DJ Leon Lamont

Recently, while talking shop with a fellow DJ, I was told of a promoter in the Midwest asking a group of DJs to pre-sale tickets for their residency. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It’s a well-known fact that many venues around the US do this to young new bands, but DJs? That’s unheard of. The DJ/Club relationship has always been “I play, you pay”. As I expressed the ridiculousness of the promoters proposition to the DJ I was conversing with, he said, “Well, I have a gig on the west coast and they make DJs pay to play just like they do the bands. I’ve never spun in L.A. so I am paying to play”. So there you have it: for every DJ that refuses to pay to play there will be three or more DJs standing behind him with cash and headphones in hand.

The club DJ business is one of many factions of the music industry that has been crippled by technology. With the advent of DJ software (some of which practically spins and beat matches the music for you) hack DJs have been popping…