Our packages are fixed prices: $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 for up to four hours. Most quotes are exactly one of those numbers. When a quote comes back higher, it is because of one of four things: the hours, the room, the microphone count, or the date and what it does to the venue's schedule. This post explains each one with examples, so that when you send us a date and a venue you can already guess what the quote will say, and so that when another DJ's number looks low you know which of the four they have not asked about yet.
Hours: the four-hour clock and what sits outside it
Every package covers up to four hours of performance. Setup, about 90 minutes to two hours, and breakdown, about an hour, are outside the clock and not billed. What moves the quote is performance time beyond four, which is the Extended Hours add-on, billed by the hour.
The most common way an event grows past four hours is not the ending. It is the beginning. A company books a 7 to 11 party and then adds a 6 o'clock cocktail hour, sometimes in a second space. That is Cocktail Hour Coverage, and it is quoted as its own line because it changes the setup as much as the hours: music has to be running in the cocktail space while the main room is still being set, which means a second speaker position and a second sound check.
The other way hours grow is the venue's schedule rather than yours. If a hotel has a lunch in the ballroom until three and your doors are at seven, we have a normal window. If a Manhattan building's freight elevator only runs until four, we are in the room by three whether doors are at six or nine, and the hours between setup and the first guest are Early Setup / Idle Time. We would rather put that on the quote than absorb it and quietly cut the sound check short.
The room: a 200-person ballroom and a 40-person private room
Headcount by itself does not move the quote. The room does, and people conflate the two because big rooms hold big crowds. Take the two ends of what we see most.
A restaurant private room for 40: low ceiling, carpet, one long table or four rounds. The sound need is one speaker on a pole, placed so it aims away from the nearest table, and a great deal of restraint. The subwoofer stays in the vehicle. There is usually no dance floor, and if the room wants to dance at the end, it dances between the tables. This is a Corporate Mixer and it quotes at $2,500, because the challenge is volume control and reading the room, neither of which costs more equipment.
A hotel ballroom for 200, 120 feet long, with a dance floor at one end and the head table at the other. Sound from the booth alone means the front tables are hammered so the back can hear the toast. The fix is a second pair of speakers partway down the room, which means longer cable runs along the wall or under a cable ramp where the servers walk, and a subwoofer for the floor after the program. Sound and microphone coverage are confirmed against the venue, and in this room the confirmation is what makes the package fit. The package is usually a Corporate Celebration or Premier depending on the program, and the room may add a Second Sound Zone if the pre-function space is meant to have music during arrival.
Between those two sit lofts, galleries, rooftops and offices, and each has a detail that matters. Hard surfaces bounce sound, so the level that feels right at the booth is too much at the far wall. A rooftop needs the speakers weighted and the cables secured against wind. An office has carpet and drop ceilings that swallow music, and a building manager with rules about the floor below. None of those changes the package price, but they are why we ask for the venue name before anything else.
Microphones: how a program turns into a number
Every package includes wireless microphones and the light mic work that goes with them. What moves the quote is how many need to be live at the same time.
Four people speaking in sequence share two wireless handhelds without any trouble; one is in use and one is being handed to the next speaker. A panel of five who all need to talk over each other needs five. An awards program where a presenter reads and a winner responds needs two live at once plus a spare. Once the count goes past what the package covers, Additional Microphones are quoted as a line.
There is a detail here that only shows up on the night. Manhattan hotels are crowded on the wireless spectrum. The ballroom next door has its own microphones, the house AV system has more, and a frequency that was clear at five o'clock can be shared with someone else's keynote by seven. We coordinate frequencies with the venue's AV team where there is one and scan for clear channels during setup, which is one of the reasons we ask for the setup window we do. A DJ who arrives forty minutes before doors does not have time to find out that the microphone is sharing a channel with the room next door.
The date: what it changes and what it does not
The date does not change the package price. A Saturday in December and a Tuesday in March are both $3,500 for a Corporate Celebration. What the date changes is whether we are open, and what the venue's calendar does to the setup window.
Availability first. Saturday evenings go first in any month. The first three weeks of December go earliest of all, and OpenTable data reported by Restaurant Business puts December 10, 16 and 17 among the five biggest group-dining days of the year. Three to six months of notice is comfortable for most events; six to twelve if the date is fixed and falls on one of those. If the date is open, it is open at the package price.
The venue's calendar is the second thing. On a peak date, the room you are in probably had an event before yours and will have one after. That compresses the load-in window and can force the early setup described above, or a breakdown that has to be finished by a fixed time. That is the real way a date moves a quote: not a surcharge, but a venue schedule that turns a normal setup into an early one. The booking calendar is covered in more detail in how far in advance to book a corporate DJ.
What to send for a quote that is actually accurate
Because the four variables are all things you know, or your venue knows, a quote from us is only as good as what is in the inquiry. Send:
- The date and the start and end time, including any cocktail hour.
- The venue, and the room within it if the venue has several.
- Roughly how many people, and whether there is a second space that should have music.
- How many people will speak, and whether any of them speak at the same time.
- The venue's load-in window, if you know it. If not, we will ask the venue.
From that we can quote a package and any add-ons in one message, with each line explained. The package prices and the add-on list are on the pricing page, and if you are weighing us against other quotes, this is how to line them up fairly.
Send the date, venue and headcount through the contact page or call (201) 705-3139. We reply within 24 hours.