Trap Beats Syndication and CD Release

Trap Beats Syndication
I told you a few months ago that syndication was in the works. It looks like my Trap Beats sessions will be broadcast on several formats starting next week. Several confirmed outlets have come in through Reverbnation to include MTV events, Spotify and some other outlets. Let me know if you hear any of my trap sessions on Pandora or Spotify.

Break Beats CD Available the first week in August
The CD will be sold through several online and in vinyl stores. Will be available on CD, Vinyl and MP3 download. 

Being Prepared

If there is one thing I have learned over 23 years in the entertainment business is it never hurts to have a backup plan for a backup plan. Sometimes we arrive at a venue and things are not as they were described. We have a clear requirement of 2 - 20 amp 110V circuits in our contract but sometimes people see outlets and think they are good. Well if those outlets are all on the same circuit that is not the case.

We ran into this over the past weekend. Not only that but we had dirty power (lots of interference). Our equipment is on filtered power but that doesn't help with inductive loads on the same circuits. We ended up pulling a generator out of our truck to make sure we could make it through the evening. While this helped our power issue it did not help with the fact that the power we were using was dirty and at the end of a very long run so our 20 amp circuit was really at 14 amps because of the long cable run that the client had to their building.

The point of this post is to say that if you don't prepare it will affect how your customers view the services you provide. Do the best you can with what you got and people will remember you and your performance. Try and think for your customers. Remember you are the professional so act like it. 

New Trap Beats with DJ K-Blue Syndication

Starting this week we will be featuring a 1 hour and 4 hour Trap Beats Radio with DJ K-Blue in Syndication. We have 2 radio stations that will be picking up the syndication as well as Live Mix Show (www.livemixshow.com) weekly.

We will be inviting other DJ's and Entertainers to come to our studio in Raleigh, NC to be a part of the show. The station will be providing promotional music from several Record Pools as part of our format and we will be doing R&B, Top 40 Remixes and more. Tune in and check it out...

Charity Work

One of the greatest feelings in the world is helping others. In the next few days we will be preparing for the Garner Relay for Life walk. While we would have liked to have raised more money and awareness we are happy with our teams progress to date. Every single dollar helps so we are not giving up and will continue to drive forward to make this event a memorable one.

If your in the Garner, NC area we understand that Scotty McCreary will be making an appearance as he say's he always supports the event. We are planning on having our Bounce House there and we will be doing Sand Art and some raffles to raise money for the cause.

Support charity in your area, you never know when you or a loved one may need help. If you would like to donate please go to this page. Thanks for your support. If you can't donate register to walk and come join us!

New 1 Hour Syndicated Radio Show

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Raleigh, NC) - Aurora Entertainment has announced the syndication of a new 1 hour format for Radio broadcast featuring DJ K-Blue. The hour long show will be a weekly late night feature for Radio broadcast and will also be available through our media partners.

Music will be provided directly by the record companies for the format and mixes will be completed and released via satellite on Tuesday's of the week of broadcast. Eventually the show will feature a trap artist each week and some music will be made available via BeatPort™.

Stay tuned for more information...

DJ K-Blue is Raleigh's Premier up and coming DJ in the Trap and Urban underground remix scene. Booking's are available through Aurora Entertainment and BRP exclusively.

The Aches and Pains of Growing.... FAST!

Over the past 6 months we have seen a tremendous growth rate at "Team Aurora". Whether it's M. Dollaz planning a blow out concert or it's RedRum and Blue doing the bridal show thing I can tell you that things are getting crazy and quick. The more we do this the more I realize that we have the right crew, in the right place, at the right time.

Our bookings are going through the roof, our shows are getting bigger, better and more entertaining and we have many good people that are helping to make our company the number one go to entertainment company in the south. Over the past few weeks we have added several features such as our remote power units (Truck Mounted Generators) as well as our improved video format, new services such as the candy bar outlet for our wedding clients, Foam Party time is also here as well as executive class transportation.

Someone once told me that you have to clearly define what you do for a business but we are definitely not in that mold. We are going the opposite route of what can't we do? If we have answers to that question we then figure out what we need, and then we do it. Our competition is scratching their heads right now because we are showing up everywhere.

During the past weekend we had more than a few pissed off stares and the "WTF" looks as we walked around the bridal show. I don't know if they are pissed because we brought an award winning presentation or if we are taking their clients but frankly we don't care. It's not a competition with us. We are doing what we do, having fun, improving, growing and making a difference in the community. We are working on charity events, outreach events to help communities and much more!

 

DJ RedЯum at the Southern Bridal Show and Expo Voted "Best New Exhibitor"

We have organized our Relay for Life Team and we will be focused on that over the next few weeks. Our goal is to keep the business about our clients and people. Without your staff you can't do anything and your just another company trying to make it in a bad economy. Make it about the people however and people will come together and you can accomplish more as a team. 

In addition to getting out in the public's eye we are also working on some things behind the scenes with some very big stars (more on this in later blog post). Keep your eyes (and definitely your ears open) for some really neat things to come.

Look we are not defining a set market area... We are trying to excel at everything we do. We give 110% and keep bringing it. We are licensed, insured and trained. We use legal music and we don't cut corners. That's "what we do!".

We are not trying to brag here. Everybody can improve and get better. We want everybody to succeed. That's what makes the industry a better place.

Aurora Entertainment was reborn in 2013 due to the hard work of 2 like minded individuals with drive. Since then we have added additional like minded people with a passion and love of music. Music.... "That's what we do!" ... But that's not all we do! Till next time...

Making Waves

We can all hope for change right? So many times we sit and want to change things but we do nothing to effect that change. People talk a good game but how many of those same people do anything to back up their words?

I want everybody to be successful. It can happen! Everybody could be better than they are today. We can all learn. It doesn't matter how long you have been in this business you will always learn something new from time to time. Today I noticed that some people never change. They continue doing the same things they have always done and in the process will limit themselves by their very own actions.

Each and every one of us walks a different path. We will all do things that are wrong, we will all make mistakes and we will all hopefully learn and grow from these mistakes but the more I watch the people in this industry the more frustrated I am with the arrogance, know it all attitudes and flat out ignorance for basic human interaction. We are in the service industry people! People deserve to be treated better than this especially your peers. Just because somebody doesn't live up to the standards that you would have for yourself doesn't make them any less of an entertainer or a person. Understand that they are dealing with different things in their lives and may not have all of the same skills that you do. That being said don't attack. Embrace. Help them learn WITHOUT confronting them or making them look bad in a public forum.

So let's do this people. Let's start to forget about how much experience we have. Let's forget about the physical things we have for a bit. Let's look at each other as people, as individuals and realize that as individuals we will all do things differently. And that is perfectly OK! Take action my friends don't let those words die a slow death. Words without actions are useless! Show your fellow DJ's and fans the person you truly can be!

Sleep well my fellow DJ's and my fans!

Large Venue Coming Up.... We Are Toonz and Terio in Concert!!!

Announcement:
"April 4th, 2014 at Star City Skate & Play I present to you the Spring Warm Up Dance & Concert with We Are Toonz will be performing their smash hit single Nae Nae and my lil homie Terio goin do his famous Ooh Kill em dance, DJ M. Dollaz on the 1's & 2's hosted by Soul 92's own Jojo Peoples & B. Sulley, Curt Nice bringing the best sound system in NC and Aurora Entertainment bring the best effects and light show in the state, get your tickets early because this will be a sold out event!"

Yes that's right yours truly will be providing the lighting for htis event. Our lighting and effects are second to none. If the event was held outdoors we would be doing it up with the pyro effects and proximity displays but since it's indoors our options will be slightly limited. That's OK though as we will be doing it up right... 

 

In addition we will be providing sound at 2 other concerts this month in Raleigh. Our Concert Support Services are available for rentals in the Carolina's. Call 1-800-687-0480 Extension 1 for booking or to get a quote. 

More events will be posted soon and additional concerts. If you would like to join our crew call us at (919)441-7353. 

 

Preview of the Break Beats CD

I put up a preview of the upcoming break beats CD on Soundcloud™ today for anybody that wants to check it out. The CD's will be $8.95 each and the digital download will be $12.95 (with additional exclusive content for your mixes). I will be signing the first 10 CD's purchased as a bonus as well... So get your order in on launch and you could also receive other free gifts along with your order.

Attitude is Everything

I have to put this out there. There is too much negativity in EVERYTHING. People have forgotten how to love, how to live and how to grow (this is the worst thing ever). I see way too many people out there that are all about themselves. They don't want to get better or be better people. All they care about is what they can get and who they can take advantage of. I don't get it, and I certainly don't understand it. When did the people here get so lazy. Instead of thinking what can I do to help myself and others they take the stance of lets see what the hard people get and see if we can get a piece of that (but they don't wanna work for it). They just want it handed to them. It's a hustle...

This right here has gotta stop. Do something nice for somebody for a change! Do something to grow yourself. Stop relying on others for everything. Realize that your time here is limited and make the best of it!

And the next time I see somebody in the service industry with a bad attitude I'm gonna call them out! They are the exact people that need to realize that they touch other peoples lives through their jobs!

Mobile vs. Club DJ's - Why the animosity?

So I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is a club DJ. He was giving me all sorts of shit about the price we charge for mobile DJ work. Then I reminded him of a few things. First off we have to bring the club to basically wherever the client want's us. We don't have the luxury of just showing up and playing music. We actually have to pay insurance to protect our equipment, insurance for the transport vehicle (A commercial policy at that) and it's not cheap, upkeep on equipment that constantly gets bumped around because of all the movement in transport, music, etc, etc. I reminded him that we may book this out at $250 an hour whereas he may be getting that for an entire evening if he is lucky but there are a few differences in the two types of gigs. Let's take a look...

Packing, Transport, Setup, Play, Tear Down, Transport, Unpacking...

I just outlined what we do as mobile DJ's. Some of us don't have to pack and unpack their rigs but sometimes this can add substantial time to what we do. If I play an 8PM-11PM show that's 3 hours of play time. If I charge $750 for this as an example we can now look into the typical time and preparation required to do a mobile show.

Let's assume it's an hour to the event and back. So if I have a show at 8PM the absolute latest I can arrive is 6PM. My setup time is an hour but I also build in time in the event that a piece of equipment may have a problem and need replaced so I allow myself extra time, plus you never know what you may run into during the setup. So if I leave at 5PM and play the gig I finish up around 11PM. I can usually tear the show down in about an hour and get it packed and I would probably be back by 1AM. So lets look at the number of hours involved. We are looking at around 8 hours for the show. So if I break it down that's $93.75 per hour. Now lets look a the other things required to pull off the show successfully. First we need music. My monthly music subscription is $120 per month. So if I break this down and charge it back to the client based on 8 gigs a month that's $15 out of my pocket. My insurance for the vehicle and equipment is $250 per month so broken down that's $31.25 in expenses. And then throw in about $10 for gas as well as $20 for food and misc expenses and you can see quickly that the hourly rate is much lower than where we started.

So we are right around $84 per hour. If I have any help to setup (which you always have) then you are farther cutting into your profits. So say I pay somebody $20 an hour to help me setup and tear down and transport now we are at $64 per hour. 

Guess what club DJ. After I pay my taxes your making more hourly than I am.

Maximizing Profits in Mobile Entertainment

So as you can see there is not much money in the mobile DJ business. The only way to succeed in this space is to add value added services such as monograms, special effects and other types of entertainment. The key to profits is to combine services and don't lock yourself into a particular box when designing your mobile entertainment offerings.

Just wanted to put this out there. There is not much money in mobile DJ work. It's work to make money folks!  

Montel Jordan on the Move Lately...

I just realized today while pulling down updates from the record companies that Montell Jordan is starting to show up all over the place. 2 weeks ago he was in Vegas for the MBLV18 show and now this week the record companies are pushing his older stuff that was just released in remixed formats.

It appears Montell may be setting up for a come back here soon. Stay tuned I'm sure there's more to his uptick in public appearances and it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't see some new heat from a classic.

MBLV18 Convention Info

Over the course of the next 2 days this blog will be alive complete with Video and photos from MBLV18 in Las Vegas. I will be visiting the exhibits on Tuesday morning. Tomorrow night I will be spinning. Weds I will write up a complete overview of the convention and thoughts and sort of an after action review.

If you have anything specific you would like me to check out such as the completely awesome Pioneer DDJ-SZ (which will be used in the first public performance ever on Monday night) please let me know. I'll try and cover as many topics as possible.

Until tomorrow... Sleep tight!

Getting Ready for MBLV

Counting the days...
That's right we are counting the days until MBLV. We will be there Monday and Tuesday so reach out to us if your gonna be in the area and we can meet up on the convention floor.

 

Tired of the Moaning... Some past month observations

So honestly I have been wanting to write this article for awhile now and have put it off. I don't know if I put it off out of fear of pissing people off or just because it may not really be worth saying because it's a simple concept. I have been seeing all these DJ's on Craigslist and Thumbtack (neither of which I will advertise on) posting rates like $150 for 5 hours, Will DJ your wedding complete for $200 and etc, etc. While this is great for somebody trying to save money I bet that at the end of the day the clients are getting exactly what they pay for. Anybody can go and buy equipment and anybody can claim to be a DJ (It is getting easier due to technology) but not just everybody can be a professional DJ. What I mean by a professional DJ is somebody that can make a complete living off of nothing more than DJ'ing or a Professional company that performs high end events.

I'm not wanting to put anybody down but I am gonna charge what I feel I am worth. I don't think many people realize that to DJ and do it correctly there are certain things you must have in place. Some of the must have include insurance, legal music sources, licensing and marketing fees, advertising (in the right places), referral fees, booking agent fees, etc. You see to be successful you will need help. You won't do it overnight and you certainly won't do it by yourself.

With just insurance and legal music sources I spend about $500 in fees every single month. That means that if I am charging $250 (which I can assure you I'm not) I would have to do 2 events at full price just to break even. If I am taking this business seriously and doing my part to ensure success I will not just DJ. I will DJ, do Karaoke, I will do Video Shows, I will do production, I will do remixes, I will do sound support, lighting design and support, transportation of said services, etc, etc. You see it's about diversification. This past weekend reminded me why I made the changes I have made in the past year and why things are working out way better than I expected. You see I was at an event providing a particular service. We were NOT hired to DJ this particular event but we provided support. The event was on the third floor of the venue and I noticed that the DJ brought in everything but the kitchen sink. While getting paid I saw the check for the DJ and it was a little more than what I got for the gig.

I was contracted to provide 2 hours worth of service. At the conclusion of my 2 hours the organizer came to me and said I'll pay you overtime if you stay so I ended up doing an extra hour. Also I was providing prints and customized photos and such to the patrons and made $1 off of each photo print. All the originals are included in the contract but extra prints are charged $1 each. At the end of the night I not only made more than the DJ that was performing I made ALOT more. Sometimes it best to be diversified and the example below will show exactly why.

This venue was on the third floor as I said earlier and the DJ brought in way too much equipment for the size of the room.

So the DJ setup time (I ask him) was 4 hours, he played for 5 hours and it took them at least 3 hours to tear their show down. So that's 12 hours worth of work for their 5 hour gig. They got paid $425 for the gig which is extremely low for this area. Break it out hourly and what did they make? $35.42 per hour. So my setup time was 1 hour, I worked for 3 hours and I was out of there in 1/2 an hour. So my take home for this event was $475. My hourly rate ended up being $105.55 per hour.

This was not the first time I have seen this and I'm sure it won't be the last. But at this event I took away something more. Not only did I make more hourly but they hired us on the spot to provide the DJ and service I provided this year for next years event.

This is not gonna be a bash session but I can tell you the DJ that performed had several problems during the night. I promised I wouldn't bash so I won't go into detail but overall considering what he was dealing with he did a pretty good job with the exception of his rates. I don't know about other DJ's out there but I want a fair rate for what I'm doing and I'm not doing this as a hobby. This is what I do and I have been getting paid to do it for over 22 years now. When somebody calls and their first concern is the price I then have to go into detail about the quality that they are paying for. Sure they can get a DJ elsewhere but I also seen that same DJ they got elsewhere cancel on a client at the last minute and I end up getting the call. Sure I'll take those last minute jobs but it will be more than my original quote. The goal in this industry is to not short change ourselves but I see discussions on it on Facebook nearly daily. I wish people would realize what they are doing to the industry by low balling all their quotes. It doesn't do anything for the professionals out here that rely on the income for a living. With that being said I have come up with some things I wanted to share with you all and see what your thoughts are on it.

First the positives:

1. Don't bash others - Everybody starts somewhere. Not everybody's style or performances will be the same.

2. Realize that your promoting music artist - Without DJ's Pop music would be dead, We provide a service to artist.

3. Help each other - The DJ's that work together end up making it together. Trust me I know.

4. Have Fun - Realize that if your having fun your guest are usually having fun too!

Now the negatives:

1. Stop thinking your the best thing since sliced bread - We are all made of the same flesh and blood and we all DJ differently. We all come from different environments and experiences. Regardless of what you make at the end of the day your the same as everybody else.

2. Don't work for little or no pay - It's not worth your time or your investment. This business is an investment folks. Sure these low balling DJ's will get some gigs here and there but they will never get the larger venues because they don't value what they are doing like the professionals.

Just some observations. It's fun to do DJ battles but you should keep it professional!

Now the reason I wrote this article. If you want to be successful in anything you have to realize that you can't put all of your eggs in one basket. People are successful because they surround themselves with the right PEOPLE that are or have been successful and they pay attention. They learn from the mistakes of others and avoid making the same mistakes. There are several companies out there that I would help out in a second and then there are some that I have worked for in the past that I would help only if they had no other options. Don't burn those bridges folks because someday you will need somebody else and you can't entertain if your a lone DJ on a starry night.

In my example I valued my service appropriately. By helping the venue out at the last minute (Their original provider cancelled on them) I made some new friends and also made new business for next year. It's all about the presentation and taking care of PEOPLE. When you realize that you have to have diversification in your business both in products, services and people you will start to see what I mean. So my goals in 2014 are simple. Diversify my products and services and have the right people in place to make us all successful. That's the entire point of this article. The other thing is to value yourself appropriately and don't let people take advantage of your kindness.

DJ K-Blue