The Secret DJ: "‘Paying to play’ is a genuine threat to dance music culture"

Much like in acting, broadcasting, dance or any performing art, increasingly it is the privileged who are finding the path to the DJ booth a cake-walk. Scratch the surface of many new performers and you’ll find a showbiz parent, a millionaire backer or in one or two cases, a straight-up silver-spoon socialite slumming it for kicks.

That’s because the cost of becoming a professional DJ or live electronic act is fast becoming unsustainable. It’s less and less about having a shining passion for the thing, and more and more about the equipment, the vinyl, the VIP area, the social media following, Vegas, the analogue, the modular, Ibiza, the vinyl, the vinyl, the vinyl. And all that status display costs.

A new class of fetishists is arising to display their financial superiority with their large collections of vintage vinyl and kit. But ancient rack modules have never made a vocal delivery more evocative, nor does the format raise the hairs on the back of your neck at the breakdown. Yet there is a schism forming between the have-and-have-nots that is deeply unhealthy. And when you add in the pernicious rise of pay-to-play DJ bookings, money is at risk of becoming the only way to make dance music happen for you as a career.

In Ibiza and beyond you’ll now find very, very large clubs (as well as very cool small ones) that refuse to pay a DJ’s travel costs, or offer a fee so low you’d be staggered. This effectively prices out the less privileged, who can’t afford to finance their own trips while they try to make their name. Yet at these same venues you’d be shocked at the money being shovelled across the bars and box offices, while simultaneously, the DJs don’t get paid at all.

The fact is, if it costs you in any way to play your music, you are paying to perform. But at clubs, why is it only the DJs who are expected to work for nothing? Do the bar staff slog all night in exchange for bartending profile-building? Do security people stand in the cold and deal with stupidity and violence for the appreciation of their peers? Mmm, can’t wait to feed the kids a tasty and nutritious exposure sandwich for their school lunch.

As in the rest of society, from Cineworld to Uber to Sports Direct, someone very rich is making an awful lot of money while simultaneously saying that they “can’t afford” to pay anyone properly. And given this landscape, why not pay to play? After all, the law of supply and demand is heavily in favour of venues, promoters and industry. If you’re an up-and-coming DJ there’s now constant pressure from people lining up behind you who are willing to do it cheaper, and behind them are some who’ll work for free – and clambering over everyone are the queue-jumpers willing and able to pay top dollar for time in the booth.

It’s pernicious, and it’s widespread. Don’t get me started on the booth-blockers who offer ‘services as a DJ’ in order to swing a discount on their yearly holiday, or to get access to a festival. All too often these are dad-rockers with nice jobs and houses who ‘do a bit of DJing’ on the side.

But whether it’s playing for free, paying to play, funding their own trips or otherwise trading on privilege to smooth their path, DJs who give themselves a leg-up aren’t just making the business harder for those around them, they’re not doing themselves any favours by trying to skip the hard slog and fierce competition that the rest of us have endured and learned from. Because believe me, short-cuts tend to backfire in the long run.

Ever wondered why so many bookings in our supposedly youth-led culture are dominated by older DJs? Ever asked why a generation that came up in the last century have such staying power, while many younger models blaze brightly and then burn out? Maybe older DJs have lasted the distance because they cut their teeth at a time when genuine hard work and talent were absolute requirements, and the only possible foundation of a career. Paul van Dyk built his first set of decks himself. Carl Cox got his break rigging up soundsystems in Streatham. You couldn’t buy your way to the top back then, because the business infrastructure didn’t exist – so those that managed to make it 20 years ago had to have total dedication and a lot of skill.

And while the apparent meritocracy of acid house may in fact have favoured a demographic that was disproportionately male and white, the lack of real financial barriers meant that there was a lot more class diversity, and greater opportunities for the dedicated, the hustlers, the poor.In the face of today’s narrowing of opportunities, and a fall in the perceived value of DJing, we have to fight the global epidemic of pay-to-play. My fellow DJs: heed me. Attach value to what you and your colleagues do. Ultimately, the reason DJs pay to play or play for free is that other DJs do it. This distortion of the business in favour of the moneyed does the scene we love no favours– but it’s something that only we can fix.

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