Guide Your DJ – Don’t Control Them

When you are hiring a DJ, remember to respect their profession. Remember that this is what they do for a living. They have done many events and have become experts at playing the right songs at the right time for you and your guests.

Unfortunately, recently we had a bride who sent through a very extensive list of over 300 songs and artists she said the DJ was not to play. Now these songs and artists were the “cream of the crop”, the absolute “must plays” at weddings if you expect your guests to have fun and hit the dance floor.

Seeing this, we were concerned and could tell already what the outcome of the night would be. So we called the bride strongly advising her to loosen the restrictions or her guests would not be happy and will leave early. She declined stating that it is her wedding and she doesn’t want to hear any of those songs.

Come the wedding day, the DJ struggled to find music that would not be too obscure but also not fall into the “banned” artists lists. Which left very little to work with. Therefore, the usual ability to mix between tracks was not possible as he had to spend all his time trying to think of which song to play to keep the few guests dancing rather than mixing well known songs.

Inevitably, guests started requesting the usual classics they really wanted to hear. Our DJ explained that the couple have asked for no songs by that particular artist. Then they asked for another, and another and another.  This led to frustration of the guests who then asked if they could see the list of artist that were not to be played. Our DJ complied and handed over the pages (yes, PAGES) of artists and songs that were not to be played.

This didn’t go down well with the guests who looked at the list with a shock and become disappointed and frustrated that they would not be hearing anything they wanted. The guests confronted the bride about it who stuck to her guns and enforced the ban to continue.

Of course, the guests didn’t dance.
They didn’t have the time they were expecting.
They left disheartened and disappointed.

We LOVE getting a list of songs and artists from couples of some of their favourites, this helps us to “flavour” the night of what we know will work along with some of your favourites.  This is great, but please don’t give us an extensive list of songs and artists to not play (of course a few are fine). On the flip side, also don’t give us a list of songs and demand we ONLY stick to the list.

Controlling your DJ like this destroys our creativity and ability to do what you have paid us to do … to keep your guests having a great time.  If you truly want to control the music, then don’t hire a DJ. Just create your own list and play it from your phone etc. We are DJs, not Spotify Playlists or jukeboxes.

You wouldn’t think of demanding the chefs only cooked using the recipes you provided them would you? 

This applies to DJs.  Our music is our ingredients and when left to do what we do best, we can blend those ingredients to make an amazing and enjoyable result for all.