Whether you are a mobile DJ looking to pick up a low-stress job, or an aspiring club DJ just starting out, bars are an excellent venue to DJ. Bars are low pressure events that pay decently and can turn into a weekly job if you perform well and work your contact. They are also a great place to experiment with new DJ gear and techniques in public.
To DJ a bar, you will need:
- An understanding of the atmosphere
- An appropriate selection of music
- Proper DJ gear
- A method to sell drinks
- A way to get hired again
Understanding the Bar Atmosphere
Bars are the most low-key of low-key events. Patrons are at a bar to drink and have fun. They want to chat with their friends, meet attractive new people and generally relax. Any music playing is background music. If music is the focus of a bar night, it will be billed in advance as a concert.
This may be hard to swallow as a DJ, but you are background in a bar. This is not the time to be showing off your crazy cuts or remix skills. Most of your guests will be talking with their friends. They will occasionally notices the music and smile or nod along. Your main goal is to set a mood that encourages them to stay longer.
Don’t expect people to get up and dance, even if there is a dance floor. Read the energy in the room and play to it. Some nights won’t have dancers in the crowd, especially if attendance is low. Play the music that will work well for your audience given their mood. It’s also a great idea to visit the bar before you play there. You will get a feeling for what happens on a typical night, which will let you know what music to pack. You can also scope out the bar’s equipment in person, rather than take the manager’s word for what gear you’ll need.
4 Steps to Getting Hired
1. Recon Mission
Visit the bar during a moderately busy time and observe their business. How many people are there? What demographic do they serve? More singles or couples? How big is the space? How many tables and chairs do they have? How busy is it? What kind of music is playing?
Once you have this information, think strategically about what you would improve. How would you complement or change the music? What opportunities do you see? How can you encourage people to stay longer and buy more?
Most importantly, be a great customer during your visit. Buy something and tip well. Your goal isn’t to attract attention, but rather if the staff remembers you later, you want to have had a great interaction. Be a model customer and you will save yourself embarrassment later.
2. Connect With the Decision Maker
Once you have an improvement plan in mind, you need to get in front of the person who can actually hire you. This may take several more visits to find the right manager or the owner who can make the decision. Go back during a slow time and ask for the manager or owner. Explain that you are looking to get hired as a DJ and politely ask if they are the right person before you start pitching.
Lay out what you observed and your recommendations to the decision maker. Show them how you could improve their sales and become a valuable asset for the bar. You may want to go as far as preparing a written presentation to show them. DJs aren’t known for their professional expertise, so a more formal presentation will stand out.
3. Make an Offer
After you show the bar manager or owner your value, make them an offer that is fair to both you and them. Free drinks or “exposure” is not what you are looking for.
There are two main ways to structure your pay: flat fee or percentage of bar earnings. I have earned $100 to $200 for a four-hour set in bars before. If you are confident in your ability to draw a crowd, you can ask for a percentage of the bar’s earnings while you are there, say 10%. The bar may want to cap your percentage at a certain dollar amount. It is not uncommon for the cap to be higher than your flat fee because you are taking a greater risk on your wage. Percentage of earnings can be more appealing to the bar because they only pay you if they make money.
Be sure to clearly discuss the terms of your pay in advance, and if possible, get a contract in writing. Don’t be surprised if the decision maker doesn’t want to sign a contract, as it’s not as common in the bar industry. At the very least, make sure that you both agree on what and when you will be paid. This is critical if you are taking a percentage, so there are no surprises later.
4. Close the Deal
Work politely but firmly to a decision. It doesn’t really matter if the answer is yes or no. You only want to avoid bars that can’t make a decision. They will be a waste of your time because they probably won’t ever hire you.
You can make an offer and ask for a decision on the spot, or you can set a meeting in the future to get a decision. Either way, you are closing something while you are there. Close the deal, or close a date and time in the future when you will get an answer. If you get a maybe, or you can’t even get a date to get a decision, treat it like a no and move on to another venue.
Selecting Your Music
The music you pack will be as different as the types of bars there are. This is why your recon trip is so valuable. Use what you learned to build playlists that will appeal to the bar’s clientele. Start with music that is the most appealing to their audience, and build outward from there.
You will need a much larger collection than a one-hour club set. Bar gigs run anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. I pack double the music I will need for any event. Pack 4 to 12 hours of music in a wide variety of genres. Bars attract a more varied crowd, so you will need to cover a large range of tastes.
Remember that a bar will be more laid-back than a club or even a house party. Look for mid-tempo songs that have a relaxed energy. You are not trying to put people to sleep, but your not going to have them booty shaking either. Shoot for something in the middle, and one level more energetic that the music currently in the venue. You want to bring up the energy level in the bar, but you don’t want to run off the regulars.
Gear You Need
The gear you need to bring with you depends on what you saw on your initial visit and what the manager says they can provide. You will want to visit after you are hired and test the equipment for yourself. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a venue and you can’t get their gear working. Bars are the worst at keeping their equipment maintained. Your mantra is trust but verify. There are three basic levels of equipment you will need, based on what the bar has:
No Working Gear
You will need a full mobile DJ setup if the bar doesn’t have a sound system, or if the sound system isn’t working. Check everything in advance and don’t trust any gear you haven’t tried. I’ve worked bars where they had a fully integrated sound system and still had to set up all of my own equipment in the corner because they hadn’t used the system in years and nobody had keys to the booth. Nothing surprises me anymore.
Your full setup will include your laptop, DJ controller, mixer, amplifier, speakers and all associated cables. It’s good to bring your own table, otherwise you will be DJing on a wobbly high top table. I can tell you from experience that is not fun.
Speakers Only
If the bar has speakers that you can plug into, you only need a laptop, DJ controller and mixer. My DJ controller has a built-in mixer so I don’t need an external mixer. You will also need whatever cables are required to plug into their speakers, your own table, power strips and extension cords. Expect that the venue’s speaker connections cannot be moved. You will need to adjust your location with longer cables for audio and power.
Existing DJ Equipment
For bars with DJ booths or equipment, you can get by with just your laptop and controller or less. Figure out the level of gear available and plan your equipment accordingly. You can plug your laptop and controller into an open mixer channel in a DJ booth. If the bar has existing CDJs or a controller, you can plug your laptop or a USB drive in directly.
Test Everything in Advance
Do not neglect to test all of the existing equipment exactly as you plan to use in in advance of your DJ set. The best time to do this is before the venue opens to the public, a week or two before you are scheduled to perform. Connect with a manager to get some testing time and make sure everything is working properly. This will also give you time to prepare or buy any gear you weren’t planning on. Remember, you can’t get paid if you don’t play, and you can’t play if the gear doesn’t work.
Setting Up
Setting up will be easy once you have tested and planned in advance. If you are using a full setup, your setup will be the same as your other mobile DJ gigs. Use your test visit to pick a spot in the bar for your equipment.
You want to pick a location that will face the audience but won’t be too close to them. You also want a location that will discourage guests from walking behind your setup. An unused corner away from tables and facing the bar works best. Bars are designed to cram as many people into the space as possible, so be prepared to get creative. Ask the manager where they would like you and use your best judgment.
If you are using the bar’s equipment, ask for help getting set up. Some venues will have a sound technician who will help you set up and not let you touch any of their equipment. Some venues will just point you at the speakers and say go for it. Be sure to make notes or take pictures of any changes you make. You will need to put all of the cables you unplug and settings you change back where they were when you leave. Treat the bar’s equipment with great care. If you break something, you’re not getting hired again and you might not get paid. When in doubt, ask for help.
Playing the Bar
Once you start playing, you will be using the DJ skills you already have. Start with music that you know will appeal to a wide audience. Keep the music going and respond to the energy in the room. You will be looking for subtle clues that you are doing well. Head nods, toe tapping and the occasional singing along the most obvious indications you will get that the crowd likes your music.
Play to the crowd and the type of venue. Pace your evening so you respond to the vibe as the evening progresses. People in the bar may spend the whole evening talking with friends, or you may see the bar get livelier as the night goes on. Be ready to react to what your guests are doing. Don’t be afraid to walk around and interact with the crowd. A bar is a more interactive environment than a club. You are also going to get more requests than you would in a club. Be prepared to accept requests, or politely decline them if they are way off the mark.
It’s not uncommon for the bar to offer you a drink or two while you play. It is up to you on whether you want to drink while you are performing. Know your limits and don’t let drinking impact your set. Whatever you do, don’t get drunk. A drunk DJ isn’t getting hired again.
You will be playing a longer set, so it’s a great time to experiment. Most of your set will be background music. Try out the new tracks and techniques you’ve been dying to play with, especially early on in the evening. Just don’t go so far that you start attracting unwanted attention. Even if you make a huge mistake, you have hours of set left to recover. Hopefully, the patrons will have a couple more drinks and forget all about it.
Sell Drinks and Keep the Staff Happy
Your primary objective for the owners is to make more sales. Watch the bar and use your music to drive traffic. You want to create a steady rotation between tables, the bar and a dance floor if you have one.
Use the energy and tempo of your music to drive the crowd’s action. Slow tempo music will encourage patrons to linger and order more during slow periods. Faster music creates movement, which will turn tables and chairs faster during busy periods. The volume level will also contribute to the energy level. Keep your music softer and slower during slow periods, and then crank up the volume and the tempo later in the evening. But, be sure to not get too loud or you will actually drown out the flavors and drive guests away. Match your music to the energy level of the crowd, and only nudge the level upwards slightly.
Multiple studies have even shown that music can enhance the flavors of food and drink. Higher frequency sounds bring out the sweetness in food and drink, great for mixed drinks and desserts. Bass brings out bitterness, which is perfect for IPAs and craft brews in pubs.
Don’t forget that your bar staff are also a part of the crowd, and your most important part. The manager or owner may not be in the venue when you perform, so you can bet they will be asking the staff how you did. Keep the staff happy both buy increasing sales, and playing music they like. Be friendly and helpful. Ask them what songs they want to hear and find a good time to play them. Keeping your staff happy is the first step to getting rehired.
Your #1 Goal – Get Paid and Hired Again
After you finish your set, meet up with your contact to make sure you get paid. Most bars will pay you by cash or check the same night. At the very least, reconfirm your payment terms and when you expect to get paid. I’ve worked for corporate chains before that paid by mailed check. This was made clear before I got started, and I confirmed it again before I left.
Start working to get rehired while you are getting paid. Talk to the owner or manager about how the night went. What did they think? Did their patrons like the music? What feedback do they have? How were sales?
If you sell more drinks than normal and get the bar staff on your side, you have a great chance of getting hired to perform again. Get a feeling for what the manager is thinking. If you get great feedback, it’s the perfect time to ask for more business. Sometimes, getting rehired is just as simple as asking, “So, same time next week?”
If you can’t get rehired immediately, follow the same process you did to get hired in the first place. Reach out to the decision maker during a slow time that same week. Ask them what they heard about your performance and how sales went that night. Ask for feedback and ways that you can continue to bring value. Make a strong business case and a clear offer like you did the first time. Use whatever information you can gather from the staff to make your case. Position yourself ask a partner on their team, and simply ask when you can come back to help again. For example, if you know the bar sold $1,000 more than last week and you charged $200, it’s a pretty easy sale to the bar owner.
In Summary…
There are many things about bars that work like other DJ events, and some specific issues that you need to be aware of. Approach bar owners with their best interests in mind. Plan how you will add value to their business. Do your recon, pack your music and play a killer set. Focus your efforts on pleasing the guests and staff. Find was to sell more food and drinks. Use your value to the bar as leverage to get hired again, and before you know it, you’ll be spinning at your favorite bar every week!
