Hiring a DJ saves you money and time and effort
Let's just pretend for a moment and imagine a scenario.
You're having a really important event. Everything has to be perfect. You need someone to play music perfectly for one hour. You can't have anything go wrong, because this is a once in a lifetime event. So, for this one hour, you need someone you can trust, that you know has done this many times, knows what he is doing and can definitely do it correctly with zero problems. For this one hour, how much would you be willing to pay for that piece of mind? $200? $500? more? That value all depends on how much you value your event and trust in that vendor's skills.
If you are OK with the value for an hour, then you should be OK with the value of that for 5 hours, or 6 hours, or however long your event is, especially if it's a wedding.
Hiring a DJ is actually beneficial to your event. It saves you money. It saves you time, and it certainly saves on effort. If you were to make the effort to do the entertainment yourself, bringing the same level of entertainment that a professional DJ would, then you would need to buy or rent the following:
Speakers
Speaker Stands
Cabling for the speakers
A Mixer
A Source of the music (iPod, tablet, computer, stereo player)
Microphone
And that is just for a very very basic setup. This equipment must be purchased ahead of time, or rented from a company that supplies PA systems. While we are comparing systems, we have to consider that a professional DJ uses Pro Audio systems. This is equipment that not consumer level, and is road ready, and is designed to be setup and broken down many times. You won't get the same quality if you are using the speakers from your living room in a large dining hall.
With that in mind, you often need to consider how much those items cost to purchase. If comparing what a DJ brings to an event, then items like speakers ($1000 each), Mixer ($1200), stands ($50), laptop ($1000+), Microphone ($400) and the music itself ($600/year or several thousand $) end up totaling to several thousand dollars in equipment.
The examples I give here are for entry level pro audio equipment. More often than not, a pro DJ makes large investments into the tools used, so these costs may actually be much much more.
But, of course, a couple is not going buy that equipment, they would rent it. How much does it cost to rent this gear? Well, most rental agencies will charge about 20% of the value of that totaled amount as a rental fee. So, if that was $2000 worth of equipment, expect to pay $400 to rent it. You would have to even pay more if you want them to set it up and remove it. You could do that yourself, but do you want to be doing that on your special day?
That is just the cost of the equipment. Someone still needs to play the music, make the announcements. This is where convenience and expertise come into play. And often, the difference between doing an iPod wedding and hiring a DJ is that with the iPod wedding, many guest may be standing around on the dancefloor while a few people argue over what to play next on the iPod. With a DJ, the paid professional handles all of that.
When you consider the Piece of Mind Value added to the cost of what it would cost you to rent and setup the equipment yourself, then you can see why hiring a DJ is actually, and really a bargain.
Just like many other professions, be it carpenters, chefs, photographers, and more, DJs have equipment they use to perform and do their craft. The investment made can often be very high, and the revenue generated from the work done on the weekends pays for these investments.
I hope this blog entry will help you understand how hiring a DJ can actually help you save money, time and effort.
Thank you.
John
