volunteers are putting the food out. The DJ has to know when food is ready to announce, is the DJ going to release tables or are the people putting food out going to?

Do we really need all these lights on? There isn’t a venue person, so who sets the mood lighting for the different periods of the night? The DJ does.

Oh wait, and the DJ is till playing music during this time as well.

So in closing, this isn’t meant in anyway to bash any of the wonderful vendors that we work with on a weekly basis, we truly cherish those relationships. This is meant to show there is a lot more than just playing music for a Mobile DJ.

Thank you for reading, and we would love to have your feedback on this article!

Jammin’ DJ’s is an award winning event company, and we look forward to working with you for your event to make it a day that is perfect. We pride ourselves on providing professional services. Our services include Professional DJ’s, Lighting & Decor, Photo Booths, Photography and Videography services.