Me as DJ
First, the good news: the space shuttle launched!! Woohoo!!!
Now, the thing that's been really pissing me off all day. In a week and a half, my little sister is getting married. She's in school, he just finished, and neither of the families have a lot of money. It's a small wedding, just about 100-125 or so people actually invited and a few more are expected to come to the reception and dance. So instead of paying $500-$1000 on a DJ, they asked if I could make some mixed CD's of all my music and play them. I've been working on this for a while, but just realized that with my camping trip that is coming up tomorrow through Sunday and with us leaving for home on Monday, I don't have much more time to look for music. So I posted on our "flea market" at work to get suggestions of fun, fast songs to play (I have plenty of nice, slow songs).
Most people replied with good suggestions that I can actually use. However, one person who I guess is a DJ on the side sent me this long email about how there's more to DJ'ing than just having fun songs. Like what to do if a music approach isn't working, interacting with the crowd, who the audience is, what kind of games I'm going to play, and on and on. Then he asked where I was going to get the equipment and said "surely you aren't going to use a boom box, right??" He said that when you download music from Wal-Mart or iTunes, it has a clause that you can't use it in a public performance, and that if you are going to do this, you have to have some kind of license and pay a fee. First, I'm not going to go out of my way to play games and teach people dances - if they don't know how to chicken dance, they're either socially incompentent or can just watch the rest of us. Second, so I can't play any of my music in front of people? I can only hope that he means I can't do it and get paid (which I'm not). If that's true, then you can never play any of your CD's at parties or gatherings of friends.
I emailed him back, being polite and thanking him for the info. I said it's a pretty low-key affair and they don't have much money and some more stuff that I can't remember. He wrote back and said he appreciates the money position, but doesn't think I should promote my idea of a budget performance on the flea market. What??? All I did was ask for song suggestions. He said if people think they can cut corners by doing their own music and still have a first-class event, they're WRONG. I'm not expecting a first class event, this is mainly just a social gathering (plus, the actual wedding is the important part, anyway). He goes on to say there's so much to think about like how often slow songs should be played, how much big band, oldies, etc, which songs are danceable, do I have spare cables and microphones (which I'm not having) and speakers, etc, what am I going to do when drunks yell that the music sucks, and on and on. He then tells me I'm completely retarded by saying "I'll bet you were just gonna put together something ahead of time and just let it play, right?...................good luck!" What a jerk. GRRRRR!!!!
Everyone that I've showed that to so far has agreed with my perspective. I understand that by not having a DJ we're not going to have the best performance out there, but we're really just out there to have fun and celebrate the wedding, not show everyone how much money we have by throwing a first-class wedding dance for like 100 people. And yes, if they had more money I'm sure they would want to hire a DJ and have it be a bit more professional. But they don't.
Wow...in the midst of typing that, I had a salesman come to my door to try to sell me cleaner. First, he asked if my mom or dad was here. I should have just said no, but I said I'm the owner. He said I looked 17!!! And then when I didn't want to buy anything, he went on to ask me out! How weird...a bit flattering, but no. lol
Now, the thing that's been really pissing me off all day. In a week and a half, my little sister is getting married. She's in school, he just finished, and neither of the families have a lot of money. It's a small wedding, just about 100-125 or so people actually invited and a few more are expected to come to the reception and dance. So instead of paying $500-$1000 on a DJ, they asked if I could make some mixed CD's of all my music and play them. I've been working on this for a while, but just realized that with my camping trip that is coming up tomorrow through Sunday and with us leaving for home on Monday, I don't have much more time to look for music. So I posted on our "flea market" at work to get suggestions of fun, fast songs to play (I have plenty of nice, slow songs).
Most people replied with good suggestions that I can actually use. However, one person who I guess is a DJ on the side sent me this long email about how there's more to DJ'ing than just having fun songs. Like what to do if a music approach isn't working, interacting with the crowd, who the audience is, what kind of games I'm going to play, and on and on. Then he asked where I was going to get the equipment and said "surely you aren't going to use a boom box, right??" He said that when you download music from Wal-Mart or iTunes, it has a clause that you can't use it in a public performance, and that if you are going to do this, you have to have some kind of license and pay a fee. First, I'm not going to go out of my way to play games and teach people dances - if they don't know how to chicken dance, they're either socially incompentent or can just watch the rest of us. Second, so I can't play any of my music in front of people? I can only hope that he means I can't do it and get paid (which I'm not). If that's true, then you can never play any of your CD's at parties or gatherings of friends.
I emailed him back, being polite and thanking him for the info. I said it's a pretty low-key affair and they don't have much money and some more stuff that I can't remember. He wrote back and said he appreciates the money position, but doesn't think I should promote my idea of a budget performance on the flea market. What??? All I did was ask for song suggestions. He said if people think they can cut corners by doing their own music and still have a first-class event, they're WRONG. I'm not expecting a first class event, this is mainly just a social gathering (plus, the actual wedding is the important part, anyway). He goes on to say there's so much to think about like how often slow songs should be played, how much big band, oldies, etc, which songs are danceable, do I have spare cables and microphones (which I'm not having) and speakers, etc, what am I going to do when drunks yell that the music sucks, and on and on. He then tells me I'm completely retarded by saying "I'll bet you were just gonna put together something ahead of time and just let it play, right?...................good luck!" What a jerk. GRRRRR!!!!
Everyone that I've showed that to so far has agreed with my perspective. I understand that by not having a DJ we're not going to have the best performance out there, but we're really just out there to have fun and celebrate the wedding, not show everyone how much money we have by throwing a first-class wedding dance for like 100 people. And yes, if they had more money I'm sure they would want to hire a DJ and have it be a bit more professional. But they don't.
Wow...in the midst of typing that, I had a salesman come to my door to try to sell me cleaner. First, he asked if my mom or dad was here. I should have just said no, but I said I'm the owner. He said I looked 17!!! And then when I didn't want to buy anything, he went on to ask me out! How weird...a bit flattering, but no. lol
posted by Kimberly at 5:27 PM
2 Comments:
CALM DOWN!!! Will you stop it!!! Calm down!
You have every right to be angry. The guy was being a jerk, plus he was wrong. There is something called "fair use" which allows you to use something that you buy as you see fit, as long as you're not profiting from it. So you are well within your rights to play your music at a public gathering (though, technically a wedding is private) as long as you're not making any money. And you're not. So your fine.
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