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Proof You Can Still Make Big Money in Music


Anderton

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Forbes' annual Electronic Cash Kings list of the top-earning DJ’s shows 10 people collectively earning over $250 million through music, gigs and brand endorsements. Calvin Harris gets paid more than $400,000 per Vegas gig...here are the top 10.

1. Calvin Harris – $63 million 2. Tiesto – $38 million 3. David Guetta – $28 million 4. Zedd – $24.5 million 5. Steve Aoki – $23.5 million 6. Diplo – $23 million 7. Skrillex – $20 million 8. Kaskade – $19 million 9. Martin Garrix – $16 million 10. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike – $15.5 million

 

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I was doing a seminar once on DJ techniques and paid someone $20 to yell out "That isn't music!!" to generate a little controversy :)

 

I think that being able to entertain thousands of people for several hours at a stretch without making a single mistake is pretty difficult. Like most music only a small percentage is exceptional. But I'll never forget the first time I saw a really, really good DJ in action. It was highly educational, and downright inspiring.

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All of those guys on the list (at least the ones I have heard of) are producers and songwriters as well as DJs. I don't know if anyone who just spins records making that kind of money, no matter how technically proficient. Not all of these guys are DJs in the traditional sense. For example, a Skrillex show features Skrillex playing his own tunes. His tracks are prerecorded, not sequenced. He used to take a DAW onstage with him, but he stopped in order to make shows simpler and more reliable. He has control over a few parameters like filters.

 

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EDM is bigger than ever. Whether or not it's "real" music, people listen to it, people dance to it, and a few people make really big money producing it. From a recent Forbes article:

 

"In the Las Vegas bidding war, there have been no holds barred on what clubs are offering star artists. Among the benefits are promotional deals–which have placed the faces of DJs on everything from hotel key cards to billboards; tailor-made performances; and, most of all, money. On a busy weekend in Sin City, Hakkasan, for example, can pay anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000 per night to its top acts."

 

I suspect that's more per show than Celene Dion gets.

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]I was doing a seminar once on DJ techniques and paid someone $20 to yell ou[/b]t "That isn't music!!" to generate a little controversy :)

 

I think that being able to entertain thousands of people for several hours at a stretch without making a single mistake is pretty difficult. Like most music only a small percentage is exceptional. But I'll never forget the first time I saw a really, really good DJ in action. It was highly educational, and downright inspiring.

 

 

 

I would have done it for 15 bucks.

:D

 

[video=youtube;EPfmNxKLDG4]

 

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If you're at the age (and have sufficient socio-economic means) where you can hang out in clubs and raves on a regular basis, then DJs probably appeal to you... but for those of us who don't spend our nights dancing in clubs, we're hardly exposed to them at all. Seems to me that DJs are mainly about the live experience and have much less influence and exposure when it comes to recordings, despite the success of some DJ/producers.

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If you're at the age (and have sufficient socio-economic means) where you can hang out in clubs and raves on a regular basis' date=' then DJs probably appeal to you... but for those of us who don't spend our nights dancing in clubs, we're hardly exposed to them at all. [/quote']

 

David Guetta is a straight up pop star due to his association with Nicki Minaj and Sia, and sells a lot of records. Diplo is the guy behind Major Lazer, the top selling band on iTunes. A few of the guys on the list are known primarily for dance parties, which I have very little interest in. But a bunch of them you would be exposed to just by listening to top 40.

 

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Oy Vey - the Pod People got our Craig :( .

 

This was in 1999, so I've been podded for quite a while :)

 

The skill set required to be a good DJ these days is pretty comprehensive. You could say a conductor isn't a musician because he just waves a stick around, but what a conductor has to know to wave the stick around properly is not easy.

 

Check out the article So You Think EDM Sucks? Read This for more thoughts on the matter...

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David Guetta is a straight up pop star due to his association with Nicki Minaj and Sia, and sells a lot of records. Diplo is the guy behind Major Lazer, the top selling band on iTunes. A few of the guys on the list are known primarily for dance parties, which I have very little interest in. But a bunch of them you would be exposed to just by listening to top 40.

 

Sounds like they're notable for their production skills then, and not strictly as DJs. :idk:

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Yes that's money in music, but not money in making music, instead money in playing music. Slight difference.

 

There was a time when a good radio DJ made a fortune too - Murray the K, Cacey Kasemm, Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie, Alan Freed come to mind. They played recordings, but very few had a hit record of their own (I think "The Big Bopper" was a radio DJ - correct me if that's wrong).

 

A good live dance party DJ shares a skill with a good band leader, calling the right song at the right time for the audience.

 

And I can't find anything wrong with DJs or EDM, even though I don't care to be a DJ and I listen to very little EDM. But there's a market for it, so who am I to criticize?

 

But I really don't want to be a DJ. Although I call the right song at the right time (most of the time anyway) for my audience, the real joy is when the sax, flute, or wind synth is in my mouth, the guitar in my hand, or my mouth is on the microphone and the music seems to flow through me instead of from me -- the place where there is no space, no time, not even words (when I'm singing it's memorized articulations), but just the bliss of being absorbed by the music.

 

But that's just me.

 

I've been a musician all my life, and so far have avoided real jobs except for two times while I was wondering what it is to be normal - and I found out normal is over-rated.

 

I feel like even though I was in a band that almost but never quite made it, so I didn't make the big bucks, I'm still lucky enough to make a decent living doing music and nothing but music. It beats any day job I can think of.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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The days when DJs just cued up "Evergreen" at weddings are long gone (well, except for mobile DJs, who are a whole other phylum). So much has changed. I saw a video on the Native Instruments site a few years ago when it appeared someone was playing a song. Then you saw what the player was doing with his hands - he was constructing a song that had never existed before, in real time, from bits and pieces of one-shots. Most DJs "play" effects to a far more accomplished degree than guitarists who just hit a footswitch to turn the effect on, and then hit it again to turn it off, ever will.

 

Add to that the precision with which beat-matching has to occur, the trend to "harmonic" matching where the DJ adjusts keys on the fly through stretching, "fader slamming" to do live remixes with multiple tracks going simultaneously, replacing two tracks with stems that allow the DJ to be a performing engineer, synched setups where two DJs can be slamming something like Ableton Live and trade licks back and forth...not to mention loading in one-shots and samples, then playing them in real time on top of everything else that's going on...

 

I guarantee that if you take a bunch of hot-shot instrumentalists who diss DJs, and sit them down in front of Traktor with an S8 and NI's D2, X1, and F1, they're going to get very humble, very fast.

 

When I was first getting involved with the DJ scene by jamming on guitar with DJs, they were totally open-minded and thought it was really cool. Trading guitar licks with someone who could mirror what I was doing - but with an effing turntable - blew my mind. Then I played with bands that were all about live remixing and what I called "fader slamming." Yet when I tried to show rock and rollers what they could learn from DJs, they were too good for that. "Oh, those aren't real musicians." I told them they couldn't do what a good DJ could do, even if they practiced for the next couple of years - any more than a DJ could do what a good guitarist could do, even if they practiced for the next couple years.

 

What I've learned about arranging, dropping out parts, selective muting, frequency shaping, breaks, and effects from watching good DJs has improved the sound of all the music I do, particularly rock music, tremendously. There's a lot to be learned from "DJ thinking" regardless of whether you DJ or not...just like you can learn a lot about counterpoint from Bach, even if you never play a lick of classical music.

 

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I'd love to see further exploration of this topic. We've established that young DJs who have practiced their craft for years can make big money in music; but I'm guessing that the typical forum member here is over forty, plays a traditional instrument, and has a family to support and would therefore rather not travel to perform around the world.

 

What can we do to make big money in music, or even medium money? Is there a lesson here for us?

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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When you make that much money, you can travel first class and bring your family with you :)

 

As to age, it's not true DJing is only for the young. In my experience DJs are perhaps more open-minded than any other group of musicians I've met; they didn't care that I was the oldest guy in the room, playing to people a third my age. All they cared about was that adding guitar could be really cool.

 

Many of the world's top DJs are well over 40. Fatboy Slim is 53, Carl Cox 54, David Guetta 48, Pete Tong 55, Tiesto 47, Kaskade 45, Paul Oakenfold 53, Richie Hawtin 45...I could go on...check out the article 10 Reasons Why DJs Over 40 Control EDM and 25 of EDM's Best DJs Over 40.

 

So Geoff, what are you waiting for? Get that residency in Vegas, have a great time, and make a bunch of bucks!

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I'm glad to hear that so many of the top DJs are over forty. Did they take up DJing and break in when they were over forty as well? If so, then that's especially promising!

 

As for me, Vegas isn't an option unless I were to go there by myself, which only makes it worth considering if there were a great paying, short-term offer on the table.

 

Personally, I have a glut of composing work right now; but it's low paying stuff because my competition is willing to do it for free, based on the royalties they'll get on the back end. Fortunately, my work is good enough that I don't have to sink to that level; but the gig doesn't pay like it used to. As a result, I'm looking more aggressively at how I can improve my situation; and this thread grabbed my attention!

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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I think that being able to entertain thousands of people for several hours at a stretch without making a single mistake is pretty difficult. Like most music only a small percentage is exceptional. But I'll never forget the first time I saw a really, really good DJ in action. It was highly educational, and downright inspiring.

 

It's mind-boggling what a great DJ can do, actually. This admittedly isn't even my favorite thing to attend or do or listen to, but if one is truly honest with themselves, no matter how they feel about the music, an amazing DJ seems to work magic.

 

There obviously aren't a ton of DJs that are this great. But that's true of just about anything, isn't it?

 

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Personally, I have a glut of composing work right now; but it's low paying stuff because my competition is willing to do it for free, based on the royalties they'll get on the back end. Fortunately, my work is good enough that I don't have to sink to that level; but the gig doesn't pay like it used to. As a result, I'm looking more aggressively at how I can improve my situation; and this thread grabbed my attention!

 

Hopefully you can pull that off.

 

For what you are describing, there are really a lot of parallels in other fields, including photography. But one can always find work somewhere if one is talented and relentless. And sure, sometimes, a little bit lucky too.

 

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You can make a living at a lot of businesses where only a few make the big time.

 

Artists. How many get to be a Picasso? I know a few locals that make a living s at it thought.

 

Chefs/Restaurants. Plenty of small ones then never become a Delmonico’s

 

The list goes on and on.

 

I read that four out of 5 businesses fail in the first few years. Don't know if that's true or not, but if it is, it seems to me that if you can make a living being self-employed, you are a success. Of course there are different degrees of success.

 

For every famous DJ or Musician there are a lot of them who are happily making a living doing what they love and others who tried it and it didn't work out for them.

 

If you are doing what you love, following your bliss, and have enough money to be comfortable or better, you are probably a success.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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A friend of mine who is a good 15 years younger than me DJs here in NYC. As much as I respect what he does (DJing and party organizer), I cannot say that what he does is "music". I recently went to a wedding where the DJ was mixing 3 songs at the same time. It was quite amazing and I enjoyed it but again, I`m not sure I would call what he does music making. He is a good organizer of tunes. He knows how to mangle beats and melodies and somehow create something cool out of someone else creativity. I`m not saying he isn`t creative, but his creativity depends on someone elses. So.... not sure these DJs qualify for musicians in my book.

 

These huge dance partys with a bunch of DJs opening up for the headliner DJ is definitely a major happening and people are enjoying themselves but I do wonder what is the draw.

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