This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
One thing that really surprised me when I came to Japan was learning that DJs often aren’t paid to perform in clubs.
In fact, from my experience, depending on the number of tickets that the DJs sell/the number of people that the DJs can recruit to their events, often times, the DJs organizing the event ending up paying a little to a lot of money out of their own pockets to perform.
Now, I can’t say for certain whether this is true for all of Japan, but from what I know, clubs are usually reserved for a fee by groups of people who want to perform at them. For example, if you and a few friends like to DJ and you want to set up a monthly party, you would most likely contact the owner of the venue you want to perform at, agree to rent the venue out at a set price (possibly $700 or more), and then keep whatever profits you can make at the door.
As far as I know, being paid, even $20 to $50, directly by the owner of a club to DJ a weekly or monthly event that the club hosts doesn’t exist in Japan. Generally, events are organized by groups of friends and acquaintances, and are more a labor of love than a financial enterprise.
Perhaps, though, that could be said about performing any kind of music in general.
Another thing that surprised me about clubs in Japan is that admission prices often include one or two drink tickets that can be exchanged at the club’s bar for Free drinks.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
As a former DJ & Promoter in Tokyo I can confirm a lot of what you said. Yes, unless you are an established DJ or Production company things are difficult. When my friends and I started our first party at R-Lounge in Shibuya, known as Rock West back in the days, we luckily did not have to pay upfront. The owner's liked us and gave us a chance for the first event. It was a big success and we were offered a deal, we would get a fraction of the door for future parties and that was it. It worked out good for us and the owners moved us to a bigger venue across the street. I moved on to do another event with another promoter and we had to pay $4000 for the venue on a Friday night. We got 100% of the door though and it was a famous club so we took the chance. It worked for us for 3 months and then we both moved on.
Usually we didn't pay the support DJs, only the headliners and that was typical amongst parties. Instead we gave the support DJs drinks & guest lists. We also traded events. We would play at theirs, they would play at ours. It worked out and if we made money at the end of the night we would toss the support guys some 円. We didn't give a shit about getting paid though, we just wanted to play. We made money selling our CDs and doing our parties.
It's really only profitable for the venues and solid production groups. Everyone else is volunteering their time.
Most all clubs offer 1-2 drinks with entrance fee. I've noticed the drinks are getting smaller and crappier. Depending on the venue the promoters can choose to offer the drinks with the ticket price. There are many ways to do it. Sometimes it's mandatory though.
Someday I'll get around to writing about my days DJing and promoting in Tokyo.
$4,000 sounds like a lot for one night, but I guess if it's Tokyo on a Friday night and it's a popular club, that's what you have to deal with.
I'd love to hear your stories about DJing in Japan. I've always just been a tag along, a guest list guy. I've played shows in Live Houses, but I've never DJed, so I had a hard time writing about some of the details involved with DJing here. Thanks for filling in the blanks.
I rarely get out to clubs these days, but I found myself able to drop into a small event last weekend and it brought back memories of my first year here when my friend was trying to do the DJ thing and I remember that bit about having to be your own promoter plus the drink tickets custom over here really surprised me.
As long as you love what you are doing - maybe that's what the DJs in Japan were thinking. Cheers :)
I believe it is.
I often find that too offset the stresses and intensities of work, people are very passionate about their hobbies here. And even if they don't have much time for them, or if they're tired, they don't just stay in and relax, they do what it is they love.
It goes with the idea of making the most out of the limited time you have.
Read your post and compared prices in Croatia as well. Here you can't buy venue place for less than 600 USD, and most of the profit is not going to DJ, it's going to the venue manager or main sponzor/organizator. DJ-ing in Croatia is very expensive sport.Hope everything else i japan was perfect! :)
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@scout-adventure ---> travel and adventure!!
If your a headlining DJ here in a big city, I think you can make some money or at least have all your expenses paid to travel around and DJ, but if your just a local DJ or organizer, it seems to be a lot of work for little return other than fun and status. That's interesting that Croatia is the same. I'd like to go there someday. It looks beautiful.
👍👍👍👌👌
Thanks!
Your welcome my friend😉😉
One day I go and look Japan too :)
You'll enjoy what you see, I'm sure.
Thank you!! :))
I have a Japanese Teammate in my club. I told him already one day i have to see this beautiful country :)
Hopefully, your teammate will be able to show you around too. Exploring on your own is fun, but having an insider take you around can unlock a lot of hidden doors.
Yes, he would do that. He is from Tokyo.
That's great! Make sure to take him up on it.
we are thinking of moving to Japan for about 6 months, in maybe a year or two, so always interested in learning the culture better, my friend.
What are your plans? Six months isn't very long. Will you just be traveling? Doing a work stay?
I'd like to see this GIF hooked up to the VJ software in the video of this post.
😉
It will be great!
I am Japanese.
It is certainly just that kind of thing.
I would like to go abroad.
Do you want to live abroad, or just do some traveling? I meet a lot of people here who say they would like to live abroad because life here is too rigid. Unfortunately, I think a lot of aspects of Japanese culture that makes living in Japan so nice and special make it hard for Japanese people to enjoy the rewards.