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We often talk about DJs who accept low fees as if they were naive, selfish, or personally responsible for dragging the whole scene down. It is more complicated than that. And honestly, it is also a smaller problem compared to the issue of extremely high fees.
Article en français ici.
Let’s start with the “good” reasons why you might accept a low fee. Or at least, the understandable ones.
Impostor syndrome
There is that moment, especially in the beginning, when you do not really know what you are worth yet. You are scared to ask for too much, scared to sound difficult, or scared they will never call you again if you ask for more.
So you accept less than you should, telling yourself that you will prove yourself, that next time will be better, that it is already good to be booked. And sometimes, next time never comes. Or it comes with the exact same fee.
Precarity
When money is unstable, saying no becomes a luxury.
When you do not have many gigs, a low fee can feel better than nothing. Even if, once transport is counted — taxis that are not covered, for example — plus buying tracks, preparing the set and the exhaustion after, there is almost nothing left.
You accept because you want to keep one foot in the circuit. Or because you need to build up your paid gigs.
The need to prove you exist
And then there is the need to exist, especially online.
The need to have something to show. A date to post. Photos. A reel. A story reshared by a club. A small visible sign that something is happening. In an industry obsessed with social proof, not playing can quickly start to feel like not existing anymore. Then there are the reasons that are more questionable.
Competition damages everyone
This is where competition does its dirty work, because everyone knows that if you say no, someone else will probably say yes. Because they are also trying to exist in a scene where many people want a place and very few can actually make a living from it. You see this especially with certain highly desired — and honestly problematic — formats, like Boiler Room. The opportunity becomes so rare that the balance of power almost completely disappears.
Visibility as payment
Sometimes, DJs accept because they have been taught that playing is already a chance.
As if being on a flyer, seeing your name between two bigger artists, or posting a story from the booth was almost a form of payment. You should be happy. You should be grateful. You should understand that “it will bring you visibility”. Except visibility does not pay for pasta. Or tracks.
The privilege of playing for almost nothing
There is also a question of privilege that is very, very well hidden.
Accepting 100 or 200 euros does not mean the same thing depending on your situation. If you can afford to play almost for free because your rent does not depend on it, you do not have the same negotiating power as someone who needs those gigs to pay their bills.
In a scene that loves talking about passion, we often forget that not everyone has the same safety net.
So what are the real good reasons?
Sometimes, there are good reasons to accept a low fee. A collective that has no money but pays everyone the same. A coherent line-up. A volunteer event that is transparent, where nobody is making money off your back. In those cases, it is not necessarily exploitation, because the conditions are clear from the start.
The real bad reasons, the ones we know too well
Accepting because you were made to believe you should feel honoured. Accepting because you are being pressured.Accepting because the promoter found money for the headliner, the scenography, the comms, the videos, but somehow has nothing left for local DJs.
Accepting because someone promises you “next time”, when “next time” often means never.
Huge fees sometimes strangle clubs and festivals. Low fees, on the other hand, make the people who keep the scene alive all year round more precarious. And in the end, we mostly keep the ones who can afford to lose money.