Are your DJ’s working hard enough for you or are they taking you for a ride? They should be actively contributing to your business, says Stuart Langley

It’s late on a Saturday night at the end of a busy week. The tills haven’t stopped ringing but you’re not happy. Your bar team has been knocking out the drinks and raking in the cash but there was still something missing from a truly great night. Is it you? Or did the DJ play all those records in the same order last week? Though the atmosphere was good, was it really good enough? Is your DJ the only one making no effort in this business? You look at your bar staff; working hard on six quid an hour, then you look at your DJ; pissed up, arm around the girl your head bartender’s been chatting up all week, heading out the door a couple of hundred pounds richer. Isn’t it about time you had a DJ that really did things for your business?

If your venue already has a DJ then it’s fairly likely you have a steady flow of biographies and demo CD’s being dropped off or posted into the bar. These are great starting points when it comes to recruiting a new DJ but both have to be approached with caution. CD’s are great for DJ’s but pretty rubbish for managers who are looking for someone to set their Saturday nights on fire. Sifting through a pile of CD’s that sound pretty much the same is no fun and a waste of time – especially as the majority of CD’s given out these days are put together on computer packages that can make any DJ sound technically perfect.

Biographies are often more useful but, like the CV of any bartender, they can be misleading. Just because the CV says someone worked at Lab for a year, it doesn’t mean they did anything more than sweep the floor at the end of the night. Equally, just because the DJ’s biography lays claim to a set at Fabric, who’s to say that it wasn’t on a Monday night to no one or that the DJ wasn’t chucked off the decks after clattering his first two records together.

Just like hiring a bartender, you have to use your common sense and make sure you ask the right questions. ‘Where have you played?’, ‘How often did you play there?’, ‘Where are you playing now?’, ‘How long have you been playing out for?’. You should also look for a DJ who has done their homework about you and your bar. They should already know what kind of music you currently play and what they would do differently if they got the chance. All this sounds pretty basic but unless the DJ’s a class A liar you’ll soon be able to work out if you’re talking to someone who knows their stuff or if you’re dealing with a chancer.

Good bartenders have skills and abilities that are acknowledged and rewarded. You know when someone is good for your business and you pay them accordingly. The same goes for your DJ. No matter how good the music or how great the mixing, a DJ has to give you value for money and you need to be able to measure the contribution they are giving to your business.

There are three clear ways a DJ should add value to your bar; by looking after your customers, generating revenue and keeping your costs down. A good DJ will want to build rapport with your customers every time they play. They should be looking out for your regulars, working out which are the records that get them (and your bar staff) going, while making sure that the music they play remains fresh and interesting every week. You should also look for your DJ to respond in a friendly way to the inevitable trawl of requests for records that won’t allow or you DJ doesn’t play (Got any Abba?) You’d sack a member of bartender for being rude to customers; the same rule should apply to DJ’s.

A DJ should also clearly be working to increase your trade. A DJ’s career rests on the popularity and reputation built around them and what they bring to any bar or club they play in. For this a DJ needs people; you, your customers, a fan base of friends, other DJ’s, and anyone that will come along to your bar to enjoy their music and your drinks. When I take on a new DJ I want to see new faces in the bar, spending money, enjoying the music and interacting with other customers and the DJ. The more popular a DJ is, the popular your venue can become.

Importantly though, a DJ should also be looking out for your equipment, as abuse by negligent DJ’s can really up your running costs. The last thing you need is beers being split over mixers, fag ash clogging up the decks, sliders being snapped off, speakers being blown, and lost and stolen needles and cartridges. A DJ has a department of your business and should manage it as reliably and efficiently as you do yours.

There used to be just two types of DJ that played in bars; your cool late night, bar/club DJ, or the mobile disco and karaoke character with flashing lights and dry ice. But now that DJ’s have become standard in the High Street bars, up and down the country, you need to be pushing the quality of your music in the same way you do your staff, your training and the quality of your drinks., if you want to stay ahead of the game. Your bartenders may bring in the cash, but a reliable, skilled, hardworking DJ who takes you and your business seriously is worth their weight in gold.