How many gigs do you do?

[Corabar Entertainment]

People often say "I'm really busy", or "I'm not busy", etc, and then someone I had the impression was gigging a few times a week says something about having 2 gigs a month, so, it got me thinking about how 'busy' for one person is 'quiet' for another..... it's all subjective.

So I thought I'd put up a little poll just to see what the average is.

Approximately how many gigs do you do a year? (I'm not talking about those to sub to others / gigs done by other DJs working for you... just roughly how many gigs you personally do)

[surround sounds]

Mainly i do at least 2 a week so i have put 104-130..
I am not working tonight which is uncommon really but i have got 2 tomorrow and 1 sunday

[Daryll]

Darn , hit the wrong button.
According to my diary , I did 28 last year , that included two karaoke nights and three children`s disco.

Daryll

[WWDJ]

Wow. Most, so far, do less than 50 per year.

... The others are out working of course :D

[SC Events]

I average about 10 per month...some months are 6, some can be 15/16 if it's a 5 week month.

Gives me a total of about 110 - 120 gigs per year.

[yourdj]

Had not counted last year yet :)

About 80 which was the same as the year before. I recon - 90-100 this year as i have most the bookings in now.
That excluding the events that other DJ's do on the same night.

Amazing number of Sats not full but loads of midweek weddings??

I would not want to be doing more than that
especially on a lower fee and all day events.

[Excalibur]

According to last year's diary, 46.

[Glenski]

At the moment i am working 5/6 nights a week ... my weekdays consist of karaoke and disco and the weekend is private stuff on a Saturday and karaoke on a Sunday and the odd quiz night and Rock & Roll Bingo :)

Thanks

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Ok gone with the 183 - 208 even though last year was a few more but always a minimum of 3 a week, usually 4 and occasionally 5.
Thats a mixture od Disco and Disco/Karaoke :D :D

[leelive]

73

[Spirits High]

Just worked out my average over the last 3 years and it comes in at 75.

Some members are seriously working too hard with 120 gigs a year. Time to review your pricing structures.......

Work smarter not harder ;)

[musicologydisco]

Averages out at 1 a week, like many part timers I would think, so 50 odd a year.

[Gary]

Averaging the last 3 years - its just over 60 gigs per annum for me, which is roughly where I want it to be. Ok, I'm sure some American book (sorry, pet hate of mine ..." How to do it ...." books/DVDs from a different country, sold in the UK) would say that I should only do 1 gig but charge 60 times as much.

Of that 60 gigs, approx 30 are Christmas gigs, both before and after Christmas leaving 30 gigs spread across the remaining 10 months of the year.

I'm finding that I'm turning down some gigs more often nowadays too. Ones where I suspect it won't go well, eg: certain teens only events, certain single-genre nights - I turned down a rocky horror picture show gig 2 years ago as it was just going to be the 80 minute CD on repeat effectively, and there's not 80 minutes worth of good dancey product on the CD... Time warp...sweet transvestite (there goes a forum filter :lol:) ...damn it Janet (there goes another :lol: ) and one other track that slips my mind.

So as to try not to sound too aloof, I'd have to say that I'm not turning down all that many gigs - maybe a couple a year tops.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Some members are seriously working too hard with 120 gigs a year. Time to review your pricing structures.......

Work smarter not harder ;)

Thats what I was thinking.....

[SC Events]

Just worked out my average over the last 3 years and it comes in at 75.

Some members are seriously working too hard with 120 gigs a year. Time to review your pricing structures.......

Work smarter not harder ;)

I have a Friday night residency which helps, so that's 52 gigs alone...

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Just worked out my average over the last 3 years and it comes in at 75.

Some members are seriously working too hard with 120 gigs a year. Time to review your pricing structures.......

Work smarter not harder ;)

I did 112 last year. Do you think that applies to me?

[Corabar Steve]

Just worked out my average over the last 3 years and it comes in at 75.

Some members are seriously working too hard with 120 gigs a year. Time to review your pricing structures.......

Work smarter not harder ;)


Thats what I was thinking.....


I did 112 last year. Do you think that applies to me?
I must confess when I read Paul's post I thought, what about working smarter & hard( without the er) (lots of well paying gigs) ?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I must confess when I read Paul's post I thought, what about working smarter & hard( without the er) (lots of well paying gigs) ?

Yep, it doesn't always equate, does it.;)

[Corabar Steve]

No. For Example I do a mix of the 2. :sj:

Nowt wrong with working your arse off doing good payers & / or taking a little less for something you enjoy.

What I do have issue with is folks who say they work smarter & you then find they charge a lot less than they let on (but that's off topic for this thread & a whole other bucket of monkeys)

[Spirits High]

I did 112 last year. Do you think that applies to me?

It's quite a few but it does only work out at just over 2 gigs per week when looked at over a 52 week period. Although it's highly unlikely that they are spread out at 2 per week.

And I somehow doubt you need to review your pricing structure ;)

So in this instance it appears not to apply to you however some forum members may want to have a look at their pricing structures :p :D

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Some members are seriously working too hard with 120 gigs a year. Time to review your pricing structures.......

Work smarter not harder ;)

I understand the 'work smarter' comment and that's what I have been going on by making things a lot easier for myself regarding set ups etc.

However, the first comment is again aimed at pricing isn't it?

If you can do 50 gigs a year at £1000.00 a booking then great.
If you can do 50 gigs a year at £150.00 then that's not really a business is it? (unless you have absolutely no bills and overheads etc.).

I do around 120 gigs a year and don't need to review my pricing as I am more than happy with it.

Strangely (thought I'd mention it), I have a fair few midweek gigs this year and as it stands at the moment, the last week in April sees me doing weddings on Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday. Not sure how it happened but I'm not complaining.

[paulg]

102 according to last years tax return.

I tended to work last year on the premise that you take work when you can. You never know when it might all go pear shaped - downturn, illness etc.

I'm getting more worn out lately so this year 70-80 or even less would be OK. As for working smarter, I turned down an enquiry last night for a gig that was to finish at 1.30 in the morning. What's the matter with people these days? Don't they need sleep? Easier jobs for a bit less money are becoming so attractive these days.

[Spirits High]

I understand the 'work smarter' comment and that's what I have been going on by making things a lot easier for myself regarding set ups etc.

However, the first comment is again aimed at pricing isn't it?

It's aimed at the overall concept of working smarter be that getting easier / quicker set ups or charging more for your services




If you can do 50 gigs a year at £1000.00 a booking then great.
If you can do 50 gigs a year at £150.00 then that's not really a business is it? (unless you have absolutely no bills and overheads etc.).

I do around 120 gigs a year and don't need to review my pricing as I am more than happy with it.


If you're happy with what your doing then that's fine. From what I read on here some members are doing alot of work and IMO not getting the full worth of the service they provide.

For the likes of Darren doing 112 I'm pretty sure these will be decent payers and for someone that's been in the business over 25 years I'd expect him to be demanding a "fair" price.

But, everyone has different ways of doing things and if they're happy then they're happy. For me around 75ish gigs a year I'm happy with that and the way I operate.

[NKR]

60 last year and would hope to do the same again this year.

Its about the maximum numberI think we can service professionally as a part timer. Any more than that and I literally would be working none stop with the day job and I think service would start to slip.

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

Every Sunday Tuesday abd Thursday nights at residencies
Thats 156 PLUS
odd monday each month open mike night Indian Restaurant
odd friday each month open mike nights Local Pub
mobile most fridays
mobile most saturdays.
I ticked More than 208
Sunday Residency plug amp into wall socket for room Loudspeakers
Tues and Thursday all gear in pub turn up with flask and laptop.

[boomerangdiscos]

i did about 70 discos last year which with a full time job is more than enough it would of been more but i do turn down a fair amount of work i dont enjoy kids discos so i turn down 90% of the enquiries i get for these plus theres a few venues i will not work at, this year partly due to the economic climate and the fact that i have just started to train as a driving instructor means i will probably end up doing about 50 discos, with at least 10-15 being xmas partys means i will have a few weekends to spend with the family.

[NKR]

Angela this is a very useful piece of research and something I had been indirectly trying to draw out of people.

What I now know is that we do more jobs a year than just under half the respondents and are at the top end of the group that quarter of respondents reside in. That means there are only 30% of the respondents doing more gigs per annum than my little operation and with the number of full time organisations on here that is reassuring. It gives us a benchmark of what the norm is and where the market currently is.