How Much Should I Pay for a DJ?

DJ prices vary immensely, some charge upwards of $5000 and some DJs will charge you $250 for an entire night of service. So how much should your DJ cost? That entirely depends on what you’re hoping to get out of your DJ and how much of your budget you’d like to spend on the DJ. Here we’ll go through what you should expect when chatting with different DJs and give you some general guidelines as to what you should be paying for a DJ.

First it’s important to know that a lot of DJs charge either an hourly or daily rate for your event. With a lot of DJs being quite strict with their package prices and inclusions. The best way to get a good price on a good DJ is to find one that will be flexible to your specific needs. Rather than purchasing a “one-size fits all” package.

Be sure to have a conversation with your DJ about what exactly you want and need. This way they can find out where to cut costs for you and get you the best price possible on the best service possible. If your DJ doesn’t want to be flexible with what exactly is being offered, you may want to shop around a bit more and see if any other options are available. A good DJ should know that each event is unique and a “one-size fits all” option doesn’t work for every event.

Once you’ve found a DJ that’s open to working with you for your specific event’s needs. Be sure to evaluate their price based on what they’re offering. Remember that with a DJ, you get what you paid for so finding someone that’s open to DJing an entire wedding for $200 most likely won’t provide you the service you need. Experienced wedding DJs know that a wedding takes not only 8-10 hours of your day during the event, but hours of preparations and setup before the day of too and they’ll price that accordingly. Below we’ve Included a chart of what you should expect to get out of a DJ, based on the price you’re paying.

A lot of DJs will also include a daily rate for longer events. This is something we typically recommend if you need assistance all day at a wedding or large corporate event (such as a trade show). A daily rate gives you the flexibility to make plan changes and know your DJ will always be there to provide music. Expect to pay between $1000 and $1500 for an experienced DJ to work a full day for you. This price should include the DJ along with one or two microphones & a sound system if the venue needs it. If your DJ is also providing lighting or effects on your behalf, then you should expect the price to increase depending on how much equipment is needed.

When booking your DJ it's important to take into account the pricing for quality assurance and to ensure you're not being ripped off. Don't take the cheapest deal you can find just because of the price, but also don't assume an extremely high price tag means you'll receive premium services. Find out what's included in the price, whether you can add/remove any thing in the package and if you can opt for a daily rate versus an hourly rate. From there, evaluate which package and DJ will fit your event the best and lock in your decision.

Still worried you're paying the wrong price for your DJ? Feel free to get in touch with us and we'll be happy to help sort out any questions you may have.