Pay to play

DJ Yuca

DJ Yuca

Son Montuno
I've just seen a good one on fb: apparently some congress promoters are going beyond refusing to pay DJs, they're now telling DJs they have to pay to DJ. The thinking seems to be: it's so easy to become a 'DJ' (i.e. download some random salsa tunes and learn how to work CD decks or a laptop) that plenty of people want to become one. As it takes so little time, effort or money to become a DJ, obviously these people don't deserve to get paid, in fact they should be paying for the pleasure of DJing.

In the words of De La Soul, 'Everyone wants to be a DJ'.

Feel free to let off some steam.
 
It does irk me when someone who, as you mentioned, downloads a few random salsa tunes and learns how to work a laptop, then goes out and gets paid as much as a live band that's spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on training and equipment. I know there are good DJs who earn their pay, but most of the ones I've encountered / had to compete with do not.

However, having to pay to play music in public affects everyone, including live performers. And even if they word it so that live music is different under the rules, it still reeks of BS.
 
The dance teams have been paying to perform for a few years, so it was only time before the pay to play DJs started to show up. I thought it was bad enough when they were clamoring to play for free.
 
I can't say I'm overly surprised. As Mambo T says some performers already pay at some congresses. For the wannabe DJ's it will look good on their CVs (resume) if they can say I've played at 'X' congress.

The proof of how easy it is to DJ will be in the feedback from the floor. Some new DJ's ARE very good and get the selction and flow of songs just right. It must be very irksome for old timers that these new DJ's can now set up at minimal cost and don't have to spend years collecting the music as it's all readily available for download.
 
Performers, and now DJs, having to pay for their own work...
That's just horrible, and utterly ridiculous!

Yes, it's quite easy becoming a DJ nowadays, but not a good one - becoming a good one takes a lot of time, knowledge and practice.

Maybe the DJs should go on a strike?
 
I was asked once to be a DJ for a club. I refused. I said "Yes I have a lot of CDs, but it takes more to make a good DJ". So kudos to me! As Clint said "A man's gotta know his limitations".

And it IS ridiculous. I'm amazed people are so crazy about performing that they would pay to do it.
 
timberamayor said:
I was asked once to be a DJ for a club. I refused. I said "Yes I have a lot of CDs, but it takes more to make a good DJ". So kudos to me! As Clint said "A man's gotta know his limitations".
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Well, but you had a chance to become a good DJ. Practice, failing, learning.. :)
 
But practice, fail, learn at your local events first. A congress is supposed to be the best of everything. I'd rather organisers got the best DJs, whether old timers or rising stars, and paid them so they keep spinning :). Without the right music the whole night is flat.

I think with am-performers it is different, I'm pretty sure no-one's congress night is going to be ruined by not having seen them perform, or by having a shorter show set - so they have to pay to get us to watch?
 
If they can get qualified people that will pay versus having to pay for qualified people, then it is a simple economic decision.

Are the vast majority of dancers going to be able to tell the difference between the "awesome" DJ who must be paid versus the "up and coming DJ" who pays so that he can garner some publicity that will allow him more employment opportunities in the future?
 
tocatimba said:
If they can get qualified people that will pay versus having to pay for qualified people, then it is a simple economic decision.

Are the vast majority of dancers going to be able to tell the difference between the "awesome" DJ who must be paid versus the "up and coming DJ" who pays so that he can garner some publicity that will allow him more employment opportunities in the future?
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If they get qualified people it would work. Yet they get the guys who just want to tell people they are DJing a congress. LA Congress has become a joke.
 
I suspect this is about the Amsterdam congress because I saw there a number of people I had not seen DJ-ing before. ("Is he now DJ-ing too??")

I keep getting amazed at how many people I know who are now DJ-ing. And they all seem to be successful - meaning that nobody ever complained from them. The same goes for teaching BTW. Or is it a sign that I've been on the salsa scene for too long now...
 
SalsaGipsy said:
I suspect this is about the Amsterdam congress because I saw there a number of people I had not seen DJ-ing before.


Or is it a sign that I've been on the salsa scene for too long now..


.
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So..... it begs the question.. was the music good, great, average ? ( Comparatively speaking ) .


And, how long is too long ? ( that sounds like 2 chinese DJs ! )
 
Sucks for the dj's who have been around a while and have been making money off of it as a job .... then again, not all dj's who have been around a while are good....and sometimes, being a friend of some teacher / owner / band member gives you certain priveledges that can overshadow actual talent.

Cool for the new guys who maybe don't have many connections and could actually be good .... unfortunately, a person's ego doesn't usually match their actual capabilities (as is often exemplified on X-factor / American Idol tryouts), so I'm going to say this is a good business strategy in the economic sense, but not very good one from a quality standpoint, and definitely not when stepping on veteran dj's toes - but there could be a possibility that we get some talented dj's in the long run (optimistically). Yes, the old system of dj'ing as a job is taking a back seat for a moment, once again, based on the amount of information (music) readily available on the internet.....kind of curious how this goes in the next few years.

Personally - and again, this is just me - I'm as tired of hearing downloaded, low-quality, crappy-rare music that alot of dj's play nowadays (or the supposed music collectors who pride themselves in showing off all these mp3's they have in their collections - just look around at home many stupid collector blogs exist by mp3 collectors) as I am of seeing dancers all do the same patterns and same turns and try and dance exactly like teacher-X or Performer-Y. All of this is a sign of the times, I guess - a lack of originality or creativity. Even junk that is available for "legal" download or "legal" purchase on cd is often-times of horrible quality. Unfortunately, most people don't know any better and just don't care......people are too concerned about themselves and their images and their popularity and their ego to be overly concerned about quality. Esp. b/c, as someone else pointed out here, it might mean sometimes taking yourself out of a race that you are just not qualified to compete in to be able to see a quality performance.....

*sigh*
 
I was just talking with a friend last night, a musician who has his own Charanga band ("Charansalsa"). He was telling me that he just lost a contract at a casino where the band has been working steadily for the past two years. The casino wanted him to trim down the size of the band and pay much less, but he won't do that and compromise the sound of his group. So the casino has decided to lose the live music and go DJ-only.

We were wondering how much the DJ's might get paid by the casino... but now I'm thinking they might be soliciting DJ's that will work for free, just for the "exposure". It's a sad situation. Very sad.
 
terence said:
So..... it begs the question.. was the music good, great, average ? ( Comparatively speaking ) .
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To be honest I would find it difficult to say for sure. I wasn't feeling the music much that weekend but that had a lot to do with the sound quality - which did not change much so was probably due to technical reasons, huge space, etc.

And, how long is too long ? ( that sounds like 2 chinese DJs ! )
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It's all relative of course :) I usually say that I've been dancing since 2000 but actually I made my first (salsa) steps several years earlier, don't remember the exact date though (must be old age, hehe).
 
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